Refugees in International Relations

Refugees lie at the heart of world politics. The causes and consequences of, and responses to, human displacement are intertwined with many of the core concerns of International Relations. Yet, scholars of International Relations have generally bypassed the study of refugees, and Forced Migration Studies has generally bypassed insights from International Relations. Refugees in International Relations therefore represents an attempt to bridge the divide between these disciplines, and to place refugees within the mainstream of International Relations.

Drawing together the work and ideas of a combination of the world's leading and emerging International Relations scholars, Refugees in International Relations considers what ideas from International Relations can offer our understanding of the international politics of forced migration. The insights draw from across the theoretical spectrum of International Relations from realism to critical theory to feminism, covering issues including international cooperation, security, and the international political economy. They engage with some of the most challenging political and practical questions in contemporary forced migration, including peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, and statebuilding. The result is a set of highly original chapters, yielding not only new concepts of wider relevance to International Relations but also insights for academics, policy-makers, and practitioners working on forced migration in particular and humanitarianism in general.

Alexander Betts is Hedley Bull Research Fellow in International Relations and Director of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Global Migration Governance Project at Oxford University, and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University. His research focuses on the international politics of migration and refugee protection, and his recent books include Protection by Persuasion: International Cooperation in the Refugee Regime, Forced Migration and Global Politics, and UNHCR: the Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection into the Twenty-First Century (with Gil Loescher and James Milner). He has previously worked for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Gil Loescher is Visiting Professor at the Refugee Studies Centre in Oxford University, Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, and has held positions at Princeton University, LSE, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, UNHCR, and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs at the US State Department in Washington. He has published numerous works on refugees, human rights, and conflict and security, most recently including UNHCR in World Politics: A Perilous Path (OUP 2001), UNHCR: the Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection into the Twenty-First Century, and Protracted Refugee Situations: Politics, Human Rights and Security Dimensions.