Dr Zeno Leoni is a Teaching Fellow in ‘Challenges to the International Order’ at the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, based within the Joint Services and Staff College (JSCSC) of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. He is also an affiliate to the Lau China Institute of King’s College London, where he is co-convenor of the same institute’s policy brief series named China in the World.

In the year 2020/2021 he was a Visiting Scholar in Defence and Security Studies at Nebrija University.

In 2021 he published a monograph titled American Grand Strategy from Obama to Trump: Imperialism After Bush and China’s Hegemonic Challenge (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan). In the same year he is going to publish a chapter on US-China competition in the MENA region as part of the Routledge Handbook on China in the Middle East and North Africa (2021).

Dr Leoni works to engage policy-makers in Italy and the UK, including in 2020 where he worked within the Italian Joint Chiefs of Defence Staff to write Italy’s first civil-military-produced Future Trends Concept 2040+ document, analysing geopolitical, technological, environmental, and economic trends. In the UK he recently supported the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) during a Study Day on China.

At the Joint Services and Staff College he teaches courses on China for the Higher Command and Staff Course (HCSC), whose members come from Five Eyes (FVEY) countries and have the rank of General or equivalent. Meanwhile, every year in Rome he delivers a guest lecture at the Italian Defence Higher Studies Institute (IASD), Italy’s premier defence education institution.

His analyses appeared on Italian, British, and Slovenian media and magazines such as Corriere della Sera, Rai Radio 1, Limes, The Times, and Radio Študent.

Zeno is the Executive Director of ITSS Verona (International Team for the Study of Security Verona), a not-for-profit cultural association committed to spreading knowledge in the broadly conceived field of International Security.