Matti Spåra is a PhD researcher in International Relations in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. His doctoral project, “Reinventing the International Relations Theorist”, offers a cultural and institutional history of international thought in the late 20th century. His thesis examines how the culture of dissent within Transatlantic intellectual networks evolved from 1968 onwards amid wider demographic, geopolitical, economic, and technological transformations. He focuses on the network connecting the World Order Models Project, European peace research institutes, critical international theorists, and international security studies scholars.

To recover this history, he develops and applies the concept of the “intellectual persona,” drawing on archival materials from Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States, as well as 40 original oral history interviews with scholars active in these networks. The thesis advances the study of 20thcentury international thought and the disciplinary history of International Relations, while also contributing to debates in persona studies and the history and sociology of science.

Matti holds a 1+3 scholarship from the London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (LISS DTP), and his research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). From August to December 2025, he was a Guest Researcher in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen.

In addition to his PhD research on the history of international thought, Matti is engaged in policy‑relevant research. He is a Researcher on a parliamentary project examining UK–Russia relations, led by the UK Parliament’s International Affairs Unit. He also served as Section Chair at the 17th European International Studies Association Pan‑European Conference on International Relations (Université Catholique de Lille, 2024), where he led discussions on “The Role of the IR Theorist in Public Debate Today.” Furthermore, Matti is investigating the Putin regime’s use of anticolonial discourse in Russian foreign policy communication and its implications for international order. As part of this project, he co‑organised the workshop Reactionary Critiques and the Liberal International Order with Dr Nicholas Michelsen and Dr Pablo de Orellana, held ahead of the CEEISA–ISA Joint International Conference 2024 in Rijeka, Croatia.

Matti has previously worked in political affairs at the Embassy of Finland in London. He has also contributed to several research projects, including work on the European Union’s crisis‑management practices, analytic wargaming, the concept of value in international security studies, and scenario analysis in global security. From 2021 to 2025, he volunteered at E‑International Relations, where he served as a Senior Commissioning Editor. He holds an MA and BA in International Relations from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where he received the Barrie Paskins Award for Best MA Dissertation for his work titled “Putin, the Critical Theorist? The Kremlin’s Decolonial Critique of International Order and Its Implications for Critical International Theory,” as well as the award for Best MA International Relations Student.

Research Interests

• History of International Thought
• Disciplinary history of International Relations
• The public role of international relations theory and theorists
• Persona studies
• Russian foreign policy communications
• Finnish foreign, security, and defence policy


Teaching

Matti has taught International Relations Theory (BA1) and Foreign Policy Analysis (BA2) at King’s, where he was nominated for an Education Award in 2024 for teaching excellence. His teaching approach incorporates active learning through close reading workshops, simulations, debates, and group discussions. Matti is also developing specialist courses on “Realist Thought in International Relations” and “Approaches to the History of International Thought”

Research Centres & Groups:
Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR)


Primary Supervisor: Dr Nicholas Michelsen