Articles by Ruairidh Brown

March 14, 2025

Love, freedom and capital: the legacy of Alexandra Kollontai

Ruairidh Brown

Yuting Alina He and Ruairidh Brown consider the thought and contemporary relevance of a Russian revolutionary and Soviet diplomat who became an early advocate of International Women’s Day, and the resonating ideas in contemporary East Asian societies

December 2, 2024

Donald Trump’s Machiavellian philosophy

Ruairidh Brown

As Trump returns to the White House, what, exactly, is the ideology of Trumpism? Ruairidh Brown argues that Trump’s America First agenda is, at its core, Machiavellian

July 11, 2024

Being part of international relations: academics moving abroad

Ruairidh Brown

The International University Campus is a site of relationality, write Ruairidh J Brown and Kerstin Tomiak. It a space of cultural and political interchange and creation of co-constituted knowledge. This challenges the traditional view in International Relations of Higher Education as a mere tool of soft power.

July 11, 2023

China’s boxing feminists: discipline and resistance in contemporary Chinese feminism

Ruairidh Brown

As gender becomes an increasingly heated issue in China, He Yuting and Ruairidh Brown explore how the ‘female boxer’ has become a key disciplinary image in this struggle – and how it can be contested

March 28, 2023

Is the SNP a vanguard for Scottish independence?

Ruairidh Brown

The current crisis around the Scottish National Party leadership centres on the party's position as a vanguard for Scottish independence, writes Ruairidh Brown. It could subsequently mark a watershed moment in the independence movement

July 27, 2022

Conservative leadership hopefuls should listen to Hobbes regarding Scotland

Ruairidh Brown

Despite often being regarded as a blueprint for authoritarianism, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan gives prudent advice on the limitations of sovereign power. Ruairidh Brown argues this serves as a timely warning for the next Conservative leader on their approach to Scottish politics

June 22, 2022

Westminster has a moral obligation to allow a second Scottish independence referendum

Ruairidh Brown

The first obstacle in holding an Independence Referendum is assuring its legitimacy. To do so, says Ruairidh Brown, the SNP-Green alliance have implied the UK Government has no moral authority to deny Scots a choice on their future

May 12, 2022

St Augustine in the Anthropocene

Ruairidh Brown

In our contemporary world, dangers frequently come not from external enemies but from our own behaviour. To provide moral guidance on these dangers and help overcome the externalisation of threat, Ruairidh Brown looks back through time to St Augustine

January 11, 2022

The pandemic reveals a lot about sovereign power and how it is contested

Ruairidh Brown

Sovereignty is typically perceived to lie with those who can provide protection. Ruairidh Brown considers how the pandemic has tested and challenged the supra-national, national and sub-national levels in terms of the exercise of sovereign power. What might be the implications of these developments in the future?

June 2, 2021

What is at stake in the Scottish National Party’s request for a second referendum

Ruairidh Brown

The Kenmure Street protest in Glasgow raises crucial issues concerning political obligation in Scotland, writes Ruairidh Brown. This should serve as a warning to Westminster about the potential dangers of denying a second independence referendum

1 2 Next »

Ruairidh Brown

Head of Politics and International Relations, Forward College, Lisbon

Ruairidh currently teaches International Political Theory and International Relations at Forward’s Lisbon Campus.

Before teaching at Forward, Ruairidh taught International Studies in mainland China, where he received the University of Nottingham’s Lord Dearing Award for outstanding contributions to teaching and learning in 2019.

He received his PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2017.

Ruairidh has researched and published on such topics as hermeneutics, political obligation, and the philosophy of friendship.

Political Encounters: A Hermeneutic Inquiry Into the Situation of Political Obligation
Springer, 2019

Covid-19 and International Political Theory by Ruairidh Brown

COVID-19 and International Political Theory: Assessing the Potential for Normative Shift
Springer, 2022

Articles by Ruairidh Brown

Love, freedom and capital: the legacy of Alexandra Kollontai

Donald Trump’s Machiavellian philosophy

Being part of international relations: academics moving abroad

China’s boxing feminists: discipline and resistance in contemporary Chinese feminism

Is the SNP a vanguard for Scottish independence?

Conservative leadership hopefuls should listen to Hobbes regarding Scotland

Westminster has a moral obligation to allow a second Scottish independence referendum

St Augustine in the Anthropocene

The pandemic reveals a lot about sovereign power and how it is contested

What is at stake in the Scottish National Party’s request for a second referendum

The Loop