Dani Solomon

Dani Solomon is a PhD candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Politics and International Studies department at SOAS.

Her research reconceptualises the liberal ordering project through the perspective of China’s counterhegemonic contestation. Taking this ‘mirror view’ reveals aspects of the liberal ordering project which are often overlooked, suggesting that conceptualisations of the ‘liberal international order’ in the academic literature are based on a fundamental misrecognition / misrepresentation. This ‘mirror’ perspective draws a clear line between ‘international order’ (which China supports) and (liberal) hegemony (which is the target of China’s contestation). It relocates the Global South as a key site of international ordering, with the practice of development  playing an important role historically in the production of liberal hegemony, as well as in China’s contemporary counterhegemonic project.

Finally, this perspective also highlights the role of ideological discourse in hegemonic and counterhegemonic projects. 

Dani had a career for a number of years as a strategy consultant, and has also worked in the voluntary sector. In 2022, she was awarded a three-month internship in the Policy Unit at the FCDO, where she undertook research projects to inform UK foreign and development policy, particularly relating to China and the Global South. This internship was part of the FCDO’s post-Chilcot ‘challenge’ agenda, where external views are introduced to disrupt institutionalised perspectives.

Dani’s research interests include Gramscian theory, critical geopolitics, postcolonialism, hierarchy and imperialism, historical international relations, and conflict and intervention.