Felix Brender

Felix Brender is a PhD alumnus in International Relations, supervised by Professor Chris Alden. He also holds an MSc in International Relations from LSE and an MA in Social Anthropology from SOAS, both awarded with distinction.

His research focuses on Chinese relational approaches to security, especially in East Africa and the wider Global South, and on Taiwan’s politics of identity, memory, transitional justice and international positioning. My PhD, Casting the Safety Net, examined how Chinese residents of Juba, South Sudan, perceive, create and maintain security for themselves, their assets and their interests in everyday practice.

He is currently a Project Associate at LSE IDEAS, where he works with China Foresight, and will be Hou Family Fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies from September 2026 to August 2027. He has also worked on Taiwan’s international positioning and its relevance to European and Indo-Pacific security as part of the Taiwan as a Pioneer (TAP) project at the University of Trier.

Alongside his academic work, he is a conference interpreter working with government actors, international organisations, NGOs and businesses across Europe, North America and East Asia, from SMEs to Fortune 500 companies. His research and professional practice are grounded in multilingual fieldwork, interviews, participant observation and Chinese-language source analysis.

Articles:

• Teaching Sleeping Dogs New Tricks? Transitional Justice as Identity-Building

Book Section:

• “Transitional Justice”, in Encyclopaedia of Taiwan Studies

Blog Post:

• UN Celebrates Chinese Peacekeepers in South Sudan Even as Questions Linger Over What Was Achieved
• China after October 7: Selective Neutrality and the Politics of “Principle”