Prof Olaf Corry
- Position: Prof of Global Security Challenges
- Areas of expertise: International politics of climate change; Politics of geoengineering (‘climate engineering’); Emerging technologies and security politics; Global governance and social movements; International Theory
- Email: T.O.Corry@leeds.ac.uk
- Website: | Twitter | LinkedIn | Googlescholar
Profile
Olaf Corry is Professor of Global Security Challenges. He teaches International Politics, Security Studies and International Relations and the Environment, and is currently researching the international politics of climate geoengineering technologies (geoengineering).
Olaf came from a position as Associate Professor at the Department of Politics at the University of Copenhagen. There he taught International Relations as well as on the MSc in Security Risk Mangement. Before that he was Lecturer at the Open University where he co-authored and edited an award-winning textbook and online body of material for undergraduate International Relations students, and chaired the International Studies degree program. Prior to that he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge where he taught Security Studies, International Relations and methods, and researched the political sociology of risk and climate change. He gained his Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen with a thesis theorising and studying the formation of a global polity through expert economic knowledge and its contestations. Immediately after his Ph.D. Olaf worked as an advisor and speech writer for the main opposition party in the Danish parliament. He has published widely in diverse journals such as Review of International Studies, Global Environmental Change, International Relations, Globalizations, Millennium, Environment and Planning E, Political Studies and Sociology. His book 'Constructing a Global Polity: Theory, Discourse and Governance' argues that objects of governance (e.g. ‘the climate’) structure the international system.
Research interests
Olaf Corry's research focuses on how international politics affect, and are affected by, the global environment. Currently he specialises in the geopolitics of climate change and in particular the security implications of climate engineering technologies (‘geoengineering’). This concerns how the research, development and potential deployment of techniques to directly intervene in the global climate, either by limiting incoming sunlight or removing and storing huge quantities of atmospheric greenhouse gasses, co-produces international orders. More generally he is developing and exploring theoretical perspectives and approaches that allow the global environmental crisis to be understood alongside the fragmentation of the world into an uneven international. For example the role of non-human nature in world affairs is explored in a recent article on how settler colonialism involves the expulsion (or elimination) of indigenous populations as well as (and through) wholesale transformation and attacks on natural systems associated with the indigenous. Previous research projects have focused on subjects such as climate protesters’ policy interests, green NGO engagements with climate technology, resilience thinking in and global environmental governance, green movements’ role in the end of the Cold War, and the role of risk-thinking in security theory.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Qualifications
- PhD International Relations (University of Copenhagen)
- M.Phil Politics and Sociology of Modern Society (University of Cambridge)
- Cand.Scient.Pol (Aarhus University)
- MA Political Science (Aarhus University)
Professional memberships
- British International Studies Association
- International Studies Association
Student education
Olaf Corry teaches International Politics, Environmental Politics and Security studies.