Leonard Suransky

Leonard Suransky

Leonard Suransky is a Doctor of International Relations and Education, and is the former Head of the Department of International Relations at Webster University in Leiden, Netherlands. From 1969 – 1972 he was a junior lecturer of Political Studies, at The University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Being an anti-apartheid activist, he emigrated to the USA in 1973, then lived in the Netherlands for 11 years before returning to Cape Town in 2011.

After leaving school, he obtained a BA from Hebrew University Jerusalem, an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He specializes in designing and administering International Relations games and simulations in the academic, public and corporate sectors.

Leonard headed the IR department of Webster University in Accra, Ghana from 2014 to 2019, and still taught there via Zoom in 2022. He is currently the co-chair of the University of the Third Age (U3a) in Cape Town, and the Chair of the Camps Bay U3a branch.

He is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards and has participated in a various local and international conferences, seminars and workshops.

His current research interests include transitions to democracy in Africa, development issues and poverty alleviation, identity politics, and conflict and crisis management in the Greater Middle East and Southern Africa. More recently, he has taught about China's role in Africa, the old and new Silk Roads, xenophobia, corruption, populism, and the Russia-Ukraine war and its implications for the current world order.