William Clapton is an Associate Professor in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW. He has research interests in International Relations theory, sovereignty, international hierarchy, risk in International Relations, international intervention in the post-Cold War era, the defence and immigration policies of the United States, European Union, and Australia, and popular culture in global politics.

William was awarded his PhD from Murdoch University in 2010. The thesis explored interventions conducted by Western societies in the post-Cold War era that aimed to promote liberal democratic institutions and governance and their impact on the constitution of international society.

He has published on risk, international intervention and international hierarchy in journals such as the Politics, European Journal of International Security, and the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He is also the author of Risk and Hierarchy in International Society: Liberal Interventionism in the Post-Cold War Era (Palgrave, 2014) and Immigration, Risk, and Security Under the Trump Administration Keeping ‘Undesirables’ Out (Palgrave 2022).

Current Research Projects

Popular Culture in Global Politics
This project explores the the ways in which audiences constitute pop cultural artefacts through debates and contests over the meaning of artefact's representational practices. It focuses on debates over representations of identity politics in games, film, and TV shows.

Risk and Immigration
This project explores the immigration practices of the European Union and the Trump administration, particularly the travel ban and wall along the border with Mexico, through a security logic of risk.