Professor Leslie Vinjamuri

Leslie is currently leading research initiatives on Reimagining Multilateralism; the US, China and Geopolotical Competition in the Global South; and The Global Implications of Threats to US Democracy.  She is also director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House, and chair of the faculty of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy.

She is author of 'Why Multilateralism still Matters; the right way to win over the Global South' (Foreign Affairs, 2023); 'Some Assembly Required: The UN’s broadest forum matters more than ever’ (with Suzanne Nossel, Foreign Affairs 2022), ‘How Brexit and Boris Broke Britain’ (Foreign Affairs, 2022), and ‘Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice’ (with Jack Snyder, International Security, 2004)

She is author of ‘Some Assembly Required: The UN’s broadest forum matters more than ever’ (with Suzanne Nossel, Foreign Affairs 2022), ‘How Brexit and Boris Broke Britain’ (Foreign Affairs, 2022), and ‘Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice’ (with Jack Snyder, International Security, 2004)

She is co-editor and contributing author with Charles A. Kupchan of Anchoring the World (Foreign Affairs, 2021), editor and lead author of US Foreign Policy Priorities (Chatham House, 2020) and co-editor and contributing author of Human Rights Futures (with Stephen Hopgood and Jack Snyder, Cambridge University Press, 2017) and, also, ‘Building global prosperity: proposals for sustainable development’ (Chatham House, 2022).

Her publications have appeared in journals including International Security, Foreign Affairs, the Annual Review of Political Science, International Theory, Ethics and International Affairs, Daedalus, The World Today, the International Journal of Transitional Justice, Law and Contemporary Problems and Survival as well as numerous edited volumes. Her research has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, Open Society Foundations, and the Smith Richardson Foundation.

Vinjamuri has written for and appears regularly in the media including for CNN; Bloomberg; BBC; Sky News; The Financial Times; The New York Times; The Sunday Times, The Guardian; The Telegraph; The Independent; Los Angeles Times; National Public Radio; Times Radio; Economist Radio; Al Jazeera English; Voice of America; Channel 4 News; Voice of America; Economist Radio; Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).

Dr Vinjamuri is Deputy Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. She is a Trustee of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Integrated Transitions.

From 2010-2018 she was (founding) co-Director then Director (from 2016) of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice at SOAS. She chaired the International Relations Speaker Series at SOAS’s Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy from 2007-2018.

From 2019-2022 she was external examiner for the MPhil International Relations at the University of Oxford. She is on the Editorial Board of the Cambridge Studies in International Relations, a member of the LSE IDEAS Advisory Board, and the LSE Phelan US Centre Advisory Board. Vinjamuri is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2015-2018, Dr. Vinjamuri was a member of the Council (a "trustee") of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Before joining the academic staff at SOAS, Leslie was a member of the academic faculty of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. She has also taught at the London School of Economics and Columbia University and has held fellowships at Harvard University and at the London School of Economics. Previously, she worked in the Asia Bureau at USAID and in the Foreign Affairs division at Congressional Research Service. Leslie has a BA from Wesleyan University, an MSc (Distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from Columbia University.

• Geopolitics 
• US, Europe and International Security
• International Order 
• Human Rights