Leonhard Xu

I am a first-year MPhil in International Relations student at St Antony’s College. My interest centres around the intersection between geopolitics, economics, and international development. Currently, I am researching the allocation of development finance in a new era of power competition, with a particular focus on the Western reaction toward the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. 

I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Mannheim, where I worked as a research assistant for Professor Valentin Lang, focusing on International Political Economy and Development. In my Bachelor’s thesis, I examined the impact of external shocks on the allocation of development aid.

Parallel to my MPhil, I serve as an editorial board member at the Young Journal of European Affairs, an independent student-led journal on European politics. 

Policy Experience

Prior to Oxford, I interned at the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development during Germany’s G7 presidency in 2022, coinciding with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, I have worked on climate financing, industry decarbonisation, and the future of development cooperation with emerging countries at the German Agency for International Cooperation. 

Languages

• German (Native)
• English (Fluent)
• Chinese (Conversational)
• French (Basic)