Dr Lee Jones, BA (Warwick), MPhil, DPhil (Oxford)
Lecturer

Office Hours:

Monday 11am-12pm

Research interests:

My research interests revolve around questions of state-society relations, governance, political economy, sovereignty and intervention, particularly in postcolonial countries.  My particular area of expertise is the Asia-Pacific, especially Southeast Asia.

Working in the tradition of critical, historical-sociological approaches in International Relations, my work draws out the importance of domestic and transnational social conflict and political economy for international politics. I focus on the ways in which conflict between social classes and other societal groups generates different forms of state, regime, and foreign policy, including different forms of intervention. I also study how intervention impacts on social conflict, creating new contradictions and alliances that change political outcomes in target states. My work has been particularly influenced by the critical political economy approach pioneered at the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Australia, and the state theory of Antonio Gramsci, Nicos Poulantzas and Bob Jessop. I am also becoming increasingly interested in the insights offered by political geography and the politics involved in rescaling governance.

My recent research investigates the interventions of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indochina, East Timor and Burma from the 1960s onwards. Attacking the overwhelming scholarly and journalistic consensus on ASEAN as a group of states that never interferes in any other states' internal affairs, I argue that ASEAN has indeed intervened, both within ASEAN and without, often very seriously and with sometimes devastating consequences. I have recently finished a book manuscript on this topic.

I have also produced a study of democratisation and foreign policy making in Southeast Asia which tried to account for the limits of liberal-democratic influences on foreign policy, despite the formally democratic nature of many of the region’s regimes. I have also completed an article on state-building in East Timor which tries to introduce the notion of social conflict as a normal part of the development of states and understands UN-led state-building efforts through its impact on this conflict.

My current research activities are:

• a joint project on ‘Securitisation and the Governance of Non-Traditional Security in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific’ with Dr Shahar Hameiri of Murdoch University, Australia;
• a major project on the ways in which international economic sanctions work (or do not work) to effect regime change.

PhD Supervision

I would be delighted to supervise doctoral theses in the following areas:

• the international politics of Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific
• the politics of sovereignty and intervention
• international economic sanctions
• historical sociology, historical materialism, and international relations
• state-society relations and international politics.

I am happy to discuss ideas with prospective students - please email me with a short (say, 6-page) research proposal and your CV.

Publications:

Books

ASEAN, Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)

Journal articles

‘Beyond Securitisation: Explaining the Scope of Security Policy in Southeast Asia’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 11:3 (2011), 403-432

ASEAN's Unchanged Melody? The Theory and Practice of Non-Intervention in Southeast Asia, Pacific Review 23:3 (2010), 479-502

(Post-)Colonial Statebuilding in East Timor: Bringing Social Conflict Back In, Conflict, Security and Development 10:4 (2010), 547-575

‘Democratisation and Foreign Policy: The Case of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 27:3 (2009), 387-406

‘“The Others”: Gender and Conscientious Objection in the First World War’, Nordic Review of Masculinity Studies 3:2 (2008), 99-113

‘ASEAN’s Albatross: ASEAN’s Burma Policy, from Constructive Engagement to Critical Disengagement, Asian Security 4:3 (2008), 271-93

‘ASEAN Intervention in Cambodia: From Cold War to Conditionality’, Pacific Review 20:4 (2007), 523-50

Chapters in books

‘State Power, Social Conflicts and Security Policy in Southeast Asia’, in Richard Robison (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Politics (Routledge: in press, 2011)

‘State-building versus State Formation in East Timor’, in Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (ed.) The Limits of Statebuilding and the Analysis of State-Formation (Routledge: in press, 2011) [peer reviewed]

Other

'Critical Interventions on Statebuilding’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 5:2 (2011), 235-239

‘Still in the “Driver’s Seat”, But for How Long? ASEAN’s Capacity for Leadership in East-Asian International Relations’, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 29:3 (2010)

Reviews of D.K. Emmerson (ed.), Hard Choices: Security, Democracy and Regionalism in Southeast Asia and H.E.S. Nesadurai and J.S. Djiwandono (eds.), Southeast Asia in the Global Economy: Security, Competitiveness and Social Protection in ASEASUK News no. 46 (Autumn 2009), 40-42, 45-46

Liberalism and Democratization in East Asia’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 3:2 (2009), 277-283

‘World Systems Theory for the Twenty-First Century’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 3:1 (2009), 130-132‘

‘ASEAN and the Norm of Non-Interference in Southeast Asia: A Quest for Social Order’, Nuffield College Politics Group Working Paper 2009-02 (2009)

‘International Relations Scholarship and the Tyranny of Policy Relevance’, Journal of Critical Globalization Studies 1:1 (2009), 125-131

‘The Dragon and the Elephant’, China Review 44 (2008), 14

‘Absent Sovereigns?’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 1:3 (2007), 383-88

Undergraduate teaching:

•  POL105 Political Analysis (Level 4)
•  POL240 International Relations: Theories and Contemporary Issues (Level 5)

Postgraduate teaching:

• Sovereignty and Intervention in International Politics

Professional activities and outreach:

For further information about me and links to my publications, see www.leejones.tk