Jamie Gaskarth
Biographic Data
| ID | 1121852 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jamie Gaskarth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jamie |
| FAMILY NAME | Gaskarth |
| SIGNATURE | GASKARTH J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Plymouth |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1838-0246 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
British strategic defence reviews
Britain’s strategic defence and security reviews are regularly characterised as failures. This article presents original empirical data from UK policymakers and officials about how they account for this perception. Through extensive interviews and focus groups with key participants at every level of the review process, the authors identify seven key pathologies in British defence and security policymaking. Weak central direction, a disconnect bet…
A Pragmatist critique of progressive realism in foreign policy
How might pragmatism inform foreign policy? In the United Kingdom's policy sphere, pragmatism is often conflated with realism to mean either a philosophical acceptance of the way the world is, or a prudential awareness that progressive change is difficult but still possible. David Lammy's advocacy of 'progressive realism' as a foreign policy ethos seems to favour the latter; yet, we see two problems with Lammy's formulation for progressive foreig…
Human rights and British foreign policy
William Hague’s activist foreign policy
Assuming office as UK Foreign Secretary in 2010, William Hague asserted a desire to pursue an 'activist foreign policy'. Despite studies into Hague's period in office, the significance of this phrase and its implications for Hague's diplomacy have been overlooked. This article plugs that gap. It suggests 'activist foreign policy' merges two separate and potentially conflicting practices, namely, activism and diplomacy. Using insights from the pra…
The dilemma of Brexit
New Team, Same Mission
This is an exciting time to be taking on the editorship of the Journal of Global Security Studies (JoGSS). The discipline of security studies appears to us to be in a creative and fragmenting state, with more scholars analyzing more issues in more diverse ways. We have the previous editorial team to thank for helping to foster that diversity. The astonishing range of articles they have published in the past five years demonstrates that their aspi…
Clashing Traditions
A series of crises over the last decade have put pressure on Europe's fundamental ordering principles. In response, German policymakers have scrambled to reinterpret Germany's foreign policy for a new era. To understand this process, the authors utilize an interpretivist approach, analyzing the discourse of German foreign policymakers through the lens of four traditions of thought informing debates: regionalism, pacifism, realism, and hegemonism.…
Hans J. Morgenthau and the American experience
Hans J. Morgenthau has been hailed as the most influential theorist of International Relations (IR) of the twentieth century. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger suggested he ‘made the study of contemporary international relations a major discipline’ (p. 154). John Mearsheimer asserted that for two decades ‘no other IR scholar was close to him in terms of influence ... both inside and outside the academic world’ (p. 161). His 1948 textbo…
Rising Powers, Responsibility, and International Society
Responsibility is a key theme of recent debates over the ethics of international society. In particular, rising powers such as Brazil, China, and India regularly reject the idea that coercion should be a feature of world politics, and they portray military intervention as irresponsible. But this raises the problem of how a society's norms can be upheld without coercive measures. Critics have accused them of “free riding” on existing great powers …
The fiasco of the 2013 Syria votes
On 29 August 2013, the British parliament voted against two motions to censure the Syrian government which were expected to lead to military action. The result was a shock to external commentators and quickly interpreted as a fiasco. This article charts the construction of the severity and agency involved in this fiasco and notes the extremely personal nature of efforts to attribute blame for the outcome. It argues that this process enabled polic…
China, India and the Future of International Society
China and India have huge potential to exert global influence due to their geography, population size and material resources. Now their spectacular economic growth has led many commentators to predict a shift in power from West to East and the dawn of an “Asian century” based on Asian values. But what are these values? Does economic power neatly translate into political power? Will China and India wish to challenge the existing ethical framework …
Distant Relations
This article examines representations of identity in two British Overseas Territories: St Helena in the South Atlantic and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. While local forms of representative government exist here, political authority over several significant areas of political life is retained by the British state. As such, the connections between sovereignty, politics and identity are less clearly demarked than in many states. Based…
British Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring
The British government’s varied responses to the popular uprisings of the “Arab Spring” have been criticised for being inconsistent and/or selective. British actions ranged from providing substantial military support for the rebels in Libya to offering notably muted reactions to government suppression of protests in Bahrain. On assuming office, the new foreign secretary, William Hague, suggested that Britain would have a networked approach to for…
British foreign policy and the national interest
Journal Article British foreign policy and the national interest Get access TIMOTHY EDMUNDS, TIMOTHY EDMUNDS 1Professor of International Security and Director of the Global Insecurities Centre at the University of Bristol Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar JAMIE GASKARTH, JAMIE GASKARTH 2Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in International Relations in the School of Government, Plymouth University Search fo…
Strategizing Britain's role in the world
In recent commentaries on British foreign policy, the New Labour and coalition governments have been criticized for lacking strategic thinking. Academics describe a ‘strategy gap’ and note that old ideas about Britain's role in the world, such as Churchill's 1948 reference to ‘three circles’, continue to be recycled. Parliamentarians bemoan the ‘uncritical acceptance of these assumptions’ that has led to ‘a waning of our interests in, and ability…
Interpreting Ethical Foreign Policy
What are the ethics of foreign policy? How do foreign policymakers decide between competing ethics? Could policymakers make more ethical decisions? These questions achieved prominence in the UK context when Robin Cook—then Foreign Secretary—announced in 1997 that British foreign policy should have an ‘ethical dimension’. Subsequent commentary on New Labour's foreign policy would often use the phrase ‘ethical foreign policy’ to disparage the moral…
The virtues in international society
Although there has been a significant growth in the literature on the ethics of international politics in recent years, much of this has focused on the normative structure of international relations and has downplayed the role of individuals in constituting the understandings and actions in this practice. However, individual agency and accountability are apparent in recent world events. Meanwhile, developments in moral philosophy have increasingl…
Where would we be without rules? A virtue ethics approach to foreign policy analysis
Recent decades have seen a heightened interest in the ethics of foreign policymaking. This literature has overwhelmingly explored the ethical dilemmas faced by policymakers in terms of situations and the structures – either political/economic, normative and/or linguistic – that shape actions. The subjective experience of ethical decisionmaking in this arena and the character of the individuals making policy choices have been largely neglected. Ho…
Entangling alliances? The UK's complicity in torture in the global war on terrorism
Journal Article Entangling alliances? The UK's complicity in torture in the global war on terrorism Get access JAMIE GASKARTH JAMIE GASKARTH 1Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Plymouth and will be taking up a Visiting Scholarship with the Center for British Studies, Berkeley, University of California in the Autumn of 2011 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume …
Discourses and Ethics
Journal Article Discourses and Ethics: The Social Construction of British Foreign Policy Get access Jamie Gaskarth Jamie Gaskarth University of Plymouth Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Foreign Policy Analysis, Volume 2, Issue 4, October 2006, Pages 325–341, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-8594.2006.00034.x Published: 07 September 2006
Ethical policies or empty promises? New labour and human rights in British foreign policymaking
Since the announcement of a mission statement for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in May 1997, debates on British foreign policy have tended to focus on the ideas of ‘ethical foreign policy’ or ‘ethical dimensions’ and evaluated policy decisions according to how they fit with these frames. However, human rights were a key component of New Labour's approach to foreign policy. By analysing the differing treatment of human rights between the Con…
The absent dialogue
The absent dialogue: politicians, bureaucrats and the military in India." Defence Studies, 21(2), pp. 268–269
The fiasco of the 2013 Syria votes
On 29 August 2013, the British parliament voted against two motions to censure the Syrian government which were expected to lead to military action. The result was a shock to external commentators and quickly interpreted as a fiasco. This article charts the construction of the severity and agency involved in this fiasco and notes the extremely personal nature of efforts to attribute blame for the outcome. It argues that this process enabled polic…
Clashing Traditions
A series of crises over the last decade have put pressure on Europe's fundamental ordering principles. In response, German policymakers have scrambled to reinterpret Germany's foreign policy for a new era. To understand this process, the authors utilize an interpretivist approach, analyzing the discourse of German foreign policymakers through the lens of four traditions of thought informing debates: regionalism, pacifism, realism, and hegemonism.…
