Professor in International Politics
Professor Lee Jones specialises in political economy and international relations, focusing on the politics of intervention, security, and governance, with a particular interest in social conflict and the transformation of states. Much of his work focuses on Southeast Asia and China. Lee regularly advises the British and other governments and civil society organisations.
Lee has been working with the FCDO on an ad hoc basis since he started with Queen Mary in 2009. The FCDO initially reached out to Lee based on his area of expertise and continued to contact him over the years for his insights.
Valuing the role academics have in sharing their expertise with the public, media, civil society and government, Lee saw a secondment as an opportunity to share his research expertise while also gaining firsthand knowledge of how policies are made within government.
From 2022-24, Lee undertook a two-year British Academy-funded secondment with the FCDO. He works with a team of Research Analysts who are subject matter experts with knowledge of geographic areas and thematic policy areas. Acting as an internal think tank, the research analysts play a critical role in supporting civil servants, many of whom rotate into different roles frequently, to help develop policy by providing research and expert advice. Not all the government departments have similar units so the FCDO Research Analysts are also called upon by a number of other government departments from time to time. With Lee’s expertise in China and Southeast Asia, he assists with everything from helping to write ministerial speeches to drafting papers contextualising a policy area, and interpreting things that are happening and how to respond.
Lee acknowledged that one of the biggest challenges for somebody who wants to do policy engagement is knowing where to start, especially when government can be so opaque and there's often an element of serendipity of just hoping and waiting. From time-to-time Lee’s own contact with the FCDO has lapsed due to staff turnover, which has required him to rebuild relationships from scratch.
To address this, as part of his secondment, Lee has established the Southeast Asian Policy Network (SEAPolUK), which is a database of all UK-based academics working on Southeast Asia that do policy relevant research. The goal is to create a brokerage function between the wider expert community and the FCDO to broaden the base from which expertise is sought, moving away from the ‘usual suspects’ with a focus on providing more routes in for early career researchers and academics based outside of London. SEAPolUK should provide a more institutionalised footing to help maintain relationships despite the high turnover of officials. Now that the Network has been launched, the next challenge is sustaining engagement over time when officials are so busy and not all academics understand what policymakers want and frame their work in that way.
Lee crafted an impact case study for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework which was based on his work persuading the UK government that Western sanctions on Myanmar were ineffective. The view now is that sanctions are a blunt instrument so the response to the 2021 coup has been much more muted with no broad-based sanctions. Lee has engaged with the government on the topic of Myanmar a lot over the years and can see that policies have shifted over time. While it is difficult to pinpoint exact moments of influence, this steady drumbeat of analysis and engagement has filtered through.
Lee’s work on debunking the myth of Chinese ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ has also been influential. This narrative – that China is lending money to developing countries at deliberately unsustainable levels of debt so that China can eventually seize the infrastructure – is no longer accepted within the UK government and the US State Department. While this myth continues to proliferate and has been used to push back against China's Belt and Road Initiative (a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government), the message has trickled down to UK policymakers. This is thanks in part to a report that Lee published with Chatham House, the UK’s leading international relations think tank. The cost of publishing with Chatham House has been worth it because their publications come up high on search results, which has been enormously beneficial for the visibility of Lee’s work. As a result, his report has received a lot of readership across government and has been cited in various papers without requiring Lee to do extensive engagement.
Lee’s experiences working on issues related to Myanmar sanctions and Chinese debt-trap diplomacy demonstrates what can be achieved when the right information is published with the right outlet at the right time.
This case study was supported by Audrey Tan (Policy Partnerships Manager, Mile End Institute) and Maja Wawrzynowicz (Policy Associate, Mile End Institute). If you’re interested in learning more about how you can build policy engagement into your own work, check out the Queen Mary Policy Hub’s Learning Resources and Policy Engagement How-To Guides.