Professor Christopher Phillips, BA (Cambridge), MSc (LSE), PhD (LSE)

Profile

Prof Christopher Phillips joined SPIR in January 2012. His research focusses on the international relations of the Middle East, with his most recent projects exploring the role of external intervention in conflicts in that region. Before then, his work centered on the Syria conflict and its impact on neighbouring states and the wider Middle East.

He is author of four books, including Battleground: Ten Conflicts that explain the New Middle East (London: Yale University Press, 2024) and The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East (London: Yale University Press, 2016 [3rd ed. 2020]) and co-editor of What next for Britain in the Middle East? (London: IB Tauris, 2021). He has published academic articles in International Relations, International Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Middle East Policy, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Orient, Nations and Nationalism and Mediterranean Politics and op-eds in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Newsweek, CNN, The Huffington Post and Prospect among others. He was historical consultant on ‘Syria: the World’s War’, a documentary that aired on BBC2 in 2018.

He was co-curator of ‘Syria: Story of a Conflict’, a public exhibition at the Imperial War Museum and IWM North in 2017-18. He has served as Deputy Dean for Queen Mary's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (2019-22) and was also a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in 2014 & 2015. He regularly consults governments, private companies and NGOS and has appeared on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, BBC News, Al-Jazeera, Sky News and Channel 4 News. Before joining Queen Mary he was the deputy editor for Syria and Jordan at the Economist Intelligence. 

More details can be found at www.cjophillips.com and he tweets at @cjophillips, mostly commenting on the Middle East, UK foreign policy and Aston Villa Football Club.

Undergraduate Teaching

POL327: The International Relations of the Middle East

Postgraduate Teaching

POLM081 International Relations of the Middle East

Research

Research Interests:

My research interests lie primarily in the role of identity and power in the politics and international relations of the Middle East. My latest work focusses on how internal and external actors have interacted to exacerbate and prolong conflicts – both violent and non-violent – since the Arab Uprisings of 2011. I have recently compared ten such conflicts in my latest book, Battleground: Ten Conflicts that explain the New Middle East (London: Yale University Press, 2024). 

My past work focused on the international dimensions of the Syrian civil war: how international actors have impacted and shaped the conflict and how the war in turn has impacted the international relation of the Middle East, both the regional dynamics and international interaction. Before then, my research used nationalism and international relations theory to explore the interaction of Arab, state and religious identities in the identity discourses of modern Arab states.

I have an ongoing interest in British and US foreign policy towards the Middle East, producing an edited volume, What next for Britain in the Middle East? (London: IB Tauris, 2021) alongside Michael Stephens. 

Ongoing research projects:

• The Middle East in global geopolitics
• External intervention in Middle East conflicts
• British Middle East policy
• The international relations of the Syrian civil war

Publications

Books

C. Phillips, Battleground: Ten Conflicts that explain the New Middle East (London: Yale University Press, 2024)

C. Phillips and M. Stephens (eds.), What next for Britain in the Middle East? (London: Bloomsbury, 2021)

C. Phillips, The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East (London: Yale University Press, 2016 [3rd ed. 2020])

C. Phillips, Everyday Arab Identity: The daily reproduction of the Arab World (London: Routledge, 2013) 

Journal Articles

C. Phillips, ‘The International System and the Syrian Civil War’ International Relations 36:3 (2022) pp. 358-351

C. Phillips ‘Rivalry Amid Systemic Change: Iranian and Saudi Competition in the post-American Middle East’ POMEPS 38: Sectarianism and International Relations, 27 March 2020

C. Phillips ‘The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East – a reply‘, Global Discourse: An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs, Volume 9, Number 4, November 2019, pp. 759-766(8)

C. Phillips, ‘Structure, Agency and External Involvement in the Syria Conflict’, POMEPS 34: Shifting Global Politics and the Middle East, (Washington DC: POMEPS, 2019)