Interpreting Ethical Foreign Policy
What are the ethics of foreign policy? How do foreign policymakers decide between competing ethics? Could policymakers make more ethical decisions? These questions achieved prominence in the UK context when Robin Cook—then Foreign Secretary—announced in 1997 that British foreign policy should have an ‘ethical dimension’. Subsequent commentary on New Labour's foreign policy would often use the phrase ‘ethical foreign policy’ to disparage the moral…
Rising Powers, Responsibility, and International Society
Responsibility is a key theme of recent debates over the ethics of international society. In particular, rising powers such as Brazil, China, and India regularly reject the idea that coercion should be a feature of world politics, and they portray military intervention as irresponsible. But this raises the problem of how a society's norms can be upheld without coercive measures. Critics have accused them of “free riding” on existing great powers …
British Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring
The British government’s varied responses to the popular uprisings of the “Arab Spring” have been criticised for being inconsistent and/or selective. British actions ranged from providing substantial military support for the rebels in Libya to offering notably muted reactions to government suppression of protests in Bahrain. On assuming office, the new foreign secretary, William Hague, suggested that Britain would have a networked approach to for…
British foreign policy and the national interest
Journal Article British foreign policy and the national interest Get access TIMOTHY EDMUNDS, TIMOTHY EDMUNDS 1Professor of International Security and Director of the Global Insecurities Centre at the University of Bristol Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar JAMIE GASKARTH, JAMIE GASKARTH 2Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in International Relations in the School of Government, Plymouth University Search fo…
Discourses and Ethics
Journal Article Discourses and Ethics: The Social Construction of British Foreign Policy Get access Jamie Gaskarth Jamie Gaskarth University of Plymouth Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Foreign Policy Analysis, Volume 2, Issue 4, October 2006, Pages 325–341, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-8594.2006.00034.x Published: 07 September 2006
The virtues in international society
Although there has been a significant growth in the literature on the ethics of international politics in recent years, much of this has focused on the normative structure of international relations and has downplayed the role of individuals in constituting the understandings and actions in this practice. However, individual agency and accountability are apparent in recent world events. Meanwhile, developments in moral philosophy have increasingl…
A Pragmatist critique of progressive realism in foreign policy
How might pragmatism inform foreign policy? In the United Kingdom's policy sphere, pragmatism is often conflated with realism to mean either a philosophical acceptance of the way the world is, or a prudential awareness that progressive change is difficult but still possible. David Lammy's advocacy of 'progressive realism' as a foreign policy ethos seems to favour the latter; yet, we see two problems with Lammy's formulation for progressive foreig…
Distant Relations
This article examines representations of identity in two British Overseas Territories: St Helena in the South Atlantic and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. While local forms of representative government exist here, political authority over several significant areas of political life is retained by the British state. As such, the connections between sovereignty, politics and identity are less clearly demarked than in many states. Based…
Strategizing Britain's role in the world
In recent commentaries on British foreign policy, the New Labour and coalition governments have been criticized for lacking strategic thinking. Academics describe a ‘strategy gap’ and note that old ideas about Britain's role in the world, such as Churchill's 1948 reference to ‘three circles’, continue to be recycled. Parliamentarians bemoan the ‘uncritical acceptance of these assumptions’ that has led to ‘a waning of our interests in, and ability…
Entangling alliances? The UK's complicity in torture in the global war on terrorism
Journal Article Entangling alliances? The UK's complicity in torture in the global war on terrorism Get access JAMIE GASKARTH JAMIE GASKARTH 1Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Plymouth and will be taking up a Visiting Scholarship with the Center for British Studies, Berkeley, University of California in the Autumn of 2011 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume …
Ethical policies or empty promises? New labour and human rights in British foreign policymaking
