World-leading Research

Our research looks at big and broad-ranging topics and answers important questions through rigorous analysis and strong theoretical approaches.

With access to expertise in a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods, our people apply their academic and methodological skill to help us understand the political worlds of today—and shape those of the future.

Funding opportunities

Research Excellence

REF

DPIR achieved excellent scores in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, confirming the excellence of our research. The proportion of Oxford’s research outputs judged to be world-leading has also risen significantly since the last REF exercise in 2014.

Pluralism

DPIR's diverse community bridges International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory. It creates a rich intellectual environment for interdisciplinary engagement.

Global Expertise

Our research community holds in-depth, area-specific expertise in the politics of Europe, Russia and the Former Soviet Union, the US, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

A nexus for big questions and big ideas. We develop innovative new ways for gathering, processing and analysing data; we create new theoretical frameworks; and our research projects tackle some of the most-pressing challenges around the globe.

Research Networks

OxPo network

Programme for Global Leadership

Centre for Democratic Resilience

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Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

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Oxford Computational Political Science Group

Fawcett, L. (2026) “The Middle East amid the changing global politics of regionalism”, in P. De Lombaerde, A. Acharya, and B. Furtak-Cambell (eds.) Essays on Global Regionalism. Springer.

Hussein, H., Conker, A. and Jafari, M. (2025) “Rethinking geography and power in transboundary water relations: A critical reading and integration of physical, social and political geography”, Geoforum, 167, pp. 104473–104473.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104473

Leopold, D. (2025) “Hegel and Utopia”, European Journal of Philosophy [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/ejop.70046

Hussein, H. (2025) “Civil society, donor dynamics, and climate justice in Jordan: Navigating aid for inclusive climate action”, Development Policy Review, 44(1).

Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.70046

Bayer, P., Crippa, L. and Genovese, F. (2025) “Energy transition, financial markets and EU interventionism: lessons from the Ukraine crisis”, Political Science Research and Methods [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2025.10054

Ejaz, W., Sanford, M. and Fletcher, R. (2025) “How News Media, Climate Anxiety, and Trust Shape Pro-Climate Behaviour Across Eight Countries”, The International Journal of Press/Politics [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612251377854

Miller, D. and Straehle, C. (2025) “Climate change, vulnerability, and cultural loss”, Ethics & Global Politics, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–15.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/16544951.2025.2578899

Gonzalez Ocantos, E. and Melendez, C. (2025) “Strong partisans, conditional democrats? Partisanship and reactions to electoral outcomes in Argentina”, Comparative Political Studies [Preprint].

Colgan, J. and Genovese, F. (2025) “Global climate politics after the return of president Trump”, International Organization [Preprint].

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