School of Social and Political Science

Professor Andrew Neal

Professor of International Security; Director of Postgraduate Research Programmes for the School of Social and Political Science

This photo is from 2008, I wonder how long I can keep using it?
andrew.neal@ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)131 650 4236
https://twitter.com/@andrewwneal/
4.22
Chrystal Macmillan Building
15a George Square
Edinburgh
UK
EH8 9LD

Research interests

British politics research Data & Digital Energy & Sustainability Energy, environment and sustainability Governance & Democracy International Relations Research Group Methods Politics and political violence

Professor Neal leads an ongoing project to analyse the content of current and historical national security and defence documents globally. The EDNSS dataset is a corpus of 575+ public security and defence policy documents from 126 countries. These countries represent all those that have ever published a public national security strategy, defence white paper, or similar top-level security or defence policy document. 

He is also co-lead of the project “Technology, Security and Infrastructure Protection in the North Sea” with Prof. Christian Bueger of the University of Copenhagen, funded by the Edinburgh – Copenhagen Strategic Partnership seed-fund.

Prof. Neal's most recent monograph is Security as Politics: Beyond the State of Exception (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).

His research interests are in critical security studies. Areas of expertise include parliamentary security politics in the UK, securitization and politicization, the security implications of Scottish independence, the works and methods of Michel Foucault, and political sociology. 

He teaches international security and international relations theory.

Prof. Neal was principal convenor of the ESRC seminar series 'Security in Scotland, with or without constitutional change' 2013-15, a founding executive member of the Theory Section of the International Studies Association, and a co-investigator in the ESRC training network 'An International Collaboratory on Critical Methods in Security Studies'. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Security Dialogue.

He has held visiting scholar positions at the University of Copenhagen, University of Melbourne, Australian National University, and University of Queensland.

Keywords: International security, War on terror, Discourse theory, Sociological theory, Political theory, UK, Britain, Critical theory, Critical security studies, Securitisation, Constructivism, Poststructuralism, Scotland

Topics interested in supervising

Prof. Neal is keen to supervise PhD projects in critical security studies broadly conceived. He has expertise in national security strategies, the relationship between politics and security, parliaments, Scotland and security, securitization theory, constructivism, critical theory and poststructuralism, and the works and methods of Michel Foucault.

If you are interested in being supervised by Andrew Neal, please see the links below (open in new windows) for more information:

Background

Publications

The Parliamentarisation of Security in the UK and Australia, Parliamentary Affairs, published: 02 September 2020.

Security as Politics: Beyond the State of Exception (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).

'Parliamentary security politics as politicization by volume', ERIS – European Review of International Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2018.

The Politicisation of Security: Controversy, Mobilisation, Arena Shifting. Introduction by the Guest Editors, Jonas Hagmann, Hendrik Hegemann, Andrew W. Neal, ERIS – European Review of International Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2018.

Security in a Small Nation: Scotland, Democracy, Politics, editor, (Open Book Publishers, 2017). Full open access.

Critical Security Methods: New Frameworks for Analysis. Edited by Claudia Aradau, Andrew Neal, Jef Huysmans, and Nadine Voelkner. Routledge (Routledge 2014).

'Normalization and Legislative Exceptionalism: Counterterrorist Lawmaking and the Changing Times of Security Emergencies.' International Political Sociology 6, no. 3 (2012).

'Terrorism, Lawmaking and Democratic Politics: Legislators as Security Actors.' Terrorism and Political Violence 24, no. 3 (2012).

'"Events Dear Boy, Events": Terrorism and Security from the Perspective of Politics.' Critical Studies on Terrorism, vol. 5, no. 1 (2012).

'Human Interest and Humane Governance in Iraq: Humanitarian War and the Baghdad Zoo.'Journal of Internvention and Statebuildling 6, no. 2 (2012) (with Alison Howell).

'Empiricism without Positivism: King Lear and Critical Security Studies.' In Research Methods in Critical Security Studies: An Introduction, edited by Mark B. Salter and Can E. Mutlu: Routledge (2012).

'Legislative Practices.' In Research Methods in Critical Security Studies: An Introduction, edited by Mark B. Salter and Can E. Mutlu: Routledge (2012).

Exceptionalism and the Politics of Counter-Terrorism: Liberty, Security and the War on Terror, (Routledge, September 2009, paperback March 2011)

Foucault on Politics, Security and War, Andrew Neal & Michael Dillon (eds) (Palgrave, October 2008, paperback January 2011). Download the introduction.

'Rethinking Foucault in International Relations: Promiscuity and Unfaithfulness', Global Society, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2009: 539-543

'Securitization and Risk at the EU Border: the Origins of Frontex', Journal of Common Market Studies, Volume 47, Number 2, March 2009 , pp. 333-356(24)

'Exceptionalism: Theoretical and Empirical Complexities', International Political Sociology 2(1), 2008: 87-9

'Europe, Knowledge, Politics: Engaging with the Limits: The c.a.s.e Collective Responds', group authorship, Security Dialogue 38(4) (2007): 559-576

'Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto', group authorship, Security Dialogue, 37 (4) (2006): 44-87

'Foucault in Guantanamo: Towards an Archaeology of the Exception', Security Dialogue  37(1) (2006): 31-46

'Cutting off the Kings head: Foucault's Society Must Be Defended and the Problem of Sovereignty', Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 29(4) (2004): 373-98

'Foucault and Butler on law, war and exceptionalism' in Neal & Dillon (eds.), Foucault on Politics, Security and War  (Palgrave, 2008: 43-64)

'Foucault' in Edkins & Vaughan-Williams (eds) Critical Theorists and International Relations, (Routledge, 2009: 161-170)

Foucault in Guantánamo: Eine Archäologie des Ausnahmezustands, in Krasmann & Martschukat (eds), RationalitÄten der Gewalt, (Transcript: Bielefeld, 2007): 19-46

Book reviews

Review of 'Critique of Security', Mark Neocleous, (Edinburgh University Press 2008), Capital & Class, February 2011, 35: 139-141,

Review of 'Critical International Relations theory after 25 years, edited by Nicolas Rengger and Ben Thirkell-White', International Affairs, vol. 84, No. 3, May 2008, pp. 555-6.

Security politics blog,  entries:

Previous posts

Andrew Neal, BA hons (Lancaster), PhD (Keele), joined the department in September 2007 as Lecturer in International Relations. In his previous post he was a research associate at King's College London for the European Commission FP6 research consortium CHALLENGE (The Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security, www.libertysecurity.org). Prior to that he held research and teaching posts at the universities of Keele and Birmingham.

Works within

By appointment