Ms Leah Owen

LECTURER IN POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Politics, Philosophy and International Relations

+44 (0) 1792 518599

leah.owen@swansea.ac.uk

Office - 013
Ground Floor
James Callaghan
Singleton Campus

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

ResearcherID

About

Leah Owen is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the School of Social Sciences, Swansea University. She is a specialist in the study of mass violence – genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – with a particular focus on perpetrator mobilisation, securitisation, discourse, and bureaucracies. As secondary research interests, she has written on post-conflict justice, examining the history of international and national courts, and the fraught relationship between them, as well as trans issues in international relations. She holds a D.Phil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, funded by a studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council, and an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London.

Areas Of Expertise

Security studies
Genocide
Post-conflict justice
International institutions
Archival research methods
LGBT/queer politics

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

Leah teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students on a range of courses relating to international relations, globalisation, (critical) security studies, archival research methods, international institutions, genocide studies.

She is particularly happy to supervise dissertations on these and related topics.

Research

Publications

Research Highlights

All Research

Journal Articles

Dilling, M. & Owen, L. (2024). Designing Politics and IR Assessments in the Era of AI: An Empirical Investigation into ChatGPT’s Output Across Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Journal of Political Science Education, 0, 1-20.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2024.2408767, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67992
Owen, L. (2022). “Parasitically Occupying Bodies”: Exploring Toxifying Securitization in Anti-Trans and Genocidal Ideologies. Peace Review, 34(4), 481-494.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2022.2129000, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61366

Book Chapters

Plesch, D. & Owen, L. (2020). The United Nations War Crimes Commission: A Model for Complementarity today?. In Beth A. Griech-polelle. (Ed.), The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and its Policy Consequences Today (pp. 159-192). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845280400-159, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68022
http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783845280400-159
Plesch, D., Weiss, T., & Owen, L. (2017). UN War Crimes Commission and International Law: Revisiting World War II Precedents and Practice. The Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2015 (pp. 71-110). Oxford University Press
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190647759.003.0005, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68023
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190647759.003.0005

Supervision

Does The International Criminal Court Contribute to Peace? A Multi-Method approach including Quantitative and Case Study Analysis (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Matthew Wall
Lost in Translation: Incoherency within United Nations Peacekeeping and How it Affects the Protection of Civilians (current)

MA

Other supervisor: Prof Alan Collins
Three Interventions: A Typology for Interventions in International Relations (current)

MA

Other supervisor: Dr Caner Sayan

Taught Modules

FY-012 Introduction to Being Human

This module will focus on introducing what it is to be human from a broad humanities and social science perspective. It will offer the opportunity to engage with key ideas, theory and literature within these disciplines. It will therefore prepare students for further academic work in the humanities and social sciences and initiate the development of critical thinking and creative abilities.
PO-118A War and Peace in the Nuclear Age

In this module you will examine the history of the international system from the end of the Second World War to the present day. It will provide an examination of the origins of the Cold War, how the two superpowers managed their relationship during the Cold War and an analysis of some of the key features of the post-Cold War world. We begin by assessing the rise of the USA and USSR and the emergence of deterrence. The failure of the US policy of containment in Vietnam and the emergence of tripolarity and detente in the 1970s then follows. By the beginning of the 1980s the superpowers relations had worsened and it was the time of the Second Cold War. Yet within ten years the Cold War that had dominated international relations since 1945 would be over. Why did it end, and who won will be questions for you to answer. The module will then examine the challenges facing the international system in the aftermath of the Cold War. Challenges ranging from failed states and military intervention to the rise of China and the re-emergence of Russia, and we conclude by asking, in the post 9/11 era, are we facing a clash of civilisations?
PO-3319 Researching Politics 1

Researching Politics (RP) provides students with the skills that underlie the process of conducting and communicating cutting-edge research in Politics and International Relations. RP works by creating topic groups, each comprised of 8-10 students. Each group will follow a bespoke course set out by their topic tutor, guiding them through the literature in a substantive research area. Students are invited to select a list of preferred options in the first teaching week of the term. This list is then used to assign students to topics and group sessions run from the second week of teaching onwards. Alongside the topic-specific teaching, there is a general lecture series focusing on discovering, analysing and presenting complex information. The lecture series also focuses on dealing with the ups and downs of working as part of a team.
PO-3330 Genocide

