Dr Ben Jones is Teaching Fellow in European Foreign Policy. He holds a BA Politics from the University of Sheffield (1999) and an MPhil in History of Political Thought from the University of Cambridge (2000). He was awarded his PhD in European Studies at King's College, London with a thesis on military capability cooperation in contemporary Europe (2018). Prior to his return to academia, he worked in various roles in politics and public affairs in Brussels and London, including positions in the European Commission and European Parliament, and as Foreign Affairs and Defence Adviser to the Liberal Democrats at Westminster. He is an alumnus of the US ‘Young European Leader’ International Visitor Leadership Programme and was a Visiting Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies, where he authored an Occasional Paper, the first major analysis of the Franco-British ‘Lancaster House’ treaties on defence and security cooperation (2011).

Research

• IR theory, particularly neorealism
• European defence cooperation
• EU security and defence policy
• Transatlantic relations

Dr Jones’ current research focus is on forms of inter-state military capability cooperation that touch on issues of sovereignty and autonomy. He studies the ways in which IR theory, particularly neorealism, can be used to help explain this phenomenon. He is interested in all and any such cases, but has focussed on case studies in Western Europe including the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Publications

• ‘CSDP defence capabilities development’ in 10 Years of CSDP: In-Depth Analysis (January 2020) for Policy Department for External Relations, European Parliament, Brussels.
• ‘Choices and Dilemmas for European Defence Acquisition: Alone, Together or ‘Off-the-shelf’’ Solving the European Defence Market Puzzle (2018), Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Brussels.
• 2016: "A view from the EU: modern dilemmas in the Old World" New Challenges, New Voices: Next Generation Viewpoints on Transatlantic Relations, LSE Ideas, London.
• 2010: Franco-British military cooperation: a new engine for European defence?, EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris.
• 2009: ‘No Choice But Change for Britain’s Armed Forces’, RUSI Journal, Vol 154, No. 2, London.

Teaching

• International Relations
• Foreign Policies of the EU