Brent J Steele portrait
  • Professor, Political Science Department
  • Co-editor Global Studies Quarterly, >>, International Studies Assocation
  • Francis D. Wormuth Presidential Chair, Political Science Department

Publications

  • Brent J Steele & Juliet Kaarbo and Cameron Thies (2024). Foreign Policy Analysis and Ontological Security Studies. Oxford Handbook of Foreign Policy Analysis. Published, 02/01/2024.
  • Brent J Steele (2023). Theory and International Ethics. Conference: The Palgrave Handbook on the Pedagogy of International Relations Theory. Accepted, 12/31/2023.
  • Brent J Steele (2023). Ethical Anxiety in Global Politics. Oxford Handbook on Emotions. Accepted, 12/24/2023.
  • Charles Turner & Brent J Steele (2023). Race, Religion and the Echoes of Status Insecurity in US foreign policy. Alternatives. Published, 11/01/2023.
  • Brent J Steele & Jelena Subotic (2023). Icons and Ontological Insecurity,. European Journal of International Studies. Published, 10/04/2023.
  • Xander Kirke & Brent J Steele (2023). Existentialism and Ontological Insecurity. Review of International Studies. Accepted, 03/22/2023.
  • Brent J Steele (2022). From Subjects to Objects: Honor Flights and US Ontological Insecurity. International Relations. Vol. 36, 616-637. Published, 12/01/2022.
  • Brent J Steele (2022). Just Struggle against Covid-19. International Studies Review. Vol. 24. Published, 03/07/2022.
  • Brent J Steele (2022). Foreword to 'Subversive Pedagogies: Radical Possibility in the Academy', edited by Kate Schick and Claire Timperley. Routledge. Published, 02/15/2022.
  • Brent J Steele & Eric A. Heinze (2021). Ethics and International Relations, in Handbook of International Relations, Cameron Thies, editor. Elgar Publishing. Accepted, 12/01/2021.
  • Luke Campbell & Brent J Steele (2021). (Inter)national Ethics and the Politics of Memory, in the Politics of Memory Handbook, Maria Mälksoo, editor. . Sage. Accepted, 12/01/2021.
  • Brent J. Steele. (2021) Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide: inescapable dread in the 2020s, Journal of International Relations and Development 24(4), 1037-1043. Published, 09/07/2021.
  • Chris Peys & Brent J Steele (2021). Actionism and Restraint in 2020: A Conversation between Brent Steele and Christopher Peys. Contemporary Voices in International Relations. Published, 06/01/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021). Jelena Subotic’s Yellow Star, Red Star, Forum. (pp. 294-313). Vol. 29. New Perspectives. Published, 06/01/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021) Images, Racial Hierarchy, and Critical World World studies, Spectra, 8, 1, June, 41-45. Published, 06/01/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021). Fantasy, Transgression and US Support for Torture: a micropolitical study, in Contesting Torture, Rory Cox, Faye Donnelly and Anthony Lang, editors. Palgrave. Accepted, 03/01/2021.
  • Brent Steele & Chris Browning and Pertti Joenniemi (2021). Vicarious Identity in International Relations. Oxford University Press. Published, 02/15/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021). ‘The cruelty of righteous people’: Niebuhr on the urgency of cruelty. Journal of International Political Theory. Published, 02/01/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021). “A Catharsis for Anxieties”: Insights from Goffman on the Politics of Humour. Global Society. Vol. 35, 102-116. Published, 02/01/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021). When Good Enough is Good Enough: Department Chairing During Covid-19. PS: Political Science & Politics,. Vol. 54, 187-188. Published, 01/29/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2021). Brent J Steele (2021) Book Review of Beyond the Veil of Knowledge: Triangulating Security, Democracy, and Academic Scholarship by Piki Ish‐Shalom . Vol. 135. Political Science Quarterly. Published, 01/04/2021.
  • Brent J Steele (2020). Juxtapositioned Memory: Lost Cause Statues and Sites of Lynching. Modern Languages Open. Published, 08/01/2020.
  • Brent J. Steele (2019) Restraint in International Politics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in International Relations. Published, 10/15/2019.
  • Brent J Steele (2019) Journey to the Unknown: Survival, Re-awakening, renewal, and reformation, in Jamie Frueh, editor, Journeys through Teaching World Politics: Narratives of Pedagogical Development, Palgrave. Published, 09/15/2019.
  • Brent J. Steele and Harry Gould (2019) Constructivism, Methods and Tactics (Introduction to edited volume), in Tactical Constructivism: Expressing Method in International Relations, Routledge. Published, 05/31/2019.
  • Brent J. Steele, (2019) ‘Tactics all the Way Down : The Politics of Exteriority in Constructivism’, in Steele, Gould and Kessler, editors, Tactical Constructivism: Expressing Method in International Relations, Routledge. Published, 05/31/2019.
  • Brent J. Steele, Harry Gould and Oliver Kessler, editors, (2019) Tactical Constructivism: Expressing Method in International Relations, Routledge, New International Relations Series. Published, 05/31/2019.
  • Faye Donnelly and Brent J Steele (2019, forthcoming) Critical Security History in International Relations, European Journal of International Security, 4(2), 209-226. Published, 05/15/2019.
  • Brent J. Steele and Alexandra Homolar, editors, (2019), ‘Ontological Insecurities and the politics of contemporary populism,’ special issue of Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Published, 05/15/2019.
  • Brent J Steele (2019) ‘Welcome home! Routines, Ontological Insecurity, and the Politics of US Military Reunion Videos’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 32.3 (2019): 322-343. Published, 05/15/2019.
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/095575...
  • S. Michael Christian and Brent J Steele (2019) ‘Specters of Schmuck: Aesthetics, Death, and the Haunting of Kitsch’ in Caroline Alphin and Francois Debrix, editors, Necrogeopolitics: On Death and Death-Making in International Relations. Routledge, Interventions series. Published, 02/01/2019.
  • Brent J. Steele (2019) ‘Emotions and Political Limitations: Working through the Broken Middle with Chris Brown’, in Anthony F. Lang and Mathias Albert, editors, The Politics of international Political Theory: Reflections on the Work of Chris Brown, Palgrave. Published, 01/15/2019.
  • Jelena Subotic and Brent J. Steele (2018) ‘Moral Injury in International Relations,’ Journal of Global Security Studies, 3, 4: 387-401. Published, 08/08/2018.
  • Brent J Steele and Eric A Heinze, editors (2018) Handbook on Ethics and International Relations. Routledge. Published, 08/01/2018.
  • Brent J Steele (2018) ‘The State’, in Roland Bleiker, editor, Visual Global Politics, Routledge, Interventions series. Published, 02/23/2018.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) Centenary International: 1914-1924, the politics of commemoration and historical memory in International Relations,’ Introduction to the ‘Centenary International’ special issue, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 63, 3: 339-344. Published, 12/01/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele and Oliver Kessler (2018) ‘On Constructivism, Realism and Contingency’, in Patrick James, Mariano Bertucci, and Jarrod Hayes, editors, Constructivism Reconsidered, pp. 67-86, University of Michigan Press. Published, 11/30/2017.
