Richard Caplan is Professor of International Relations and an Official Fellow of Linacre College. His principal research interests are concerned with international organisations and conflict management, with a particular focus on peacekeeping and 'post-conflict' peace- and state-building. He is the author and editor of several books, among them Europe's New Nationalism: States and Minorities in Conflict (Oxford University Press, 1996); A New Trusteeship? The International Administration of War-torn Territories (IISS/Routledge, 2002); Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia (Cambridge University Press, 2005); International Governance of War-torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2005); and Exit Strategies and State Building (Oxford University Press, 2012). His most recent book is Measuring Peace: Principles, Practices and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Professor Caplan is Principal Investigator of the ESRC-funded project 'After Exit: Assessing the Consequences of United Nations Peacekeeping Withdrawal', which is investigating conditions on the ground in countries that have played host to large-scale UN peacekeeping operations in the five-year period following the closure of these operations. See the After Exit website for more details. He was also a lead researcher of the Oxford Martin School-funded programme on 'Transboundary Resource Management', which explored the scope for cross-border co-operation on natural resource management in the eastern Nile River Basin and the Jordan River Basin, where growing pressures on water and energy threaten regional destabilisation. See the Oxford Martin School website for more details.
Professor Caplan has held fellowships and received grants from the British Academy, the British Council, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the John Fell OUP Research Fund, the Leverhulme Trust, the MacArthur Foundation, the Oxford Martin School, and the US Institute of Peace. He has held visiting positions at the European University Institute (EUI), University of Konstanz, University of Pavia, Princeton University, and Sciences Po (Paris).
Research interests
International Organisations and Conflict Management
Post-conflict Peace- and State-building
Peacekeeping Theory and Practice
Humanitarian Intervention
Nationalism and Ethno-nationalist Conflict
Contemporary European Security
Publications
Books and monographs
- Measuring Peace: Principles, Practices, and Politics, Oxford University Press, 2019 (ppbk 2021).
- Exit Strategies and State Building, Oxford University Press, 2012 (ed.).
- Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, Cambridge University Press, 2005 (ppbk 2007).
- International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction, Oxford University Press, 2005 (ppbk 2006).
- A New Trusteeship? The International Administration of War-Torn Territories, Adelphi Paper No. 341, Oxford University Press/International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2002.
- Europe’s New Nationalism: States and Minorities in Conflict, Oxford University Press, 1996 (ed. with J. Feffer).
- Post-Mortem on UNPROFOR: Lessons of UN Peacekeeping in Former Yugoslavia, London Defence Study No. 33, Brassey’s/Centre for Defence Studies, 1996.
- State of the Union: The Clinton Administration and the Nation in Profile, Westview Press, 1994 (ed. with J. Feffer).
Select articles and book chapters
- 'Exploring the impact of United Nations peacekeeping operations on the external affairs of host states', European Journal of International Relations (2024) (with J. Gledhill & M. Meiske): https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661241247.
- 'Political leverage and UN peacekeeping: the case of UNOCI’s withdrawal from Côte d’Ivoire', Conflict, Security & Development (2024): DOI: 10.1080/14678802.2024.2335733.
- 'Peacekeeping Operations: The Endgame' in H. Dorussen, ed., Handbook on Peacekeeping and International Relations, Edward Elgar (2022) (with J. Gledhill & M. Meiske).
- 'Developing Peace: The Evolution of Development Goals and Activities in United Nations Peacekeeping', Oxford Development Studies (2021) (with J. Gledhill & M. Meiske): https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2021.1924126
- 'Critical Dialogue', Perspectives on Politics 19:2 (June 2021): DOI:10.1017/S153759272100099.
- 'Measuring Peace': A symposium with Alex Bellamy, 'Funmi Olonisakin and Cedric de Coning, Ethnopolitics 19:3 (2020)
- 'Assessing the (Post-Exit) Legacies of Peacekeeping Operations: The Foundations of a Research Agenda', International Peacekeeping 27:1 (2020).
- 'Peacekeeping in Turbulent Times', International Peacekeeping 26:5 (2019).
- 'The European Union and Unilateral Secession: The Case of Catalonia', Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht 73 (2018) (with Z. Vermeer).
- 'Why Peace Endures: An Analysis of Post-Conflict Stabilization', European Journal of International Security 2:2 (July 2017) (with A. Hoeffler).
- 'Some Implications of the ICJ Advisory Opinion for Resolution of the Serbia-Kosovo Conflict' in M. Milanovic and M. Wood, eds., The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015 (with S. Wolff).
- 'Measuring Peace Consolidation' in Rethinking State Fragility, London: British Academy, 2015.
- 'European Organizations and the Governance of Ethno-cultural Diversity' in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 20:3 (July-September 2014).
- 'United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)' in J.A. Koops, N. MacQueen, T. Tardy and P.D. Williams, eds., Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peace Operations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
- 'The Recognition of New States and the Protection of Minorities Rights in Yugoslavia' in L. Foisneau et al., eds., Spheres of Global Justice, Vol. 1: Global Challenges to Liberal Democracy: Political Participation, Minorities and Migration, Dordrecht, Springer, 2013.
- ‘International Interventions in Nationalist Disputes' in J. Breuilly, ed., Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
- 'Regional Approaches to Statebuilding: The European Union' in M. Berdal and D. Zaum, eds., The Political Economy of Statebuilding: Power after Peace, London: Routledge, 2013 (with S. Economides and O. Anastasakis).
