Nicholas Lees

Dr Nicholas Lees is a Lecturer in International Relations who joined the Department in 2015 after completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford and serving as a fixed-term lecturer at Brunel University London. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules on international politics, democratization, Southeast Asian politics, international political economy, foreign policy analysis, and international relations theory.

His research focuses on the relationship between inequality, conflict and democracy in world politics, with particular interest in:

• The 'social market peace' hypothesis connecting economic security to international peace
• State and nation-building processes in world politics
• Global economic inequality and its historical development

Lees has published research examining voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly, the role of private military companies in conflict escalation, and theoretical connections between the English School of international relations and conflict studies. His work spans international relations theory, political economy, and empirical analysis of global governance institutions.

His recent publications demonstrate consistent engagement with questions of global governance, inequality, and conflict dynamics, with a particular focus on historical patterns and theoretical integration across subfields of international relations.

Lees has made appearances on broadcast media discussing patterns of peace and conflict in the world and their historical development. For postgraduate research, he currently serves as a secondary supervisor for dissertation projects in international relations, conflict studies, foreign policy analysis, and Southeast Asian politics.