Associate Professor William Clapton
William Clapton is an Associate Professor in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW. He has research interests in International Relations theory, sovereignty, international hierarchy, risk in International Relations, international intervention in the post-Cold War era, the defence and immigration policies of the United States, European Union, and Australia, and popular culture in global politics.
William was awarded his PhD from Murdoch University in 2010. The thesis explored interventions conducted by Western societies in the post-Cold War era that aimed to promote liberal democratic institutions and governance and their impact on the constitution of international society.
He has published on risk, international intervention and international hierarchy in journals such as the Politics, European Journal of International Security, and the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He is also the author of Risk and Hierarchy in International Society: Liberal Interventionism in the Post-Cold War Era (Palgrave, 2014) and Immigration, Risk, and Security Under the Trump Administration Keeping ‘Undesirables’ Out (Palgrave 2022).
Current Research Projects
Popular Culture in Global Politics
This project explores the the ways in which audiences constitute pop cultural artefacts through debates and contests over the meaning of artefact's representational practices. It focuses on debates over representations of identity politics in games, film, and TV shows.
Risk and Immigration
This project explores the immigration practices of the European Union and the Trump administration, particularly the travel ban and wall along the border with Mexico, through a security logic of risk.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
2023-2025: Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Grant (with CIs Prof Terry Flew, A/Prof Robert Nicholls, Prof Derek Wilding, Prof Kalervo Gulson, Prof Lyria Bennett Moses, A/Prof Heather Ford, Dr Joanne Gray, Dr Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Dr Jonathon Hutchinson, A/Prof Daniel Joyce, Dr Sacha Molitorisz, Dr Karen Lee, and Prof Catharine Lumby), 'The International Digital Policy Observatory'. LE230100069
3rd Oceanic Conference on International Studies Best Postgraduate Paper, 2008.
I am an Associate Editor (Politics) for the Australian Journal of Politics and History. I am also the convenor of the Australian Political Studies Association International Relations Research Group and sit on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of International Affairs.
I am a member of the International Studies Association and Australian Political Studies Association.
My Research Supervision
Alexander Hynd - Middle Power Identity Formation and Hierarchy in the Asia Pacific.
Jamie-Lee Burgess - Security Dilemma Mitigation: Great Power Relations and Smaller Power Implications
Andre Nassiri - Informal Urban Futures: An Alternative Pathway for Development and Decolonisation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Emma Tindal-Clarke: Differentiated Integration in the EU
My Teaching
ARTS2821 Colonialism
ARTS3814 Australian Foreign Policy
POLS5102 - Key Issues in Australian Foreign Policy