Dr Srinjoy Bose
PhD (The Australian National University)
M.Sos.Sc. (National University of Singapore)
B.A. Honours, First Class (University of Otago)
I am Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, and Program Convenor of the Master of International Relations. I research topics in critical peace/security studies including, political order and violence, international intervention, war-to-peace transition, rebel governance, and the political economy of statebuilding and peacebuilding in 'fragile' and deeply divided states and societies. My research has been funded by the European Commission's Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, UN Development Programme and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United States Institute of Peace, Australian Aid, and even Facebook. My research is applied and outcome oriented, and has contributed to significant transformative and positive change in South / Southwest Asia and beyond. For example, my research on democracy promotion informed the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission's election reform efforts. Similarly, my research on statebuilding informed the United Nations Development Programme's reconstruction efforts in Mosul, Iraq. More recently, my research on the racialization of drone warfare is informing the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent's expert work on Human Rights in Africa. To learn more about my research agenda and research projects, see the Research Activities section on this profile page.
In 2018 I joined the School of Social Sciences. Previously, I was Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. Concurrently, I was a Junior Fellow at Durham's Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS). Prior to that I was Prime Minister's Australia-Asia Endeavour Postgraduate Award scholar at The Australian National University, where I earned my PhD in Politics and International Relations. I am a Visiting Fellow at the Department of International Relations, The ANU, and the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability, Hiroshima University. I also consult as a geopolitics, security, and development analyst. In my different professional capacities, I work with public-sector experts, government officials, diplomats, UN/World Bank and INGO representatives, activists, and even armed groups. Between 2014 and 2019 I was appointed international election observer by the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission, and was tasked with monitoring Afghanistan's Presidential, Parliamentary, and Provincial Council elections.
I am co-Editor of Drones and Global Order: The Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society (Routledge, 2022), Hybridity in Peacebuilding and Development: a Critical and Reflexive Approach (Routledge, 2019), Hybridity on the Ground in Peacebuilding and Development: Critical Conversations (The ANU Press, 2018), Afghanistan - Challenges and Prospects (Routledge, 2017), 'Critical Hybridity in Peacebuilding and Development' (Third World Thematics: a TWQ Journal 2:4, 2018), and 'Elections and the State: Critical Perspectives on Democracy Promotion in Afghanistan' (Conflict, Security and Development 16:6, 2016). In addition, I have published in several leading peer-reviewed journals including Australian Journal of International Affairs, Conflict, Security and Development, Critical Research on Religion, Global Policy, Global Responsibility to Protect, and Security Studies (forthcoming). I serve on the Editorial Boards of the journals Global Policy, Review of International Studies, and Environment & Security.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (UNSW, Sydney) Research Grant: 2022; A$10,000
- School of Social Science (UNSW, Sydney) Strategic Priority Funding Research Grant: 2022; A$4,000
- Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (UNSW, Sydney) Research Grant: 2021; A$10,000
- School of Social Science (UNSW, Sydney) Strategic Priority Funding Research Grant: 2021; A$4,000
- School of Social Science (UNSW, Sydney) Strategic Priority Funding Research Grant: 2020; A$4,000
- School of Social Science (UNSW, Sydney) Strategic Priority Funding Research Grant: 2019; A$5,000
- Facebook Research Grant: 2018; A$70,000
- School of Social Science (UNSW, Sydney) Strategic Priority Funding Research Grant: 2018; A$4,000
- European Union COFUND (Marie Sklodowska-Curie) Fellowship: 2017; A$140,000
- United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Research Grant: 2017; A$50,000
- Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs (ANU) Travel Grant: 2015; A$1,000
- Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship: 2015; A$9,000
- ANU Vice-Chancellor's Travel Grant: 2013; A$1,000
- Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs (ANU) Fieldwork Grant: 2013; A$7,000
- AusAID (ISSS) Workshop Grant: 2013; A$17,000
- Research School of Asia and Pacific (ANU) Workshop Grant: 2013; A$20,000
- Prime Minister's Australia-Asia Endeavour Postgraduate Award: 2010; A$252,000
- National University of Singapore Research Scholarship: 2007: S$52,000
- European Union COFUND (Marie Sklodowska-Curie) Fellowship: 2017; A$140,000.
