Researcher biography

Reader in International Relations, Director, Rotary Centre for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution

Background:

Dr Hanson was a Stipendiary Lecturer in Politics at Magdalen College, Oxford University before she joined the University of Queensland in 1995. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues, Department of International Relations at the University of British Columbia, a Visiting Fellow at the Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth and a Visiting Scholar at Sciences Po in Paris.

Research Interests:

International security - especially from a critical security studies perspective, and focussing on the role of law, institutions and norms in shaping security policies; European security - the role of institutions such as NATO and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); Arms control and disarmament - particularly the debate on the elimination of nuclear weapons and the efforts to delegitimise the use or possession of weapons of mass destruction: human rights - both within Australia and at the global level, and with a strong focus on the creation of legal institutions (such as the International Criminal Court) designed to uphold human rights; humanitarian intervention - the theory and practice of humanitarian interventions and the implications of these for issues such as state sovereignty, human rights and global justice; normative International Relations theory and the role of ethics in world politics - the evolution of a series of norms and other constraints affecting world politics, and which includes an emphasis on concepts such as good international citizenship and human security. The 'English School' of thought in International Relations theory - the theoretical framework most closely associated with Hedley Bull, John Vincent and others focussing on the construction and operation of an 'international society'. Dr Hanson is currently working on a book titled 'Humanitarianism and nuclear weapons: building a global prohibition regime without the great powers' which examines the growth of norms and legal constraints on the possession and use of nuclear weapons.