Ivan Lidarev is a foreign policy analyst and expert on Asian security and the international relations of China and India. In 2021 he obtained his PhD in International Relations and Political Science from King’s College London. Between 2014 and 2017, Ivan served as advisor at Bulgaria’s National Assembly. He has also been Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom (2018-2019); Associate Editor of E-International Relations (2015-2016); Young Leader at the GLOBSEC Forum, Bratislava (2016 and 2017); Tatra Young Professional at the Tatra Summit, Slovakia (2018); and MERICS Young European China Talent at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), Berlin (2018).

Ivan received his MA in International Affairs, with a concentration in Asia, from the Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA), George Washington University, and BA in History, Asian Studies and Global and International Studies from Bard College. He has also studied at Shanghai’s Fudan University.

He boasts a rich think tank experience. In 2017 Ivan was Visiting Fellow at New Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and had previously interned and done research at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and India’s Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), among other institutions.