April Herlevi

April A. Herlevi is a research scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at the Center for Naval Analyses. Her research examines China’s foreign economic and security policy. Dr. Herlevi earned her PhD in international relations and comparative politics from the University of Virginia (UVA). Her dissertation, “Competition for Investment: Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the Special Economic Zone,” examines the use of location-based incentives to attract foreign direct investment. While at UVA, she taught courses on Chinese politics, U.S. foreign policy, ethics and human Rights, and comparative politics. She holds a Master’s of Public Policy from George Mason University and a BA in political science and economics from North Carolina State University. She studied Mandarin at Tsinghua University in Beijing and Zhejiang University of Technology in Hangzhou. Prior to earning her PhD, she served as a federal civil servant with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Agency for International Development. Dr. Herlevi has published on China-Middle East relations and China’s domestic special economic zones. She is currently writing about China’s overseas economic development zones and the role of state-owned enterprises in those zones.