Dr Feng Zhang

MSc, PhD (LSE)

Feng Zhang is a Lecturer in the Politics and International Studies Programme of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Murdoch University. He obtained his MSc (comparative politics) and PhD (international relations) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2008 he was a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Politics & International Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. During 2006-09 he was also the China Programme Manager of the Foreign Policy Centre, a think tank in London. Between September 2009 and December 2010 he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations, Tsinghua University, in Beijing.

Feng works on China’s foreign relations and the international politics of East Asia, focusing on three related questions: historical East Asian politics and China’s central role in it, contemporary Chinese foreign policy especially with regard to policy ideas and grand strategy, and international relations theory from a Chinese perspective. He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Chinese Primacy: Historical Dynamics and Contemporary Possibilities, which examines China’s historical role in East Asia and the implications for China’s rise today. Other research topics include Chinese exceptionalism in international relations, China’s grand strategy, and the historical East Asian international society.