I am broadly interested in interrogating international relations theory by examining the history of global governance and international thought. My research examines, historically and sociologically, the modern international political imagination from the point of view of experts, technicians, and capitalists. As Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Antwerp, I investigated the relationship between the notion of luxury and visions of modern global order.
My first book – The Technocratic International, Oxford University Press (2026) – reconstructs the modern history of expert-based global governance. How did expertise emerge as a central ingredient of international cooperation? My answer combines an intellectual history of technocratic international thought with case studies of international experiments with expertise: the Suez canal, international telegraphy, and the first World’s Fairs. Listen to this interview to find out more. Relatedly, I am also the editor of Experts In A Turbulent World (Oxford University Press, July 2026) which brings together historians and IR scholars working on expertise.
In 2027 I will be leading a new project, funded by an ERC Starting Grant, titled “Regulatory Communities and the Making of Global Order” (REGCOM). International organisations daily work on something seemingly banal but unmissable: technical regulations — the backstage rules of the “rules-based international order”. But who engages in transnational regulation, when, and why? How do regulations relate to inequalities in global order? REGCOM steps in with a comprehensive historical-sociological study of transnational “regulatory communities”. Between 1850 and 1950, predating standard accounts of regulation, transnational regulations were made and contested by networks of public and private actors; by non-professionalised labour; and inspired by colonial administrative practices. Based on multi-archival research and social network analysis, REGCOM will generate new insights on three policy areas: shipping, telecommunications, and agriculture.