  • Luke Campbell and Brent J Steele (2017) ‘The Scars of Victory’ in Andrew R Hom, Cian O’Driscoll, and Kurt Mills, editors, Moral Victories: The Ethics of Winning Wars, pp. , Oxford University Press, 140-155. Published, 10/31/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) The Bridges that can’t be burned, International Studies Review for ‘A Bridge too far”? On the Impact of Worldly Relevance on International Relations’ forum, 19, December: 695-699. Published, 09/01/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) Hallucination and intervention. Global Discourse, 7, 2: 201-218. Published, 08/01/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) Aesthetics, Power and Insecurity: self-interrogative imaging and the West, in Benjamin Herborth and Gunther Hellmann, editors, Uses of the West: security and the politics of order, Cambridge University Press, 111-135. Published, 06/01/2017.
  • Ty Solomon and Brent J. Steele (2017) Micro-moves in international relations theory. European Journal of International Relations, 23(2), 267-291. Published, 06/01/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) Organizational processes and ontological (in) security: Torture, the CIA and the United States, Cooperation and Conflict 52.1: 69-89. Published, 06/01/2017.
  • Alexandria J Innes and Brent J Steele, ‘Gender and Everyday Violence,’ forthcoming in Caron Gentry, Laura Shepherd, and Laura Sjoberg, editors, Routledge Handbook on Gender and Security. Accepted, 03/07/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) Broadening the Contestation of Norms in International Relations. Polity, 49(1), 132-138. Published, 03/07/2017.
  • Brent J Steele and Oliver Kessler, editors (2016) ‘Constructing IR: the Third Generation’, special issue of European Review of International Studies, 3, 3. Published, 03/07/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele and Oliver Kessler (2016) ‘Constructing the next generation of Constructivism in IR’, Introduction to the ‘Next Generation in Constructivist Scholarship’ special issue, European Review of International Studies, 3, 3, http://www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/eris/article/view/27338. Published, 03/07/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) ‘Recognising, and Realising, the Promise of the Aesthetic Turn,’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 45, 2: 206-213. Published, 02/01/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele, editor, (2017) ‘The Politics of Constructivism in the US academy’, Symposium in PS: Political Science and Politics, 50, 1: 70-96. Published, 01/29/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele (2017) ‘The Politics of Constructivist International Relations in the US academy’, Introduction to symposium in PS: Political Science and Politics, 50, 1: 71-74. Published, 01/29/2017.
  • Brent J. Steele, editor, ‘Centenary International’ special issue of the Australian Journal of Politics and History, forthcoming 2017. Accepted, 06/15/2016.
  • Andrew R. Hom and Brent J. Steele (2016) ‘Discursive temporality, counterpower, and environmental ethics,’ in Time, Temporality and Violence in IR: (De) Fatalizing the Present, Forging Radical Alternatives, Anna Agathangelou and Kyle Killian, editors, Routledge, Interventions series, 189-204. Published, 03/14/2016.
  • Brent J Steele (2016) Book Review of of Political Self-Sacrifice: Agency, Body and Emotion in International Relations, by Karin Fierke, Peace Review 28, 1: 140-143. Published, 02/16/2016.
  • Brent J. Steele (2015) Book review of Religion and the Realist tradition, edited by Jodok Troy, e-international relations, 26 September, http://www.e-ir.info/2015/09/26/review-religion-and-the-realist-tradition/. Published, 09/26/2015.
  • Brent J Steele (2014) Recognizing non-recognition: a reply to Lindemann, Global Discourse,4, 4: 497-498. Published, 08/2014.
  • Brent J. Steele (2014) Book Review essay for Perspectives on Politics journal, over Reconstructing the Cold War: The Early Years, 1945-1958. By Ted Hopf, and International Practices. Edited by Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot. Published, 06/2014.
  • Brent J. Steele (2014) Book Review of Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion: Do All Good Things Go Together? By JULIA LEININGER, SONJA GRIMM, AND TINA FREYBURG (Eds.), Public Integrity. Published, 05/2014.
  • Brent J. Steele and Eric A. Heinze (2014) Norms of Intervention, R2P, and Libya: Suggestions from Generational Analysis, 6, 1: 88-112. Published, 03/2014.
  • Brent J. Steele (2014) ‘Micropolitics, NGOs and global governance,’ in Rodney Bruce Hall, editor, Reducing Armed Conflict with NGO governance, Routledge. Published, 02/2014.
  • Jack Amoureux and Brent J. Steele (2014) “Competence and Just War”, in International Relations, 28, 1: 67-87. Published, 02/2014.
  • Eric A. Heinze and Brent J. Steele, (2014) “Agency, Intentionality, and Spatiality in the Just War Tradition,” in The Future of Just War: New Critical Essays, Amy Eckert and Caron Gentry, eds, University of Georgia Press. Published, 01/2014.
  • Brent J. Steele (2013) ‘Why do we need a history of the ‘global’? Book Review of Maxine Berg, ed. Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the Twenty-first Century. December, H-Net reviews, https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=39975. Published, 12/2013.
  • Alexandria Innes and Brent J. Steele (2013) “Memory, Trauma, and Ontological Security,” in Memory and Trauma in International Relations, Doville Budryte and Erica Resende, editors, Routledge Press, Interventions series. Published, 11/2013.
  • Brent J. Steele (2013) “Revenge and Just War”, in Anthony F. Lang, Cian O’Driscoll and John Williams, eds, Just War: Authority, Tradition, and Practice, Georgetown University Press. Published, 10/2013.
  • Brent J. Steele (2013) “Context and Appropriation: the risks, benefits and challenges of reinterpretive expression,” International Politics, 50, 739–752. Published, 09/2013.
  • Brent J. Steele (2013) “The Politics and Limits of the Self: Kierkegaard, Neoncservatism, and International Political Theory,” Journal of International Political Theory, 9(2): 158–177. Published, 08/2013.
  • Brent J Steele (2013) “Daniel Deudney’s Bounding Power,” in Classics of IR, Henrik Biddal, Casper Sylvest, and Peter Wilson, eds, Routledge Press. Published, 08/2013.
  • Brent J. Steele (2013) “The Insecurity of America: The Curious Case of Torture’s Escalating Popularity” in Eric A. Heinze, editor, Justice, Sustainability, and Security: Global Ethics for the 21st Century, Palgrave. Published, 07/2013.
  • The (D)evolution of a Norm: R2P, the Bosnia Generation, and Humanitarian Intervention in Libya, in Aidan Hehir, editor, Libya, the Responsibility to Protect, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention, Palgrave. Published, 05/2013.
  • Brent J. Steele (2013) “Maintaining (US) Collective Memory: From Hiroshima to a Critical Study of Security History”, Critical Studies of Security, 1, 1: 83-100. Published, 04/2013.
  • Brent J. Steele and Eric A. Heinze (2014) “Norms of Intervention, R2P and Libya: Suggestions from Generational Analysis” Global Responsibility to Protect, 6: 88-112. Published, 04/2013.

