Departmental website: lse.ac.uk/internationalHistory|
Number of graduate students (full-time equivalent)
Taught: 135
Research: 43
Number of faculty (full-time equivalent): 26
RAE: 65% of the Department's research was rated world leading or internationally excellent
Location: East Building
About the Department
The Department is one of the world's leading centres for the study of the history of international relations. It has developed since the foundation of the Stevenson Chair in the 1930s into one of the strongest concentrations of experts in international history.
We offer master's degree programmes as well as supervision for MPhil and PhD research, covering a time span from the Renaissance to the present day, and a very broad geographical area that includes Asia (China, India, Japan, the Pacific Islands), the Middle East, Africa, western and eastern Europe (including Russia) and the USA.
Research focuses on the history of international relations. Staff have expertise in the economic, strategic, and ideological aspects of international relations, as well as in the domestic roots of foreign policy. The Department has particular expertise in the links between domestic, political and social history and international relations. In its teaching and its practice of history it ranges widely from political and diplomatic history through to political thought and social and economic trends and including the history of mentalities.
Our staff and students come from a wide range of countries, giving a truly international flavour to the Department. Over half our graduate students are from overseas, not only from Europe, but also from Japan, Korea, Australia, the USA, Africa and the Middle East. We have a large, vibrant and diverse graduate community as well as a regular sprinkling of distinguished foreign visiting scholars.
Current departmental staff, like their predecessors, have a distinguished record of publications across the globe and regularly participate in international conferences and workshops. They have links to many learned societies and have received notable prizes and honours.
Staff and their academic interests
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Dr Roham Alvandi: Iran; Persian Gulf; Cold War.
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Professor Nigel Ashton: Anglo-American relations since 1945; Britain and the Middle East, 1945-62; United States and the Cold War; 20th century Anglo-Dutch relations.
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Dr Antony Best: Anglo-Japanese relations, 1850-1960; history of East Asia in 19th and 20th centuries; Pacific War.
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Dr Steven Casey: American public opinion and Nazi Germany; President Franklin D Roosevelt – administration and foreign policy; American public and the Korean war.
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Dr Tanya Harmer: Latin America; Cold War.
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Professor Janet Hartley: Russian history in 18th and 19th centuries; Russian and Soviet archival materials in Great Britain.
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Dr Tim Hochstrasser: Early modern cultural and intellectual history; European Enlightenment; social history of music.
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Dr Heather Jones: First World War, history of prisoner of war treatment. Weimar Germany: Irish politics.
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Dr Paul Keenan: The Napoleonic Empire: the making of modern Europe.
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Dr Joanna Lewis: Africa and Asia in the Imperial Age from 1800; colonialism and development in eastern and central Africa; politics and government in Britain, 1900 to the present.
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Professor Dominic Lieven: Russian history.
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Dr Piers Ludlow: Western Europe since 1945; history of European integration; Britain and Europe since 1945; the cold war in Europe.
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Professor Anita Prazmowska: International relations in central and eastern Europe, 1930s and 1940s; Poland; beginnings of Communism in central Europe.
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Dr Svetozar Rajak: Cold War; Eastern Europe; Balkans.
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Professor Mía Rodríguez-Salgado: Anglo-Spanish relations; Philip II and Charles V and their empires; Spain, England, Italy, France, north Africa and the Ottomans in 16th and 17th centuries.
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Dr Joan-Pau Rubiés: European travel and ethnography 13th to 17th century; European expansion in India and America; constitutional theories and political thought in Europe.
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Dr Kirsten Schulze: 20th century Middle East politics; Arab-Israeli conflict; Northern Ireland; ethnic conflict and democracy in Indonesia.
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Dr Taylor Sherman: Modern South Asian history.
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Dr Alan Sked: British and European history, 1789 onwards, especially Habsburg monarchy; Britain since 1945.
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Dr Kristina Spohr Readman: International History of Germany since 1945; 20th century Baltic and Finnish history in the international context; post-Cold War security developments.
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Professor David Stevenson: History of international relations in Europe since 1900, especially First World War.
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Professor Arne Westad: Cold War; East Asia; Chinese foreign policy; third world revolutions including US relations; Soviet foreign policy history since 1945.
Opportunities for research
Research students will initially be registered for the MPhil. In June of the first year you will produce an extended written submission. If this demonstrates satisfactory progress in your research you will be able to register for the PhD. We will continue to monitor your progress each year.
In addition to research involving the more common European languages, we can also supervise work drawing on materials in Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, among others.
Throughout your registration as an MPhil/PhD student you will undertake a research training programme as well as working on your thesis. In your first year the training programme includes a preliminary workshop where members of the Department present practical issues of relevance to new researchers in the Michaelmas term and students make presentations of preliminary findings in the Lent and summer terms. It also includes introductory seminars at the Institute of Historical Research and attendance at a specialised research seminar as well as elements tailored specifically for your requirements, including courses in computing and foreign languages. In the second and subsequent years you will continue your research training by, among other things, participating in the Department's advanced workshop and at least one specialised research seminar while you are in London, and by developing other skills specific to your needs.
The LSE Library is an outstanding resource for the history of international relations, with substantial printed primary and secondary source materials, journals, IT and computing facilities. Students will also be able to draw on an unparalleled diversity of other library and archival resources in London, often close to LSE. These include libraries in the University of London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Institute of Historical Research (whose collections cover all major types and areas of manuscripts), the German Historical Institute, and the National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) as well as a number of more specialised archives.
As a research student you will be able to attend meetings of the History Society and use the Department's computer rooms. You will also be encouraged to participate in the lively series of lectures and seminars organised in the Department itself, LSE and at other, nearby specialist institutes related to your research.
Taught programmes