Research

The Departmental of International Politics is home to a number of research institutes and centres. Each of these organisations focuses on one or more specialised areas of research. Their activities include putting on conferences and workshops; hosting visiting speakers; and facilitating interaction and knowledge transfer between academics and policy-makers.

Students studying at the Department can be associated with and participate in many of the events organised by institutes and centres. For more information on study in the Department please see information for prospective students or contact Admissions Administrators for Postgraduate or Undergraduate study.

• Centre for Intelligence & International Security Studies(CIISS)
• Centre for the International Politics of Knowledge
• Centre of Welsh Politics and Society (CWPS)
• David Davies Memorial Institute (DDMI)  (DDMI)
• Planetary Challenges and Politics Centre (PCPC)
• World Order Watch (WOW) Research Network

IPRS is one of the key focal points of the Department’s research culture.  This weekly seminar provides a forum for department-wide discussion of ongoing research.  Each seminar focuses on a single issue, with many sessions involving presentations from departmental staff or from distinguished visitors from other universities.  All third year PhD students are also required to make a presentation to the IPRS, which affords an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate progress achieved as well as to receive critical feedback from peers and members of staff. 

2020/21

IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2020-21

2018/19

IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2018-19

IPRS Schedule Semester 2 2018-19

2017/18

IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2017-18

IPRS Schedule Semester 2 2017-18

2016/17

IPRS Schedule Semester 2 2016-17

IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2016-17

2015/16‌

IPRS Schedule Semester 2 2015-16
IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2011-2012

Previous Years

IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2011-2012
IPRS Schedule Semester 2 2011-2012
 
IPRS Schedule Semester 1 2010-2011
IPRS Schedule Semester 2 2010-2011

2009/10 programme
2008/09 Programme

The Department of International Politics is home to a thriving community of research groups.  All members of staff and most PhD students are members of at least one research group.  Each research group organises its own programme of seminars, which provide an opportunity for staff and research students to present ongoing research and to receive critical feedback.  Research groups also host visiting speakers and organise periodic conferences and workshops.

Critical and Cultural Politics and Racialisation Research Group (CPPR)

The Critical and Cultural Politics and Racialisation Research Group (CPPR) is a student-run interdisciplinary research group that brings together those who are engaged in work inspired by a variety of critical perspectives in international politics. The CCPR aims to give undergraduate and postgraduate students of various departments the opportunity to present and receive feedback for their work. It also organises several other events throughout the year, in which participants will have the chance to critically engage with contemporary debates on a variety of issues, including a specific focus on (neo)colonialism, race, identity, and cultural relations. We intend to continue to bring diverse and critical pedagogical perspectives to create an alternative and open space in which marginal perspectives can be brought to the fore. We are also engaged with arts, culture and performance to widen the media through which we engage with international politics. 

If you have any ideas or questions about the CCPR  or wish to present your work, please get in touch with the co-convenors:

Marcello de Souza Freitas : mad68@aber.ac.uk

Amal Abu-Bakare  : ama20@aber.ac.uk

Talwyn Baudu : tkb@aber.ac.uk

Security Research Group

Located in the International Politics Department at Aberystwyth University, the Security Research Group (SRG) is a student-run research group, seeking to provide a platform where divergent academic interests and disciplines related to the study of security can be fruitfully brought together. Areas of interest include health security, environmental security, human security, national security, intelligence studies, accountability, strategic studies, critical security studies, geo-politics and geo-strategy, terrorism and critical terrorism studies.

The SRG's Blog: https://abersrg.wordpress.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Aber.SRG

Twitter Account: @aberSRG

International History Research Group

The International History Research Group (IHRG) was established in October 2004 and has made an active contribution to the research culture of the Department over the course of the last fifteen years. The IHRG is concerned with all aspects of international, transnational and global history. It has regularly organised seminars, roundtables and symposia, and brings together International Politics staff and postgraduate students, as well as colleagues from across the University, especially from the Department of History and Welsh History.

