ideology, mass killing and armed conflict
My primary current research is on the ideological dynamics of ‘mass killings’ and ‘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: Rethinking the Role of Ideas in Genocides and Other Atrocities Against Civilians (for Oxford University Press).
I draw on a range of disciplines in producing this account, 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 Stalinist repression in the Soviet Union, Allied area bombing in World War Two, the Rwandan genocide, the Guatemalan Civil War, while drawing on research from a range of other historical and contemporary cases of violence against civilians.
I draw on a range of disciplines in producing this account, 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 Stalinist repression in the Soviet Union, Allied area bombing in World War Two, the Rwandan genocide, the Guatemalan Civil War, while drawing on research from a range of other historical and contemporary cases of violence against civilians.
Speaking at the 'Dangerous Speech' conference at University College London, May 2017
I am more broadly interested in the relationship between ideology and organized political violence, and have conducted a major survey of empirical research on ideology's effects on armed conflict - for an annotated bibliography of major works, click here.
I also engage in some work on approaches to violence prevention and atrocity prevention orientated around ideology, and on the normative implications of research on the role of ideas in political violence for free speech, education, and peacebuilding.
I have secondary research interests in the ethics of war, and methodological debates in contemporary social science and political theory.
I also engage in some work on approaches to violence prevention and atrocity prevention orientated around ideology, and on the normative implications of research on the role of ideas in political violence for free speech, education, and peacebuilding.
I have secondary research interests in the ethics of war, and methodological debates in contemporary social science and political theory.
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 has been 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 has been 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.