School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

International Theory; History of International Thought; Geopolitical Thought; International Security; International Law

Research

My research examines how scientific and philosophical concepts of order shape the normative aspirations and political forms that orient world politics. By examining the history and theory of powerful yet underexamined concepts of order, my work reframes classic problems in the international relations in ways that both clarify their stakes for international order today and open new routes for rethinking world politics. My work blends theoretical analysis with historical investigation in ways that challenge disciplinary limits while responding to contemporary political concerns like climate change, inequality, and the changing world order. 

I am currently completing a monograph titled The Geopolitics of Systematic Unity: Analogies of the International that examines how a simultaneously geometrical and biological ideal of order (systematic unity) orients 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 this orientation in nineteenth century geopolitical thought and contemporary international relations to show how international order is thought by analogy with global space, universal history, the human species, and earth systems. At a historical juncture that is said to have no analogue, the analogical orientation at the heart of our understanding of international order is essential for understanding the transformation of world politics today. 

My next project, titled Proportional Justice: Measuring Harm in International Conflict examines the role of the principle of proportionality in producing measurable and calculable relationships between otherwise incommensurable legal categories of harm in international law. The project will combine doctrinal, historical, and theoretical analysis to identify and compare how proportionality makes different forms of harm measurable in statutes, judgments, and argumentation in international humanitarian, economic, and environmental law; examine neglected genealogies of proportionality in international legal and political thought; and investigate the role of proportionality in the reproduction of international legal authority. 

Publications

Journal articles:

Burles, Regan. The Geopolitics of History. European Journal of International Relations 32, no. 4 (2025): 839-861.

Burles, Regan. Before the International. Global Intellectual History. Special Issue on Jens Bartelson’s Becoming International. 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. 

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.

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

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

2026/27:

PLIT10154 Foundations in Global Security

PLIT10194 Peace and International Order

PGSP1162 International Security

I welcome PhD students in the following areas:

International Theory (particularly poststructuralist, critical approaches, and systems theories); History of International Thought; Geopolitical Thought; Critical Geopolitics; Critical Security Studies