Scholar | Zeno Leoni
Dr. Zeno Leoni is an Assistant Professor in Defence Studies at the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, based within the Joint Services and Staff College (JSCSC) of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. He is also an Affiliate of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, where he is co-convenor of the same institute’s policy brief series titled China in the World. In 2024, he served as an Adjunct Professor at the Indonesia Defense University in Jakarta.
Dr. Zeno Leoni’s current research interests focus on grand strategy, US-China relations, a changing world order, and the positioning of middle powers amidst great power competition. He has published three books on these topics, the latest of which is A New Cold War: US-China Relations in the 21st Century (Bristol University Press, 2024).He has designed and delivered postgraduate courses on China in the Liberal Order, and he also lectures on Indo-Pacific security, the world order after the end of the Cold War, and China’s maritime strategy, among other topics.Dr. Zeno Leoni engages with policy-makers in Italy and the UK, and other countries. He supported the Italian Joint Chiefs of Defence Staff in the writing of Italy’s Future Trends Concept 2040+ document, analyzing geopolitical, technological, environmental, and economic trends. In the UK, he has collaborated with various government agencies, primarily within the Ministry of Defence and SONAC, as well as with the UK Parliament by submitting evidence on multiple occasions. His analyses have been featured in British and international media outlets, including BBC World News, The Guardian, France 24, Al Jazeera, Corriere della Sera, Rai Radio 1, The Times, The South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, Financial Times, among others. While at Fudan University, he is working on a chapter for a new book tentatively titled The Return of Bloc Politics: World Order after the War in Ukraine, which examines relations among the most influential Eurasian countries, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. At the same time, he is contributing to a special issue of The Pacific Review with an article on China-UK cooperation. Zeno Leoni will be a visiting researcher at FDDI from March 1st 2025 to March 30th 2025.Email: zeno.j.leoni@kcl.ac.uk