Since the announcement of a mission statement for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in May 1997, debates on British foreign policy have tended to focus on the ideas of ‘ethical foreign policy’ or ‘ethical dimensions’ and evaluated policy decisions according to how they fit with these frames. However, human rights were a key component of New Labour's approach to foreign policy. By analysing the differing treatment of human rights between the Con…
The dilemma of Brexit
Where would we be without rules? A virtue ethics approach to foreign policy analysis
Recent decades have seen a heightened interest in the ethics of foreign policymaking. This literature has overwhelmingly explored the ethical dilemmas faced by policymakers in terms of situations and the structures – either political/economic, normative and/or linguistic – that shape actions. The subjective experience of ethical decisionmaking in this arena and the character of the individuals making policy choices have been largely neglected. Ho…
Ethical policies or empty promises? New labour and human rights in British foreign policymaking
Since the announcement of a mission statement for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in May 1997, debates on British foreign policy have tended to focus on the ideas of ‘ethical foreign policy’ or ‘ethical dimensions’ and evaluated policy decisions according to how they fit with these frames. However, human rights were a key component of New Labour's approach to foreign policy. By analysing the differing treatment of human rights between the Con…
Discourses and Ethics
Journal Article Discourses and Ethics: The Social Construction of British Foreign Policy Get access Jamie Gaskarth Jamie Gaskarth University of Plymouth Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Foreign Policy Analysis, Volume 2, Issue 4, October 2006, Pages 325–341, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-8594.2006.00034.x Published: 07 September 2006
Where would we be without rules? A virtue ethics approach to foreign policy analysis
Recent decades have seen a heightened interest in the ethics of foreign policymaking. This literature has overwhelmingly explored the ethical dilemmas faced by policymakers in terms of situations and the structures – either political/economic, normative and/or linguistic – that shape actions. The subjective experience of ethical decisionmaking in this arena and the character of the individuals making policy choices have been largely neglected. Ho…
Entangling alliances? The UK's complicity in torture in the global war on terrorism
Journal Article Entangling alliances? The UK's complicity in torture in the global war on terrorism Get access JAMIE GASKARTH JAMIE GASKARTH 1Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Plymouth and will be taking up a Visiting Scholarship with the Center for British Studies, Berkeley, University of California in the Autumn of 2011 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume …
Interpreting Ethical Foreign Policy
What are the ethics of foreign policy? How do foreign policymakers decide between competing ethics? Could policymakers make more ethical decisions? These questions achieved prominence in the UK context when Robin Cook—then Foreign Secretary—announced in 1997 that British foreign policy should have an ‘ethical dimension’. Subsequent commentary on New Labour's foreign policy would often use the phrase ‘ethical foreign policy’ to disparage the moral…
The virtues in international society
Although there has been a significant growth in the literature on the ethics of international politics in recent years, much of this has focused on the normative structure of international relations and has downplayed the role of individuals in constituting the understandings and actions in this practice. However, individual agency and accountability are apparent in recent world events. Meanwhile, developments in moral philosophy have increasingl…
British foreign policy and the national interest
Journal Article British foreign policy and the national interest Get access TIMOTHY EDMUNDS, TIMOTHY EDMUNDS 1Professor of International Security and Director of the Global Insecurities Centre at the University of Bristol Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar JAMIE GASKARTH, JAMIE GASKARTH 2Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in International Relations in the School of Government, Plymouth University Search fo…
Strategizing Britain's role in the world
In recent commentaries on British foreign policy, the New Labour and coalition governments have been criticized for lacking strategic thinking. Academics describe a ‘strategy gap’ and note that old ideas about Britain's role in the world, such as Churchill's 1948 reference to ‘three circles’, continue to be recycled. Parliamentarians bemoan the ‘uncritical acceptance of these assumptions’ that has led to ‘a waning of our interests in, and ability…
China, India and the Future of International Society
China and India have huge potential to exert global influence due to their geography, population size and material resources. Now their spectacular economic growth has led many commentators to predict a shift in power from West to East and the dawn of an “Asian century” based on Asian values. But what are these values? Does economic power neatly translate into political power? Will China and India wish to challenge the existing ethical framework …
Distant Relations
