ideology, political violence and mass killing
My primary current research is on the ideological dynamics of ‘mass killing’ or ‘atrocities’ – the many horrific forms of lethal violence targeted against civilians, including but not limited to genocide. My work aims to produce a general cross-case account of the role of ideology in such violence, and I am currently writing a book on this topic, Ideology and Mass Killing: How Groups Justify Genocides and Other Atrocities Against Civilians (for Oxford University Press).
At its core, my theory identifies six recurring ‘justificatory mechanisms’, which describe the assemblage of processes through which anti-civilian ideologies motivate and legitimate violence. I draw on a range of disciplines in producing this theory, including genocide studies, International Relations, political theory, political sociology, intellectual history, social and political psychology, and social epistemology. I engage in empirical case study research on the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinist violence in the Soviet Union, Allied aerial bombing in World War Two, the Rwandan genocide, the Guatemalan Civil War, Al Qaeda and ISIS violence, and other contemporary cases of violence against civilians.
At its core, my theory identifies six recurring ‘justificatory mechanisms’, which describe the assemblage of processes through which anti-civilian ideologies motivate and legitimate violence. I draw on a range of disciplines in producing this theory, including genocide studies, International Relations, political theory, political sociology, intellectual history, social and political psychology, and social epistemology. I engage in empirical case study research on the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinist violence in the Soviet Union, Allied aerial bombing in World War Two, the Rwandan genocide, the Guatemalan Civil War, Al Qaeda and ISIS violence, and other contemporary cases of violence against civilians.
Speaking at the 'Dangerous Speech' conference at University College London, May 2017
Alongside this book project, I am currently working on a number of analyses of the role of ideology and justification in collective political violence more generally, and developing approaches to violence prevention and atrocity prevention orientated around ideology. This reflects the broader core interest of my research: on the way psychologically realistic pictures of human thinking can advance our understandings of political conflict.
I am also interested in the normative implications of research on the role of ideas in political violence for free speech, education, and peacebuilding.
As part of this project I convene, along with Elizabeth Frazer, the Ideas and Political Violence Seminar Series at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford. Information on upcoming seminars can be found under the 'Events' section of the DPIR website, here, or under my News page on this site.
I am also interested in the normative implications of research on the role of ideas in political violence for free speech, education, and peacebuilding.
As part of this project I convene, along with Elizabeth Frazer, the Ideas and Political Violence Seminar Series at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford. Information on upcoming seminars can be found under the 'Events' section of the DPIR website, here, or under my News page on this site.
theorising ideology and the causes of ideological change
Giving the keynote speech at the 'Minds to Movements' conference on ideology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo.
Alongside my research on the role of ideology in political violence, armed conflict and mass killing, I am more broadly concerned with the study of ideology in political theory, intellectual history and social sciences. All my work on ideology draws on a highly interdisciplinary theoretical background, and there is no field in which this is more necessary that the theorisation of ideological change. A range of disciplines have each contributed major insights to our thinking about this process, which lies at the heart of politics, yet holistic, integrative understandings are almost non-existent. My work, in tandem with others, argues that this must change - and that a more effective understanding of ideological change must integrate, in particular, both psychological accounts of why individuals attach themselves to particular ideologies and more sociological accounts (though including work in political theory and communication studies) of key social processes driving significant changes in the ideological environment of a society.
Much of my work on this topic is in collaboration with members of the Ideological Conflict Project (click on link to see some of the project's research outputs) at the Waterloo Institute of Complexity and Innovation and Balsillie School of International Affairs of the University of Waterloo. I am grateful to Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon and Professor Paul Thagard for their direction of that project.
Much of my work on this topic is in collaboration with members of the Ideological Conflict Project (click on link to see some of the project's research outputs) at the Waterloo Institute of Complexity and Innovation and Balsillie School of International Affairs of the University of Waterloo. I am grateful to Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon and Professor Paul Thagard for their direction of that project.