Research Statement

 

While my research has migrated and transformed a bit over the years, most of my work has engaged debates within the field of International Relations (‘IR’). My more recent work is increasingly in dialogue with theoretical and practical concerns treated in political theory and US politics as well. My interdisciplinary research program has explored how the identities and ethical considerations of international actors (states, individuals, groups, regions, as well as the scholarly communities and institutions who study all of these), relate to conceptions of security, security interests, and foreign policies. Thus, my work can be considered a focus on the ways in which ethics impacts security and foreign policy, and vice-versa, and the role of International Relations as a field in grappling with those intersections.

Under this broad umbrella, my work can be loosely placed into four overlapping research fields: international security and foreign policy, international ethics, the making of IR ‘theory’, and history, political memory and international relations.

As my research has been both broad and interdisciplinary, I have employed a variety of methods. Because of the research questions I have more recently pursued, I have tended to use case studies, textual and historical methods (including discourse and narrative analysis), and interpretive methods.  While I continue to employ these methods in my current and future work (and now run an interpretive ‘Methods café’ pitched to graduate students and junior scholars at the Western Political Science Association annual meeting), my earlier work also utilized a variety of quantitative methods.  I continue to believe that regardless of the methods we use in our work, it is incumbent to be as versatile as possible to stay engaged within our own disciplines and, ultimately, with our colleagues as well. 

 

International Security: Ontological Security, Aesthetics, and Micropolitics

 

Much of my graduate work, including my dissertation, and then my first book and a few follow-up studies thereafter sought to bring a concept extracted from the field of social-psychology, ontological security, into International Relations.  Ontological security refers to the securing of the self (and thus identity) through time and space – the striving for continuity and predictability in social life. I attempted to apply this concept to International Relations through a series of investigations. For instance, the initial article I published in Review of International Studies(2005) used ontological security to understand the British decision to remain neutral during the U.S. civil war, and the impact Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had upon that decision.  I further developed this approach in my book,Ontological Security in International Relations(2008, Routledge, in the ‘New International Relations’ series),which assessed ontological security’s manifestation in international relations as a whole. 

