We are delighted to welcome Friso Stevens to be our new Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Cultures at University of Helsinki. Friso is at the same time a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. He is also affiliated with The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Friso works on the EU in the Volatile Indo-Pacific (EUVIP) Horizon project on Europe-Asia relations, focusing on the domestic sources of Chinese foreign policy and regional security and order.

Operating at the nexus between IR theory, military strategy, and China Studies, Friso’s primary research agenda pertains to the debate on the resurgence of China, its strategic implications for the broader Indo-Pacific, and how China’s quest for “national rejuvenation” is driven by socio-historical factors. Well-versed in Chinese elite politics, and autocratic popular mobilization, Friso has a knack for deciphering the intricacies of CCP propaganda and organizational doctrine.

Other research interests include US foreign policy, the changing global power configuration and world order, and Southeast Asian regionalism.

In March 2023, Friso obtained a Ph.D. Degree in International Relations from Leiden University. Prior to that, he studied law and politics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Northwestern University, and Peking University, earning a Bachelor’s and three Master’s Degrees.

From 2017-2020, Friso was a Lecturer in Political Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he taught qualitative research courses, diplomacy in East Asia, and supervised Bachelor’s and Master’s theses.