Dr Reuben Steff is Assistant Professor at Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic. He teaches courses on Geopolitics, International Relations and International Security. 

 

His research spans the implications of artificial intelligence for the global balance of power, the interaction between nuclear deterrence theory and ballistic missile defence within the security dilemma, New Zealand and United States foreign policy, and the dynamics of great-power competition between the United States and China.

 

He is the author of five books, including New Zealand's Geopolitics and the US-China Competition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State and War (Routledge 2020) and US Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump: Drivers, Strategy and Tactics (Routledge, 2020). His latest journal articles are: "The Strategic Case for New Zealand to Join AUKUS Pillar 2", Australian Journal of International Affairs, (2025) and "'Our region is now a Strategic Theatre": New Zealand’s Balancing Response to China", The Pacific Review (2024) .

 

Prior to his time in academia, he spent 2.5 years working in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is a regular media contributor, has participated in various policy development processes in New Zealand (for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet), attends a number of academic-government roundtables on national security issues, and participates in track 1.5 and track 2 dialogues.