Main Areas of Research:

My research is focused on the international social theory of war and security. Current research projects focus on three main substantive problems: the interconnections between globalisation and security; the relationship between war, statebuilding and security in the United States; and private violence and the political economy of security. My contribution in all of these areas has been informed by a broadly historical sociological approach to international relations that focuses on both state theory and the importance of temporal processes and historical context for understanding international relations.

I welcome applications from prospective PhD students in any of the following areas of research:

• US Foreign Policy
• Security and Globalization
• Security Privatization
• Historical Sociology of International Relations

Current PhD Student Topics:

• Pursuing Security in Pakistan: Interventions in Identity Construction
• Contemporary Civil Wars and Conflicts: The Problem of Non-compliance with International Law
  
• Exceptionalism, International Law and the Obama Administration
• The Securitization of US Policy towards Africa
• Structural Change and US Power Projection: Structural Regionalism and the Freedom of Action Constraint
  

Courses Taught:

• International Security in the Contemporary World Year 2
• US Foreign Policy Year 3
• International Security: War and Peace in a Global Context MA in International Relations

External Affiliations:

Associate Fellow, Institute for the Study of the Americas

Publications:

Books:

The Globalization of Security: State Power, Security Provision and Legitimacy, Palgrave, 2009.

Co-editor with Alejandro Colás, Mercenaries, Pirates, Bandits and Empires: Private Violence in Historical Context, London/New York: Hurst/Columbia University Press (forthcoming: 2010).

Journal articles:

“Pirates, Privateers and the Political Economy of Private Violence,” Global Change, Peace and Security Vol. 21, No. 2 (2009): 139-152.

“Re-imagining the Borders of US Security after 9/11: Securitization, Risk and the Creation of the Department of Homeland Security,” Globalizations Vol. 4, No. 3 (2007): 385-397.

"Levels and Agents, States and People: Micro-Historical Sociological Analysis and International Relations," International Politics Vol. 44, No. 4 (2007): 431-449.

“Discourses of Empire: The U.S. ‘Empire', Globalisation and International Relations,” Third World Quarterly Vol. 25, No. 8 (2004): 1359-1378.

“Security Studies and the ‘Security State': Security Provision in Historical Context,” International Relations Vol. 17, No. 2 (2003): 135-151.

Chapters in Books:

With Alejandro Colás, “The Flow and Ebb of Privatised Seaborne Violence in Global Politics: Lessons from the Atlantic World, 1689-1815,” in Colas and Mabee (eds), Mercenaries, Pirates, Bandits and Empires: Private Violence in Historical Context, London/New York: Hurst/Columbia University Press (forthcoming: 2010).

"Defence Restructuring and the Globalization Of Security" in Mark Elam (ed), Reconstructing the Means of Violence: Defence Restructuring and Conversion, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001.

Recent Book Reviews:

“Gopal Balakrishnan, Antagonistics: Capitalism and Power in an Age of War”, International Affairs Vol. 85, No. 6 (2009): 1250-1251.

“Andrew C. Bacevich (ed), The Long War”, International Affairs Vol. 84, No. 4 (2008): 874-875.

“Jeffrey A. Engel, Cold War at 30,000 Feet”, History Vol. 93, No. 312 (2008): 544-545.

“Daniel Deudney, Bounding Power”, Millennium: Journal of International Studies Vol. 36, No. 3 (2008): 651-653.

Recent Conference Papers:

With Todd Scarth, “In and Out of Play: The Political Economy of Global Football as Stateless Culture”, for “Global Football: Gender, History and Nation” Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada, December 3-5, 2009.

“States, Crisis and War: Militarism and the US National Security State”, Militarism: Political Economy, Security, Theory conference, University of Sussex, May 14-15, 2009.