My research and publications centre on the history of international and transnational relations in the Twentieth Century. I am especially interested in the relationship between international security and economic and financial stability, and the role played by international and regional (notably European) organizations. It has led me to explore the history of Europe and the Great Depression, the origins of the Second World War, and the role of the major powers in the world economy.
My published work on this includes the books The Great Depression in Europe, 1929-1939 (London, 2000), with a second edition appearing in 2014, and The Failure of Economic Diplomacy: Britain, Germany, France and the US, 1931-36 (London, 1996).
More recently, I have been studied and published on the history of the League of Nations, and the organizations which succeeded it, which led to my publication Securing the World Economy: The Reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920-1946 (Oxford, 2013). I am also exploring methodological questions in international, transnational and European history, and researching the origins of international concern with 'development'.
My new research project, supported by Tim Sanderson and the Calleva Foundation, uses the history of international and regional organizations to explore changing conceptions of security in the Twentieth Century. I have been awarded a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust, which funds a period of research until September 2018, to write a transnational and global history of European security in the Twentieth Century.
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