Distinguished visiting speakers who have addressed the IHRG have included Professor John R. Ferris (University of Calgary), Dr. Cees Wiebes (Free University of Amsterdam), Professor Keith Neilson (Royal Military College, Canada), Professor Greg Kennedy (Kings College London), Dr. G. Bruce Strang (Lake Head University, Ontario), and Professor David French (University College London). Visiting speakers invited to Aberystwyth by the IHRG have not been limited to academic historians. Indeed, one of the Group's most successful events was a ‘witness seminar' given by one of the last surviving RAF veterans of the Battle of Britain.

Convenors: Patrick Finney (pbf@aber.ac.uk) and Quincy Cloet (quc@aber.ac.uk).

For information about forthcoming events, please follow @patrickfinney1 and @quincycloet on Twitter.‌

Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Research Group

Aberystwyth University’s Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Research Group (IGSRG) is an interdepartmental research group, based between the Department of International Politics, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Law and Criminology and the School of Art, which focuses specifically on questions relating to feminism, queer theory, and gender.  The goal of the group is to bring together students and members of staff from different departments within Aberystwyth University who have common interests.  We offer an interdisciplinary forum for discussion, networking, personal and professional development, and a more general exchange of ideas. Beyond the immediate realm of Aberystwyth University, we also aim to establish further networks with interested people studying or working in other universities and institutions, including artists and activists.  Such dialogues raise both awareness and questions for the themes present in our research.  Following on from the success of the past few years, we seek to consolidate and further relationships with individuals and groups working on issues relating to gender.

Blog: www.abergender.wordpress.com

E-mail: gender@aber.ac.uk

Facebook: @abergender

Twitter: @abergender 

Posthumanities Research Group

The Post Human Research Group (PHRG) is a multidisciplinary student led research group that provides an open and welcoming environment to explore new ideas and contemporary problems from a post-human perspective. The group was founded in the summer of 2020. Since then, it has organised a diverse range of events including a walking event which explored the effect of space and movement on ways of knowing, and an online event in Gathertown which explored virtual embodiments and avatar cultures. PHRG has several events planned for the coming academic year and has been successful in securing postgraduate community funding to organise a multidisciplinary workshop which will take place this autumn and will focus on fluid thinking and climate change.

Contact details to follow

2020

International Relations in a Relational Universe

Milja Kurki

Oxford University Press

Civilian Specialists at War: Britain's Transport Experts and the First World War

Christopher Phillips

University of London Press

Refugees in Britain: Practices of Hospitality and Labelling

Gillian McFadyen

University of Edinburgh Press

Fieldwork as Failure: Living and Knowing in the Field of International Relations

Katarina Kušić and Jakub Záhora (eds)

E-IR

Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention: A Guide to Research in Violent and Closed Contexts

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Morten Bøås (eds.)

Bristol University Press, 2020

2019

New Geographies of Language - Language, Culture and Politics in Wales

Rhys Jones and Huw Lewis

Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

2018

Heroism and Global Politics

Edited by Veronica Kitchen and Jennifer Mathers

Routledge.com, 2018

2017

The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power

Naren Chitty, Li Ji, Gary Rawnsley, Craig Hayden (eds)

Routledge

Islam and International Relations Fractured Worlds

Mustapha Kamal Pasha (ed)

Routledge

2016

Myth and Narrative in International Politics: Interpretive Approaches to the Study of IR.

Berit Bliesemann De Guevara, ed.

Palgrave Macmillan

International Relations Theory Today. 2nd edition.

Booth, Ken and Toni Erskine, eds.

Polity Press

Violence and Civilization in the Western States-Systems.

Andrew Linklater

Cambridge University Press

(in press) The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power.

