Research Agenda

In a Nutshell

This research agenda examines the transformation of contemporary international order through the interplay of geopolitics, technological change, energy systems, and evolving forms of diplomacy and governance. It focuses on how material infrastructures, digital technologies, and institutional arrangements interact to reshape patterns of power, authority, and strategic competition in an increasingly interconnected global system. The agenda is organised around four interrelated strands that collectively provide a multi-layered analysis of global political change.

Geopolitics of Energy

The twentieth-first-century international system is increasingly defined by how energy interdependence structures relations of power and vulnerability. This area of inquiry isolates the strategic role of transnational pipelines, liquefied natural gas networks, and interconnected electricity grids in shaping regional security architectures and geopolitical alignments.

The research investigates how these infrastructures generate durable patterns of dependence and influence, while also mediating the effects of the global energy transition. It further analyses the roles of states, multinational corporations, and international institutions in shaping energy governance and in managing competition over critical energy flows and resources.

Critical Infrastructure and Cyberspace

Material, logistical, and digital networks serve as foundational architectures of global power and primary sites of geopolitical contestation, vulnerability, and resilience. This domain encompasses the full spectrum of critical pathways, including transnational energy grids, global maritime chokepoints, overland trade corridors, subsea communication cables, and orbital assets, analysing them as interconnected physical and virtual systems through which states project authority and leverage strategic dependencies. 

The research focuses on how these cross-border networks are exposed to multi-domain threats, ranging from physical sabotage and kinetic disruptions to state-sponsored cyber operations and hybrid coercion. 

Global Governance and Diplomacy

Institutional fragmentation and intensifying geopolitical competition are fundamentally altering the architectures of global governance. Investigation here centers on the emergence of regime complexity, in which overlapping institutions, informal coalitions, and minilateral arrangements increasingly supplement and reshape traditional multilateral frameworks.

The research examines how states, global powers, and regional actors navigate this evolving environment through adaptive diplomatic strategies and institutional hedging. It includes a comparative analysis of regional orders, including the European Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Eurasian political spaces, and the African Union, with particular attention to how authority, legitimacy, and external alignment are constructed across different regional contexts.

International Relations Theory

Grounded in a sustained engagement with International Relations theory, this final component emphasizes questions of order, interdependence, sovereignty, and political authority. It often adopts a critical and post-structuralist orientation, focusing on how knowledge about international politics is produced and how theoretical frameworks shape the interpretation of global order.

Research Approach and Methodology

Methodologically, my research agenda adopts an interdisciplinary approach combining structural geopolitical analysis, qualitative policy research, comparative regional inquiry, and critical theoretical synthesis. It integrates insights from strategic political economy, digital governance, and cyber-physical infrastructure security to examine how contemporary geopolitical dynamics are produced and sustained across material and institutional domains.