Stephen Paduano is a doctoral researcher at the London School of Economics. He studies international political economy and the interaction between US and Chinese economic statecraft in sub-Saharan Africa. His focus is on infrastructure, lending, and development policy in East Africa.

His PhD is funded by the Michael Leifer Scholarship, and his research is supported by the Sir Patrick Gillam Scholarship Fund. He previously received an MSc with Distinction from LSE, where he was awarded the Fred Halliday Prize, and a BA with Honors from Stanford.

He is also the executive director of the LSE Economic Diplomacy Commission, a forum of leading academics and policymakers preparing the future of Britain's foreign economic policy. The Commission is an initiative of LSE IDEAS, the London School of Economics' foreign policy think tank.

He has written on such topics for the Council on Foreign Relations and LSE IDEAS, as well as The Atlantic, The Economist, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, and others.

Research topic

Chinese foreign economic policy in East Africa, 1989-2019

Teaching experience

• IR373: China and the Global South

Academic supervisor

Chris Alden