Steven C. Roach

Professor of Internatiional Relations, University of South Florida
Steven C. Roach is professor of international relations in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida. A Fulbright scholar and honorary professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain (2020-21), he has published widely on politics and international affairs. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award, Global Excellence Award, and Outstanding Faculty Award, and in 2019, was appointed country expert of USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) work team in South Sudan. The work team’s assessment report was presented to the US State Department and Congress and now serves as the basis of USAID’s five-year strategic mission in the country. At the University of South Florida, he served as SIGS director of graduate programs (2018-21), where he restructured and significantly increased recruitment to the PhD program. He currently teaches a variety of subjects, including international relations theory, human rights, global governance, African politics, and the foundations of political inquiry.

Professor Roach’s research is broad in scope, focusing on the politics of international law, critical international relations, global ethics, East African politics (South Sudan), European politics, human rights, and global governance. Among his recent books are South Sudan’s Fateful Struggle: Building Peace in a State of War (Oxford University Press, 2023), International Relations: The Key Concepts. Fourth Edition (Routledge, 2023), Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First Century Warfare: Just War Theory and the Ethical Challenges of Autonomous Weapons Systems (eds) (SUNY Press, 2020; 2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title), Handbook of Critical International Relations (ed.) (Edward Elgar, 2020), Decency and Difference: Humanity and the Global Challenge of Identity Politics (University of Michigan Press, 2019), The Challenge of Governance in South Sudan: Corruption, Peacekeeping and Foreign Intervention (eds.) (Routledge, 2019), Critical Theory of International Politics: Complementarity, Justice, and Governance (Routledge, 2010), and Governance, Order, and the International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik and a Cosmopolitan Court (ed.)(Oxford University Press, 2009). He has also published articles in several leading journals, including International Affairs, Political Studies, Politics, Millennium, International Studies Review, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Globalizations, International Studies Perspectives, Global Governance, the International Journal of Human Rights, and Journal of Human Rights, and contributed commissioned articles to edited volumes on international law and international relations theory. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Portuguese, and Turkish.

Currently, he is the editor of the SUNY Press book series, “Ethics and the Challenges of Contemporary Warfare” and serves on the editorial board of four academic journals, Politics and Governance, Globalizations, Human Rights and Human Welfare, and The Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies. He is also a member of the advisory board of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, and the Brill book series “Critical Emotions Studies”. In addition, he has written various op-ed essays that have appeared in Foreign Affairs, African Arguments, openDemocracy, Journal of International Affairs, and the Cairo Review of Global Affairs. He is presently working on two books: Nile Basin Politics: Cooperative Peace, Hegemony, and the New Riparian Reality(ed.)(under contract) and The Lost Crusade: Eclipsing the Freedom of Movement. His planned book project is an extensive book on American Decency.