- Prime Minister's Australia-Asia Endeavour Postgraduate Award: 2010; A$252,000.
- National University of Singapore Research Scholarship: 2007: A$52,000.
My current Research Agenda comprises two core studies: First, I am working towards publishing my book, titled The Legitimacy Puzzle: Statebuilding in Contemporary Afghanistan. The book explores the sources of state legitimacy and impact of legitimation strategies on statebuilding in Afghanistan, and represents a comprehensive and original attempt to place Afghanistan’s post-2001 statebuilding project within an easily accessible political-sociology framework. It also explores the extent to which the internationally-assisted statebuilding project was misconceived, overlooking the critical importance of connecting international and local legitimacy principles through the newly designed institutions and structures in which the authority of state was vested. Concurrently, I have developed a follow-on study - titled, Democracy Promotion and State-Formation in Limited Access Orders: a Political Economy Study of Elections in Afghanistan - that adds to critiques of the rise of democracy promotion, and employs political economy analyses to understand the more focused research on the perverse effects of elections in Afghanistan. This study de-constructs and denaturalises the idea of the Weberian state, blurring the binary distinctions between state and non-state, legitimate and illegitimate and highlight the networks, coalitions, and material foundations that underpin or undermine the state. The thinking is, if political transitions are primarily about the restoration (or creation) of legitimate political authority, this suggests a need to focus attention on the ‘vernacular’ of local politics.
In addition to the above, I am working on several secondary projects. Below is a list of working and completed projects:
Working/Ongoing Projects:
- 'Sustainable Peace and Peaceful Sustainability in Conflict-Affected Societies: Nepal and Afghanistan'. By investigating the variables linking positive peace and environmental sustainability (and establish their relationship), this project examines local manifestations of the positive peace-environmental sustainability nexus. In so doing, the project aims to integrate positive peace indicators and environmental sustainability indicators into an online and publicly accessible database, and influence research, policies, and initiatives on positive peace and environmental sustainability. Collaborative project. Co-Investigator and Afghanistan case-study Theme Leader (Chief Investigator Dr Dahlia Simangan, Hiroshima University).
- ‘Democracy Promotion and State-Formation in Limited Access Orders: a Political Economy Study of Elections in Afghanistan’. Examining how illiberal institutions may contribute to state-formation in post-conflict societies. The study employs a political economy framework of analysis to interrogate democracy promotion and election practices in Afghanistan. Individual project. Chief Investigator.
- ‘Misinformation in Diverse Societies, Political Behaviour and Good Governance’. Utilizing a field experiment with WhatsApp and multi-wave survey experiments on the ground in India and Afghanistan, this study aims to establish causal relationship between misinformation spread through social networks and ethnic violence, public opinion on ethnic relations, and public policy choices. Collaborative project. Chief Investigator.
- ‘Legitimacy in Afghanistan: Keeping the State at Bay’. Examining tensions in statebuilding between local and international interests and practices. The study demonstrates that Afghanistan’s social order curbed and blunted the ambitions of political power, and made it extraordinarily resistant to political moulding. Individual project. Chief Investigator. Manuscript to be submitted with Journal of Peace Research [Impact Factor: 3.164; H-Index: 76].
- ‘Dispersion of Coercive Power in Afghanistan: Structural Legitimacy and State Legitimation’. Examining how cooperation between international, state, and non-state actors to provide security have resulted in the embedding of violent or illegitimate institutions and forms of order in the machinery of the (Afghan) state. Individual project. Chief Investigator. Manuscript to be submitted with International Peacekeeping [Impact Factor: 1.063; H-Index: 15].