 

For whatever reason, the concept and topic of ontological security has recently garnered quite a bit of interest in International Relations, and I’ve been a part of numerous working groups, workshops, panels and roundtables on the topic, culminating in a number of papers including one forthcoming article in Cooperation and Conflict applying the concept to the CIA and its pursuit (and narrated defense) of torture in the 2000s.  A funded workshop at the 2017 ISA meeting in Baltimore focused on bringing ontological security into conversation with work on the ‘Everyday politics’ of IR. From the ISA workshop, we (with Alexander Homolar of Warwick) successfully proposed and are now editing a special issue,  ‘Populism, ontological insecurity and International Relations’, of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. The manuscripts are in final review, and my own paper that is part of this special issue, titled ‘Welcome home! Routines, Ontological Insecurity, and the Politics of US Military Reunion Videos’, is now accepted forthcoming in that special issue after several rounds of peer review.With another co-authored paper under review, and one of my research focal points now and going forward (and likely for the rest of my career) remains ontological security in International Relations.

 

My second book, Defacing Power (University of Michigan Press, 2010) investigated how great powers, and especially the United States, protect and promote self-identities through aesthetics.  It posited how these identities can be and have been manipulated to counter this power.  I used this framework to investigate examples of this ‘aesthetics of insecurity’ in US foreign policy, including the My Lai massacre and the Fall of Saigon, al-Qaeda communiqués, the atrocities at Fallujah and Abu Ghraib, and the U.S. response to the Asian tsunami of December 2004.   These cases demonstrated how a nation-state—even one as ‘powerful’ as the United States— faces insecurity from unexpected events that challenge its self-constructed images.  

 

Defacing Powergenerated two further research avenues – one on generations and another on aesthetics and representation. The interest in generational analysis resulted in a co-edited volume, Theory and Application of the ‘generation’ in international relations and politics (with Jon Acuff). The focus on aesthetics led to several recent studies appraising the ‘aesthetic turn’ in International Relations, including a chapter recently published in a volume edited by one of the icons of that turn, Roland Bleiker, as well as an article in a forum on ‘the aesthetic turn at 15’ in the journal Millennium,published last year.  I continue to pursue both of these research avenues in my current work on restraint, which investigates how particular types of generations in the US have proved to be a (rare) restraining ‘check’ on US foreign policy over the past two hundred years, and how aesthetics and the politics of late modern representation (like the ISIS beheading videos) overwhelm restraint especially in democratic communities.   

 

My co-authored manuscript (with Jelena Subotic) explores the concept of ‘moral injury’ and anxiety in International Relations that has been accepted and is forthcoming at the Journal of Global Security Studies. A related study is forthcoming with the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. This study, part of a special issue of that journal I am co-editing, uses ontological security to examine the affective, spatial, and temporal features of military ‘reunion’ videos that proliferated social media and video sites throughout the United States in the late 2000s and early 2010s. 

 

That forthcoming study is also an extension of a broader and more recent focus of mine on the ‘micropolitics’ of security. This interest centralizes the small spaces and places where security practices are reinforced, reversed, or otherwise transformed (including ‘everyday’ settings where security narratives proliferate). This included studies published in 2011 in the Journal of International Political Theory and a chapter of an edited volume examining Heifer International’s peacebuilding efforts. Most recently, this interest in micropolitics led to a co-authored article (with Ty Solomon) in the European Journal of International Relationsappraising the wider trend of scholarly studies ‘moving’ to the micro in International Relations. 

 

Following the ‘first view’ publication of our that article, my co-author and I were approached by the editors of a new series for Oxford University Press, titled ‘Global Diacritics: Rethinking Critical Engagements in World Politics’, to develop the ideas from that article into a possible book project. It has been accepted for review whenever we deliver the manuscript. Although this project has proceeded a bit more slowly than the others I’m currently pursuing, Ty and I made some progress in the past year on it. I presented draft chapters for this book at the University of Glasgow in June of 2017 (on the micropolitics of prison networks for mobilizing groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS), and at the ISA-South regional meeting in Orlando in October (on the micropolitics of coexistence camps). Ty and I are presenting a revised version of our theoretical frameworks at the upcoming (November 2018) ISA-Northeast conference, and we hope to submit a manuscript for Oxford University Press’s review in 2019.

 

I am working on another book manuscript, Vicarious Identity and International Relations,with colleagues from the University of Warwick (UK) and the University of Tampere (Finland). After sending the advance materials including a proposal to Oxford University Press in April 2017, they agreed to review the manuscript when it is finished. We expect to deliver the manuscript for review this December (2018).

 

International Ethics, Intervention, and Just War

 

My work in the field of international ethics began by investigating issues surrounding humanitarian response, and has migrated to a more recent focus on the Just War tradition, accountability, and the justification and increasing popularity of torture in the United States. These studies include the volume Ethics, Authority and War: Non-State Actors and the Just War Tradition (Palgrave, 2009), that I co-edited with a colleague from the University of Oklahoma, Eric Heinze.  The volume examined Just War theory as it pertains to the increased prevalence of non-state actors in armed conflict. 

