Dr Lesley Masters

  • Visiting Fellow, Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs

Profile

Lesley is a senior lecture in International Relations and course leader for the MA courses in International Relations at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Lesley started her career as a researcher and then programme manager for foreign policy and diplomacy at one of South Africa’s most prominent think tanks, the Institute for Global Dialogue, and then transitioned to academia where she worked as a senior researcher and lecturer at the South African Research Chair in African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. She continues as a senior associate researcher (since 2019). From January 2025 she was appointed as a visiting fellow at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs and the University of Loughborough London. She is also the current co-convener for the Africa and International Studies working group of the British International Studies Association (BISA) and for NTUs research group on International Security and Sustainability.

Academic background

Lesley holds a PhD in International Relations and an MA in Diplomacy from the University of Leicester. On completion of her degree, she was based at the Institute for Global Dialogue, where she was responsible for projects focused on the development of environmental diplomacy and foreign aid and diplomacy. Her interest in the role of non-state actors in foreign policy and diplomacy also saw her involved in research projects on the role of domestic actors in shaping South Africa's foreign policy and supporting the role of the South African Parliament in engaging on international relations.

In her move to academia Lesley joined the South African Research Chair in African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy at the University of Johannesburg. This is the only research Chair in the country to focus on diplomacy. Here she continued with her research on the role of non-state actors and diplomacy through Science & Technology and the digital revolution. She is the lead editor of the South African Foreign Policy Review, which is now in its fourth volume and was shortlisted for the South African National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences award March 2024.

Research

Lesley's research interests are in the field of foreign policy and diplomacy where she has published on South African foreign policy, environmental diplomacy, science and technology and diplomacy, and developments in diplomacy. Her recent research considers how diplomacy has developed in contexts outside of Europe and America, looking at historicising African Diplomacy. This includes the evolving practice of African Science Diplomacy and the diplomacy of African liberation movements. She has also been involved in a project considering diplomatic training (with Prof Helen Drake), contributing a chapter to the forthcoming publication on Diplomatic Training: Histories, Geographies, Politics (Manchester University Press).

Interests and activities 

Lesley is interested in the changing context of diplomacy and the inclusion of non-state actors in diplomatic practice. Her current research is focused on assessing the rise of cities and their diplomatic agency as well as understanding how teaching and learning diplomacy is changing in the higher education sector.