Clara Weinhardt is Assistant Professor in International Relations at Maastricht University and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin. Her research interests combine questions of global governance with theoretical approaches to international negotiations, with a particular focus on the areas of trade and development. Her empirical research focuses on EU-Africa relations and emerging countries, especially China. She was awarded a DFG research grant for her project 'The Rise of Emerging Powers: A Challenge to Norms of Differential Treatment for Developing Countries?' (2019-2022), which is a joint project with researchers at the University of St. Gallen (funded by SNF). In 2013, she completed her PhD in International Relations at the University of Oxford. It examined the negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and West Africa.