 

My work on ethics and accountability culminated in my third book Alternative Accountabilities in Global Politics: the Scars of Violence, which included historical and field work on the town of Lidice in the Czech Republic that was demolished by the Nazis during World War II.  Complemented by case illustrations from the 2009 Iranian revolution, the 2009 Gaza War, and the 2011 Arab Spring, that book put forth the argument that the scars of violence found on humans, buildings, and landscapes are their own form of accountability.  

 

My research focus in International Ethics has also been reinforced through my service and teaching interests, especially since joining the U of U in 2013. I served as the chair of the ISA International Ethics section from 2014-2016, and I developed a new course on the topic for my current department (POLS 5625: International Ethics) that I have offered the past two Fall semesters (2016 and 2017). International Ethics remains a field of focus for me going forward. I am currently pursuing a number of projects on Just War as well as co-editing (again with Eric Heinze) the recently published Routledge Handbook on Ethics in International Relations.This was an undertaking, involving the review and editing of seven ‘themes’ and 45 chapters by contributors from 18 countries

 

Concepts and Practices of International Relations theory

 

I have explored some general conceptual and theoretical discussions endemic to IR theory through a number of projects.  My interest in constructivist IR theory can be seen in a 2017 edited symposium of the APSA journal PS: Political Science and Politicson the ‘Politics of Constructivist IR in the US academy’, and a 2017 co-edited special issue of the European Review of International Studieson the ‘next generation’ of constructivist research. Another series of articles on ‘reflexive realism’ has sought to characterize the contemporary recovery of important principles of classical realism, including the use of ‘irony’ in IR theory via the work of Reinhold Niebuhr.  I have several chapters in edited volumes that represent further examinations of other ‘isms’ in International Relations, including the relationship between constructivism and feminism in a volume edited by Laura Sjoberg and J. Ann Tickner and another chapter that utilized the ‘English School’ approach to understand the quick response to the Somali pirates in the early 2010s.

 

A 2016 edited volume examines the role of the scholarin that which they study.  Reflexivity and International Relations (Routledge, co-edited with Jack Amoureux)includes a variety of contributions that together provide an inventory of a concept – reflexivity - that was (and continues to be) often-invoked but rarely categorized in International Relations and Political Science. I have continued to pursue my interest in scholarly responsibilities and vocational purposes in contributions to a 2017 forum in the  International Studies Review (on the ethical quandaries and conflicts of interest that arise in ‘bridge-building’ to the policy world), and in a chapter detailing my approach to teaching and pedagogy for an edited volume (by Jamie Frueh) tentatively titled Journeys in World Politics

 

History, political memory and (their use in) International Relations

 

A more recent focus for my research has been historical – both through examining international relations historically (the events of ‘the past’) as well as how ‘history’ gets politicized in contemporary global political settings (through memory, trauma, and causal narratives). My third book involved archival and field research investigating the circumstances surrounding, and following from, the Nazi massacre at the Czech village of Lidice during World War II, as well as the Children’s War Memorial (honoring the village’s children who were murdered) as it developed from the 1960s through the 2000s. My recent book project, Restraint and International Politicsinvestigates the ways in which discourses have justified the restraining of ‘immoral others’ through practices like intervention, quarantines, eugenics, and policing. I have developed in two articles what I title the ‘critical approach to security history’ (or ‘CSH’). These articles, both appearing in the journal Critical Studies on Security, explored the ways in which the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were narrated into a moral argument of necessity – the atomic bombs forced Japan to surrender and thus ‘saved lives’. However, the narratives of this security history remain important today to justify violence and overwhelming uses of force as part of a causal narrative that disproportionate uses of force are effective. I have continued this line of inquiry in a co-authored paper (with Faye Donnelly of St. Andrews) under revise and resubmit at the European Journal of International Security that further develops Critical Security History.

 

Last fall, I edited a special issue of the Australian Journal of Politics and History. Titled ‘Centenary International’ the issue and its contributions examined the politics behind the many ‘centennial’ commemorations across the world, distilled in national contexts, stemming from the years leading up to, through, and after the First World War (~1914-1922). 

 

A current project in this area (with Jelena Subotic) is a major research initiative that is examining the relationship between monuments, populism, and political memory as they relate to contemporary politics. This is the basis for an NEH grant proposal Professor Subotic and I will be submitting in December of this year (2018). Professor Subotic has published on the former 

Yugoslavia and the politics surrounding the removal of Holocaust memorials and statues in those republics, and specifically how such removal has helped to enable right-wing populism and anti-semitism. I have explored in the past six months the US South/Confederate context, and the contemporary political implications of the recent controversies over Confederate statues. We expect that this project will be involve a number of publication possibilities, including a research monograph, as well as an edited volume or special issue that includes an international group of scholars exploring similar issues over statues, memorials, populism and racial politics.

