PhD, International Politics
Staff and their Research Interests
Dr Rita Abrahamsen specialises in African and postcolonial politics. Her teaching and research interests include the politics of development, democratisation, state-society relations, and the nexus between development and security.
Professor Martin Alexander specialises in France’s modern wars, Vietnam, strategic thought and military history. He has published books on the West’s defeat in 1940 and on the Algerian War of 1954-62.
Dr William Bain specialises in normative approaches to international relations and international relations theory. His teaching and research interests include: international political theory, the politics of state-building, English School/international society, and theories of obligation.
Professor Ken Booth is the first holder of the EH Carr Chair. His main research interests are strategy/security studies and international relations theory.
Dr Marie Breen Smyth has researched and written on the politics of Northern Ireland, South Africa and Israel/Palestine, and on victimhood, truth recovery, post-conflict reconstruction. She is currently involved in developing critical approaches to ‘terrorism.’
Professor Ian Clark is an international historian specialising in globalisation and normative international relations theory (currently international legitimacy). His teaching and research interests also include: history of nuclear strategy, especially British, and the ethics of war.
Dr Janine Clark is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the department and specialises in the former Yugoslavia, in particular Serbia. Her research interests include nationalism, the Hague Tribunal, and peace-building.
Dr Graeme Davies’s interests are in the causes of war, coercive diplomacy and research methods. Currently he is conducting research into the behaviour of Rogue States in the international system, with a particular focus on North Korea and Iran.
Professor Jenny Edkins works on the critical analysis of political practices in an international or postcolonial setting. She focuses on post-structural and psychoanalytic approaches and has written on trauma, security and famine.
Dr Anwen Elias’s interests lie in theories of nationalism and European integration. She is especially interested in minority nationalism and European integration, particularly in Spain, France and the UK.
Dr Toni Erskine specialises in ethics and international relations. Her research interests include moral agency and responsibilities of institutions in international politics, the ethics of war, and communitarian and cosmopolitan conceptions of duty to ‘strangers’ and ‘enemies’.
Dr Alastair Finlan specialises in strategic studies. Teaching and research interests include: twentieth and twenty-first century warfare, military culture, the Royal Navy, Special Forces, the War on Terror and contemporary strategic issues.
Dr Patrick Finney is a specialist in twentieth century international history. Teaching and research interests include the origins of the Second World War and the inter-war crisis, international politics in South Eastern Europe, and theoretical and methodological issues in international history.
Professor Michael Foley specialises in US politics and government; leadership studies; and the history and contemporary usage of ideas in politics. Teaching and research interests include American political culture, thought and institutions; US foreign policy; the dynamics of contemporary populism; constitutional theory and practice; strategies and rules of leadership politics; and international challenges to liberalism.
Dr Ayla Göl specialises in Political Islam and Third World politics with particular reference to the Middle East and the Caucasus. Her teaching and research interests include identity politics, foreign policy analysis, theories of nationalism and Turkey.
Dr Jeroen Gunning specialises in Middle Eastern politics, Islamist movements, democratisation and social movement theory. Teaching and research interests include: the political thought and practice of Hamas (Palestine) and Hizballah (Lebanon), 20th century Middle Eastern history, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and critical studies on terrorism.
Dr R Gerald Hughes is interested in twentieth century international history. He is especially interested in military history and in West Germany’s foreign policy during the Cold War.
Dr Peter Jackson has written extensively on historical dimensions of strategy and diplomacy. Interests include nineteenth and twentieth century international history, intelligence studies, the origins of the two world wars, and the history of modern and contemporary Europe.
Dr Richard Jackson specialises in security studies, conflict resolution and critical terrorism studies. His research and teaching interests include contemporary discourses of terrorism, the causes of war and processes of international conflict resolution.
Dr Richard Wyn Jones specialises in Welsh politics and in critical security studies. Teaching and research interests include: devolution, political thinking in Wales, electoral behaviour in Wales, nationalism and critical security studies.
Dr Elena Korosteleva works on democratisation and regime change in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the role of social capital in the process of democracy building in the former Soviet Union. Her teaching and research interests also include the implications of EU enlargement and the EU’s policies towards the neighbourhood states.
Dr Milja Kurki specialises in international relations theory. Her research and teaching interests include causal analysis in international relations, critical theories of international relations, gender studies and philosophy of social science.
Professor Andrew Linklater specialises in the study of harm in world politics and investigates linkages between ‘Eliasian’ sociology, critical and normative theory, and the comparative analysis of societies of states. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Academician of the Social Sciences.
Dr Paul Maddrell is an international historian whose teaching focuses on intelligence studies and the history of Germany. His research interests include the history of the two German states since 1945; the history of Communism; the history of the Soviet Union and the history of intelligence and security.
Dr Jennifer Mathers specialises in Russian politics and security and in women and war. Teaching and research interests include: Soviet and Russian politics, security in the former USSR, civil-military relations in Russia, post-communist transition in Eastern Europe, women and war.
Professor Colin McInnes is Head of Department. He is the holder of a UNESCO Chair in global health, Chair of the British International Studies Association and a member of the ESRC’s Strategic Research Board. He is interested in the relationship between heath and foreign and security policy, and in British defence policy, especially its Army.
Dr Andrew Priest specialises in the history of United States foreign policy. His teaching and research interests include US-UK relations, the Vietnam War and nuclear history.
Dr Elin Royles specialises in Welsh politics, having a particular interest in devolution and the effects of regional government on participation. Teaching and research interests include: Welsh politics, civil society and participation, post-devolution developments in the UK, Wales in the context of a regional Europe.
Dr Simon Rushton specialises in health and international relations and international organisations. Particular research and teaching interests include the links between health and security, post-conflict peace building and the United Nations system.
Professor Len Scott is a specialist in international history and intelligence studies. Teaching and research interests include: The Cold War and nuclear history, the Cuban missile crisis, intelligence studies and British defence and foreign policy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Professor Roger Scully is a political scientist who specialises in British politics and the study of the European Union. His published work focuses particularly on electoral behaviour, public opinion, and political institutions.
Professor Hidemi Suganami specialises in the study of the philosophical aspects of International Relations. He has written on the domestic analogy, the causes of war, the English School of International Relations, sovereignty, and is now researching on the philosophy of history and its implications for International Relations.
Dr Alistair Shepherd specialises in European security. His research and teaching interests include: Security and Strategy in Europe; EU foreign, security and defence policies, NATO; transatlantic relations and European Union politics.
Dr Lucy Taylor is a specialist in Latin American politics, focusing on representation, participation and the role of political parties and social organisations in political and social life. She also has a teaching and research interest in gender and race issues, as well as the historical development of citizenship and the state in Latin America.
Dr James Vaughan specialises in international history. Teaching and research interests include: Cold War history and historiography; British and American diplomacy in the Middle East; public diplomacy and propaganda; the history of Anglo-Israeli relations.
Professor Nicholas J Wheeler specialises in security studies and international relations theory. Teaching and research interests include: the responsibility to protect as it relates to norms of humanitarian intervention and nuclear non-proliferation, the security dilemma and trust building in world politics.
Professor Howard Williams is a political philosopher. His research and teaching interests encompass political theory; international political theory; German idealism from Kant to Hegel; Marx and Marxist theory; critical theory and Kant’s political philosophy.
Professor Michael Williams specialises in security studies and international political theory. Teaching and research interests include: historical and contemporary international theory, critical security studies, and the relationship between culture, war and violence.