James is Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Political Economy. He is based at Coventry University’s Centre for Peace and Security where serves as Assistant Professor in Politics and International Relations. At King’s, he intends to participate in the general intellectual life of the department, inclusive of workshops and research collaborations.

After being awarded his PhD at UCL in 2013, his research focused on democratization and democratic backsliding in Post-Communist Europe, leading to one monograph and well-cited publications in Journal of Democracy (2016), East European Politics (2018) and JCMS (2019) among other journals. This decade, a common thread through his research has been attempts to make sense of growing popular opposition to the Western-led liberal order in the region, as evidenced by variable support for liberal democratic norms in East and West Europe (published in JEPP 2023) and the resurgence of illiberal and pro-Russian politics inside the EU in the context of Russia’s war on Ukraine (special issue forthcoming, based on British Academy-funded project 2023-25).

James has taught extensively throughout his career. He served as Director of MSc Democracy and Comparative Politics at UCL (2013-15), led the International Relations and Politics courses on King’s International Foundation (2015-18) and has led several modules per year since getting a lectureship at Coventry University in 2018. He has taught research methods and works across qualitative and quantitative traditions, as reflected by publications on political science theories and methods in East European Politics, Comparative European Politics and Problems of Post-Communism.

He has appeared as a pundit on BBC Radio 4, has delivered invited lectures at the Royal College of Defence Studies and several European universities and has published numerous journalistic articles in outlets like Foreign Policy and Open Democracy.

James is Assistant Professor in Politics and International Relations at Coventry University’s Centre for Peace and Security. His institutional research profile is linked here.

Research interests

• Contentious Politics, activism and social movements
• Democratisation/ democratic backsliding in post-Communist Europe
• Evaluating democracy (quantitative and qualitative)
• Liberalism and illiberalism
• Environmental politics

Latest publications

Getting Central and Eastern Europe Right? Knowledge Building in Democratization Studies (with Lise Herman, Aurelia Ananda), 2025, Problems of Post-Communism

A Climate of Optimism? EU Policy-making, Political Science and Democratization (with Lise Herman, Aurelia Ananda), 2024, Comparative European Politics

Cultural Liberalism in Eastern and Western Europe (with Aurelia Ananda), 2023, Journal of European Public Policy