 

 

 

 

Presentations

  • Genealogy, Origins and Ontological Security, Paper Presented at the 2023 ISA-Northeast annual meeting, Providence, Rhode Island. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/03/2023.
  • The Ontological Security Politics of Naval Ship Museums, Presented at the ‘Ontological Security in International Relations’ symposium, Koç University, Istanbul, October 2023. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/02/2023.
  • From Objects to Subjects: The First World War Veteran and US ontological insecurity, 1918-1932, Paper Presented at the 2023 ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, September. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/23/2023.
  • ‘(Re)discovering the vocations of International Studies’, Ole Holsti Distinguished Scholar award luncheon keynote, ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, California, September 2023. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/23/2023.
  • The Ethics of Military Withdrawal (with Eric Heinze). Paper Presented at the 2023 ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, September. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/22/2023.
  • Order and Justice in Ontological Security Studies, Paper presented at the 2023 annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Montreal, Canada, July. Conference Paper, Presented, 07/01/2023.
  • Interpreting US Naval Ship Museums, Paper presented at the Interpretive Methods seminar, New School, New York, April 2023. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/27/2023.
  • Job’s Micropolitical Lessons, Paper presented at the Virginia Tech, ASPECT Program, ‘Bible and Empire’ seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/21/2023.
  • Ethical Anxiety and Hope in Global Politics, Paper Presented at the 2023 ISA annual meeting, Montreal, Canada. Conference Paper, Presented, 03/16/2023.
  • The Anger within Laughter: George Carlin and US ontological (in)security, Presentation for 'Anxiety, Humour and Global Politics' workshop, University of Warwick. Presentation, Presented, 03/09/2023.
  • The (Ontological) Security Politics of US Naval Ship Museums, paper presented at the University of Gothenberg (Sweden) International Politics seminar, February, 2023. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/08/2023.
  • Stigmatization and counter-stigmatization: Ontological Security Studies and Fluid Securitization, Paper Presented at the 2022 ISA-Midwest annual meeting, St. Louis. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/19/2022.
  • ISA in the World, reception address, International Studies Association-Midwest annual meeting, St. Louis . Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 11/18/2022.
  • From Subjects to Objects: Honor Flights and US Ontological Insecurity, Presentation for the Department of International Studies’s seminar luncheon, University of Oklahoma . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/11/2022.
  • Ontological Security Studies: An Overview, Masterclass Lecture for Richmond, American Univeristy of London, ‘State, Power and Globalization’ Research Group . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/10/2022.
  • 'Ethics in a (Heart)Broken World, Chair and Organizer of Roundtable at the 2022 ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena. Panel, Presented, 09/24/2022.
  • NFL kneeling, routines and the ethical anxiety of US ontological insecurity’, (with Luke Campbell), Paper Presented at the 2022 ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, September. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/23/2022.
  • ISA in the World, reception address, International Studies Association-West annual meeting, Pasadena . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/23/2022.
  • Vicarious Identity in International Relations, with implications for Ukraine (with Chris Browning), University of Oxford. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/15/2022.
  • Restraint in International Politics, Lecture, University of Warwick. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/07/2022.
  • From jus ad bellum to jus ad proelium: Just Struggles in Global Politics, Lecture for Colloquium Series of the Geneva Graduate Institute, Virtual. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/28/2022.
  • Opening Remarks for the ‘Emotions and Peace’ workshop, Australia National University, December 2022, virtual. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/24/2021.
  • Icons and Ontological Insecurity, Paper Presented at the 2021 ISA-Midwest annual meeting, St. Louis (with Jelena Subotic). Conference Paper, Presented, 11/20/2021.
  • From jus ad bellum to jus ad proelium: the United States’ Just Struggle against Covid Paper Presented at the 2021 ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, June. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/25/2021.
  • Ontological Security, Routines and Humour, keynote for the ‘Anxiety, Humour and Global Politics’ workshop, University of Warwick, September 2021, virtual. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/22/2021.
  • Existentialism and Ontological Security Studies, (with Xander Kirke), presented at the annual meeting of the British International Studies Association, June 2021. Conference Paper, Presented, 06/22/2021.
  • Vicarious Identity in International Relations, presented at the University of Sydney seminar series, May 2021, virtual. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/26/2021.
  • Vicarious Identity in International Relations, presented at the European University Institute IR working group series, April 2021, virtual. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/13/2021.
  • ‘‘Shut up and play’: NFL kneeling, routines and the ethical anxiety of US ontological security’, (with Luke Campbell), Paper Presented at the Oceanic Conference on International Studies, (Australia, over Zoom), December 2020. Conference Paper, Presented, 12/09/2020.
  • Contesting White Internationalism: Lost Cause commemoration in a global context, Paper Presented at the ISA-Midwest Annual Meeting, November 2020. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/22/2020.
  • Ontological Security in the age of Trump, Roundtable Participant, ISA-Northeast Annual Meeting, November 2020. Presentation, Presented, 11/06/2020.
  • The ins and outs of publishing your work: who, what, where, how, Roundtable Participant, ISA-Northeast Annual Meeting, November 2020. Presentation, Presented, 11/05/2020.
  • Ethics, Law, and War: An Examination of the Life and Work of Amy Eckert, Roundtable Participant, ISA-West annual meeting, September 2020. Presentation, Presented, 09/27/2020.
  • You Snooze, You Lose: Sleep, IR and the Wakeful Side of Global Politics (with Andrew R. Hom), Paper presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the International Studies Association-Northeast, Baltimore. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/03/2018.
