Profile：

Education Background：

2021 University of Cambridge Ph.D.in Criminology

2015 University of Cambridge M.Phil. in Criminology

2014 New York University LL.M.

2011 Tsinghua University LL.B.

Research Areas：

Terrorism, insurgency and counterinsurgency, organized crime, national security law, counterterrorism policing

Journal Articles:

1. Selective Visibility: How Newsworthiness Shapes Unattributed Violence Across Terrorist Tactics in Open-Source Data, Terrorism and Political Violence (2025). https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2025.2571784

2. China’s 2024 Energy Law: An Integrated Approach to Energy Security, Journal of World Energy Law & Business (2025) (with Chen Li). https://doi.org/10.1093/jwelb/jwaf008

3. Why Insurgents Engage in Kidnappings: A Coercive Strategy in Quasi-state Governance and Control?, Journal of Peace Research (2024) (with Manuel Eisner). https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433241254983

4. Beyond Ransom and Political Concessions? Explaining Changes in Insurgents’ Kidnapping Involvement Versus Event-frequency, Journal of Conflict Resolution (2024) (with Manuel Eisner). https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027231166347

5. Demystifying China’s Police Tactical Units, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice (2023) (with Chen Li). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2023.100595

6. Special Tactical Police’s Experience and Perception of their Use of Force: Evidence from the Chinese SWAT Police, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice (2022). https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paac083 ​

Book Chapters:

Liu, L. (2024). Kidnappings as a Coercion Technique in Violent Political Campaigns. In Chatterjee, S., Greatorex, J., & Jameson, J. (Eds.), Coercion and Trust: A Multi-Disciplinary Dialogue (1st ed.), Chapter 8. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003398233-11