Ben Willis

Academic profile

Dr Ben Willis

Associate Lecturer
School of Society and Culture (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Ben's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 16: SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

About Ben

I am an Associate Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and teach across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules within the School. My research interests, broadly defined, lie at the intersection of international security and human rights, and include a particular concern with the range of political, legal, and ethical issues surrounding the prevention of mass atrocities (genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity).
There are two main strands to my current research. The first is the subject of previous doctoral work at the European Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and explores how the principle of RtoP has been used to address the commission of peacetime atrocity crimes in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) since 2005. The other strand of research builds on previous work in the third sector with the human rights NGO Protection Approaches, and examines how UK atrocity prevention policy is integrated across the government's various early warning, development, defence, and diplomatic activities.
I am always more than happy to discuss both academic and policy-oriented research and collaboration and can be reached via the contact details above.

Teaching

For academic year 2023-2024, I am teaching on the following modules:
Undergraduate
  • Stage 1 - HIS4003: World History since 1850
  • Stage 1 - PIR4005: International Relations since 1945
  • Stage 2 - PIR5001: The Politics of the European Union
  • Stage 2 - PIR5002: Global Governance and the United Nations
  • Stage 2 - PIR5012MX: Democracy and Globalisation: Citizens and the Modern State