Stephen Chan was educated at the University of Auckland and was President of the New Zealand University Students' Association before completing graduate work at Auckland and London University King's College. He worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat, in London, Zimbabwe, while seconded to the Commonwealth Observer Group that oversaw the independence election campaign, and Zambia. He then joined the faculty of the University of Zambia and was twice Visiting Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, and also Visiting Lecturer at Victoria University, Wellington. Since 1987, he has taught International Relations at the University of Kent and has also been Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. Professor Stephen Chan is foundation Dean of Law and Social Science and
Professor of International Relations at the School of Oriental and African
Studies in the University of London