This article examines representations of identity in two British Overseas Territories: St Helena in the South Atlantic and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. While local forms of representative government exist here, political authority over several significant areas of political life is retained by the British state. As such, the connections between sovereignty, politics and identity are less clearly demarked than in many states. Based…
British Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring
The British government’s varied responses to the popular uprisings of the “Arab Spring” have been criticised for being inconsistent and/or selective. British actions ranged from providing substantial military support for the rebels in Libya to offering notably muted reactions to government suppression of protests in Bahrain. On assuming office, the new foreign secretary, William Hague, suggested that Britain would have a networked approach to for…
The fiasco of the 2013 Syria votes
On 29 August 2013, the British parliament voted against two motions to censure the Syrian government which were expected to lead to military action. The result was a shock to external commentators and quickly interpreted as a fiasco. This article charts the construction of the severity and agency involved in this fiasco and notes the extremely personal nature of efforts to attribute blame for the outcome. It argues that this process enabled polic…
Rising Powers, Responsibility, and International Society
Responsibility is a key theme of recent debates over the ethics of international society. In particular, rising powers such as Brazil, China, and India regularly reject the idea that coercion should be a feature of world politics, and they portray military intervention as irresponsible. But this raises the problem of how a society's norms can be upheld without coercive measures. Critics have accused them of “free riding” on existing great powers …
Hans J. Morgenthau and the American experience
Hans J. Morgenthau has been hailed as the most influential theorist of International Relations (IR) of the twentieth century. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger suggested he ‘made the study of contemporary international relations a major discipline’ (p. 154). John Mearsheimer asserted that for two decades ‘no other IR scholar was close to him in terms of influence ... both inside and outside the academic world’ (p. 161). His 1948 textbo…
Clashing Traditions
A series of crises over the last decade have put pressure on Europe's fundamental ordering principles. In response, German policymakers have scrambled to reinterpret Germany's foreign policy for a new era. To understand this process, the authors utilize an interpretivist approach, analyzing the discourse of German foreign policymakers through the lens of four traditions of thought informing debates: regionalism, pacifism, realism, and hegemonism.…
New Team, Same Mission
This is an exciting time to be taking on the editorship of the Journal of Global Security Studies (JoGSS). The discipline of security studies appears to us to be in a creative and fragmenting state, with more scholars analyzing more issues in more diverse ways. We have the previous editorial team to thank for helping to foster that diversity. The astonishing range of articles they have published in the past five years demonstrates that their aspi…
The dilemma of Brexit
William Hague’s activist foreign policy
Assuming office as UK Foreign Secretary in 2010, William Hague asserted a desire to pursue an 'activist foreign policy'. Despite studies into Hague's period in office, the significance of this phrase and its implications for Hague's diplomacy have been overlooked. This article plugs that gap. It suggests 'activist foreign policy' merges two separate and potentially conflicting practices, namely, activism and diplomacy. Using insights from the pra…
Human rights and British foreign policy
The absent dialogue
The absent dialogue: politicians, bureaucrats and the military in India." Defence Studies, 21(2), pp. 268–269
A Pragmatist critique of progressive realism in foreign policy
How might pragmatism inform foreign policy? In the United Kingdom's policy sphere, pragmatism is often conflated with realism to mean either a philosophical acceptance of the way the world is, or a prudential awareness that progressive change is difficult but still possible. David Lammy's advocacy of 'progressive realism' as a foreign policy ethos seems to favour the latter; yet, we see two problems with Lammy's formulation for progressive foreig…
British strategic defence reviews
Britain’s strategic defence and security reviews are regularly characterised as failures. This article presents original empirical data from UK policymakers and officials about how they account for this perception. Through extensive interviews and focus groups with key participants at every level of the review process, the authors identify seven key pathologies in British defence and security policymaking. Weak central direction, a disconnect bet…
Political science (21 works) · Law (19 works) · Politics (19 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Law (16 works) · Foreign policy (14 works) · Political economy (11 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (7 works) · International relations (7 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (7 works)