  • International Relations as Micropolitics: some analytical and ethical propositions (with Ty Solomon), Paper presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the International Studies Association-Northeast, Baltimore. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/02/2018.
  • History and Memory (with Jelena Subotic), Paper presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the European International Studies Association, Prague, Czech Republic. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/13/2018.
  • The Politics of Memory and Hope, Semi-Plenary Speaker, annual meeting of the European International Studies Association, Prague, Czech Republic, September 2018. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/12/2018.
  • Ontological Security, Paper presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the International Political Science Association, Brisbane, Australia. Conference Paper, Presented, 07/30/2018.
  • Methods and Exteriority, Talk for the 2017 'Critical and Interpretive Methodologies workshop', at the annual meeting of the ISA-Northeast, Providence, Rhode Island. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/04/2017.
  • Torture in the 21st century: Towards a Micropolitical Research Agenda, Paper Presentation for the 'A Necessary Evil'? Contesting the Meaning, Permissibility, and Use of Torture' workshop held at the University of St. Andrews, October 2017 (paper distributed and presented via email/skype). Conference Paper, Presented, 10/26/2017.
  • Researching and Teaching International Relations during politically disruptive times, Roundtable at the 2017 annual meeting of the ISA-South, Orlando, Florida, USA. Panel, Presented, 10/21/2017.
  • Brent J Steele and Ty Solomon (2017) 'Creating Real, Life-long Change'? Youth Peace Camps: A micropolitical appraisal, Paper presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the ISA-South, Orlando, Florida, USA. Conference Paper, Presented, 10/20/2017.
  • Brent J Steele (2017) Anxiety, Timing and Hierarchy: Ontological Security Theory's Systemic Potential, paper presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Edinburgh, UK. Conference Paper, Presented, 07/01/2017.
  • The Waking Dream of IR: the international politics of sleep, presented (with Andrew Hom) at the University of Edinburgh Politics and International Relations department seminar, June 2017. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/28/2017.
  • Embracing Restraint: A proposal, presented at the 'Ethics of Violence' workshop, University of St. Andrews School of International Relations, June 2017. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/26/2017.
  • California to Cairo to Bucca and beyond: The Micropolitics of Detention and Imprisonment, presented to the University of Glasgow International Relations Seminar, June 2017. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/23/2017.
  • Dislodging Certainty: A way forward for security studies in an era of Brexit, Trump, and post-truth politics, keynote address for the International Security after Brexit and Trump symposium, University of Edinburgh, June 2017. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/22/2017.
  • Ontological Security and Everyday Populism in International Relations, presented at the University of Warwick, International Relations ‘Masterclass,’ . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/27/2017.
  • US Vicarious Identity with Israel: 1948-2017, paper presented at the 2017 Wormuth symposium, 'The Politics of Identity'. Presentation, Presented, 04/07/2017.
  • Critical Security History in International Relations (with Faye Donnelly), paper presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Baltimore. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/25/2017.
  • Ontological Security and IR through the years, presented at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway, November 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/18/2016.
  • Restraint and International Politics, presented at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) ‘Theory Seminar’, Oslo, November 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/17/2016.
  • Care of the scholarly self, teaching in higher education: Pedagogy Workshop held at the 2016 annual meeting of the ISA-Northeast, Baltimore, Maryland. Presentation, Presented, 11/05/2016.
  • Two tiers of constructivism, presented on 'Constructivism is Dead! Long Live Constructivism roundtable at the 2016 annual meeting of the ISA-Northeast, Baltimore, Maryland, November. Presentation, Presented, 11/04/2016.
  • Welcome home! The Everyday Politics of Military Reunion Videos, presented at the University of Oklahoma, College of International Studies Luncheon Seminar, Norman, Oklahoma, October 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/21/2016.
  • Restraint and International Relations: a proposal, Paper Presented at the annual meeting of the ISA-South, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, October 2016. Conference Paper, Presented, 10/14/2016.
  • Towards a Politics of Tactical Exteriority, presented on 'Tactical Constructivism' roundtable, presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the ISA-West, Pasadena, California. Presentation, Presented, 09/24/2016.
  • Libidinal Impulses, Complexes and the Challenge of Restraint in International Politics, presented at the University of Erfurt International Relations colloquium, June 2016. Presentation, Presented, 06/29/2016.
  • Ontological Security Theory’s analytical challenges, presented at the University of Warwick, International Relations ‘Masterclass,’ May 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/06/2016.
  • Moral Injury in International Relations (with Jelena Subotic), paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the Central and East European ISA, Ljubljana, June. Conference Paper, Accepted, 01/01/2016.
  • Restraint, Anticipation and Ontological Security, paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the Central and East European ISA, Ljubljana, June. Conference Paper, Accepted, 01/01/2016.
  • Restraint, Crisis and Panic in the Global Economy: moral discourses of restraint. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/07/2015.
  • Roundtable participant on Author meets critics: Simanti Lahiri's Suicide Protest in South Asia: Consumed by Commitment, at the 2015 annual meeting of the ISA-Northeast, Providence . Presentation, Presented, 11/07/2015.
  • Roundtable participant on Author meets critics: David M. McCourt’s “Britain and World Power since 1945”, at the 2015 annual meeting of the ISA-Northeast, Providence. Presentation, Presented, 11/07/2015.
  • Chair and Participant on Tactical Constructivism: Expressing Method in International Relations roundtable, at the 2015 annual meeting of the ISA-Northeast, Providence. Presentation, Presented, 11/06/2015.
