Dr Jim Whitman - Staff Profile
| Name | Dr Jim Whitman |
| Contact Position | Director of Postgraduate Programme, School of Social and International Studies |
| Room and Building | Ashfield Building, Room T1.1e |
| Email Address | j.whitman@bradford.ac.uk |
Biography
Departmental duties
Director of Postgraduate Programme, School of Social and International Studies. I have also served as Acting Head of Department; directed the Department's BA and MA programmes; and been MA Admissions Tutor.
I supervise BA, MA and PhD dissertations and welcome both applications and informal inquiries from suitably qualified individuals to undertake doctoral research.
Teaching
International Relations: Theories and Applications (BA)
Human Rights (BA and MA)
International Politics of the Environment (BA)
International Politics and Security Studies (MA)
Research Areas
Research areas
1. Nanotechnology and the dual use dilemma
I am a member of a five year research project sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, `Building a sustainable capacity in dual use bioethics.' The threat that the modern, benignly intended life sciences revolution could be used for malign purposes is demonstrated by recent incidents of bioterrorism but more particularly by the series of large scale offensive biological warfare programmes carried out by major states in the last century.
As capabilities for such misuse have simplified and spread around the world, policy makers in many countries have sought effective policies to deal with the `dual use¿ dilemma. Unfortunately, to date the expertise of life scientists and bioethicists has not been applied effectively to assist in this long-term process of policy development. This project is devoted to building a sustainable capacity to assist that objective both by facilitating analysis of the dual-use bioethics problem bow and by training young scholars to continue such work in future.
My own focus within the project is on the ways in which nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology feature in the creation of dual use dilemmas.
Please visit the project web site: http://www.dual-usebioethics.net/
2. Global Governance
I have written two monographs on this theme, The Fundamentals of Global Governance (above); and previously, The Limits of Global Governance (Routledge, 2005), as well as an edited volume, Global Governance (for the Palgrave Advances series, 2009). I remain engaged with global governance issues, particularly with respect to the complex interaction of human and natural systems and the challenge these pose for our timely apprehension, deliberation and policy formulation/enactment.
3. Human Rights
The Geneva Conventions Under Assault (coedited with Sarah Perrigo) was published by Pluto Press in 2010. My own chapter focused on torture. I plan to develop this work further, examining the legal, political and normative implications of the normalization of torture.
Students Supervised
Current PhD students
Juichiro Tanabe, Bhuddist Philosophy and the Epistemological Foundations of Conflict Resolution
Carlo Aldrovandi, Apocalyptic Movements in Contemporary Politics: Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism
Jerry Mameja: HIV/AIDS and Intergenerational Knowledge Formation: The Case of Namibia
Benita Sumita, A Critical Exploration of the Contested meanings of Internal Displacement
Bryn Higgs, The Effectiveness and Implications of the ICC's Interventions in Uganda and Sudan
Other Professional Interests
Book Series
I am the general editor of the Palgrave Global Issues book series, which now has 35 volumes in print, with several currently contracted and in various stages of production.
The series description:
As the scale and intensity of human activity increase, the speed and comprehensiveness of planetary repercussions have become active elements in determining the conditions and dynamics necessary for a just, equitable, stable and sustainable human future. Yet established categories of knowledge and conceptions of political order and security appear ever less able to accommodate the larger realities of the human condition.
This series comprises three principal themes: the interaction of human and natural systems; cooperation and conflict; and the enactment of values. There is an underlying emphasis on the examination of complex systems and causal relations in political decision-making; problems of knowledge; authority, control and accountability in issues of scale; and the reconciliation of conflicting values and competing claims. The concentration throughout is on an integration of existing disciplines toward the clarification of political possibility as well as impending crises.
The latest volumes in the series:
· Robert Boardman, Earth Systems Governance: Science and Its Uses (2010)
· Annegret Flohr, Lothar Rieth, Sandra Schwindenhammer and Klaus Dieter Wolf, The Role of Business in Global Governance (2010)
· Nicole Dietelhoff and Klaus Dieter Wolf, Corporate Social Responsibility? Corporate Governance Contributions to Peace and Security in Zones of Conflict (2010).
· Neil Davison, `Non Lethal' Weapons (2009).
· B. K. Greener, The New International Policing (2009).
I warmly welcome informal inquiries as well as full or outline proposals. Please contact me directly at j.whitman@bradford.ac.uk
Bibliography
Recent books
(with Sarah Perrigo, (eds), The Geneva Conventions Under Assault (Pluto Press, 2010).
Outrages committed during violent conflict and as part of the `war on terror¿ are not only an affront to human dignity: they also violate the Geneva Conventions. This book examines recent high-profile cases of repeated and open abuse of the Conventions. The contributors explore why these and related violations of international humanitarian law cannot be viewed as anomalies, but must be regarded as part of a pattern which is set to undermine the Geneva Conventions as a whole. The contributors argue that an international system in which there is diminishing legal restraint on the use of force means that the world will become less secure and more volatile, even for those in the most powerful countries. Individuals everywhere face the prospect of a horrifying vulnerability. This is the first scholarly yet accessible work to consider the meanings of outrages such as the normalisation of torture, as well as the worrying new normative, technical and tactical developments that challenge the purpose and standing of the Geneva Conventions.
(ed), Global Governance (Palgrave Advances series, 2009).
Despite the proliferation of texts devoted to global governance, there is no one single text that guides both students and established professionals through the bewildering and often imprecise ways in which `global governance¿ is now used. This text is designed to complement the existing literature by providing clearly themed studies of the most common understandings and applications of the term. Ranging across the actors, arenas, means and purposes of global governance, this authoritative and incisive collection is unique in bringing order and clarity to the full span of a literature that has burgeoned in recent years. The focus on established understandings of global governance as a distinct form of political activity and the clear thematic ordering of the material gives the book consistency and coherence. And because it consolidates such a rich and often confusing field of scholarship, it is set to become a standard text.
The Fundamentals of Global Governance (Palgrave, 2009).
If comprehensive global governance can never be more than the sum of numerous forms and levels of governance, is an inclusive, coherent and effective global governance possible? What must be the fundamentals of governance as an activity in order for the world¿s states and peoples to achieve a peace, stability and sustainability? Moving beyond sector-specific studies, this book outlines the essentials of global governance in eight chapter-length propositions. These studies examine the challenges that beset the exercise of governance not only as matters of political contestation within and between states, but also between the spheres of governance we have already set in place to cope with our highly complex world. The book concludes by describing how all of the eight `fundamentals¿ combine, in a study of the human rights regime as global governance. Strongly argued and richly detailed but clearly written and accessible to non-specialists, The Fundamentals of Global Governance brings a novel approach and fascinating insights to the study of global governance.
Articles forthcoming
'The Arms Control Challenges of Nanotechnology,' in Contemporary Security Policy
(with Nana Poku), 'Developing Country Health Systems and the Governance of International HIV/AIDS Funding,' in International Journal of Health Management and Planning