About me
Aishath Leesha is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Westminster. She holds a bachelor’s Degree (Hons) in Law from the International Islamic University, Malaysia, and an MA in International Relations and Democratic Politics from the University of Westminster. Her research is on democratization and foreign policy, specifically the impact of democratization on Maldivian foreign policy. She has served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives as Legal Counsel and, as an Additional Secretary at the Ministry’s Economic Corporation Department. Prior to this, she served the government of the Maldives at the President’s Office and worked at the Judicial Service Commission. Having experienced the opportunities and challenges of a small state through her work on governance, her aim is to add small-state perspectives to the existing literature on democracy and foreign policy.
Teaching
Teaching Assistant for the Diplomacy, Crises and Global Challenges (7DIPP002W) 2022. This MA Module discusses how diplomacy engages with new as well as persistent global challenges in the contemporary world marked by diversity, conflicts, crises, shifts in the balance of powers at both global and regional levels, proliferation of actors, disenchantment with institutions, and the growing disconnect between states and people.
Teaching Assistant for the State Politics and Violence Module 2023 (7PIRS026W). This MA module introduces students to various approaches to (state) politics and examines different accounts of political action ranging from civil disobedience to violent confrontation. It further discusses the challenges arising from different forms of antagonism and explores conceptual efforts to understand and control the possibility of conflict and violence.
Teaching Assistant for the Diplomacy in Action: Evolution, Adaptation, Innovation Module 2024 (7DIPP003W). This module charts the evolution of diplomatic practice from the earliest examples of diplomatic interaction and discusses the theory-practice nexus by assessing the extent to which practice has changed in recent years, It further considers possible future developments in conceptualizations of practice, in diplomatic institutions and diplomatic relations.