William Matthews is a Lecturer in Defence Studies Education in the Defence Studies Department, based at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in Shrivenham. He is a specialist in China’s grand strategy, geopolitical influence, and military modernisation, which he approaches from a background in anthropology, comparative social science, and experience in the private and think tank sectors.

William holds a PhD in Anthropology from University College London, where he completed his thesis on reasoning and decision-making in Chinese cosmology based on ethnographic fieldwork in China and analysis of modern and classical Chinese texts. He taught the comparative social science of China at the London School of Economics before moving to work in private sector geopolitical risk and decision support AI. Prior to joining King’s College London, William was Senior Research Fellow for China and the World at Chatham House, where he focused on defence, technology, and UK China strategy.

In these roles and as an independent consultant, William has directly informed the work of government and private sector decision-makers, particularly in relation to UK China strategy. William’s analysis and commentary has been featured in a broad range of UK and international media outlets, including ABC News, Al Jazeera, BBC News, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, the i Paper, ITV News, L’Express, NBC, Nikkei, Politico, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, and The Times. He writes regularly on China-related issues in outlets including The Critic, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Nikkei Asia, and UnHerd.

William’s primary research focus is China’s grand strategy, geopolitical influence, and military modernisation, approached from a perspective informed by cultural evolution and historical comparison. He is currently working on a book project on the relationship between technology, geoeconomic influence, and power projection in China’s grand strategy in comparison with historical case studies of rising powers.

William’s approach to the study of China and geopolitics and strategy more broadly is informed by his earlier anthropological research in China and engagement with early Chinese history and philosophy. He is interested in the relationship between culture, cognition, and technology as part of a broader research agenda on the cultural evolution of warfare and strategy.

William has a strong interest in applied and policy-focused research. He has worked on various research projects with industry and government partners, including the development of AI-enabled indices and models for analysing geopolitical influence, bilateral relations, supply chain risk, and warfighting preparedness, along with associated research reports.

Research Interests

• China's grand strategy, geopolitical influence, and military modernisation
• Cultural evolutionary approaches to warfare and strategy
• Great power competition and power transition
• Cognitive anthropology
• Strategy and warfare in the ancient world

Applied Research Areas

• UK China strategy
• Building geopolitical resilience and warfighting sustainability
• Technological and supply chain security
• Development of AI-enabled decision support tools
• Wargaming and scenario exercises for policy development, teaching, and research

Books

William Matthews 2021. Cosmic Coherence: A Cognitive Anthropology through Chinese Divination. New York: Berghahn Books https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/MatthewsCosmic

Book chapters

• Sam Olsen and William Matthews 2024. The Geopolitics of China. In Z. Cope (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Geopolitics. Palgrave. https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-031-25399-7_44-1
• William Matthews 2021. Chinese Correlative Cosmology: A Chinese View of the World? In C. Shei and W. Wei (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Studies. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780429059704/routledge-handbook-chinese-studies-chris-shei-weixiao-wei
• William Matthews 2020. Fate, Destiny and Divination. In S. Feuchtwang (ed.), Handbook on Religion in China. Edward Elgar.

Research articles

• Kun-Chin Lin, William Matthews, and Sam Olsen 2025. Middle Spacepowers' Integration with the Global Supply Chain for the Space Industry: Taiwan and Thailand. Business and Politics 27: 4, 521-547. https://doi.org/10.1017/bap.2024.18
• Ivan Deschenaux and William Matthews 2025. Homo anthropologicus: Unexamined Behavioural Models in Sociocultural  Anthropology. Anthropological Theory 25: 1, 30-52. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14634996241231670
• William Matthews 2023. Getting Our Ontology Right: A Critique of Language and Culture in the Work of François Jullien. Theory, Culture and Society 40: 4-5. 75-92. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764221147664
• William Matthews 2022. Reduction, Divination, and Truth: A Comparative Approach to Divinatory Interpretation. Current Anthropology 63: 3, 330-349. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/720266

Policy Papers

• William Matthews 2025. What the UK Must Get Right in Its China Strategy: Resilience, Flexibility and Autonomy as Core Principles for Engagement https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/07/what-uk-must-get-right-its-china-strategy

Media Articles

• William Matthews 6th Feb. 2026. Look East: Europe Can Learn from Asia. Nikkei Asia. https://asia.nikkei.com/opinion/look-east-europe-can-learn-from-asia
• William Matthews 23rd Jan. 2026. An Approved Chinese Embassy Is the Least of Our Worries. The Critic. https://thecritic.co.uk/an-approved-chinese-embassy-is-the-least-of-our-worries/
• William Matthews 28th Nov. 2025. From Fishing to Naval Activity, China Rewrites Maritime Norms. Nikkei Asia. https://asia.nikkei.com/opinion/from-fishing-to-naval-activity-china-rewrites-maritime-norms
• William Matthews and Ben Bland 15th Sept. 2025. How Beijing Might Rule the South China Sea within a Decade. The World Today. https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2025-09/how-beijing-might-rule-south-china-sea-within-decade
• Ben Bland and William Matthews 17th July 2025. Beijing's Dominance of the South China Sea Is Not Inevitable. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/17/south-china-sea-disputes-southeast-asia/

William teaches on a range of professional military education courses at the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

PURE Profile.