Rawnsley, G., Chitty, N., Ji, L., Hayden, C.  (eds)

Taylor & Francis

2015

The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Critical Reappraisal 

Len Scott and R. Gerald Hughes (eds)
Routledge, 2015

Middle Powers in World Trade Diplomacy

Charalampos Efstathopoulos
Palgrave

Face Politics

Jenny Edkins
Routledge

The British Nuclear Experience: The Roles of Beliefs, Culture and Identity

Kris Stoddart and John Baylis
Oxford University Press

2014

The Postwar Legacy of Appeasement: British Foreign Policy since 1945

R. Gerald Hughes (eds),
Bloomsbury, 2014

Armed Drones and the Ethics of War: Military Virtue in a Post-Heroic Age

Christian Enemark
Routledge

Framing Global Health Governance

Colin McInnes and Kelly Lee
Routledge

The Transformation of Global Health Governance

Colin McInnes, Adam Kamradt-Scott, Kelley Lee, Anne Roemer-Mahler, Simon Rushton and Owain David Williams
Palgrave

Le Guerre Della Jugoslavia 1991-1999

Alastair Finlan
Liberia Editric Goriziana

The Test of Terrorism:  Responding to Political Violence in the Twenty-First Century

Alastair Finlan
Routledge

Contemporary Military Strategy and the Global War on Terror

Alastair Finlan
Bloomsbury Publishing

The Kenya papers of General Sir George Erskine 1953-1955

Huw Bennett and David French
The History Press

Critical International Relations

Jenny Edkins
Routledge

Global Politics:  A New Introduction

Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfuss
Routledge

International Politics and Performance:  Critical Aesthetics and Creative Practice

Jenny Edkins and Adrian Kear
Routledge

The Sword and the Shield:  Britain, America, NATO and Nuclear Weapons, 1970-1976

Kris Stoddart
Palgrave

Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies

Robert dover, Mkchael S Goodman, Claudia Hillebrand
Routledge

Democracy Promotion: A Critical Introduction

Bridoux, Jeff and Milja Kurki
Routledge

Transcending Postmodernism

Morton A. Kaplan with Inanna Hamati-Ataya
Palgrave

International Relations:  All that Matters

Ken Booth
London: Hodder and Stroughton

An International History of the Cuban Missile Crisis:  A 50-year retrospective

Len Scott (David Gioe and Christopher Andrew)
Routledge

Facing Down the Soviet Union: Britain, the USA, NATO and Nuclear Weapons, 1976-1983

Kristan Stoddart
Palgrave

2013

International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity

Dunne, Kurki and Smith, eds (2013) 3^rd edition (previous editions 2007, 2010)
OUP

Democratic Futures: Revisioning Democracy Promotion

Milja Kurki

Routledge

Contemporary Military Culture and Strategic Studies

Alastair Finlan
Routledge

The Vulnerable in International Society

Ian Clark
Oxford University Press

Fighting the Mau Mau

Huw Bennett
Cambridge University Press

2012

Statebuilding and State-Formation: The Political Sociology of Intervention 

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara
Routledge

A Micro-Sociology of Violence: Deciphering Patterns and Dynamics of Collective Violence 

Jutta Bakonyi and Berit Bliesemann de Guevara
Routledge

Ethics and Security Aspects of Infectious Disease Control: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Christian Enemark and Michael J. Selgelid
Ashgate

Conceptual Politics of Democracy Promotion

Hobson, Christopher and Milja Kurki
Routledge

Global Health and International Relations

Colin Mcinnes and Kelley Lee
Polity

Counter-Terrorism Networks in the European Union

Claudia Hillebrand
Oxford University Press

Special Responsibilities

Ian Clark
Cambridge University Press

American Foreign Policy and Postwar Reconstruction

Jeff Bridoux
Routlefdge

Losing an Empire and Finding a Role

Kristan Stoddart
Palgrave

The European Union and its Eastern Neighbours
Towards a more ambitious partnership?

Elena Korosteleva
Routledge

Tragedy and International Relations

2011

Charisma und Herrschaft: Führung und Verführung in der Politik 

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Tatjana Reiber
Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus. 

