James Malcolm

Dr. James A. Malcolm is a seminar tutor on the first year module World Politics. He successfully defended his PhD thesis 'The securitisation of UK maritime infrastructure during the 'war on terror'' in December 2011. The thesis was supervised by Professor Stuart Croft and principally sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through a +3 scholarship.

James' research interests are in Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), Terrorism and Political Violence and constructivist accounts of security. His PhD thesis drew upon each of these areas examining the impact on the day-to-day management of the United Kingdom's maritime infrastructure (its ports and harbours) of its securitisation during the 'war on terror'.

James is a graduate of the University of St Andrews where he gained a M.A (Hons) in International Relations and of the University of Manchester where he was awarded a merit in his MA in International Politics (Research) degree.

James has been a Data Analyst at the Centre for Studies in Terrorism and Political Violence in St Andrews, Scotland (2004-05) specialising in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. He was also the Database and Internship Manager for the Counter Terrorist Financing Network (2005-07) where he was responsible for helping to manage the company’s database of open source research and recruiting, training and managing researchers.

James sat on the executive committee of the British International Studies Association (BISA) for three and a half years (http://www.bisa.ac.uk/) in his capacity as Postgraduate Representative where he led efforts to develop and launch the association's Postgraduate Network. After co-ordinating the first twelve months of activities of the network which included, amongst other things, the development of a funding competition to support postgraduate conferences/workshops; James now serves as its President (2011-12).

James has a keen interest in politics and is an avid supporter of Burnley Football Club. He remains (blindly) optimistic that they will soon return to the Premier League.

I am currently working on a number of papers which largely emerge out of the findings of my PhD thesis:

  • The first examines the general public's evolving role in UK counter-terrorism efforts. I am particularly interested in the way in which the need for public involvement is communicated by security professionals and the mechanics of such roles.
  • The second elaborates the way in which the 'security umbrella' relating to UK maritime infrastructure has expanded during the 'war on terror', highlighting the spatial dimension to securitisation. In doing this I seek to illustrate the growing role played by information technology systems in this process. I intend to present a version of this paper at the BISA-ISA Conference in Edinburgh during June 2012.
  • The third paper I am working on is an assessment of the UK government's counter-terrorism activities around small ports, both maritime and aviation. In particular this paper will focus on the security concerns expressed in relation to both pleasure craft and general aviation.

More generally I have a growing interest in Open Source Research techniques, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Internet Crime.

I welcome communication with anyone with an interest in these papers or my research more generally. For more information on my research interests click here.

My previous presentations have included:

  • 'Operating in a Securitised Environment: PREVENT and Higher Education,' Safer Schools Partnership Training Day, Greater Manchester Police, December 2009.
  • I have also delivered three presentations on the PREVENT agenda as part of Suffolk Constabulary's staff training programme, Spring 2010.
  • Alongside my colleague Dr. Hiro Ataka, I co-convened a set of collaborative panels between postgraduate members of both BISA and the Japan Association of International Relations (JAIR). The first half of the collaboration occurred at the 2009 BISA annual conference, while the second half took place at the 2011 JAIR annual conference at the Tsukuba International Congress Center, Japan. The panel title in Japan was 'Towards a post-Western IR: theoretical, empirical, historical considerations'.
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Department of Politics and International Studies (PaIS)

Email: james.malcolm@warwick.ac.uk

Office Hour:

Thursday 12-1pm (S1.48A) (During terms only)


For more information on the 'BISA Postgraduate Network' see:

www.bisa-pgn.org.uk