Reader, US Foreign Policy, US Politics & Culture

PAIS Deputy Head of Department and Director of Education 2024-26

Email: Trevor.McCrisken@warwick.ac.uk

Advice & Feedback Hours

- Term Time (except Reading Weeks):

Wednesdays 11.30am-12.30pm - E1.23

Fridays 1.30-2.30pm - E1.23

My A&F Hours are in-person and 'first come first served'.

Please email if you need a meeting at another time on Teams or in-person

Module Director 2024-25:

PO207 Politics of the USALink opens in a new window

 

Trevor McCrisken's research interests are in United States foreign policy and US politics and culture.

He received his BA in American Studies (Politics) from the University of Kent with a year at the University of Maryland, College Park. He then completed an MA in International Affairs at American University, Washington, DC and received his DPhil from the University of Sussex. He has held previous posts at the University of Oxford, Lancaster University, and UWE Bristol. He joined the department at Warwick in September 2003.

He was a Visiting Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford from 2001-2003, an Associate Fellow from 2003-2009, and an Associate Visiting Research Fellow from 2018-19.

His most recent co-authored book with Jon Herbert and Andrew Wroe is available from Palgrave (2019): The Ordinary Presidency of Donald J. Trump

Trevor's current book project is A Force for Good?: The Tragedy of American Power and War in the Twenty-First Century which will be published by Agenda in 2025. The book will provide a critical assessment of the US threat and use of force during the first quarter of the 21st century. The argument of the book is that since the ‘9/11’ attacks, which initially won the US great sympathy and goodwill globally, US actions have run contrary to the moralistic, exceptionalist claims made (admittedly in differing ways) by the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Their actions have undermined their claims to be a ‘beacon of hope’ and ‘force for good’ in the world. Worse still, the ways the US has threatened and used force have set precedents for others to follow, not only with allies adopting US methods but also adversaries believing their uses of force - from targeted killings to full-scale invasions - are permissible in international affairs. The emphasis, therefore, is on the continuing tragedy of US foreign policy – building upon the tradition of William Appleman Williams and applying it to the 21st century. The book focuses on the disjuncture between the claims of benign intentions made by foreign policy makers and the impact of US uses of military force in the 21st century, critiquing the foreign policy of the last four US presidential administrations.

Trevor has been a North America Region Head with the political consultancy group Oxford Analytica since 2002. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the transatlantic security think tank BASIC (British American Security Information Council) from 2005-2021 and was Chair from November 2007 to March 2020.

Research interests

Trevor McCrisken's research interests are in United States foreign policy and US politics and culture.

· US counterterrorism; use of drones and targeted killing.
· Use of US military force and the ‘Vietnam syndrome’.
· Belief in American exceptionalism and its influence on US politics and foreign policy.
· Political and historical content of Hollywood films and television.

· Popular Culture and Everyday International Politics.
· US presidential and electoral politics.
· Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
· Politics of race, ethnicity and gender in the US.

His work on the US and NATO includes a contribution to the Review Forum "NATO: from Cold War to UkraineLink opens in a new window" in International Affairs (July 2024) and "'Peace Through Strength': Europe and NATO Deterrence beyond the US Nuclear Posture Review"Link opens in a new window with Maxwell Downman in International Affairs (March 2019).

You can see and hear Trevor talking about his research on the US drone programme in podcasts with CIGI (Centre for International Governance Innovation) in Waterloo, Canada and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, USA. His published work on US drone use include "Obama's Drone War" in the journal Survival (April/May 2013) and "Eyes and Ears in the Sky: Drones, Journalism and Mass Surveillance" in Johan Lidberg & Denis Muller, In The Name of Security: Secrecy, Surveillance and Journalism (Anthem, 2018).Link opens in a new window

Trevor's work on popular culture representations of foreign and security policy has seen him collaborate with PAIS colleague Chris Moran with whom he's published the articles: "James Bond, Ian Fleming and Intelligence: Breaking down the boundary between the 'real' and the 'imagined'", Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 33 (Published on-line May 9, 2018) and "The Secret Life of Ian Fleming: Spies, Lies and Social Ties", Contemporary British History (Published on-line December 7, 2018).

Trevor worked with former PAIS colleague Erzsébet StrauszLink opens in a new window at the Central European University on a project using the "cut-up" method to disrupt and reassemble the narratives and meanings given to drone attacks against suspected terrorists. The technique, inspired by the work of Brion Gysin, William Burroughs and David Bowie, has been used fairly extensively in literature, poetry, and songwriting but is an innovative approach to research in International Security. Their chapter on Cut-Ups was published in the book Critical Methods for the Study of World Politics: Creativity and TransformationLink opens in a new window edited by Shine Choi, Anna Selmeczi and Erzsébet Strausz (Routledge, December 2019). Trevor is now developing a new project focused on "The Politics of David Bowie".

He was also on the Advisory Board of the AHRC funded "Landscapes of Secrecy" project on the history of the CIA based within PAIS and participated in the project's conference in Nottingham at which he gave a presentation on "The CIA and Television". He published an open access article based on this research in the journal History (Vol. 100, Issue 340, April 2015): "The Housewife, the Vigilante, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man: The CIA and Television, 1975-2001".

Teaching and supervision

Trevor is available for PhD supervision in the areas of research interest listed above.

Positions held

• North American Region Head, Oxford AnalyticaLink opens in a new window, since 2002
• Chair of British American Security Information Council (BASIC)Link opens in a new window from November 2007, Co-Chair from November 2018 until March 2020; Member of the BASIC Board of Trustees from 2005-2021.