Dr George Kyris

Dr George Kyris

Department of Political Science and International Studies
Associate Professor in International Politics

Contact details

Address
Department of Political Science and International Studies
School of Government
Muirhead Tower
University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr George Kyris is an associate professor and his research interests lie in international relations, security and global governance. His expertise is on state recognition, international organisations and conflict management, as well as state theory and sovereignty debates. 

Qualifications

  • PhD in Politics, University of Manchester, 2011
  • MA in International Relations, University of Manchester, 2007
  • PG Certificate in Academic Practice/ Higher Education Academy Fellow (2018)

Biography


I joined the department of POLSIS in 2014 and in 2016 I was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship with a project on international organisations, conflict and sovereignty. Before, I was a Research Fellow at the LSE and taught at the Universities of Warwick and Manchester, where I completed my PhD in 2011.

Teaching

  • Conflict, Statehood and Sovereignty (PGT)
  • Approaches to Research on Government & Society (PGR)
  • International Relations Theory (Year 2)

Past:

  • Dilemmas in IR (PGT)
  • War and Peace: Theory and Practice (Year 3)
  • Introduction to International Relations (Year 1)
  • Institutions, Politics and Policies of the European Union (Year 2)

Postgraduate supervision

I would welcome PhD applications in areas related to my research interests below, and I would encourage potential supervisees to get in touch:

- international conflict, conflict management and resolution
- international organisations, the European Union
- state recognition
- statehood, sovereignty
- secession
- unrecognised/ de facto states

Research

My research interests are generally about international relations, security and global governance. My expertise is on state recognition and international organisations, especially in the context of conflicts over statehood, unrecognised states, and the European Union. Emanating from this, I am also interested in state theory and sovereignty debates, as well as conflict management more generally.

Ìý

Selected Projects/ Awards:

UoB ESRC IAA supported project Ìý(with Nicholas Barker, 2022-2023): a set of knowledge exchange activities involvingÌýacademics, think tanks and policy makers on the issue of Russia’s war against Ukraine and associated challenges to European and global security.

Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship (2017-2020):This programme explores the role of international organisations (such as the UN, EU, OSCE, AU or ASEAN) in statehood conflicts and in relation to state recognition. Methodologically, it combines the development of typologies of (a) recognition and (b) approaches of international organisations towards statehood claimants with more in-depth process tracing of the ways in which recognition influences the approaches of international organisations towards statehood conflict. The programme offers missing findings on collective recognition, its relation to the role of international organisations globally, and makes a contribution to a state-centric academic and policy discussion, as well as broader debates on sovereignty.

'Dealing with Conflict' University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡- PRIO Workshop (2018): Together with the Peace Research Institute Oslo and supported by the Internationalisation Fund of the School of Government, I organised a policy-engagement workshop in the Cyprus UN buffer zone, which invited local stakeholders, like the European Commission and the UN, to learn how to deal with the Cyprus conflict from academics working on similar conflicts. Building on the success of the event, more workshops were organised in other conflict-affected areas (Georgia 2018, Kosovo 2019)

: Worked with local communities and school on a set of public discussions and history walks on sovereignty and what it means to Birmingham, its people and landscape.

): The Fellowship built on my PhD research and expanded on the role of the EU in the Cyprus conflict and lessons that can be drawn for similar conflicts (e.g. Kosovo).

Other activities

  • POLSIS Postgraduate Research Lead (2024- ), Admissions Team responsible for outreach (2022-2024), Director for Undergraduate IR Programmes (2020-2021), Director of Undergraduate Admissions (2015- 2017), Welfare Tutor (2014-2015)
  • Co-founder (with Vera Axyonova) and chair of the '
  • Higher Education Academy Fellow
  • Member of: International Studies Association (ISA), the British International Studies Association (BISA), the Universities Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and the European International Studies Association (EISA)
  • Reviewer for a range of publications, including Oxford University Press, Manchester University Press Palgrave MacMillan and a range of academic journals. 
  • In Birmingham, Dr Kyris has been co-convenor of the European Studies Research Group, a member of the Conflict and Peace Processes Research Group and the International Relations and Security Theory research group.
  • Dr Kyris writes regularly for and .

Publications

Highlight publications

Kyris, G 2022, '', European Journal of International Relations, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 287-311.

Kyris, G 2015, . Routledge.

Kyris, G & Luciano, B 2021, '', Global Studies Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 3, ksab011.

Kyris, G 2018, '', Ethnopolitics, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 426-442.

Recent publications

Article

Kyris, G 2025, '', Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

Kyris, G & Brisland, M 2024, '', Global Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, ksae044.

Kyris, G 2024, '', Ethnopolitics.

Kyris, G 2018, '', Geopolitics.

Kyris, G & Bouris, D 2017, '', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, vol. 19, no. 4.

Kyris, G & Christou, G 2017, '', Journal of Common Market Studies.

Kyris, G 2015, '', European Foreign Affairs Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 83-96. <>

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Kyris, G 2022, . in RJ Huddleston, T Jamieson & P James (eds), Handbook of Research Methods in International Relations. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 152–166.

Kyris, G 2021, . in I Armakolas, A Demjaha, A Elbasani & S Schwandner-Sievers (eds), Local and international determinants of Kosovo’s statehood – Vol II. Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, pp. 273-300. <>

Kyris, G 2019, . in J Ker-Lindsay & E Berg (eds), The Politics of International Interaction with De Facto States. Routledge.

Comment/debate

Kyris, G & Luciano, B 2023, '', Global Studies Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 1, ksad002.

Commissioned report

Kyris, G & Montoro, JM 2022, . Kosovo Foundation for Open Society. <>

Bacigalupo, L & Kyris, G 2021, . Kosovo Foundation for Open Society. <>

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Kyris, G 2020, . in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave. <>

Kyris, G 2020, . in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave. <>

Expertise

  • International Conflict 
  • Territorial conflict
  • International organisations, particularly European Union politics
  • Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Kosovo, Palestine

Languages and other information

Media availability in spoken and written English and Greek.

Media experience

Dr Kyris has extensive media experience. He has been invited to comment for international and regional media, such as the , Radio and TV on a variety of international and European issues, including conflict, the Eurozone crisis and the centenary of World War One. He is a regular contributor to the  and and has also written for policy platforms like ,  or the Greek Politics Specialist Group and for leading European news agencies, like  and .

Policy experience

Dr Kyris' regularly engage with policy-makers. Examples of major recent activities include: 

- In 2018 and supported by the School of Government Internationalisation Fund, Dr Kyris co-organised with the Peace Research Institute Oslo a policy-engagement workshop in the Cyprus UN buffer zone (2018) on lessons for the Cyprus conflict. Building on the success of the event, more workshops were organised in other conflict-affected areas (Georgia 2018, Kosovo 2019).   

- In 2018, Dr Kyris took part in a University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡- OSCE Workshop on Security & Economic Connectivity and contributor to the OSCE report (2018)

In 2015, Dr Kyris' was selected by the House of Lords EU External Affairs Sub-Committee.

In 2014, Dr Kyris' evidence was included in the UK Foreign Office , the 'most extensive analysis of EU action ever taken by a member state'.

Dr Kyris has also been a Country Expert for the , University of Gothenburg and has contributed to the