Genocide is considered by most to be the gravest crime against humanity. Various authors have estimated that during the twentieth century between 60 million and 120 million people were killed by premeditated acts of genocide, which targeted specific ethnic, religious, racial, or class-related groups. But why do people kill? And what can be done to prevent, punish and/or overcome this `odious scourge¿ of humankind? This module explores the nature of genocide and mass violence and seeks to discover the common historical, political, and sociological threads that unite these tragedies. In this module, students will engage with theories of genocide and mass violence and discuss a series of case studies including, among others, the near extermination of First Nations people by colonisers of the New World, the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the period of the First World War, the Holocaust (Shoah), Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and Rwanda in 1994. Further, this module will ask questions such as: why did the twentieth century witness so many occurrences of deliberate genocide, on such an unprecedented scale? What is the context for these acts of mass violence? How should genocide be defined in order to differentiate it from other forms of mass destruction? Should we consider the killings of millions of people by Communist regimes forms of genocide or do they amount to other forms of crimes against humanity?
PO-M37 Human rights, Humanitarian Intervention and Global Justice: Moral Problems International Politics.

This MA module offers an account of the use of force at an international level ¿ how its use has changed throughout history, how it has been legitimised, governed, ruled, regulated, and critiqued. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach ¿ including history, international law, genocide studies, and security studies ¿ it examines the concepts of humanitarianism in a wide range of different forms. This module also introduces some of the practical and institutional obstacles faced by international organisations seeking to respond to mass violence. The module starts by introducing the field, providing a general overview of armed conflict, as well as human rights, humanitarian law, `just war¿ theory, and other ethical/moral paradigms used to assess international conflict and intervention. It then uses these to examine examines the different stages and actors involved in a military and non-military interventions, before moving on to assess future developments in international humanitarian action and global justice
PO-M60 Critical Security Studies: Issues and Approaches in Contemporary Security

This MA module will offer students an opportunity to explore a wide range of new approaches to the study of international security, and apply them to a wide range of urgent and pressing security issues in the world in the twenty-first century. The module allows students to engage theoretical debates over the meaning and definition of the concept of security itself, and is designed to enable them to grapple with the contradictions, omissions, and controversies that underlie security policymaking and theorising. The module starts by investigating traditional approaches to the field, looking at conceptions of military security under realism, at national security policymaking, and at terrorism. It then explores the debate regarding the broadening and deepening of security, drawing on a wider range of alternative security domains such as the environment, migration, identity, gender and human security in order to explore the field. As part of this, students will explore theoretical approaches such as the Copenhagen School, and the Welsh School of Critical Security Studies, as well as methodological approaches including studies of primary documents and discourse analysis.
PO-M64 Violence, Conflict and Development

Violence and conflict have been enduring and widespread obstacles to the promotion of sustainable development throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, and the 21st century looks set to continue this pattern. This module examines the roots and causes of conflict and violence in developing nations and explores how and why such conflict emerge even between hitherto seemingly peacefully co-existing communities. The module asks what impact protracted and violent conflict can have upon development prospects and democratisation processes, and examines national and international responses to violence and conflict mediation processes and systems. The module also explores soome of the arguments surrounding the use of aid in conflict situations, and examines the extent to which development aid and emergency relief can assist in perpetuating a state of conflict.

Ms Leah Owen

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Email address

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Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Career Highlights

Publications

Research Highlights

All Research

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

Supervision

Does The International Criminal Court Contribute to Peace? A Multi-Method approach including Quantitative and Case Study Analysis (current)

Lost in Translation: Incoherency within United Nations Peacekeeping and How it Affects the Protection of Civilians (current)

Three Interventions: A Typology for Interventions in International Relations (current)

Taught Modules

FY-012 Introduction to Being Human

PO-118A War and Peace in the Nuclear Age

PO-3319 Researching Politics 1

PO-3330 Genocide

PO-M37 Human rights, Humanitarian Intervention and Global Justice: Moral Problems International Politics.

PO-M60 Critical Security Studies: Issues and Approaches in Contemporary Security

PO-M64 Violence, Conflict and Development