Research

My research broadly sits at the intersection of IR theory, critical security studies and foreign policy analysis. Currently, I am particularly interested in the conflictual international politics of memory – how and why states fight over difficult shared history, such as periods of war and colonial rule, and the extent to which such conflicts are caught up in the reproduction of relational constructions of national identity. This also relates to my broader interests in questions of identity in world politics – especially the relationship between clashing or mis-matching constructions of identity and the conduct of bilateral foreign and security policy (broadly defined).

My work in this area combines with my deep regional expertise in East Asia – especially Japan and the Koreas – to result in the focus of my current research: the so-called ‘history problem’ in Japan-South Korea relations. My book project on this topic develops a general framework for understanding international conflict concerning the past and, in particular, aims to provide a novel account of the Japan-South Korea history problem by analysing a vast range of original-language texts across politics, media and culture to establish and deconstruct widespread and alternative discourses of the past in both countries, thereby offering a deeper understanding of both the persistence of this mnemonic conflict and the possibility of its overcoming.

In addition to my book project, you can find a list of my published works in these areas of research on the Academic Publications page.