Our expertise covers many aspects of Political Theory, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Strategic Studies - see below for further details. We place a high priority on the quality of your individual supervision, and we will therefore admit you only if we are confident that we can help you fulfil your full potential. Nevertheless, the headings below give only a flavour of our interests: your own proposed topic might not quite fit any of these boxes but still be one that we would like to supervise. If you would like further advice on whether your topic is suitable for Reading, please contact our Director of Postgraduate Research Studies, Dr Alan Renwick (a.renwick@reading.ac.uk).

We are interested in applications both for traditional academic PhDs and for collaborative PhDs, where you would spend some of your time with a partner organization. For further details see the Fees and Funding pages.

We are keen to encourage interdisciplinary research, where you would be co-supervised by the Department of Politics and International Relations and another department in Reading. We are also open to proposals that would be co-supervised by specialists in Reading and in one of the other universities in the South-East Doctoral Training Centre (Kent or Royal Holloway).

Strategic and Security Studies

The Centre for Strategic Studies within the Department of Politics and International Relations is one of the leading centres in the UK for research into all aspects of armed conflict. With seven staff members working in this area, we offer expertise in a broad range of topics. Specific areas of interest include the following:

Strategic History: Colin Gray; Beatrice Heuser; Patrick Porter; Dale Walton

Contemporary Strategic Theory: Colin Gray; Patrick Porter; Dale Walton

Geopolitics: Andreas Behnke; Patrick Porter; Geoffrey Sloan; Dale Walton

Terrorism: Andreas Behnke; Christina Hellmich; Dale Walton

Military Doctrine: Geoffrey Sloan

Intelligence: Geoffrey Sloan

Strategy in the Asia-Pacific: Patrick Porter; Dale Walton

Security in the Middle East: Christina Hellmich

We collaborate in our Strategic History research with members of the University Department of History, including Professors Richard Bosworth and Patrick Major.

International Relations

Our strength in Strategic and Security Studies complements and is complemented by strong research interests in other aspects of International Relations. These include the following:

International Political Theory: Andreas Behnke; Dominik Zaum

International Dimensions of Democratization and State-Building: Oisín Tansey; Dominik Zaum

United Nations: Dominik Zaum

International Political Economy: Jonathan Golub

European Integration: Jonathan Golub

Research expertise in European integration is also provided by Dr Linda Risso in the Department of History.

Comparative Politics and Public Policy

Our work in comparative politics and public policy spans the globe. We have interests in authoritarian systems, in democratization and other processes of transition, and in policy-making and political change in established democracies. Our particular specialisms include:

Democratization and State-Building: Alan Renwick; Oisín Tansey; Dominik Zaum

Electoral and Democratic Reform: Alan Renwick

Judicial Politics: Jonathan Golub

Political Leadership: Alan Renwick

European Union Politics and Policy: Jonathan Golub

Middle Eastern Politics: Christina Hellmich

Russian and Eastern European Politics: Jeremy Lester; Alan Renwick

Latin American Politics: Jeremy Lester

British Politics: Alan Renwick

Environmental Policy: Jonathan Golub

We have close links in the Public Policy area with the Department of Economics, whose expertise extends across a wide range of policy areas. In the area of international development, we have links to the School of Agriculture, Policy, and Development.

Several other members of the University work on modern political history and contemporary politics. From the Department of Modern Languages and European Studies, Professor Andrew Knapp specializes in French politics while Professor Christopher Duggan works on modern Italian political history. In the Department of History, Professors Richard Bosworth and Patrick Major work on, respectively, Italian and German political history, Dr Jonathan Bell works in recent American political history, and Matthew Worley on twentieth-century British political history.

Political Theory

The Centre for Political Theory is an interdisciplinary research community led by Reading Applied Political Theory encourages traditional boundaries between empirical and normative approaches to the study of politics to be broken down. Our particular interests include the following:

Contemporary Political Philosophy: Keith Hyams; Catriona McKinnon; Patrick Tomlin*

Poststructuralism/Postmodernism/Altermodernity: Andreas Behnke

Gender and Feminism: Christina Hellmich

Islamic Political Thought: Christina Hellmich

Marxist Theory: Jeremy Lester

History of Political Thought: Alan Cromartie

Philosophy of Law and Punishment: Keith Hyams; Catriona McKinnon; Patrick Tomlin*

Distributive Ethics: Keith Hyams; Catriona McKinnon; Patrick Tomlin*

Political Theory of International Relations: Andreas Behnke; Alan Cromartie; Dominik Zaum

Ethics of Armed Conflict: Alan Cromartie

Climate Change Ethics and Justice: Keith Hyams; Catriona McKinnon*

Constitutions and Constitution-Building: Alan Cromartie; Alan Renwick; Oisín Tansey; Dominik Zaum

We have close links with the University Department of Philosophy, several of whose members conduct research into aspects of moral and political philosophy. Many members of the Department of History also work on aspects of the History of Political Thought. Our work on climate change ethics is linked to the world-class research conducted by the University Walker Institute for Climate System Research and the Department of Meteorology.

*Patrick Tomlin joins the Department in January 2012. Keith Hyams will join in July 2012.

Research Methods

Members of the Department are open to a wide range of research methods, including historical methods, process tracing, and a variety of quantitative methods. Those with particular interest in methodological issues in themselves include:

Critical Methodology: Andreas Behnke

Quantitative Methods, especially survival analysis: Jonathan Golub

Quantitative Content Analysis: Alan Renwick

Process Tracing: Jonathan Golub; Alan Renwick; Oisín Tansey; Dominik Zaum

Ethnographic Research: Christina Hellmich

Historical Methods: Alan Cromartie; Beatrice Heuser

Analytical Philosophy: Keith Hyams; Catriona McKinnon; Patrick Tomlin*

*Patrick Tomlin joins the Department in January 2012. Keith Hyams will join in July 2012.