Yizhou Miao joined the Department of European and International Studies as a PhD candidate in International Political Economy Research in September 2025. He holds an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2024-25) and a First-Class BA (Hons) in International Relations from King’s College London (2021-2024). He was elected an Associate of King’s College (AKC) in 2024.

Research interests

• Semiconductors and the ‘Chip War’
• Core technologies in the long cycle of the international economy
• American hegemony and global leadership
• China’s techno-economic rise

PhD research

Yizhou’s research assesses whether the ‘American Century’ of global leadership can withstand the emerging ‘challenge’ posed by China through a comparative analysis of the two ‘Chip Wars’ – the US-Japan conflict of the 1980s, and the ongoing US-China rivalry since 2018. By treating semiconductors as a ‘core technology’ in shaping hegemonic cycles, Yizhou explores what these two cases reveal about the evolution of American hegemony, shifts in its structural sources of power, and the implications for the future of US–China power relations.

This research seeks to raise two key contributions to the literature: first, to bridge the ‘mutual neglect’ between research on American hegemony and on chips; second, to reconcile the fragmented research between the two chip wars.

PhD supervisors

Professor Magnus Ryner (European and International Studies)

Dr Sean Kenji Starrs (International Development)