Professor Chris Alden teaches International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where he is Deputy Head of the Department (PhD and Research). He is also Director of . He is a Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).
Ana Cristina Alves is an international relations scholar whose research examines China–Africa interactions at the intersection of foreign policy analysis, development studies and international political economy. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before joining the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, she was Assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, and the Technical University of Lisbon. Her work focuses on China’s positive economic statecraft - how economic incentives are used to advance political objectives - and its implications for development and global governance. Her emerging interests concern how great power economic statecraft in the Global South is evolving under heightened geopolitical rivalry, and the theoretical debates and implications that this transformation raises for international relations.
Álvaro Mendez is the Director of the Global South Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a Senior Associate Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He is a Full Research Professor at Rey JuanCarlos University in Madrid, working on a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation that focuses on strategies for internationalisation, innovation, and social responsibility. Prof. Mendez is also an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), and a Member of the Colombian Council of Foreign Affairs (CORI). He teaches at LSE, Sciences Po Paris, and Fudan University. Ha has won numerous teaching awards, such as the IR Departmental Teaching Prize in recognition of his teaching of International Relations at the LSE, and he has contributed to numerous books as an author, co-author, or editor of numerous books.