Ms Aishath Leesha

Ms Aishath Leesha


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. 


In brief

Research areas

Maldives foreign policy, Democratisation and Small states and competing powers