Skip to main content
School of Government and International Affairs
Connected World Banner Crop

Centres and Institutes

Research within the School is structured around the four sub-disciplines of Political Science: Political Theory, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Security, and International Political Economy (IPE).

  • Equality, justice and liberty are benchmarks for Political Theory.
  • Methodological innovation characterises Comparative Politics
  • Conflict and post-conflict dynamics, international political theory and critical approaches to the study of world politics characterise International Politics
  • IPE is concerned with the impacts of capitalist dynamics on contemporary national and global-level governance.

Connecting area-specific knowledge, including extensive field-based research, to core disciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches is a hallmark of our research strategy.

Our research emphasises methodological diversity, with work contributing to innovation in quantitative, qualitative, philosophical and historiographical methods.

The School hosts the Durham Global Security Institute, the Global Policy Institute, and the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. We also host the journals Global Policy and East Asia: an International Quarterly, and the administrative centre for the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

 

Research Centres and Institutes

Our institutes and centres cut across these four sub disciplines, supporting collaborative research and external-facing engagement and impact. Our research engages with other disciplines, including History, Geography, Anthropology, Philosophy, Theology and Economics, with active involvement in Research Institutes across the University, including the Institute for Advanced Study and the Institute for Hazard, Risk and Resilience.

Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies

The Centre is a multi-disciplinary research centre dedicated to the study of contemporary China and the wider East Asian region.
CCCS Public Lecture

Centre for Political Thought

The Centre for the Political Thought exists to promote the critical study of political ideas, concepts & theories, both philosophically & historically

Centre for Institutions and Political Behaviour

This Centre aims to advance our understanding of state & non-state organizations and political actors through systematic empirical research.

Global Policy Institute (GPi)

The Institute conducts multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research focused on the scholarship, politics, and policy of pressing global problems.

The Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

Research-led in ethos, this institute has a track record of internationally acclaimed research outputs across all sub-areas of its activity.

Durham Global Security Institute (DGSi)

DGSi pursues research across the contemporary security agenda, focusing on the interface between defence, development & diplomacy

HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-sabah Programme

We enable research to identify factors which lead to insecurity within a region, and anticipate when aggression between states may occur