C. Phillips ‘International actors in the Syrian conflict’ Orient 60: 2, (2019) pp.7-15

C. Phillips and M. Valbjorn, ‘What is in a Name? The role of (different) identities in the multiple proxy wars in Syria’, Small Wars and Insurgencies 9:3, (2018), pp.414-433

C. Phillips, ‘Syria after IS.’ Orient 58:4, (2017) pp.16-23

C. Phillips, ‘Eyes bigger than Stomachs: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in Syria’ Middle East Policy 24.1, (2017) pp.36-47

C. Phillips, ‘Sectarianism and conflict in Syria’, Third World Quarterly, 36:2, (2015) pp.357-376

C. Phillips, ‘The Arabism Debate and the Arab Uprisings,’ Mediterranean Politics 19:1, (2014) pp.110-114

C. Phillips, ‘Into the Quagmire: Turkey's Frustrated Syria Policy’ (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2012) pp1-16

C. Phillips, 'Syria's Torment', Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 54:4, (2012), pp.67-82

C. Phillips, ‘Team Arab: Al-Jazeera and the flagging of everyday Arabism during the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ Nations and Nationalism 18:3, (2012), pp.504–526

W. Wallace and C. Phillips, ‘Reassessing the Special Relationship’, International Affairs 85:2, (2009), pp.263-284 

Book chapters and policy papers:

C. Phillips, ‘Capability and Culpability: Iranian and Saudi rivalry in the Syria conflict,’ in S. Mabon and E. Wastnidge (ed.), Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022) 

C. Phillips, ‘Syria: Between Conflict and Stability,’ CHARC In Depth Briefing No. 29 (2022)

C. Phillips, ‘The International and Regional Battle for Syria,’ in R. Hinnebusch and A. Saouli (eds.), The Syrian Uprising Volume 2: International and Regional dimensions (London: Routledge, 2019)

C. Phillips, ‘Sectarianism as Plan B: Saudi-Iranian identity politics in the Syria Conflict’, in S. Mabon (ed.), Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East (London: Foreign Policy Centre, 2018)

L. Khatib, T. Eaton, H. Haid, C. Phillips, N. Quilliam, I. Hamidi, B. Kodmani, L. Sinjab, ‘Western Policy Towards Syria: Applying Lessons Learned’ Chatham House Policy Report (March 2017)

C. Phillips, 'Intervention and non-intervention in the Syria crisis’ in F. Kühn and M. Turner (eds.), The Politics of International Intervention. The Tyranny of Peace (London: Routledge, 2016) pp.251-271

C. Phillips ‘Gulf Actors and the Syria Crisis’, The new politics of intervention of Gulf Arab states. (2015) Middle East Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, Collected Papers, Volume 1. pp.41-51

C. Spencer, C. Phillips, and J. Kinninmont, Western Policy Towards Syria: Ten Recommendations (Chatham House Policy Paper, December 2013) pp.1-8

C. Phillips, ‘The Civil War in Syria: The Variety of Opposition to the Syrian Regime’ in IE Mediterranean Yearbook 2013, (Barcelona: IE Med, 2013), pp.19-24

C. Phillips, ‘Jordan: History’ in The Europa World Yearbook 2013 (London: Routledge, 2013)

C. Phillips, ‘Syria’s Bloody Arab Spring’ After the Arab Spring: Power Shift in the Middle East? (LSE IDEAS Special Report, May 2012) pp.37-42

C. Phillips, ‘The International Relations of the Middle East after the Arab Spring’, The Economist Intelligence Unit: Middle East Regional Overview, (January 2012)

C. Phillips, ‘Turkey and Syria,’ in Turkey’s Global Strategy, (LSE Ideas Special Report, May 2011) pp.34-39

G. Bettiza and C. Phillips, ‘Obama’s Middle East Policy: Time to Decide’, in Obama Nation: US Foreign Policy One Year On, (LSE Ideas Special Report, January 2010), pp.11-15 

Opeds

For latest opeds please see here.

Public Engagement

For further information, including recent media appearances, see www.cjophillips.com.