Dr Hannes Baumann

Personal Statement

Hannes Baumann is interim head of department in 2022/23.

His main research interest lies in Middle East political economy. From 2014-2017 he conducted a study of the political and economic effects of Gulf investment in non-oil Arab states with funding by the Leverhulme Trust.

Hannes is the author of “Citizen Hariri: Neoliberal politics in Lebanon” (Hurst: London, 2016/Oxford University Press: New York, 2017) He used the political biography of Lebanese businessman-politician Rafiq Hariri (1944-2005) as a prism to examine how changes in global neoliberalism reshaped Lebanese politics. He has published in a variety of academic journals including Globalizations, Politics, International Relations, Third World Quarterly, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and the Arab Studies Journal.

Other research interests include the politics of global rankings as well as Eurocentrism in IPE.

He has previously worked at SOAS, Georgetown University, King’s College London, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In 2019/20 he was a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) Middle East Centre. He uses his research background to teach courses on Middle East politics and international relations, international political economy, and the politics of development. He has briefed policy makers and diplomats from the UK, European Union, Sweden and Ireland on issues of Middle East politics.

Hannes is interested in supervising PhD theses on Middle East politics and the politics of development.