Dr Thomas Moore

Dr Thomas Moore

Dr Thomas Moore is Associate Head of College (Education and Students) in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is also a Reader in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences. 

As an experienced academic leader in education and curriculum development Dr Moore has led cross-institutional projects designed to enhance inclusion and belonging at the University of Westminster. Dr Moore leads on the design and development of the education portfolio in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ensuring that our approach to learning design is informed by interdisciplinary innovation and equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Dr Moore’s research is in International Political Theory, at the interface between international ethics and International Law. With a focus on the legal and political theory of Carl Schmitt his published research explores the frontiers of legality, legitimacy, and violence in discourses of state sovereignty in Global Politics. With an increasing focus on theories of international security, recent publications have been concerned with the philosophical foundations of sovereignty in international discourse.

Dr Moore has been Director of Cross-Disciplinary Learning and Teaching (2016-2018) and Director of Learning and Teaching in the previous Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Languages (2012-2016).

Dr Moore was awarded a University of Westminster Teaching Fellowship in 2018-2019 for International Engagement and Student Experience.

Dr Moore is keen to supervise PhD/MA/UG students in the field of international political theory, including questions about the ethical dimensions of International Relations. Dr Moore is available to comment on ethical questions within international politics, including ethical foreign policy, the ethics of borders and state-sanctioned violence, and the politics of International Law.

My research is in the area of international political theory, examining the critical limits of International Relations theory through the work of Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt and the realist tradition.

Past research has examined the contractual foundations of international security and discourses of exceptionalism within the work of Carl Schmitt. Current research is concerned with the geopolitical dimensions of just war theory and communicative justifications of violence in contemporary international politics.

I am available to supervise dissertations in the area of contemporary IR theory, critical political theory, and Carl Schmitt's legal and political theory.

Completed PhD supervisory experience includes:

  • Christian Pfenninger, 'A complex web of capillary relations: modelling an ideal-type of the global demos along the lines of theoretical anarchism' (Completed - Director of Studies).
  • Marta Wielander, 'European border violence in the context of the contemporary 'refugee crisis' (Completed - Director of Studies).
  • Richard Neve, 'States of Emergency: Between Legal Order and the Political' (Completed - with Professor Chantal Mouffe).
  • Paula Sandrin, 'European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy and the impact of Turkey: a Tale of divergent Security Cultures?' (Completed - with Professor Chantal Mouffe).
  • Daniel Matteo, 'International Legitimacy and Private Security Companies' (Completed - with Professor Roland Dannreuther).
  • Greg Aasen (Completed - with Professor Dibyesh Anand).

  • Centre for the Study of Democracy