Rob Haswell
PhD candidate
| Degrees: | BA Hons StFX (2018) & MSc,International Relations, University of Edinburgh (2019) |
| Email: | robhaswell@cmail.carleton.ca |
| Twitter: | Follow |
I began the PhD program in September 2020, having previously attended St. Francis Xavier University (2018) and the University of Edinburgh (2019). I am currently a fifth-year political science PhD candidate at Carleton University, with concentrations in the fields of international relations and comparative politics. I am interested in American foreign policy and the role of the United States military therein.
My dissertation draws on both neoclassical realism and the writings of Carl von Clausewitz to analyze the role that the foreign policy executive’s threat perception, the organizational culture of the United States military, and civil-military relations played during the Vietnam War (1960-65) and the War in Afghanistan (2009-2014), particularly in the operationalization of counterinsurgency. In doing so, the dissertation aims to draw a straighter line from the international context to the tactical and operational level of counterinsurgency and provide a more theoretically informed account than is typically presented. It will be supervised by Dr. Elinor Sloan.
Largely working within international security, my research interests include the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, non-state actors such as the Taliban and the Islamic State and other forms of transnational terrorism, as well as Iranian foreign and defense policy. I have presented work at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting, as well as at the United States Military Academy, West Point; and have published with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Additionally, I am the coauthor of a forthcoming volume about the Obama administration in Afghanistan. Following the completion of my dissertation, I am hoping to work in the national security community.
In my free time, I enjoy reading, cooking, collecting vinyl records, and fly fishing.