My DPhil research explores how international politics is reshaped when foreign policymaking becomes highly personalized—driven not primarily by institutions or ideologies, but by individual leaders who, to the outside world, appear to exercise discretionary control over their states’ international conduct. Drawing on insights from comparative politics, I examine the systemic consequences of a world increasingly governed by personalist regimes. I’m particularly interested in how these leaders—regardless of regime type—interact with one another, bypass institutional channels, and engage in foreign policy that is informal, transactional, and often unpredictable.

My work aims to develop an ideal type of international politics dominated by personalist rule. Through theory-building and comparative analysis, I investigate how this model helps explain emerging patterns of war, diplomacy, and alliance behavior in the 21st century. More broadly, I seek to advance a framework that captures the transformation of global order in an era where the personality of the leader increasingly defines the strategic behavior of the state.