My current research focuses on the history, practices, and consequence of global liberalism in world politics. The international system, since the nineteenth century, has been constituted by a set of discourses and institutions emphasizing individual rights, emancipation, and civilization. Existing research focuses on the logics of liberal peace and the decline of war, the rise of the influence of transnational actors in international law, and the refinement of cosmopolitan arguments about international ethics for a liberalized world order. My research complicates such arguments by examining how assorted outcomes, diverse actors, and alternative liberal imaginaries affect our understanding of international liberalism, human rights, and the politics of resistance.
These issues are theoretically, normatively, and empirically important. Examining the connection between liberalism and international practices allows us to better understand the relationship between ideology and international outcomes. Furthermore, with relatively recent interventions in states such as Afghanistan and Iraq, the role of a liberal world order in constituting new security and institutional configurations holds significance for the global public sphere. The larger theme connecting my research approach is an attempt to integrate social and political theory into the study of world politics, and an exploration of what that means for the politics of liberalism, human rights, and the deployment of violence.
LATEST RESEARCH:
Rethinking Identity in Political Science. (with Scott Weiner). Political Studies Review.
A Pessimistic Liberalism: Jacob Talmon's Suspicion and the Birth of Contemporary Political Thought. British Journal of Politics and International Relations.
Discourse, Genealogy, and Methods of Text Selection in International Relations Theory, Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
Liberal Pessimism: An Intellectual History of Suspicion in the Cold War in Stevens and Michelsen (eds.) Pessimism in International Relations (Palgrave MacMillan).
These issues are theoretically, normatively, and empirically important. Examining the connection between liberalism and international practices allows us to better understand the relationship between ideology and international outcomes. Furthermore, with relatively recent interventions in states such as Afghanistan and Iraq, the role of a liberal world order in constituting new security and institutional configurations holds significance for the global public sphere. The larger theme connecting my research approach is an attempt to integrate social and political theory into the study of world politics, and an exploration of what that means for the politics of liberalism, human rights, and the deployment of violence.
LATEST RESEARCH:
Rethinking Identity in Political Science. (with Scott Weiner). Political Studies Review.
A Pessimistic Liberalism: Jacob Talmon's Suspicion and the Birth of Contemporary Political Thought. British Journal of Politics and International Relations.
Discourse, Genealogy, and Methods of Text Selection in International Relations Theory, Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
Liberal Pessimism: An Intellectual History of Suspicion in the Cold War in Stevens and Michelsen (eds.) Pessimism in International Relations (Palgrave MacMillan).