(Translated into Hungarian: Karizma és hatalom, Budapest: Napvilág Kiadó, 2012)

Cosmopolitanism and International Relations Theory

Richard Beardsworth
Polity Press

Eastern Partnership:  A New Opportunity for the Neighbours

Elena Korosteleva
Routledge

Terrorism:  A Critical Introduction

Richard Jackson, Lee Jarvis, Jeroen Gunning, Marie Breen Smyth
Palgrave

The Problem of Harm in World Politics

Andrew Linklater
Cambridge University Press

Hegemony in International Society

Ian Clark
Oxford University Press

Terror in our Time

Ken Booth and Tim Dunne
Routledge

Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance

Simon Rushton and Owain David Williams eds
Palgrave

On Rawls, Development and Global Justice

Missing, Persons and Politics

2010

Illusion Statebuilding. Warum der westliche Staat so schwer zu exportieren ist 

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Florian P. Kühn
Hamburg: edition Körber-Stiftung

Realism in World Politics

Ken Booth eds
Routledge

Remembering the Road to World War Two

Patrick Finney
Routledge

Intelligence and International Security

Len Scott, R Gerlad Hughes, martin Alexander eds
Routledge

Governing Sustainable Development

Carl Death
Routledge

American Foreign Policy and Postwar Reconstruction

Jeff Bridoux
Routledge

2009

Staatlichkeit in Zeiten des Statebuilding

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara
Peter Lang

Conflict Resolution in the Twenty-first Century: Principles, Methods, and Approaches

Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson
Michigan University Press

Theories of International Relations, 4th edition

Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater, eds.
Palgrave MacMillan

America’s Cold War: the Politics of Insecurity

Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall
Harvard University Press

Critical Theorists and International Relations

Jenny Edkins and Nick Vaughan Williams, eds.
Routledge

Minority Nationalist Parties and European Integration

Annwen Elias
Routledge

Contemporary State Terrorism: Theory and Cases

Richard Jackson, Eamon Murphy and Scott Poynting, eds.
Routledge

Critical Terrorism Studies: A New Research Agenda

Critical Terrorism Studies: A New Research Agenda
Routledge

2008

The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation and Trust in World Politics

Ken Booth and Nicholas Wheeler
Palgrave

Serbia in the Shadow of Milosevic: The Legacy of the Conflict in the Balkans

Janine Clark
I.B. Tauris

Minority Nationalist Parties and European Integration

Anwen Elias
Routlege

The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War

Campbell Craig and Sergey Radchenko
Yale University Press

Embedded Cosmopolitanism

Toni Erskine
Oxford University Press

Special Forces, Strategy and the War on Terror

Alastair Finlan
Routledge

Exploring Intelligence Archives: Enquiries into the Secret State

R. Gerald Hughes, Peter Jackson, and Len Scott, eds.
Routledge

Causation in International Relations: Reclaiming Causal Analysis

Milja Kurki
Cambridge University Press

Intelligence, Crises and Security: Prospects and Retrospects

Len Scott and R. Gerald Hughes, eds.
Routledge

2007

Disease and Security: Natural Plagues and Biological Weapons in East Asia

Christian Enemark
Routledge

Theory of World Security

Ken Booth
Cambridge University Press

The Security Dimensions of EU Enlargement

David Brown and Alastair Shepherd, eds.
Manchester University Press

International Legitimacy and World Security

Ian Clark
Oxford University Press

American Credo: A Field Guide to the Place of Ideas in US Politics

Mike Foley
Oxford University Press

Britain, Germany and the Cold War: The Search for a European Detente, 1949-1967

R. Gerald Hughes

Critical Theory and World Politics: Sovereignty, Citizenship and Humanity

Andrew Linklater
Routledge

Revitalising Democracy? Devolution and Civil Society in Wales

Elin Royles
University of Wales Press

The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Threat of Nuclear War: Lessons from History

