World-leading Research

Our research looks at big and broad-ranging topics and answers important questions through rigorous analysis and strong theoretical approaches.

With access to expertise in a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods, our people apply their academic and methodological skill to help us understand the political worlds of today—and shape those of the future.

Funding opportunities

Research Excellence

REF

DPIR achieved excellent scores in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, confirming the excellence of our research. The proportion of Oxford’s research outputs judged to be world-leading has also risen significantly since the last REF exercise in 2014.

Research Community and Networks

DPIR's diverse community bridges International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory. It creates a rich intellectual environment for interdisciplinary engagement.

Research Projects

Our research community holds in-depth, area-specific expertise in the politics of Europe, Russia and the Former Soviet Union, the US, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

A nexus for big questions and big ideas. We develop innovative new ways for gathering, processing and analysing data; we create new theoretical frameworks; and our research projects tackle some of the most-pressing challenges around the globe.

Research Centres

Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods

Programme for Global Leadership

Centre for Democratic Resilience

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Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Research Networks, Centres and Programmes

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Oxford Computational Political Science Group

OxPo network

Oxford Social Media Observatory

Yeandle, A. and Doyle, D. (2026) “Migration, remittances and petty corruption in Africa”, International Studies Quarterly [Preprint].

Butt, D. (2026) “The inadequacy of selective apologies”, Journal of Applied Philosophy [Preprint].

Miller, D. (2026) “Can Nationalism Be Democratic?”, Nations and Nationalism [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.70126

Hussein, H. (2026) “The distributive water metric: A justice-sensitive diagnostic framework for water scarcity assessment”, Environmental Science & Policy, 184, pp. 104505–104505.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104505

Doumergue, E. and Hussein, H. (2026) “Beyond Membership”, Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, 32(3), pp. 289–335.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-03203005

Miller, D. (2026) “Fair Equality of Opportunity, Basic Liberty, and the Constitution of the Person”, Res Publica [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-026-09786-7

Kayser, M., Rehmert, J. and Schleiter, P. (2026) “Policy as a bargaining outcome: coalition leverage and pledge fulfillment”, British Journal of Political Science, 56.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123426101641

Billingham, P. (2026) “Corporate Corporate Religious Liberty”, in C. Laborde, M. Schwartzman, and N. Tebbe (eds.) Discrimination By and Against Religion. Oxford University Press.

Bejan, T. (2026) “Signs of a Misspent Youth: Hobbes and Milton (and Skinner) on Virtuous Teaching”, Hobbes Studies, pp. 1–20.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1163/18750257-bja10110

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