Prof Alex Colas
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Alejandro (Alex) Colás joined Birkbeck from Sussex University in 2003 and is Professor of International Relations. He studied Politics at Bristol University and completed his Masters and PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Alex directs the MSc in International Security and Global Governance and the MSc in Food, Politics and Society. He teaches courses on Global Politics, Governance and Security; Food, Politics and Society, and How the West Was Made: Transformations in Global Politics. He is a member of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize Committee and has published on subjects ranging from piracy, food politics, Spanish responses to terrorism, imperialism, internationalism and global governance in journals like International Affairs, the Review of International Studies, Political Quarterly, Development and Change, Millennium, the European Journal of International Relations and Contemporary Politics
Office hours
Please contact me at a.colas@bbk.ac.uk to arrange for a meeting.
Administrative responsibilities
- Director for Postgraduate Research Students, Politics Department
- Undergraduate Dissertation Coordinator
- Director, MSc International Security and Global Governance
- Director, MSc Food, Politics and Society
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Food Politics
- Empire and Imperialism
- Internationalism
- International Historical Sociology
- Geopolitics
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Current doctoral researchers
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MADDY RUZZENE
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MERIAM MABROUK
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WILLIAM HOUNGBO
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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ASHIMA GANDHI
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KIERAN ANDRIEU
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AZZAM AL KASSIR
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SCOTT MCLAUGHLAN
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ROWAN LUBBOCK
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Global Politics, Governance and Security (POSO082S7)
- Food, Politics, and Society (Level 7) (SSPO144S7)
- Transformations in Modern Politics: Democracy, Conflict and Globalisation (SSPO265S4)
- Crossing Borders (SSSS001S3)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Colas, Alex (2024) International political sociology through the colonial mirror: a contrapuntal reading of the Spanish Civil War. International Political Sociology 18 (2), pp. olae009. ISSN 1749-5679.
- Colas, Alex and Campling, L. (2023) Maritime temporalities and Capitalist development. Geography Compass ISSN 1749-8198.
- Colas, Alex and Edwards, Jason (2022) The everyday economy and the right to food. The Political Quarterly 93 (4), pp. 675-682. ISSN 0032-3179.
- Colas, Alex (2022) Food, multiplicity, and imperialism: patterns of domination and subversion in the modern international system. Cooperation and Conflict 57 (3), pp. 384-401. ISSN 1460-3691.
- Colas, Alejandro (2019) Internationalism under platform Capitalism: Brexit and the organisation of UK fast food workers. Political Quarterly 90 (4), pp. 620-628. ISSN 1467-923X.
- Campling, L. and Colas, Alejandro (2018) Capitalism and the sea: sovereignty, territory and appropriation in the global ocean. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36 (4), pp. 776-794. ISSN 1472-3433.
- Colas, Alejandro (2016) Barbary Coast in the expansion of international society: piracy, privateering and corsairing as primary institutions. Review of International Studies 42 (5), pp. 840-857. ISSN 0260-2105.
- Colas, Alejandro (2011) Taking sides: cosmopolitanism, internationalism and ‘complex solidarity’ in the work of Fred Halliday. International Affairs 87 (5), pp. 1051-1065. ISSN 0020-5850.
- Colas, Alejandro and Pozo, G. (2011) A response to our critics. Geopolitics 16 (1), pp. 236-238. ISSN 1465-0045.
- Colas, Alejandro and Pozo, G. (2011) The value of territory: towards a Marxist geopolitics. Geopolitics 16 (1), pp. 211-220. ISSN 1465-0045.
- Colas, Alejandro (2010) An exceptional response? security, development and civil society in Spanish policy after 11-M. Development & Change 41 (2), pp. 313-333. ISSN 0012-155X.
- Colas, Alejandro (2008) Open doors and closed frontiers: the limits of American empire. European Journal of International Relations 14 (4), pp. 619-643. ISSN 1354-0661.
- Colas, Alejandro (2005) Imperious civility: violence and the dilemmas of global civil society. Contemporary Politics 11 (2-3), pp. 179-188. ISSN 1356-9775.
- Colas, Alejandro (2004) Geographies of violence and democracy: politics in Spain. Radical Philosophy 126, pp. 2-7. ISSN 0300-211X.
- Colas, Alejandro (2004) The reinvention of populism: the Islamist response to capitalist development in the contemporary Maghreb. Historical Materialism 12 (4), pp. 231-260. ISSN 1465-4466.
- Colas, Alejandro (1998) Los desafíos del Magreb. Ciências & Letras 21/22, pp. 173-190.
- Colas, Alejandro (1997) Internationalism in the Mediterranean 1919-1942. Journal of North African Studies 1 (3), pp. 211-233. ISSN 1362-9387.
- Colas, Alejandro (1997) Middle East studies in Spain: a report on research sources. Journal of North African Studies 2 (3), pp. 46-59. ISSN 1362-9387.
- Colas, Alejandro (1997) The limits of mediterranean partnership: civil society and the Barcelona conference of 1995. Mediterranean Quarterly 8 (4), pp. 63-80. ISSN 1047-4552.
- Colas, Alejandro (1997) The promises of international civil society. Global Society: Interdisciplinary Journal of International Relations 11 (3), pp. 261-277. ISSN 1360-0826.
- Colas, Alejandro (1996) La izquierda y lo internacional. Nueva Sociedad 41, pp. 67-75. ISSN 0251-3552.