  • Whistle Disruption: Reflexivity and Documentary Provocation, talk given at the University of Groningen Security Studies seminar, October 2015. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/13/2015.
  • Participant on Distinguished Scholar roundtable in honor of Chris Brown, at the 2016 annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Atlanta. Presentation, Accepted, 09/30/2015.
  • Chair and Participant on Centenary International roundtable at the 2016 annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Atlanta. Presentation, Accepted, 09/30/2015.
  • Roundtable participant on Author meets critics: "A Theory of Contestation' by Antje Wiener at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Presentation, Presented, 09/06/2015.
  • Roundtable on Beyond Freedom and Violence: Religion, Politics, and Interpretive Methods at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Presentation, Presented, 09/04/2015.
  • Organizational Processes and ontological (in)security: Torture, the CIA and the United States, Paper presented at the 2015 International Society of Political Psychology annual meeting, San Diego. Presentation, Presented, 07/04/2015.
  • The Concept of Success in (and of) war, presented at the 'Concepts in Action' workshop, Hebrew University, Israel, 2015. Conference Paper, Presented, 05/31/2015.
  • Everyday Security and Insecurity, at the 'Everyday insecurities and vulnerabilities' workshop, University of Glasgow, 2015. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/30/2015.
  • The complex politics of restraint, Paper presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Las Vegas, April. Conference Paper, Presented, 04/02/2015.
  • Ty Solomon and Brent Steele, Micro-moves in International Relations theory, paper presented at the 2015 International Studies Association annual meeting, New Orleans. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/21/2015.
  • Generational Restraint, Paper presented at the 2015 International Studies Association annual meeting, New Orleans. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/20/2015.
  • Commenter on ISA Northeast 'Book Circle,' for Jack Amoureux's book, 'A Practice of Ethics for Global Politics: Ethical Reflexivity'. Presentation, Presented, 11/08/2014.
  • Whistle Disruption: Reflexivity and Documentary Provocation, Presentation on Reflexivity and International Relations roundtable at the 2014 annual meeting of the International Studies Association-Northeast, Baltimore, Maryland. Presentation, Presented, 11/07/2014.
  • The complex politics of restraint, Paper Presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Las Vegas. Conference Paper, Accepted, 10/29/2014.
  • The (D)evolution of a Norm: R2P, the Bosnia Generation, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention, talk given at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, October, 2014. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/17/2014.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0XU0i0Vxow
  • 'Reflexivity and Documentary Provocation', participant on 'Reflexivity and International Relations' roundtable at the 2014 annual meeting of the International Studies Association-West, Pasadena, California. Panel, Presented, 09/27/2014.
  • Brent J. Steele, Akrasia and the politics of restraint, paper presented at the 2014 annual meeting of the International Studies Association-West, Pasadena, California. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/26/2014.
  • The Dehumanization in Grand(iose) Theory, and the Micropolitical Response, paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington, April 2014. Conference Paper, Presented, 04/2014.
  • Generational experience, hallucination, and Intervention: insights from visual studies, paper presented at the Visual Culture and the Legitimation of Military Interventions - International Conference, Magdeburg, Germany, August 2014. Conference Paper, Accepted, 04/2014.
  • Bridging the International Political Theory/Empirics divide: invited participant for the 'Methods Cafe', WPSA, Seattle, Washington, April 2014. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2014.
  • Norms and IR: a critical appraisal, roundtable for annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington, April 2014. Presentation, Presented, 04/2014.
  • Generatonalizing Norms Research in IR, Presentation for Roundtable on Norms and IR: a Critical Appraisal at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington. Presentation, Presented, 04/2014.
  • Spaces, Temporalities, and Ontological (In)Security in IR, roundtable participant, annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Toronto, Canada, March 2014. Presentation, Presented, 03/2014.
  • A Bridge Too Far? roundtable participant, annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Toronto, Canada, March, 2014. Presentation, Presented, 03/2014.
  • The conservative sensibilities of post-second-generation constructivism and the problems of ‘order', presented at the 'Next Generation of Constructivism' meeting in Weimar, Germany, February 2014. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/2014.
  • Normative Response in an Era of Skepticism: A Generational Take, Luncheon Speaker for ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, September 2013. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/2013.
  • Participant on the ‘Innovative Book Panel: What’s the Big Idea? In 60 seconds or less’, roundtable at the ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, September 2013 . Presentation, Presented, 09/2013.
  • ‘Turns taken or not? International Ethics in the 2010s’, roundtable at the ISA-West annual meeting, Pasadena, September 2013. Presentation, Presented, 09/2013.
  • ‘Re-interpretation and expression’, roundtable talk for Conceptualizing ‘the Empirical’: A Conversation among Interpretive Empirical Researchers and Political Theorists at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, August-September 2013 . Presentation, Presented, 08/2013.
  • ‘To the Dark Side Once More: ontological security, certainty and violence’, paper presented at the ‘Ontological Security in World Politics’ workshop, Lund University, May 2013. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2013.
  • Brent J Steele ‘Documenting Critical Reflexivity: Scholarly Responsibility in an Era of Intentions’, paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, San Francisco, California, April 2013. Conference Paper, Presented, 04/2013.
  • Brent J Steele, ‘Happy No More: Constructivism, Ethics and Global Politics in the Shadow of the Naughts,’ invited talk at Florida International University, April 2013. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2013.
  • ‘Emotion, expectation, and action’, roundtable talk presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, San Francisco, California, April 2013. Presentation, Presented, 04/2013.