Julia Youjia Hoffmann

Julia is an MPhil student in International Relations at St Antony's College. Her research interests include constructivist theory, decolonial theory, East Asian International Relations, and the geopolitics of China. Before coming to Oxford, Julia completed a BA in International Relations at King’s College London's War Studies Department, where she conducted research on China’s authoritarian environmental policy model. She now hopes to pursue a career in political publishing (or open a cinema in Berlin and/or China).

To this end, Julia has worked on the editorial teams of International Relations Today, The Spectrum, The Dialogue, The Cherwell, and The Oxymoron. As a 2024 fellow of the Oxford China Policy Lab, she worked with similarly minded colleagues on producing policy-relevant research addressing global risks arising from the US-China great power competition. Currently, she serves as editor for the Oxford Political Review and The Oxford Diplomatic Dispatch, while also managing the 20.1 Issue on "Fascism" for St Antony's International Review.

Research

During her undergraduate at King's College London, Julia undertook coursework in modules including International Relations Theory, History of the International System, Contemporary Strategy in East Asia, US-China Relations, and the Politics of Authoritarianism. In her BA dissertation, she examined the legitimacy of China's policy model of environmental authoritarianism. Drawing on democratic and non-democratic legitimacy theories, she formulated an analytical framework constituted of performance, throughput and foundational legitimacy criteria, against which China's "authoritarian alternative" was measured.