Len Scott
Continuum

Here is Hell: Canada's Engagement in Somalia

Grant Dawson
University of British Columbia Press

Representing Europe's Citizens? Electoral Institutions and the Failure of Parliamentary

Roger Scully
Oxford University Press

Truth Recovery and Justice after Conflict: Managing Violent Pasts

Marie Breen Smyth
Routledge

Strength of research culture is also indicated by the number of journals which are edited within the Department of International Politics. Journals are edited by members of the Department, which provide outlets for professional development and opportunities to shape the debates that define various fields of study.  Postgraduate students are often involved in these activities as editorial assistants or as participants in the events sponsored by particular journals.

The Department is eager to encourage collaborative research, nationally and internationally, and therefore warmly welcomes applications from established scholars, financially supported by their own institutions or by a research award, who wish to spend a period of time (from 3-12 months) working on a project of direct relevance to its areas of expertise and interest.

Facilities Offered

Visitors will be offered shared office space (subject to availability), library access, local IT facilities, and an email account. The University’s Huw Owen Library has excellent research holdings in the field, and the Department is adjacent also to the National Library of Wales, one of the UK’s copyright libraries. Visitors are welcome to participate fully in the research life of the Department by attending its weekly Research Seminar, as well as the many meetings and activities of its various Research Groups and Centres.

Expectations of Visiting Fellows

The purpose of the scheme is to bring to the Department exceptional scholars who can contribute to and enrich its intellectual and research activities. Therefore, in addition to conducting their own research, Visiting Fellows will be expected actively to participate in the following activities in the Department:

• Undertaking collaborative research with Departmental Staff
• Presentation of one or more work-in-progress papers, as part of the Department's  Research Seminar series, or to appropriate Research Groups
• providing a formal lecture to the Institute, or wider public community

Categories of Visiting Fellows

It is important to the success of the scheme that visitors become fully integrated into the intellectual life of the Department. In order to ensure this, the Department will appoint Visiting Fellows preferentially on the basis of the following considerations:

i)  Priority will be given to a visitor who is nominated by an existing member of staff, and who is part of an existing research grant or collaboration with that staff member. Exchanges of this kind (funded by schemes such as the Newton International Trust, or other similar collaborative funding arrangements) will be given preference in the first instance;

ii)  Otherwise, an applicant should be sponsored by an individual member of staff, or by a Research Centre, and the ‘sponsor’ undertakes thereby to act as a mentor for the visitor, to be closely involved with the visitor’s research project, and to facilitate his/her participation in relevant seminar series. This role may also entail monitoring compliance with any visa conditions, where applicable. In addition to any joint writing and publication undertaken by them, we would also encourage the staff member and Visiting Fellow to work towards submission of a collaborative research grant application for the future.

iii)  If a potential applicant does not already have an established research connection to a member of staff, s/he should write to the Director of Research in the first instance to enquire if any good ‘fit’ is available. To help assess this, applicants will be asked for a statement of the research project (max 1000 words), two academic references, and where appropriate evidence of English-language ability. Anyone interested in making application by this route would be well advised to make an informal enquiry first, to establish that space is potentially available, ahead of submitting a formal application.

Application Process

Applications will be considered twice per year, and need to be submitted by two deadlines: the end of February (for visits during the first semester, or both semesters, of the next academic year); the end of August (for visits during the second semester, or next full calendar year).

Applicants in categories i) and ii) above must supply, through their nominator or sponsor, the following details:

• their area of expertise and research interest
• their collaborator or sponsor in the Department
• their proposed research collaboration and objectives of the proposed visit
• confirmation that the applicant has sabbatical leave or a similar independent source of financial support for their stay
• curriculum vitae and contact details
• the commencement and expiry date of proposed period of stay, and level of any grant support available
• details of their visa status (if applicable)

Applicants under category iii) must supply the documentation requested above. Applications will be considered by an appropriate Management Team committee.  Applications and inquiries should be addressed to the Departmental Director of Research (see Staff List).