- Colas, Alejandro (1994) Putting cosmopolitanism into practice: the case of socialist internationalism. Millennium: Journal of International Studie 23 (3), pp. 513-534. ISSN 0305-8298.
Book
- Campling, L. and Colas, Alex (2021) Capitalism and the sea: the maritime factor in the making of the modern world. New York, U.S.: Verso. ISBN 9781784785239.
- Edwards, Jason and Colas, Alejandro and Zubaida, Salman and Levi, Jane (2018) Food, politics and society: social theory and the modern food system. Oakland, U.S.: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520291959.
- Colas, Alejandro and Mabee, B. (2010) Mercenaries, bandits, pirates and empires: private violence in historical perspective. London, UK: Hurst. ISBN 9781849040884.
- Colas, Alejandro (2007) Empire. Key Concepts Series. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745632520.
- Colas, Alejandro and Saull, R., eds. (2006) The war on terrorism and American 'Empire' after the Cold War. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415354264.
- Colas, Alejandro (2002) International civil society: social movements in world politics. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745625560.
Book Section
- Prieto Piastro, C. and Colas, Alex (2022) "Like the Papacy of Mexican Cuisine": Mayoras and traditional foods in contemporary Mexico. In: Colas, Alex and Ranta, R. and Montersescu, D. (eds.) Going Native? Settler Colonialism and Food. Food and Identity in a Globalising World. London, UK and New York, U.S.: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783030962678.
- Colás, Alejandro (2022) IR's sea sickness: a materialist diagnosis. In: de Carvalho, B. and Leira, H. (eds.) The Sea and International Relations. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526155108. (In Press)
- Colas, Alejandro (2017) The infrastructure of the global economy: the shipping container as a political artefact. In: McCarthy, D. (ed.) Technology and World Politics: An Introduction. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138955875.
- Colas, Alejandro (2016) Hegemony. In: Berenskoetter, F. (ed.) Concepts in World Politics. London, UK: Sage. pp. 200-216. ISBN 9781446294277.
- Colas, Alejandro (2014) A perverse symbiosis: the state, Islam and political dissent in contemporary Algeria. In: Teik, K. and Hadiz, V. and Nakanishi, Y. (eds.) Between Dissent and Power: The Transformation of Islamic Politics in the Middle East and Asia. IDE-JETRO Series. London, UK and New York, U.S.: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 224-247. ISBN 9781349488414.
- Colas, Alejandro and Mabee, B. (2010) The flow and ebb of private seaborne violence in global politics: lessons from the Atlantic World, 1689-1815. In: Colas, Alejandro and Mabee, B. (eds.) Mercenaries, Bandits, Pirates and Empires: Private Violence in Historical Perspective. London, UK: Hurst Publishing. ISBN 9781849040884.
- Colas, Alejandro and Edwards, Jason (2010) Democracy, the state and capitalism today. In: Pugh, J. (ed.) What is Radical Politics Today?. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 247-255. ISBN 9780230236257.
- Colas, Alejandro (2010) The international political sociology of empire. In: Denemark, R.A. (ed.) The International Studies Encyclopedia. Blackwell. ISBN 9781444336597.
- Colas, Alejandro (2006) The reinvention of populism: Islamist responses to capitalist development in the contemporary Maghreb. In: Dunn, B. and Radice, H. (eds.) 100 Years of Permanent Revolution: Results and Prospects. London, UK: Pluto Press. pp. 196-210. ISBN 9781849643207.
- Colas, Alejandro (2005) Global civil society: analytical category or normative concept?. In: Baker, G. and Chandler, D. (eds.) Global Civil Society: Contested Futures. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 14-28. ISBN 9780415429788.
- Colas, Alejandro (2005) Neo-liberalism, globalisation and international relations. In: Saad-Filho, A. and Johnstone, D. (eds.) Neo-Liberalism: A Critical Reader. London, UK: Pluto Press. pp. 70-80. ISBN 9780745322988.
- Colas, Alejandro and Saull, R. (2005) Introduction. In: Colas, Alejandro and Saull, R. (eds.) The War on Terrorism and the American 'Empire' after the Cold War. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 1-31. ISBN 9780415354264.
- Colas, Alejandro (2004) The power of representation: democratic politics and global governance. In: Armstrong, D. and Farrell, T and Maiguashca, B. (eds.) Governance and Resistance in World Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521546997.
- Colas, Alejandro (2003) Exploitation and solidarity: putting the political back into IPE. In: Tétreault, M.-A. and Tomas, K. (eds.) New Odysseys in International Political Economy. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 195-210.
- Colas, Alejandro (2003) The promises of international civil society. In: Robertson, R. and White, K.E. (eds.) Globalization: Critical Concepts in Sociology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415302227.
- Colas, Alejandro (2002) Materialismo histórico. In: Guerrero, D. (ed.) Manual de Economía Heterodoxa. Madrid, Spain: Sistema.
- Colas, Alejandro (2002) The class politics of globalisation. In: Rupert, M. and Smith, H. (eds.) Historical Materialism and International Relations. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 191-210. ISBN 9780415263719.
- Colas, Alejandro (1999) The popular front and internationalism: the Tunisian case in comparative perspective. In: Chafer, T. and Sackur, A. (eds.) Popular Front and Empire. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780333729731.