- ‘Elite Redux: Elite Settlements and the Perpetuation of Power’. Examining the international practice of basing conflict resolution efforts in fragile societies on the concept of ‘political settlements’. The study problematizes political settlements in the context of the statebuilding paradigm as the prevailing exit pathway from fragility, and finds that often the procedural focus on elections as pathway out of conflict tends to legitimize the status quo, and in the process perpetuating the dominance of powerful elites that were often at the root of the conflict. Collaborative project. Co-Investigator with Prof. Sukanya Podder (King’s College London, UK) and Erwin Van Veen (Clingendael Institute, Netherlands). Manuscript to be submitted with International Affairs [Impact Factor: 1.478; H-Index: 58].
- ‘The Economic Origins of Warlord Support for Peace: a Comparative Study of Mexcio and Afghanistan’. Articulating a political-economic theory to explain the conditions and processes by which warlords prefer to make peace. The theory is evaluated by a very different comparative research design using studies of post-revolutionary Mexico (1910-1929) and contemporary Afghanistan (2001-2018). The findings, based on archival and secondary evidence from the US, Mexico, and Afghanistan, support the intuitive theory that warlords prefer peace agreements when the costs of retaining power become unacceptable and their financial backers provide incentives. Collaborative project; Co-Investigator with Dr Vasabjit Banerjee (Mississippi State University). Manuscript to be submitted with Journal of Peace Research (H-Index: 81; Impact Factor: 3.888).
Completed Projects:
- Drones and Global Order —Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society. Examined the implications of remote warfare for the legitimacy of global order. This project contributes to a "fourth wave" of literature concerned with the trade-offs imposed by drone warfare for global order. It draws on the "English School" of International Relations Theory to argue that drone warfare imposes contradictions on the structural and normative pillars of global order. These consist of the structure of international society and diffusion of military capabilities, as well as the sovereign equality of states and laws of armed conflict. The project presents a typology of contradictions imposed by drone warfare within and across these axes that threaten the legitimacy of global order. This framework also suggests a confounding consequence of drone warfare that scholars have not hitherto explored rigorously: drone warfare can sometimes strengthen global order. Collaborative project. Co-Investigator with Paul Lushenko and William Maley. Co-Editor, edited volume. London: Routledge, 2021.
- ‘Structures of Opportunity and Patterns of Youth Activism in Afghanistan’. Special Report for USIP. Examined emerging patterns of youth activism in Afghanistan and its implications for the future. For several decades scholars of social movements have been studying the relationship between political context, socio-economic conditions, and rise and evolution of social and political movements. In this study we designed and articulated a structures of opportunity framework to investigate how Afghanistan’s youth interpret, perceive, and respond to the opportunities made available to them by the country’s formal and informal political structures. Collaborative project. Chief Investigator. Manuscript published as United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Special Report. 2019.
- ‘Critical Hybridity: History, Power, and Scale’. Examined how the concept of ‘hybridity’ changes as it travels between disciplines and contexts. Collaborative project. Co-Investigator with Joanne Wallis (ANU), Lia Kent (ANU), Miranda Forsyth (ANU), and Sinclair Dinnen (ANU). Guest Editor, journal special issue. Third World Thematics: a TWQ Journal 2(5), 2017. [Impact Factor: 1.156; H-Index: 61] Also published as Lia Kent, Miranda Forsyth, Joanne Wallis, Sinclair Dinnen, and Srinjoy Bose, Hybridity in Peacebuilding and Development: a Critical and Reflexive Approach. London: Routledge, 2018.
- Hybridity on the Ground in Peacebuilding and Development: Critical Conversations. Examined the potential contribution of the concept of ‘hybridity’ to improving understanding of pluralism and change in socially complex societies. Collaborative project. Co-Investigator with Joanne Wallis (ANU), Lia Kent (ANU), Miranda Forsyth (ANU), and Sinclair Dinnen (ANU). Co-Editor, edited volume. Canberra: ANU Press, 2018.
- ‘Elections and the State: Critical Perspectives on Democracy Promotion in Afghanistan’. Political economy analysis of democracy promotion and elections in disrupted and transitioning states. Collaborative project. Principal investigators Professor Jonathan Goodhand (School of Oriental and African Studies) and Dr Astri Suhrke (Chr. Michelson Institute). Guest Editor, journal special issue. Conflict, Security and Development 16(6), 2016. [Impact Factor: 0.806; H-Index: 12]
- Afghanistan—Challenges and Prospects. Examined the ongoing political and military transitions in Afghanistan. Collaborative project. Chief investigator. Co-Editor, edited volume. London: Routledge, 2017.
- ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts or Dance of the Seven Veils? Legitimacy and Generation of Authority in Afghanistan’s Statebuilding Enterprise, 2001—2014’. Examined the role of Legitimacy in promoting the internationalised statebuilding project in Afghanistan. Individual project (PhD). PhD was nominated for the 2017 ANU J.G. Crawford Prize for outstanding contribution to scholarship.
Professional memberships:
- American Political Science Association (APSA)
- Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA)
- British International Studies Association (BISA) and BISA Peacekeeping & Peacebuilding Associate Working Group
- European International Studies Association (EISA)
- International Studies Association (ISA)
- South Asian Studies Association of Australia (SASAA)
Other affiliations:
- Visiting Research Fellow. Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University
- Visiting Research Fellow. Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS), Hiroshima University
- Fellow. Salzburg Global Seminar
- Institute Associate. Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW
Journal Editorial Board:
- Global Policy (Wiley-Blackwell)
- Review of International Studies (Cambridge)
- Environment & Security (Sage)
Reviewer for journals:
- Third World Quarterly (Taylor & Francis)
- International Peacekeeping (Taylor & Francis)
- Australian Journal of International Affairs (Taylor & Francis)
- Global Policy (Wiley-Blackwell)
- Terrorism and Political Violence (Taylor & Francis)
- Asian Studies Review (Taylor & Francis)
- Middle East Critique (Taylor & Francis)
- International History Review (Taylor & Francis)
University service / UNSW committees:
- Member, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture Faculty Board (2023-2025)
- Member, UNSW Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel B (HREAP B) (2022-2025)
- Co-Chair, Executive Committee UNSW ECAN (Early Career Academic Network) (2021-2022)
- Theme Leader, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture Innovation Hub Anti-Racism Collaborative (2021-2022)
- Ex-Officio Member, UNSW University Research Committee (2021-2022)
- Ex-Officio Member, UNSW University Higher Degree Research Committee (2021-2022)
- Member, School Research Committee, School of Social Sciences, (2021-2025)
- Member, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture ECAN (Early Career Academic Network) (2021-2022)
- Co-Chair, Globalisation & Governance Research Network (2020-2022)
- School Student Ethics Officer, School of Social Sciences (2019-2022)
- Member, Executive Committee UNSW ECAN (Early Career Academic Network) (2019-2020)
- Member, Faculty Board Early Career Academic Working Group, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (2019)
- Deputy Chair / Secretary, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences ECAN (Early Career Academic Network) (2018-2020)
My Research Supervision
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), UNSW
- Mr Christopher Khatouki (Embedded Repression: State Capacity and Economic Transformation in South Korea)
- Ms Altynay Kozhabekova (Middle Power Behaviour in the Presence of Multiple Great Powers: Kazakhstan's Multi-Vector Foreign Policy)
- Mr Samuel Pascoe (The Great War of Ideas - a Review into Australia's National Security Communications)
- Mr Don Johnson Lontoc (A Study of the Socio-Spatial Segregation Between New and Old Town in Peri-Urban Metro Manila)
- Mr Thomas Patrick Cavanagh (Forest Governance and Environmental Peacebuilding as a Project of Governmentality in Post-conflict Liberia)
Honours (B.A., Hons.), UNSW
- Ms Tallulah Thangathurai
- Ms Angini Singh
My Teaching
UNSW (School of Social Sciences) Teaching:
- POLS5131 - 'Political Violence, Insurgency, and Terrorism' (Convener & Lecturer)
- POLS5161 - 'Developing Countries and International Relations' (Convener & Lecturer)
- ARTS1846 - 'Politics, Peace and Prosperity' (Convener & Lecturer)
- SRAP5101 - 'Research Methods & Design' (Lecturer)
- ARTS1811 - 'Contemporary Issues in Government & Global Politics' (Lecturer)