Welcome to my homepage! I am an independent researcher and political scientist by training and between 2022 and 2025 I was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham (Department of Political Science and International Studies), where I also held an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2021-2022) and worked as a Research Fellow on several projects. I completed a DPhil (PhD) in International Relations at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, in 2020 and my first book, States, Secessionists and De Facto Control after Separatist Wars was published by Routledge in May 2025 (available to order here).
My primary research interests are armed conflict and war to peace transitions, with a particular interest in protracted territorial conflict in eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Balkans. The focus of my doctoral research and monograph was state and secessionist strategies in the aftermath of separatist armed conflicts, for which I did field research in Abkhazia, Georgia, Kosovo and Serbia and archival research at the UN. My wider research interests include peace processes, international security, and conflict management, and qualitative and case study research methods – in particular research in and on conflict-affected areas.
I have studied and held visiting positions at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, the Caucasus Research Resource Centre, Yale University, Central European University, the University of London, and the University of Bristol.
Nicholas Barker 