Politics and International Relations

The Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) has a well-established reputation for innovative and internationally recognised research in various areas of Politics and International Relations. We have a lively research environment with regular seminars and conferences and over 30 PhD students, and have been successful in securing a number of large, externally-funded research grants.

Our research is concentrated in three areas.

Democracy

This area of research focuses primarily on:

  • political theory
  • democratic theory
  • the study of democracy in different regions of the world, such as the Middle East, South Asia and the United States
  • understanding the dynamics of democratisation

A prominent programme is the Democracy and Islam Programme, which focuses on:

  • multiculturalism
  • terrorism, Islam and religious reform in the Muslim world
  • the role of western Muslims in religious reform
  • gender politics in the Arab world

Governance and Sustainability

This area of research focuses primarily on:

  • environmental politics
  • climate change mitigation and adaptation
  • eco-cities
  • sustainability
  • political responsibility
  • space, scale and temporality

Security and International Relations

This area of research focuses primarily on:

  • just war and security theory
  • intervention and state building, including humanitarian intervention, failed states and Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
  • security and resilience, especially regarding the global energy system
  • borders and identities, with special focus on immigration and Europe, China-India border dispute, Muslim identities in Russia, majority-minority relations in India and China including the issue of Tibet

Our research

Explore more about our research by visiting our research centres