Dr Leslie Vinjamuri

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri is Director of the US and the Americas programme and Dean of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs at Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs. She is a Reader (Associate Professor) in International Relations at SOAS University of London.

At Chatham House, Leslie leads the Lloyd George Working Group on World Order (with Charles A. Kupchan), the Chatham House US 2020 Election Series, and the US-China and Transatlantic Relations Project (with Marianne Petsinger-Schneider). In her capacity as Dean, she oversees our fellowship programme and our Next Generation UK work. Leslie writes and speaks about America’s role in the world, human rights and global governance.

Her book, Human Rights Futures (edited with Jack Snyder and Stephen Hopgood) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. She has also published numerous articles in leading journals of international affairs and is a regular contributor to the international news media.

Leslie is a Commissioner for the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, on the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Integrated Transitions, and on the Advisory Board of LSE IDEAS. From 2015-18, Leslie was a member of the Council (a 'trustee') of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Previously, Leslie worked in the Asia and Near East Bureau at the US Agency for International Development, and for the Congressional Research Service. She was a fellow at Harvard University’s John M Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and later on the faculty of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. From 2010-2018 she founded, and later was Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice at SOAS University of London.

Leslie has a BA from Wesleyan University (Phi Beta Kappa), an MSc (Distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from Columbia University.