Dr Aidan Hehir

Dr Aidan Hehir


I joined the University of Westminster in 2007; previously I worked at the University of Sheffield. I gained my PhD in 2005 from the University of Limerick. 


My research interests include transitional justice, humanitarian intervention, and statebuilding in Kosovo. 

My most recent book - Hollow Norms and The Responsibility to Protect (Palgrave Macmillan) – won the 2019 British International Studies Association ‘Working Group on Intervention and R2P’ book prize. I have published over fifty academic book chapters and journal articles; my work has been published in International SecurityThe Journal of Peace ResearchEthics and International Affairs, and Cooperation and Conflict. I have given over one hundred papers at conferences worldwide, written over fifty book reviews, and published many other academic commentaries. 

I was one of the original co-convenors of the BISA Working Group on the Responsibility to Protect, and I am currently the co-editor of the Routledge "Intervention and Statebuilding" book series. I am a regular contributor to national and international television and radio.

I am author/editor of the following books; 

Hollow Norms and The Responsibility to Protect (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

Protecting Human Rights in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2017. Co-editor)

Libya, The Responsibility to Protect, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Co-editor)

Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction 2nd Edition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) 

The Responsibility to Protect: Rhetoric, Reality and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

International Law, Security and Ethics (Routledge, 2010 & 2014. Co-editor)

Kosovo, Intervention and Statebuilding (Routledge, 2010. Editor)

Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) 

Humanitarian Intervention after Kosovo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

Statebuilding: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2007 & 2009. Co-editor). 


  • Centre for the Study of Democracy

In brief

Research areas

Humanitarian Intervention, The Responsibility to Protect, Statebuilding in Kosovo, International Law and the Use of Force and The United Nations

Supervision interests

Humanitarian Intervention, The Responsibility to Protect and Intervention/Statebuilding in Kosovo