International Relations is a rapidly expanding area within the Department of Politics. It works closely with the Conflict Management and Regime Transition, and Latin American Politics clusters (coming together to form an International Politics research group), and there is also significant crossover with the Political Theory cluster and group. The International Relations research cluster is built around a common commitment to studying the historical and political sociology of the international system, tracing its political, military and economic evolution from the colonial, though the post-colonial to the present post-cold war system. 

This includes examining the changing nature of state power, with a particular focus on the relationship between war and society, globalisation and resistance across the developed and developing worlds. Members of the cluster, Ray Kiely, Bryan Mabee and Richard Saull work in different ways on the current position of United States, including the contradictory ways in which its power is resisted and the use of imperialism, hegemony and globalisation to explain this dynamic. This has resulted in Saull's book, The Cold War and Its Aftermath: Capitalism, Social Revolution and Superpower Politics , and his co-edited book The War on Terrorism and the American ‘Empire' After the Cold War , Kiely's most recent books Empire in the Age of Globalisation: US Hegemony and Neo-liberal Disorder , The Clash of Globalisations: Neo-liberalism, the Third Way and ‘Anti-Globalisation' , The New Political Economy of Development and his co-edited work Globalization and After and Mabee's article ‘Discourses of Empire: The U.S. “Empire”, Globalisation and International Relations', in Third World Quarterly , and his forthcoming book on Globalisation and Security for Lynne Rienner publishers .

Richard Saull's work on the Cold War and international political change draws on a Marxist approach to International Relations. In particular Richard's work has focused on the socio-economic properties of states and they way in which these properties have conditioned the historical evolution of geopolitical relations and conflict between states. He has also looked at the political crises that have emerged from within capitalist forms of social development and the way in these crises have triggered revolutionary political struggles involving the mobilizations of particular class constituencies. Richard also convenes the BISA (British International Studies Association) Working Group on Marxism & International Relations.

Saull has written extensively on the history and theory of the Cold War. His PhD thesis on IR theory and the theorization of the Cold War ( Rethinking Theory and History in the Cold War ) was published by Frank Cass in 2001. Since then he has written on the place of the third world in the Cold War (‘Locating the Global South in the Theorisation of the Cold War: Capitalist Development, Social Revolution and Geopolitical Conflict,' Third World Quarterly 26/2, June 2005) and has just completed a monograph for Pluto Press on the history of the Cold War and its ends ( The Cold War and After ). The book seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the history of the Cold War defining the Cold War as a historically specific form of international conflict based on the revolutionary (communist) consequences of uneven capitalist development. The Cold War is seen as a form of social conflict (with multiple beginnings and ends) where revolutionary social change (a consequence of uneven capitalist development) produces specific forms of state antagonistic to capitalist forms of state and the ways in which capitalist states reproduce their socio-economic power. The upshot of this is that geopolitical conflict is seen to be an expression of deeper social antagonisms and the actors in the Cold War are not just the superpowers (and states) but also social movements. The book traces the origins of the present conjuncture in world politics based on the different, shifting ends of the Cold War and the emergence of new sources of resistance to American power [in a ‘reactionary' form in the Middle East and central Asia and ‘revolutionary' form in parts of Latin America] that emerged in the closing stages of the Cold War, and also assesses the impact of the end of the Cold War on the constitution and application of American global power.

He is also contributing a chapter on the history of the Cold War to an edited volume on Social Relations and IR Theory , to be published in 2008. Richard has also written on the nature and consequences of the end of the Cold War. He jointly edited (with Alejandro Colás) The War on Terrorism and the American Empire After the Cold War (London: Routledge, 2005) and contributed a chapter, ‘‘Reactionary Blowback: The Ends of the Cold War and the Post-Cold War Disorder' that looks at the paradoxical character of the ends of Cold War in the Islamic world and the emergence of new forms of (reactionary) anti-imperialism.

