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, an Assistant Professor and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow here in PAIS, has recently co-authored a paper, titled ‘“Oil above Water", Economic Interdependence and Third-Party Intervention,’ for the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Alongside researchers from the Universities Portsmouth and Essex, they have for the first time provided strong evidence for what conspiracy theorists have long thought – oil is often the reason for interfering in another country’s war.

Throughout recent history, countries which need oil have found reasons to interfere in countries with a good supply of it and, the researchers argue, this could help explain the US interest in ISIS in northern Iraq.

The researchers have modelled the decision-making process of third-party countries in interfering in civil wars and examined their economic motives.

They found that the decision to interfere was dominated by the interveners’ need for oil over and above historical, geographical or ethnic ties.

The full paper is available, '"Oil above Water", Economic Interdependence and Third-Party Intervention', .

The paper has received considerable press coverage, the articles can be viewed below:

Matthias Kranke, a PhD student in PAIS, published a review article of two edited volumes in Millennium: Journal of International Studies in 2014. The volumes which Matthias reviewed are:

• Best, Jacqueline and Paterson, Matthew (eds) (2010) Cultural Political Economy, London: Routledge.
• Shields, Stuart, Bruff, Ian and Macartney, Huw (eds) (2011) Critical International Political Economy: Dialogue, Debate and Dissensus, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

The editors in turn decided to respond to the review. Now, their responses, as well as Matt's rejoinder, have very recently been published in Millennium. They can be viewed on the links below.

Review article: <>

Response by Shields, Bruff & Macartney: <>
Response by Best & Paterson: <>
Rejoinder: <>

The January 2015 issue of the Review of International Studies (RIS) features two articles on the politics of materiality by PAIS researchers Dr and Dr .

The RIS is the flagship journal of the British International Studies Association (BISA) and published by Cambridge University Press.

Both articles explore the insights and limitations of the so-called ‘new materialist’ turn in social sciences for the discipline of International Relations (IR), and showcase cutting-edge conceptual work in PAIS’ International Relations and Security and Political Geography research groupings.

Squire's article, ‘Reshaping critical geopolitics? The materialist challenge’, draws attention to the limits of an approach that emphasises the representational, cultural, and interpretive dimensions of geopolitics, while acknowledging the difficulties of an ontological shift to materiality for many scholars of critical geopolitics.

Vaughan-Williams' article, ‘New materialisms, discourse analysis, and International Relations: a radical intertextual approach’ (co-authored with Tom Lundborg, Stockholm University), examines the implications of new materialist thought for a more expansive understanding of ‘discourse’ in IR, but warns against recycling the language/matter distinction.

The latest issue of the RIS 41(1) can be accessed here:

Since smaller academic departments still need access to the same level of strategic capacity as larger units, how best to deliver such capacity in an affordable and sustainable way? The answer: Collaborative working between Academic Departments and the central Administration. Find out more on the

Following a recent European conference on football research, leading football writer Martin Cloake approached Dr. to write a piece for the New Statesman. Here David talks about his work on the cultural political economy of English football, and what insights Karl Polanyi might have for fans of the beautiful game in the wake of its own Great Transformation.

The full piece can be read here: