I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. I am studying authoritarianism and how authoritarian regimes engage the outside world.

• I am interested in China’s external relations, the rise of China as an international actor and how this affect international institutions and the international order.
• In particular, I study whether and how China affects authoritarianism and democracy elsewhere. One of my research lines looks into the external networks of the International Department of the Communist Party of China.
• Recently, I have been studying the attraction of authoritarianism and authoritarian soft power more generally.

Recently, I have pu blished two policy reports: One on the China’s outreach to countries in the European Eastern Neighbourhood, and one on the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department and it links to parties in African countries.

Moreover, my research has been featured in The Economist and in the South China Morning Post. I have also been interviewed for the VPRO's Tegenlicht Future Shock Podcast (in Dutch). Please take a look at the Publications tab to find more information about my academic publications.

I am studying authoritarianism and how authoritarian regimes engage the outside world. I am particularly interested in the rise of China in international relations and how China affects authoritarianism and democracy elsewhere. One of my research lines looks into the external networks of the International Department of the Communist Party of China. Recently, I have been studying authoritarian soft power.

I am the author of the monograph China's Foreign Relations and the Survival of Autocracies which has been pulished with Routledge. My work has appeared in academic journals such as International Studies Quarterly,  European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Peace Research, Foreign Policy Analysis, Democratization, International Studies Review, Contemporary Politics, and in several collective book projects. My research has been featured in The Economist and in the South China Morning Post.

I am currently a member of the Research Network External Democacy Promotion. In the past, I participated in the International Diffusion and Cooperation of Authoritarian Regimes - IDCAR-Network as well as the project "Undermining Hegemony. The US, China, Russia, and International Public Goods" at NUPI.

My teaching includes various seminars on China's foreign policy and China's rise in international relations at the bachelor's and master's level, the supervision of students in writing their master's thesis. In the past, I have taught a course on case study design at the research masters' level and the first-year bachelor's lecture course Introduction to Political Science Research.