Richard also has an interest in the international relations of revolutionary change. His work on the Cold War (see above) involved case studies of revolutionary change and their impact on the geopolitics of the Cold War and the superpower relationship in particular. Richard has also written on the attempts by revolutionary movements to institutionalise new forms of international relations during the Cold War and during the French Revolution (‘Transforming Citizenship and Political Community: The Case of French Revolutionary Internationalism' in Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations 16/3, July 2002). More recently, Richard has began to focus on reactionary and illiberal forms of political agency. This has involved work on late nineteenth century anti-globalization movements in Europe and their mobilization of petty-bourgeois social constituencies. He has also worked on more contemporary forms of anti-globalization with Western Europe and also in the emergence of Islamist movements in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Ray Kiely's particular interest is in the area of international political economy, with specific reference to development. This broad interest has also led to published work in related areas, including the relationship between globalisation, empire and imperialism, and the question of anti-imperialism and how this relates to the question of cosmopolitanism. He is also interested contemporary social theory and so-called ‘post-politics', and ‘anti-globalisation' politics and ‘global justice'. These interests have led to three single authored books since 2005, which all draw on IPE, but which particularly focus on (i) ‘anti-globalisation' social movements; (ii) US hegemony and international relations in an era of globalisation; (iii) contemporary development.

Ray has published 6 single authored books and over 50 articles and book chapters. These have been in the following broad areas: development and post-development theory; East Asian politics; Caribbean politics; comparative industrialisations with particular reference to East Asia; neo-liberalism and structural adjustment; globalisation and development; international labour, labour standards and international trade unionism; international capital flows; poverty and inequality; US imperialism and globalisation; neo-conservatism and liberal imperialism; cosmopolitanism; anti-globalisation and the ‘global justice movement; China and globalisation. Work in progress includes a historical sociology and IPE of imperialism and globalisation, China and globalisation, and US neo-conservatism. His current book projects, both for Palgrave, are a joint authored book called Politicising Development , and a single authored book called Rethinking Imperialism .

Bryan Mabee's research is focused on the interaction between war and political development, from the perspective of international relations. His current work focuses on three main substantive problems within this broad area: the interconnections between globalisation and security; the relationship between war, statebuilding and security in the United States ; and privatised violence and the political economy of security.

His contribution in all of these areas has been informed by a broadly historical sociological approach to international relations that focuses on both state theory and the importance of temporal processes and historical context for understanding international relations. A recently published paper, “Levels and Agents, States and People: Micro-Historical Sociological Analysis and International Relations.” International Politics Vol. 44, No. 4 (2007): 431-449, focuses on of the methodological issues involved with micro analysis and international relations.

The work on globalisation and security focuses on the interconnections between security and globalisation in the context of a non-static model of the state that is potentially transformed in an environment of increased globalisation. The broad approach was outlined in “Security Studies and the ‘ Security State ': Security Provision in Historical Context,” International Relations 17 (2) (2003) pp. 135-151. He is currently finishing a book on the subject, which examines three substantive issue areas: the relationship between nuclear weapons and the globalisation of threat; security privatisation and the globalisation of the arms industry; and migration and security.

His work on US foreign policy analyzes the interaction between the domestic and the international, particularly emphasizing the dynamic relationship between war, security and domestic politics. “Re-imagining the Borders of US Security after 9/11: Securitization, Risk and the Creation of the Department of Homeland Security.” Globalizations Vol. 4 No 3 (2007) focuses on the domestic politics of terrorism, while “Discourses of Empire: The U.S. ‘Empire', Globalisation and International Relations,” Third World Quarterly 25 (8) (2004) pp 1359-1378, broadly focuses on the broader role of US power in international relations. Work in progress focuses on the development of security bureaucracies after World War II and the political economy of security.

Bryan has also examined the historical development of privatised violence, emphasising an understanding of seaborne violence in a political economy framework.   The problems of privateering and piracy in the early modern period are detailed in his paper ‘Pirates, Privateers and the Political Economy of Private Violence'  Global Change, Peace and Security, Vol21, No 2 (2009).