It is with huge sadness that we announce the passing of Timothy J. Sinclair. Tim was a leading scholar of the global political economy of money and finance. His work on credit rating agencies pioneered research into how power operates in financial markets, leading to two highly acclaimed books: To the Brink of Destruction: America’s Bond Rating Agencies and Financial Crisis (Cornell University Press, 2021), and The New Masters of Capital: American Bond Rating Agencies and the Politics of Creditworthiness (Cornell University Press, 2005). In these and in his writings more generally, Tim’s work challenged the idea that financial markets are the domain of technocrats and economists, highlighting the social foundations of finance. For Tim, this meant not just pointing to the power that financial actors exert over states, but to the sources of political power and influence at work within financial markets themselves demonstrating the significance of private power and authority within structures of global governance. 

Following a career at the New Zealand Treasury, Tim began his academic journey as a PhD student at York University, Toronto. Tim worked closely with Robert W. Cox and Stephen Gill and his work bears some of the traces of their neo-Gramscian approach to IPE, although Tim himself always sought to develop a more ‘eclectic’ research approach grounded in fine-grained empirical analysis – an approach that was as much inspired by the work of his former PAIS colleague Susan Strange as it was by Cox and Gill. Tim collaborated closely with Cox on the publication of his collected works Approaches to World Order (Cambridge University Press 1996), a book that remains to this day a classic contribution to the IPE canon.

Tim was one of the longest serving members of PAIS, joining the department in 1995. At the time, IPE was not a subject that was widely taught in the UK and Tim formed part of a group of scholars that would cement PAIS’s place as one of the main centres of IPE scholarship. Tim taught generations of students at all levels of the undergraduate and postgraduate programme and served in numerous administrative roles. Tim’s intellectual imprint and legacy on the department is significant. Many current and former members of the IPE cluster in PAIS, including Fumihito Gotoh, Lena Rethel and Johannes Petry—and the International Studies community more broadly—have benefitted from being taught or supervised by Tim, and have been inspired by his work.

Beyond his intellectual legacy, we will miss Tim immensely. We will always remember his enormous collection of model aircraft kits, which he carefully curated in his office for many years. We will miss his good humour, his no-nonsense attitude (unless he was talking about cars) and jovial chats in the corridor. As a department our hearts go out to his wife Nicole and his young son Henry as we are still struggling to believe that Tim is gone.

Many people have shared memories of Tim and messages of condolence. To view a selection of them please visit our memories page.

Support

We know that this will be upsetting news for so many. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to colleagues and tutors within the Department if you need to, or have any concerns about a friend or peer. You can also access support through our Wellbeing Support Services – students can contact our wellbeing team via our wellbeing portal or on 024 765 75570. They will listen, help you and provide the support you need. Staff can access support through the Staff Wellbeing Hub and the Employee Assistance Programme. There is also bereavement support available from the Chaplaincy.