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Lesley Maters Staff Photo

Lesley Masters

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Role

Course Leader for the distance learning MA in International Relations

Module leader for undergraduate taught courses in International Relations.

Career overview

Lesley joined NTU in January 2022 as a senior lecturer and a course leader for the MA in International Relations distance learning programme. Prior to working at NTU, Lesley was the programme lead for International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of Derby. This role included strategic responsibility for the IR&D programme.

Prior to moving to the UK, Lesley held a position at the University of Johannesburg as a senior researcher and lecturer at the SARChI Chair in African Foreign Policy and Diplomacy. She continues maintain links with the University of Johannesburg as a Senior Associate.

Before joining academia Lesley worked as the foreign policy and diplomacy programme manager at the Institute for Global Dialogue, a foreign policy think tank based in Pretoria, South Africa.

Research areas

Lesley’s research interests centre around foreign policy and diplomacy with an emphasis on building an understanding of the role of actors and the politics in global governance. This has includes a focus on climate change diplomacy, critically examining the geopolitics of the climate change negotiations and natural resource governance. While there is widespread agreement on the science of climate change, it is the politics that is hindering agreement on international action. This research gives attention to country, as well as regional organisation (EU, AU) positions within the UNFCCC. Findings from this research has been published as opinion and policy pieces as well as in prominent peer reviewed journals such as the South African Journal of International Affairs and as book chapters for Polity Press and the comprehensive Encyclopaedia of Diplomacy.

The environment and development are intrinsically linked, yet a gap remains between the two when it comes to discussions on foreign aid and development cooperation. Lesley’s research includes analysis of foreign policy, diplomacy, and development cooperation including a research project assessing trends in trilateral development cooperation and the international politics of development diplomacy in North-South and South-South Cooperation.

With an interest in the role of sub-national actors in foreign policy and diplomacy Lesley’s research expands to assessing the role of diplomatic networks between parliaments, science links, and NGOs. Other research includes the role of police networks in shaping global governance on questions of policing and security as well as in support of development cooperation. She is also part of the initiative establishing a diplomatic studies network with research considering the pedagogy of diplomacy.

Orcid ID: 0000-0002-1053-8977
Academia.Edu

External activity

Editor of the South African Foreign Policy Review

Reviewer:

Diplomacy and Statecraft

Millennium

South African Journal of International Affairs

Politeia

Politikon

Africa Insight

Publications

Edited Books (peer reviewed)

Forthcoming:

L. Masters, P. Mthembu, and J. van Wyk (eds) (2021) Ramaphosa and a New Dawn for South African Foreign Policy, The South African Foreign Policy Review, Volume 4. Pretoria: African Institute of South Africa

Published:

L. Masters and J. van Wyk (eds) (2019) Foreign Policy, Change and the Zuma Years, The South African Foreign Policy Review, Volume 3. Pretoria: African Institute of South Africa

C. Landsberg and L. Masters (eds). (2017). From the Outside in: Domestic Actors and South Africa’s Foreign Policy. Johannesburg: Jacana (ISBN 9781928232421)

Reviewed in the South African Journal of International Affairs - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2019.1610042?journalCode=rsaj20

L. Masters., S. Zondi,, J. Van Wyk and C. Landsberg (eds). (2015). South African Foreign Policy Review Volume 2. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa

Reviewed in the South African Journal of International Affairs-

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2016.1165144?journ  alCode=rsaj20

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Chapters in edited books (peer reviewed)

Published:

Masters, L. and C. Landsburg. 2021. Foreign Policy and EU-Africa Relations: From the European Security Strategy to the EU Global Strategy. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations. T.Haastrup, L. Mah and N. Duggan (eds). ISBN 9781138047303 https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-EU-Africa-Relations/Haastrup-Mah-Duggan/p/book/9781138047303

Schiavon, J. A. and Masters, L. 2019. International Relations and foreign policies, in Global South Powers in Transition: A Comparative Analysis of Mexico and South Africa, H. Gonzalez and D. Geldenhuys (eds). Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang

