Professor Christopher Finlay

IAS Spotlight Series: Pacifism and Nonviolence

Durham University

Christopher Finlay earned a B.A. (Mod) in History and Political Science and a PhD on the philosopher, David Hume, from Trinity College Dublin, after which he was a Research Fellow at NUI Galway (2001-2) and Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College Dublin (2002-3). He taught at UCD from 2003-7, where he was based at the School of Politics and International Relations and the Dublin European Institute.

He joined the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLSIS) at the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer in Political Theory in 2007 and, from 2010 to 2011, he was British Academy Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow. Professor Finlay joined the Durham University in September 2017 as Professor in Political Theory. He held a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship from 2017 to 2019 for a project called 'The Subject of Legitimate Violence.'

Professor Finlay’s recent work engages with a wide range of questions arising from the prevalence of violence in political life and action. He has written on armed rebellion and revolution, nonviolent civil resistance, coups d’état, just war theory, and cyber war. He is currently completing a monograph on the idea of legitimate violence in contemporary ethics and political theory.