Tom Smith

PhD Candidate

LLB (Hull), MSc (London School of Economics)

Tom Graduated from the Law School in 2005 before completing the MSc in Global Politics at the London School of Economics under the tutelage of Fred Halliday, David Held and John Sidel. Now returning to Hull to complete his PhD in International Relations into conceptualisation of ‘the jihad’ the connections between the ‘incidents of the jihad’ using Britain, Thailand and the Philippines as case studies.

After graduating from the LSE he worked for the UN in Sri Lanka and has recently returned from a year in the Philippines as Visiting Lecturer in International Relations at De La Salle University in Manila.

Tom has a background in Law and worked for his local MP for many years as a researcher and caseworker whilst at Law School. He retains a strong interest for International Law and regularly contributes to pro bono projects abroad on issues on particular International cross-over with his research. Most recently Tom gave a public talk outlining the case for new approach by the newly installed Aquino Presidency to the Subic Rape Case.

Tom is currently working on a long term project to make his thesis into a feature length documentary, recording interviews and compiling footage from various academics and media commentators.

Research Interests

His research and academic interests range from:

• Violence and Media
• Terrorism and War studies
• Islam and the Middle East
• South East Asia and the Pacific Rim

Publications

• Philippine election plays more like a soap opera, Wednesday 5 May 2010
• South East Asiaand the Global Jihad, Issues & Studies, Forthcoming 2010
• The Philippines and the War on Terror; peripheral or central?, Asian Survey 2009
• I am a regular columnist on the worldwide football website CaughtOffside.com, a list of all my recent articles can be found at www.caughtoffside.com/author/tom-smith/

Reviews

Political Studies Review Journal, 2008 - Global Rebellion: Religious challenges to the secular state, from Christian militants to al Qaeda by Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California Press,

Millennium Journal of International Studies, 2009 - Combined review of; Jack Covarrubias and Tom Lansford (eds.), Strategic Interests in the Middle East: Opposition or Support for US Foreign Policy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007); Angel Rabasa, Steven Boraz et. al, Ungoverned Territories: Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risks (RAND Corporation, 2007) and Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan (United States Institute of Peace, 2008)

Millennium Journal of International Studies, 2009 review of Faisal Devji, The Terrorist in Search of Humanity (2008)

Conferences

The Global Jihad, Fourth APISA congress see http://apisa4.multiply.com/

Languages

Arabic, Thai, Tagalog, Cebuano, French

Contact

T.Smith@law.hull.ac.uk