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Leonardo Lameiras

Mr Leonardo Lameiras

PhD student

Research interests

  • Economics
  • International relations
  • Policy
  • Politics

Biography

Leonardo Lameiras is a Joint International Relations PhD candidate with the University of Sao Paulo and King’s College London. Leonardo joined the Department of Political Economy, along with the KCL’s Brazil Institute, in January 2020. His research focuses on both the U.S. and China's foreign trade policies and on its implications for global trade governance. More specifically, he is conducting a comparative analysis of both global trade powers’ engagement with bilateral and regional trade agreements. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2008), an MBA on Foreign Trade and International Business from Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil, 2014), and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Brasilia (Brazil, 2017). 

Research

Thesis title: 'The United States and China on the alternative pathways to the multilateral trading system: a constructivist approach to the structural causes of a bifurcated global trade governance'

The research proposal focuses on the U.S. and China’s international insertion through foreign trade policy, and their implication for the current system of global trade governance. In the empirical domain, I am particularly interested in understanding the relationship between the preferential trade agreements – bilateral and regional – signed by both countries over the past 15 years (2001-2016) and the challenges the multilateral trade system faces today.

Besides identifying the strategic objectives that informed the trade agendas and the behavioral patterns of the two world’s largest trading nations during the aforementioned period, the research also intends to explain why the actors’ agency is key to fully grasping the ongoing transformations in the global trade governance. 

PhD supervision

Further details

See Leonardo's research profile