Masters, L. 2019. ‘Watching the watchers: oversight and the democratization of South Africa’s Foreign Policy’. The South African Foreign Policy Review Volume 3, L. Masters and J. van Wyk (eds). Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa

Masters, L. 2018. Environmental Diplomacy. The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy. G.  Martel (Ed.).doi:10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0092

Masters, L. and Nganje, F. 2018. Foreign Aid and Diplomacy. The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy, G. Martel (Ed.). doi:10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0099

Masters, L and Nganje, F. 2017. South Africa’s Parliamentary Diplomacy and the “African Agenda”. Parliamentary Diplomacy in Europe and Global Governance. S. Stavridis and D. Jancic (eds). Brill/Nijhoff Chapter DOI: 10.1163/9789004336346_020 http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/b9789004336346_020

Masters, L. 2017. Women, Gender and South Africa’s Foreign Policy: The need for an inclusive approach to foreign policy decision-making. From the Outside In: Domestic Actors and South Africa’s Foreign Policy. L. Masters and C. Landsberg (eds). Fanele: Auckland Park. pp.178-200.

Masters, L. 2017. Negotiating the North-South divide in the post-2015 development agenda: What role for South Africa, From MDGs to Sustainable Development Goals: The Travails of International Development. S. Zondi and P. Mthembu (eds), Institute for Global Dialogue, Pretoria. pp. 146-165.

Masters, L. and S. Firsing. 2015 South African Foreign Policy and the West: The Art of Foreign Policy Balancing. The South African Foreign Policy Review, Volume 2. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa.

Masters, L. 2013. Reaching the Crossroads: The Development of Climate Governance in South Africa, Climate Governance in the Developing World. D. Held, C. Roger, E. Nag (eds). Polity (ISBN: 9780745662763).

Masters, L. 2012. Opening the ‘Black Box’: South African Foreign Policy Making. South African Foreign Policy Review: Volume 1. Pretoria: African Institute of South Africa and Institute for Global Dialogue

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Journal Special Issues

Lead Guest editor with Dr Lara Hierro. 2017. Special issue of the South African Journal of International Affairs. Reviewing the EU-South Africa Strategic Partnership at Ten Years. Vol. 24 (2). July 2017.

Lead Guest Editor with Dr Westen Shilaho. 2016. Special issue on African Diplomacy. The Journal for Contemporary History. 2016.Vol 41(1)

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Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

Published:

Masters, L. 2021. Africa, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and digital diplomacy: (Re)Negotiating the international knowledge structure, South African Journal of International Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/10220461.2021.1961605

Masters, L. 2017. ‘South Africa’s post-apartheid foreign policy making and the role of the president’. Politeia, Vol 36(1), pp.1 -21. DOI10.25159/0256-8845/3094

Masters, L. 2017. ‘The EU-South African Strategic Partnership: From bilateral to multilateral forums and the strategic value for South Africa’. South African Journal of International Affairs. Vol 24(2), pp. 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2017.1338614

Masters, L. 2016. South Africa’s Two-Track Approach to Science Diplomacy, Journal for Contemporary History, Vol 41(1), pp. 169-186. 10.18820/24150509/jch.v41i1.9

Landsberg, C and L. Masters 2015. Twenty-Five Years of Pan-African Democratic Governance Diplomacy. Journal for Contemporary History. Vol 40(1), pp. 197-219

Masters, L. November 2015. South Africa’s Parliamentary Diplomacy and Soft Power, Strategic Review for Southern Africa. Vol 37(2), pp. 74-93.

Masters, L and C. Landsberg. 2015. IBSA’s Trilateral Constellation and its Development Fund. South African Journal of International Affairs. Vol 22(3),pp. 343-357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2015.1092884

Masters, L. 2014. Building bridges? South African foreign policy and trilateral development cooperation. South African Journal of International Affairs. 8 Aug 2014. DOI: 10.1080/10220461.2014.942206

Masters, L. 2012. Sustaining the African Common Position on Climate Change: International Organisations, Africa and COP17. South African Journal of International Affairs. Vol.18 (2) pp 257-269.