Welcome to my homepage! I am currently a Research Fellow and Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham (Department of Political Science and International Studies), where I previously held an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2021-2022). I completed a DPhil (PhD) in International Relations at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, in 2020.
My primary research interests are the causes, character and consequences of armed conflict and political violence, and the focus of my doctoral research 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 with a regional focus on Wider Europe, qualitative and case study research methods – in particular field research in conflict-affected areas – and research ethics.
I am currently working on a monograph, based on my doctoral research, which is under advance contract with Routledge.
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.
I am one of the founders and co-organisers of the Workshop on Conflict Dynamics, held annually at Nuffield College since 2017 (and online in 2020 and 2021).
My CV is available here [June 2022 version].
Nicholas Barker 