Colin Wight

Colin Wight is Professor of International Relations and current Chair of the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He was Editor in Chief of the European Journal of International Relations from 2008 to 2013. He has previously worked at Aberystwyth University, Department of International Politics, the University of Sheffield, and the University of Exeter. His research interests are in International Relations theory, and political Violence. His most recent publication is Rethinking Terrorism: Terrorism, Violence and the State (Palgrave, 2015).

Colin Wight reviews 'The End of Europe: Dictators, demagogues, and the coming Dark Age' by James Kirchick

September 2017, no. 394 • 29 August 2017

‘The obscurest epoch is today.’ Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the Plains (1892) A book that attempts to predict the course of contemporary affairs is always a dangerous enterprise. Events, political events, in particular, have a way of turning like the proverbial worm. Brexit and the election of President Trump are simply the latest and most shocking examples of just how wrong social foreca ... (read more)

Colin Wight reviews 'ISIS: A history' by Fawaz A. Gerges

December 2016, no. 387 • 23 November 2016

After the prolonged débâcle following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, events in the Middle East in late 2010 and early 2011 seemed to be taking a turn for the better. The ‘Arab street’ had found its voice and democracy, we were led to believe, was on the march. Despite the setbacks that followed 9/11, perhaps Francis Fukuyama’s optimistic liberal triumphalism concerning the ‘end of history’ ... (read more)