PSIR staff research interests

Browse the research interests of staff in the Political Science and International Relations programme.

Overview

The academics and graduate students in the Political Science and International Relations programme undertake research in a wide variety of areas. Our research is highly interdisciplinary and uses a diverse set of methodologies and theories.

Concentrations of expertise exist in a number of areas with critical mass providing depth and experience for postgraduate supervision and the opportunity for collaborative research projects and grant applications.

For more information, see the research clusters below. Click on a staff name for more details about that person's research agenda and publications.

Research clusters

China/East Asia/Pacific

East Asian politics; economic development; foreign policy; regionalism (for example, ASEAN); great power relations (for example, US–China); New Zealand and the region

Conflict and security

Crises and flashpoints; multilateral cooperation; coercive diplomacy; critical security studies; feminist security studies; non-state armed groups; peacekeeping; post-conflict policies; violence and trauma; proliferation and disarmament; cyber-security; strategic thought

Democratisation

Authoritarianism; democracy; electoral politics; regime change

Europe/North America

Comparative integration; institutional development; media; political leadership; political parties

Global governance

Development and aid; global norms; human rights; international organisations

Immigration, citizenship and political representation

Democratic theory; ethno-cultural diversity; nationalism; populism; refugees and asylum seekers

New Zealand politics

Elections; ideologies; leadership; media; political parties; foreign policy; defence policy

Political economy

International political economy; global finance; institutional analysis; regionalism; varieties of capitalism

Political and international relations theory

Cosmopolitanism; critical theory; culture, race and international relations; democratic theory; history of political thought; non-Western thought; realism, constructivism, liberalism; English School