Leslie Wehner is Full Professor and Chair of International Relations. Leslie joined the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies as Senior Lecturer in 2015. Previously, he was Senior Research Fellow at GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg (2012-2014). His academic work and service to the field of International Relations have been recognised with the appointment as Vice-President of the International Studies Association - ISA (2021-22).

Leslie is a scholar of international relations who has published broadly in foreign policy analysis, international political economy, and international relations theory. His specific areas of interest include role theory in international relations and foreign policy analysis, emerging powers (BRICS), the nexus of populism and foreign policy, leaders in foreign policy and Leadership Trait Analysis, and the foreign policies and foreign economic policies of Latin American states, and regional cooperation in Latin America.

His work has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust to conduct research on "The Promised Change of Populism in Foreign Policy" (2023-24). While he was in GIGA Hamburg, Leslie was also part of an international collaborative research project funded by the European Union (PRIMO - Power and Regions in Multipolar Order). This large scale project of 3.5 million euro involved a network of Universities from the UK, Germany, Turkey, Russia, India, China, Brazil, Portugal and Russia as well as the participation of non-academic institutions.

Most recently, Leslie's work has been funded by the EU Horizon Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions/UKRI to conduct research and train doctoral students on the topic of "The International Dimensions and Effects of Populism" (IDEoPOP). This new large scale funded project of circa 3 million euro for the period 2024-28 brings together academic institutions from France (Science Po Paris), Germany (University of Freiburg), Italy (University of Genoa), Poland (Jagiellonian University), Sweden (University of Gothenburg), Turkey (Bilkent University) and the UK (University of Bath), as well as leading international and global think-tanks from Brazil, Germany, Greece, France and Sweden.

His scholarly work has been published in different high esteemed journals such as The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Cooperation and Conflict, Foreign Policy Analysis, Global Studies Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, International Politics, International Relations, Journal of Global Security Studies, Journal of International Relations and Development, and Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional. 

Leslie is associate editor of Foreign Policy Analysis and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Politics in Latin America (JPLA). He was also member of the Long-Range Planning Committee of ISA (2019-20) and  served as At-Large Officer of the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of ISA (2016-17). He also founded and led the Working Group of International Relations (GRI) belonging to the Latin American Political Science Association - ALACIP (2014-17).

He has also lectured foreign policy analysis, international political economy, comparative regionalism and international politics of Latin America in different German Universities, such as the University of Kiel, Leuphana University Lüneburg and the University of Hamburg.

Leslie did his first degrees in History and Political Science in his native Chile at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and his postgraduate work at the University of Essex and Lund University. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Hamburg.