FASS Staff Profile

PROFESSOR WILLIAM BAIN
PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT of POLITICAL SCIENCE

Appointment:
PROFESSOR
Office:
AS1/04-43
Email:
wbain@nus.edu.sg
Tel:
+(65) 6516 3598
Fax:
+(65) 6779 6815
Homepage:
http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/polbww/
Tabs

Brief Introduction

William Bain is actively engaged in research and teaching in the areas of international relations, international political theory, and the history of international thought. His most recent work focuses on the way in which theology shape thinking about international order and fundamental institutions, such as anarchy, the balance of power, and constitutionalism, which has been published as Political Theology of International Order (OUP 2020). His earlier work explores the political theory of empire and discourses of trusteeship, race, and civilisation. The main statement of this work is Between Anarchy and Society: Trusteeship and the Obligations of Power (OUP 2003). He is also author of numerous articles and book chapters on IR theory, particularly the English School approach, as well as the history of international thought. Professor Bain’s teaching has been recognised by the university-level Annual Teaching Excellence Award (2017, 2019) and four Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards. Prior to joining the Department of Political Science he held appointments at the University of Glasgow and Aberystwyth University, and as Visiting Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Professor Bain is editor-in-chief of International Relations and serves on the advisory boards of several international journals. He is a Research Associate at the NUS Centre for Legal Theory and Centre of Advanced International Theory (CAIT) at the University of Sussex.


Teaching Areas

Professor Bain is the recipient of the Annual Teaching Excellence Award (2017, 2019) and four Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards.  His teaching interests fall broadly in the areas of:

  • International Political Theory
  • IR Theory
  • History of Ideas
  • Medieval Political Theory

He currently teaches the following modules:

  • PS3311 International Ethics
  • PS3312 World Orders
  • PS4211 Political Theology
  • PS4311 International Relations in Political Thought
  • PS4882I International Society

Current Research

Professor Bain's research has for several years centred on an interdisciplinary project, grounded in history, philosophy, law, and theology, which uncovers theological presuppositions deeply embedded in international thought. Key questions include: Is theology in some way constitutive of cardinal concepts and categories in international relations? Are Western understandings of international relations secular in the way that it is widely asserted to be?  To what extent does contemporary thinking about international relations presuppose elements of a Christian culture? What are the implications of abandoning this theological inheritance in search of a neutral space in which to theorise international relations? This work has been extended to a new project on the genealogy of the balance of power.  Scholarship on the balance of power of is based almost entirely on European experience.  This new research explores the extent to which the discourse of the balance of power is intelligible beyond Europe, and especially in a Chinese context.  It does so by uncovering distinct histories of the balance of power that are subsumed in the extant balance of power literature.


Research Interests

International Political Theory

English School/International Society

Medieval/Early-Modern Political Thought

Political Theology


Publications

OTHERS

  • Selected Publications

     

    Books

    Political Theology of International Order, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

    Between Anarchy and Society: Trusteeship and the Obligations of Power, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2003.

    Editor and Contributor, Medieval Foundations of International Relations, London: Routledge, 2016.

    Editor and Contributor, The Empire of Security and the Safety of the People, London: Routledge, 2006.

     

    Articles

    ‘International Anarchy and Political Theology: Rethinking the Legacy of Thomas Hobbes’, Journal of International Relations and Development, 22:2 (2019): 278-99.

    ‘International Relations and Intellectual History’, International Relations, 31:3 (2017): 213-26, (co-authored with Terry Nardin).

    ‘Thomas Hobbes as a Theorist of Anarchy: A Theological Interpretation’, History of European Ideas, 40:1 (2015): 13-28.

    ‘Rival Traditions of Natural Law: Martin Wight and the Theory of International Society’, International History Review, 36:5 (2014): 943-960.

    ‘Saving the Innocent, Then and Now: Vitoria, Dominion, and World Order’, History of Political Thought, 34:4 (2013): 588-613.

    ‘Responsibility and Obligation in the “Responsibility to Protect”’, Review of International Studies, 36 (2010): 25-46.

    ‘One Order, Two Laws: Recovering the “Normative” in English School Theory’, Review of International Studies, 33:4 (2007): 557-575.

    ‘Are There Any Lessons of History?: The English School and the Activity of Being an Historian’, International Politics, 44:5 (2007): 513-530.

    ‘In Praise of Folly: International Administration and the Corruption of Humanity’, International Affairs, 82:3 (2006): 491-504.

    ‘Deconfusing Morgenthau: Moral Inquiry and Classical Realism Reconsidered’, Review of International Studies, 26:3 (2000): 445-464.

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