Politics and International Relations Research Themes: Addressing Global Political Challenges
Our research aims
Politics and International Relations (PIR) at the University of Aberdeen reflects the wide array of research interests in our discipline, but we specialise in five key themes. As detailed below, we have significant clusters of expertise in international security, critical approaches to IR, citizenship and democracy, governing institutions and representation, and climate justice. Across these themes, PIR researchers provide insights into contemporary challenges facing decision-makers and citizens alike including the rise of AI, ongoing inequality and marginalisation, increasing disengagement with democracy, pressures for institutional innovation, and the threat of climate change. Our research is comparative in nature, analysing local, national and international politics and different regions of the world, including Africa, the Nordic countries and Europe, North America, Latin America, and North and South Asia, as well as Scotland and the UK. The values which underpin our research are theoretical rigour; inclusivity and integrity; collaboration and interdisciplinarity; and accessibility and policy relevance. These principles guide how we design, conduct and present our research on the following key themes:
Theme 1: International Security
The field of International Security (IS) examines interstate cooperation and conflict, defence strategies, statecraft and contemporary geopolitical trends. The insights and analyses produced by international security scholars equip policymakers, analysts, diplomats and other foreign policy practitioners with the knowledge needed to navigate complex contemporary security challenges and shifts in geopolitical power. Our research provides important insights on the security implications of issues like artificial intelligence, migration, corruption and secession, and it considers the role of key actors including the EU and NATO in an increasingly complex international political system.
Aberdeen staff have special expertise in the following areas: diplomacy; security threats including political violence; AI and cybersecurity; maritime security; peace and conflict; war and defence; foreign policy analysis; strategic studies; nuclear non-proliferation and arms control; the international politics of science/technology.
Our experts: Dimitrios Anagnostakis, Mervyn Bain, Philippe Beauregard, Jim Johnson, Manu Lekunze, Samantha May, Michael Smith, Ezel Tabur, Ilia Xypolia.
Postgraduate researchers: Ahmad Aldoshan, Hamed Almarri, Rashid Al-Meqareh, Saeed Al-Samikh, Charlen Anozie, Victoria Bruné, Neha Diwivedi (?), George Hamilton, Karren Harradine, Michael Harris, Grace Johnson, Steven McColl, Zhansultan Nurmukhanov, Faruk Simsek, Bowei Xing.
Theme 2: Critical Approaches to International Relations
Critical approaches to IR illuminate inequalities and injustices in international politics. Theoretically, these approaches challenge the ontological and normative assumptions of conventional IR (especially realism and liberalism) to demonstrate how these perspectives underpin dominant power structures. Empirically, critical approaches tend to focus on the impact of power structures on marginalised communities who are often neglected in the conventional state-centric analysis of international politics. Critical approaches are committed to emancipatory politics and policymaking that dislodge existing colonial, patriarchal, and neoliberal structures.
Aberdeen staff specialise in these themes: decolonising/postcolonial thought and practice; imperialism; critical military studies; critical counterterrorism; collective memory; transitional justice; critical human rights; minority rights; subalternity; precarity; international political economy; gender and IR (Feminist IR); race and ethnicity; religion and the public sphere; social and political theory.
Our experts: Dimitrios Anagnostakis, Philippe Beauregard, Tom Bentley, Bennett Collins, Natasha Danilova, Samantha May, Ritu Vij, Ilia Xypolia.
Postgraduate researchers: Chayuth Chamnanseth, Neha Diwivedi, Anna Gaudet, Xupeng Han Grace Johnson, Seiko Hanochi Mushakoji.
Theme 3: Citizens and Democratic Change
Citizens play vital roles in a democracy, as voters, community workers, campaigners, political party members and consumers. In many established democracies, citizen engagement is changing, with declining electoral participation and increases in protest, social movements and digital politics. Distrust of politicians and political institutions, the polarisation of public opinion and political intolerance have all increased. Our research investigates the extent to which this political turbulence erodes our democratic political systems. We address important questions relevant to policymakers with a focus on the role of the citizen and how democracies evolve and innovate over time, whilst also examining protest and resistance in authoritarian and repressive political regimes.
Aberdeen staff specialise in these themes: public opinion; electoral behaviour; participatory decision-making, referendums and consultations; contested societies and power-sharing; nationalist movements and ethnic politics; populism; Global South social movements and activism; groups and charitable organisations; migration; social movements and media representations; global politics of human rights.
Our experts: Philippe Beauregard, Lynn Bennie, Natasha Danilova, Stuart Durkin, Nour Halabi, Malcolm Harvey, Joanne McEvoy, Judith Sijstermans, Digdem Soyaltin Colella, Kathrin Thomas, Anders Widfeldt, Ilia Xypolia.
Postgraduate researchers: Anna Gaudet, Kerem Kaymaz, Ian Scrannage.
Theme 4: Good Governance and Representation
Models of governance and political institutions, at national and international levels, underpin modern societies’ responses to deep-seated public policy problems. Our research explores the importance of legislatures and governments, and electoral and party systems, analysing processes of institutional and constitutional change. We examine peace-building and post-conflict power-sharing in divided societies. In contexts with limited democratic institutions, we consider cases of corruption and increasing authoritarianism. A key specialism is the study of political parties, including different party families and types of leadership. Across these themes, we produce comparative insights on how governmental decision-making and policy processes work in theory and practice, and whether they successfully address societal problems.
Aberdeen staff specialise in these themes: Political parties; elected representatives; leaders (including narcissism); policy making and governance; transnational networks of parties; populism; radical right; politics of migration; psychology; corruption; authoritarianism; apologies; political and historical dialogue; peace and conflict; power-sharing and peace processes; institutional and constitutional change.
Our experts: Mervyn Bain, Philippe Beauregard, Lynn Bennie, Bennett Collins, Stuart Durkin, Malcolm Harvey, Joanne McEvoy, Judith Sijstermans, Michael Smith, Digdem Soyaltin Colella, Ezel Tabur, Kathrin Thomas, Anders Widfeldt, Ilia Xypolia.
Postgraduate researchers: Israel Ayodeji, Emad Elfurtia, Jashmiya Gugathasan, George Hamilton, Michael Harris, Ian Scrannage.
Theme 5: Climate, Social Justice and Sustainability
Climate change impacts virtually every corner of the political arena, and research in this cluster naturally involves various topics of inquiry: from international cooperation and security to energy sovereignty, human migration, and racial and gender injustices. We seek to understand and identify the impacts of climate change as well as the political decisions that led to this point. Building on critical approaches, our research examines whether local, national and global responses to climate change are exacerbating historical injustices and creating new inequalities for present and future generations. These research questions, and the social justice agenda that they reflect, are fertile ground for interdisciplinarity.
Aberdeen staff specialise in these themes: international politics and science/technology; policy making and governance; international cooperation; regional integration/ governance; energy transitions; renewable energy; climate activism and social movements; public opinion and communities; green political parties; displacement, dispossession, and climate-induced migration; extractive industries and green colonialism; energy, environmental and climate justice.
Our experts: Philippe Beauregard, Lynn Bennie, Bennett Collins, Nour Halabi, Samantha May, Digdem Soyaltin Colella, Ezel Tabur, Kathrin Thomas, David Toke, Ilia Xypolia.
Postgraduate researchers: we are currently seeking new PGRs.