School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

International Theory; History of International Thought; Geopolitical Thought; Critical Geopolitics; Critical Security Studies

Theories of international relations, as accounts of planetary political order, make claims not only about a present global international order but about the boundaries of any potential world order. My research identifies the qualities, histories, and political significance of these boundaries in relation to global patterns of inequality and the changing relationship between human beings, the earth, and political authority on a world scale.

I’m specifically interested in the way these boundaries are established by scientific and philosophical accounts of order that inform the normative aspirations and political forms through which world politics is oriented and practiced. My focus at present is on ‘systemic’ conceptions of order found in Kant, nineteenth and twentieth century geopolitics, and twentieth century systems theories, including international relations. Currently I am pursuing these questions through a book-length research project:

The project investigates how a particular ideal of order - systematic unity - mediates the relationship between human beings, the earth, and political authority on a world scale. Beginning with the political philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the book traces the consequences of this systemic orientation for theories of globalisation in classical geopolitics and contemporary international relations. The project connects debates on world order in international relations to emerging questions about the relationship between international order, planetary boundaries, and world politics in geopolitics and international relations. By showing how this geopolitical orientation has determined the boundaries of earthly political life for centuries, it contributes to reorienting world politics and humans’ relationship to the earth in response to climate change and global inequality. 

Journal articles

Burles, Regan. Before the International. Global Intellectual History. Special Issue on Jens Bartelson’s Becoming International (Latest Articles) February 2025: 1-10.

Burles, Regan. Globalizing the international: Bull’s metaphysics of order. International Theory 15, no. 2 (2023): 184-207.

Burles, Regan. Kant’s domestic analogy: International and global order. European Journal of International Relations 29, no. 2 (2023): 501-522.

Burles, Regan. Another Geopolitics? International relations and the boundaries of world order. International Studies Review 23, no. 4 (2021): 2108-2123. 

Burles, Regan. Exception and governmentality in the critique of sovereignty. Security Dialogue 47, no. 3 (2016): 239-254.

Kujala, William and Regan Burles. The Politics of ethics: Spinoza and new materialisms. Theory & Event 23, no. 1 (2020): 145-165.

Watson, Scott D. and Regan Burles. Regulating NGO funding: Securitizing the political. International Relations 32, no. 4 (2018): 430-448.

Book reviews

Burles, Regan. Earth Systems. Review of Dipesh Chakrabarty’s The Climate of History in a Planetary Age. Radical Philosophy 2, no. 13 (2022): 99-103.

Burles, Regan. Review of Biopolitics After Truth: Knowledge, Power, and Democratic Life. Security Dialogue Blog (2022).

Teaching

PLIT 10185 Kant and International Relations

PLIT 10154 Foundations in Global Security

PLIT 10151 Advanced Topics in Global Security

I am not currently accepting PhD students for supervision.