Dr Xavier Mathieu (he/him)

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Lecturer in International Relations

xavier.mathieu@sheffield.ac.uk

Elmfield Building

Full contact details

Dr Xavier Mathieu
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU

Profile: Dr Xavier Mathieu joined the department in May 2023 as a Lecturer in International Relations. Prior to joining Sheffield, Xavier was Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, Teaching Associate at Aston University, and Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (Germany). He holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield and an MA in International Relations from the University of Bordeaux (Sciences Po). Xavier’s research looks at violence and French coloniality (in particular terrorism and anti-terrorism in colonial and post-colonial contexts), as well as the concept of sovereignty and interventions. His research is inspired by post-colonial and post-structuralist approaches.

Research interests: My current project is funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship grant. It examines the colonial legacies influencing contemporary French counter-terrorism. In this project, I explore how counter-terrorism was forged and normalised during the colonial era and how it has then travelled from past to present. In doing so, this project will connect a variety of archival material in a novel way, thus helping to uncover the legacies of the colonial period on current practices of counter-terrorism.

Publications

Mathieu X (2021) Sovereignty and the Denial of International Equality Writing Civilisational Difference in Early Modern International Relations. Routledge.

Mathieu X & Bargués-Pedreny P (Ed.) () The Politics of Peacebuilding in a Diverse World. Routledge.

Mathieu X (2022) Precarious multiplicity: France, ‘foreign fighters’ and the containment of difference. Cooperation and Conflict, 57(3), 311-328.
Docherty B, Mathieu X & Ralph J (2020) R2P and the Arab Spring: Norm localisation and the US response to the early Syria crisis. Global Responsibility to Protect, 12(3), 246-270.
Mathieu X (2020) Sovereign myths in international relations: Sovereignty as equality and the reproduction of Eurocentric blindness. Journal of International Political Theory, 16(3), 339-360.
Mathieu X (2019) Critical peacebuilding and the dilemma of difference: the stigma of the ‘local’ and the quest for equality. Third World Quarterly, 40(1), 36-52.
Bargués-Pedreny P & Mathieu X (2018) Beyond Silence, Obstacle and Stigma: Revisiting the ‘Problem’ of Difference in Peacebuilding. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 12(3), 283-299.
Mathieu X (2018) The dynamics of ‘civilised’ sovereignty: colonial frontiers and performative discourses of civilisation and savagery. International Relations, 32(4), 468-487.
Lemay-Hébert N & Mathieu X (2014) Theoecd’s discourse on fragile states: expertise and the normalisation of knowledge production. Third World Quarterly, 35(2), 232-251.
Holland J, Mathieu X & Mathieu X () Narratology and US foreign policy in Syria: Beyond identity binaries, towards narrative power. International Studies Quarterly.

Lemay-Hébert N & Mathieu X (2016) The OECD's discourse on fragile states: Expertise and the normalisation of knowledge production, The Political Invention of Fragile States: The Power of Ideas (pp. 36-55).

Supervision Expertise

I welcome PhD candidates in my areas of research, in particular:

Violence and (counter)terrorism in colonial and post-colonial contexts;
Sovereignty, Interventions and peacebuilding;
Colonialism and its legacies (especially for French international relations and security practices).
Critical and post-colonial approaches to security
Historical approaches in global politics (colonial history and the legacies of colonialism).