Christopher Browning

Christopher Browning is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, where he joined in August 2007. His academic career includes previous positions at Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, the Danish Institute for International Studies, the University of Birmingham, and Keele University. He has held visiting scholar positions at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, the University of Lapland, Tampere University, and the University of Oslo.

His educational background includes a PhD from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Professor Browning's research focuses on critical approaches to security, particularly issues connected to identity, ontological security, and anxiety. His work spans critical geopolitics, borders and margins in international politics, nation branding, humor in public diplomacy, Nordic/Baltic regionalization, European Neighborhood studies, civilizational politics, and Brexit identity politics. His interdisciplinary approach bridges political science, international relations, and cultural studies to examine how identity constructions shape global politics.

His recent publications demonstrate a growing emphasis on humor's role in geopolitical contexts, with multiple collaborative works examining how humor functions in relation to vicarious war and ontological security. His scholarship increasingly explores visual and digital dimensions of nation branding, particularly in relation to China's cultural diplomacy and Nordic regional identity.

• Editorial board member for Cooperation and Conflict and Global Studies Quarterly
• Former Associate Editor/Acting Editor for Journal of International Relations and Development
• Editor of three journal Special Issues on 'Nation Branding and Competitive Identity in World Politics', 'Humour in Global Politics' and 'Baltic Sea Politics'

Professor Browning has supervised 15 PhD students to completion, with several receiving prestigious awards including multiple PSA Shirin M. Rai Dissertation Prizes and the BISA Michael Nicholson Prize. His current research is supported by multiple grants including funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, University of Oslo, and Horizon 2020 program.