Dr William Clapton

William Clapton is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW. He has research interests in English School and constructivist International Relations theory, sovereignty, international hierarchy, risk in International Relations, international intervention in the post-Cold War era, the security and defence policies of the United States, European Union, Australia and India 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. The thesis advanced two key arguments; firstly that these interventions represent a shift from a pluralist to a hierarchical form of international society. Secondly, that Western attempts to promote liberal values are a way of managing new forms of transnational security risks in the post-Cold War era.

He has published on risk, international intervention and international hierarchy in journals such as the Australian Journal of International Affairs, International Relations and International Politics. He is also the author of Risk and Hierarchy in International Society: Liberal Interventionism in the Post-Cold War Era (Palgrave, 2014).

Current Research Projects

Popular Culture in Global Politics
This project explores the utility of popular culture in learning and teaching in the discipline of IR and as a site at which to conduct analyses of IR issues, concepts and theories.

Desecuritising India's Nuclear Weapons Program
This project employs a theoretical and methodological framework that combines securitisation theory with sociological theories of risk in order to explore the processes by which strategic elites in Australia and the US have over the past decade attempted to desecuritise India’s nuclear programme and its unofficial status as a nuclear weapons state

Postgraduate Research Supervision

Areas of Supervision

International Relations theory (especially the English School and constructivism)

International intervention (including state-building and humanitarian intervention)

International security

Hierarchy and sovereignty in international relations

Australian, Indian, United States or EU foreign and defence policy

Risk in international relations

Popular culture and global politics