My research explores the intersection of technology, war, and society, with a particular focus on military applications of AI, security imaginaries, and great power competition. My work has been published in leading International Relations journals such as Cooperation and Conflict, Defence Studies, Geopolitics, and International Politics. My research has also been published in leading social science journals including Big Data & Society and Ethics and Information Technology.

My research has made a major contribution to the study and conceptualisation of remote warfare. Published with the journal Defence Studies in 2021, I co-edited the Remote Warfare and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century special issue – the first on this concept– with Dr Rubrick Biegon and Dr Vladimir Rauta. I have also published articles on the remoteness of remote warfare, the role of remote warfare in the retooling of American primacy following the Iraq War, and whether remote warfare is a “buzzword”. Other articles have examined the change and continuity in the first Trump administration’s counterterrorism policies as well as the neoconservative legacy on the ‘forever war’.

Another strand of my research examines the US’ approach to the development and possible regulation of autonomous weapon systems. Alongside Dr Ingvild Bode, I have co-authored major policy reports on the use of autonomy in air defence systems and loitering munitions. Bringing the growing study of AI narratives into greater dialogue with the International Relations literature on popular culture and world politics, we have also unpacked the repository of different stories told about intelligent machines in the first two Terminator films and their relevance to global regulatory debates on autonomous weapon systems. I have also published research on the global governance debates on military applications of AI as well as how these technologies are imagined by the American, French, Indian, and Japanese publics.

Starting in November 2022, I have been working on a three-year Leverhulme Trust funded project titled Great Power Competition and Remote Warfare: Change or Continuity in Practice? The Trump administration is argued to have fundamentally altered the direction of American foreign policy through its focus on great power competition with "revisionist powers", most notably the People’s Republic of China. Nevertheless, we know comparatively little about how this key aspect of Trump’s presidential legacy has impacted the dynamics associated with change and continuity in contemporary American foreign policy. This project makes a series of timely contributions toward International Relations scholarship by examining the relationship between the first Trump administration’s approach toward great power competition and American foreign policy practices during the George W. Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations. It has a particular focus on examining the relationship between great power competition, US security imaginaries, and the development of military applications of AI.

My doctoral dissertation examined the continuity in the means and goals of the Obama administration’s military response to al-Qaeda’s regional affiliates in Africa and the Middle East. I was awarded my PhD without corrections from the University of Kent in January 2019. I have previously held positions at multiple institutions including as a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC-funded AUTONORMS project based at the University of Southern Denmark.  

During the 2024/2025 academic year, I will be teaching the following two MSc modules: (1) US Foreign Policy in an era of Great Power Competition (PR5908) and (2) International Policy Practice (PR5961).