Cecilia-Louise von Ilsemann is a scholarship PhD candidate at the History and International Studies Section, Institute for History, Leiden University. Her research focus is on Southeast Asian state’s foreign policy behavior in the contemporary American-Chinese great power rivalry. She researches foreign and security policy-making, international politics in Southeast Asia, and power transitions in global politics. Hereby, she pays special attention to Southeast Asian state’s hedging and alignment foreign policy behavior towards the US and China. After growing up and being socialized in Asia, she advocates for research on Southeast Asian dynamics and foreign policy analysis, recognizing the region’s strategic importance for the years to come. Additionally, Cecilia has recently co-authored a book review in the journal Neue Politische Literature: Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik: China und die Neuordnung der Welt and is currently working on forthcoming publications on the Southeast Asian region.

More information about Cecilia-Louise von Ilsemann

Fields of interest

International Relations, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, US-China Relations, and Southeast Asia

Curriculum vitae

Cecilia-Louise von Ilsemann is a scholarship PhD candidate at the History and International Studies Section, Institute for History, Leiden University.

She successfully completed her Political Science studies with special focus on International Relations at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Institute of Political Science and Faculty of Economics and Social Science. During her studies, she specialized on Southeast Asia and on foreign policy dynamics in the region, particularly on the US-China rivalry, and the regional state’s foreign policy behavior. Her Master thesis focused on “Are the ASEAN States hedging between the U.S. and China? A Multidimensional Analysis of the ASEAN States’ Hedging Behaviour”.

While completing her academic studies, she worked as a geopolitical analyst at the geopolitical and governmental affairs department at the consultancy firm Berlin Global Advisors GmbH in Berlin, Germany. Furthermore, she interned at the German Embassy in Den Haag, the Netherlands Department of Political and Economic Relations.

Cecilia absolved her B.A. studies at Heidelberg University and wrote her B.A. on: “How the UN (repeatedly) makes mistakes in dealing with genocide. The analysis of the pathological behaviour by the UN-bureaucracy in the Rwanda- genocide and the Rohingya-genocide in Myanmar”.

Having grown up in Asia, she is dedicated to fostering greater awareness and cultural understanding of the Southeast Asian region’s unique dynamics.

Selected publications

Book review in journal Neue Politische Literature (2024): Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik: China und die Neuordnung der Welt (co-author: Stefan Messingschlager).