Research agenda
My research re-examines power dynamics in International Relations, especially through the study of asymmetrical relationships. My primary empirical focus has been on the international relations of the Americas, often with an historical focus, based on extensive multinational archival research.
Much of my work explores how smaller states seek influence bilaterally and in their engagements with international order and institutions. Currently, I am undertaking a multifaceted project on Latin America’s interaction with and contributions to the institutions, norms, and practices of ‘liberal international order’, especially in the late nineteenth century and the immediate post-WWII period.
From September 2021-2025, I will be PI on the AHRC Standard Grant (Early Career Route, c. £250,000), ‘Latin America and the peripheral origins of nineteenth-century international order’.
Recent publications
- “A Turn Against Empire: Benito Juárez’s Liberal Rejoinder to the French Intervention in Mexico,” American Political Science Review
- “State, Crime, and Violence in Mexico, 1920-2000: Arbiters of Impunity, Agents of Coercion,” Past & Present
- A Small State’s Guide to Influence in World Politics (OUP 2022)
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Recent talks:
América Latina y la formación del orden internacional moderno / FLACSO, Buenos Aires
“Seeing Berlin from the Periphery: Latin American Reactions to European Imperial Expansion in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Latin America Centre, Oxford University
“Etats-Unis: une perte définitive d’influence?” Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris
Tom Long, PhD 