A view of singleton campus including singleton park and the beach, with the sea stretching out to the horizon.

Professor Alan Collins

Professor

Politics, Philosophy and International Relations

+44 (0) 1792 513103

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Office - 005
Ground Floor
James Callaghan
Singleton Campus

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3009-344X

About

Alan Collins is a Professor of International Relations with an expertise in theories of international security, such as security dilemmas, security communities, securitization, and human security, and a regional interest in Southeast Asia and ASEAN. Collins work is primarily interested in norm contestation, which he has applied to ASEAN’s security community building project and specifically to human rights in Southeast Asia. Collins is the author of four single authored books, including Building a People-Oriented Security Community the ASEAN Way and The Security Dilemma and the end of the Cold War. His articles have appeared in Review of International Studies, International Relations, Asian Survey, and The Pacific Review. Collins is also the editor of the Oxford University Press textbook, Contemporary Security Studies.

Areas Of Expertise

Security Dilemma
Security Community
Human Security
ASEAN
Norm Contestation
Critical Constructivism

Publications

Research Highlights

Collins, A. & Soon, E. (2023). The spiral model, scope conditions, and contestation in the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. The Pacific Review, 37(2), 328-359.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2023.2168034, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62309
Collins, A. & Soon, E. (2022). The AICHR as a participatory space: contesting the secretive face of power. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 76(4), 359-378.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2021.2016610, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59029
Collins, A. (2020). Critical Human Security and Cyberspace: Enablement Besides Constraint. In Mirva Salminen, Gerald Zojer, and Kamrul Hossain (Ed.), Digitalisation and Human Security (pp. 83-109). Springer International Publishing
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48070-7_4, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55062
Collins, A. (2019). W(h)ither the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)? W(h)ither constructivism? Fixity of norms and the ASEAN Way. International Relations, 33(3), 413-432.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117819830469, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa48328
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047117819830469
Collins, A. (2019). From commitment to compliance: ASEAN's human rights regression?. The Pacific Review, 32(3), 365-394.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2018.1476402, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40745
Collins, A. (2014). Escaping a Security Dilemma: anarchy, certainty and embedded norms. International Politics, 51(5), 561-576.
https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2014.25, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa18400
Collins, A. (2014). Bringing communities back: Security Communities and ASEAN’s plural turn. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(2), 276-291.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836713517567, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa18398
Collins, A. (2000). The Security Dilemmas of Southeast Asia Macmillan.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40764
Collins, A. (1997). The Security Dilemma and the end of the Cold War Keele University Press.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40763
Collins, A. (2003). Security and Southeast Asia: Domestic, Regional and Global Issues Lynne Rienner.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40758

All Research

Journal Articles

Collins, A. & Soon, E. (2023). The spiral model, scope conditions, and contestation in the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. The Pacific Review, 37(2), 328-359.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2023.2168034, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62309
Collins, A. & Soon, E. (2022). The AICHR as a participatory space: contesting the secretive face of power. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 76(4), 359-378.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2021.2016610, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59029
Collins, A. (2019). W(h)ither the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)? W(h)ither constructivism? Fixity of norms and the ASEAN Way. International Relations, 33(3), 413-432.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117819830469, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa48328
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047117819830469
Collins, A. (2019). From commitment to compliance: ASEAN's human rights regression?. The Pacific Review, 32(3), 365-394.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2018.1476402, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40745
Collins, A. (2014). Escaping a Security Dilemma: anarchy, certainty and embedded norms. International Politics, 51(5), 561-576.
https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2014.25, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa18400
Collins, A. (2014). Bringing communities back: Security Communities and ASEAN’s plural turn. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(2), 276-291.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836713517567, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa18398
Collins, A. & Collins, A. (2013). Norm diffusion and ASEAN's adoption and adaption of global HIV/AIDS norms. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 13(3), 369-397.
https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lct012, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40755
Collins, A. (2008). A People-oriented ASEAN: A Door Ajar or Closed for Civil Society. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 30(2), 313-331.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11333
Collins, A. & Collins, A. (2007). Forming a security community: lessons from ASEAN. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 7(2), 203-225.
https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcl007, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40751
Collins, A. (2006). Chinese Educationalists in Malaysia: Defenders of Chinese Identity. Asian Survey, 46(2), 298-318.
https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2006.46.2.298, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40749
Collins, A. (2005). Securitization, Frankenstein's Monster and Malaysian education. The Pacific Review, 18(4), 567-588.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09512740500339034, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40756
Collins, A. (2004). State-Induced Security Dilemma. Cooperation and Conflict, 39(1), 27-44.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836704040833, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40760
Collins, A. (2002). Burma's civil war: A case of societal security. Civil Wars, 5(4), 119-134.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13698240208402520, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40748
Collins, A. (1999). Mitigating the security dilemma the ASEAN way*. Pacifica Review: Peace, Security & Global Change, 11(2), 95-114.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14781159908412875, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40754
Collins, A. (1998). The Ethnic Security Dilemma: Evidence from Malaysia.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40761
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25798429
Collins, A. (1998). GRIT, Gorbachev and the end of the Cold War.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40753
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20097518

Authored Books

Collins, A. (2003). Security and Southeast Asia: Domestic, Regional and Global Issues Lynne Rienner.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40758
Collins, A. (2000). The Security Dilemmas of Southeast Asia Macmillan.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40764
Collins, A. (1997). The Security Dilemma and the end of the Cold War Keele University Press.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40763

Book Chapters

Collins, A. (2020). Critical Human Security and Cyberspace: Enablement Besides Constraint. In Mirva Salminen, Gerald Zojer, and Kamrul Hossain (Ed.), Digitalisation and Human Security (pp. 83-109). Springer International Publishing
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48070-7_4, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55062
Collins, A. (2003). ASEAN: Challenged from Within and Without. Asia-Pacific Economic and Security Co-operation (pp. 136-151). Palgrave Macmillan
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40747
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230287327_8
Collins, A. (2002). East Asia and the Pacific Rim. In Mark Webber, Michael Smith (Ed.), Foreign Policy in a Transformed World Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40750
https://www.routledge.com/Foreign-Policy-In-A-Transformed-World/Webber-Smith/p/book/9780139087578
Collins, A. (2000). Security Issues of Southeast Asia. In Clive Jones, Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Ed.), International security in a global age : securing the twenty-first century Taylor & Francis Ltd
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40757
https://www.routledge.com/International-Security-Issues-in-a-Global-Age-Securing-the-Twenty-first/Jones-Kennedy-Pipe/p/book/9780714681115
Collins, A. (1996). The Security Dilemma. In M. Jane Davis (Ed.), Security Issues in the Post-cold War World Edward Elgar
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40762
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/security-issues-in-the-post-cold-war-world-9781858983349.html
Collins, A. (n.d.) Spratly Islands Dispute.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40759

Supervision

Low-skilled Migrant Workers in Thailand: A Nexus of Human Security and Human Rights. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Pier-Luc Dupont Picard
Reinterpret 4As framework of energy security from the perspective of human security - an analysis of the electric vehicle industry in China (awarded 2023)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Emel Akcali
Lost in Translation: Incoherency within United Nations Peacekeeping and How it Affects the Protection of Civilians (current)

MA

Other supervisor: Ms Leah Owen

Taught Modules

PO-248 International Security

This module provides students with an examination of international security. The module starts with a discussion of strategic studies as a discipline. It discusses traditional (military) security studies looking at traditional concerns surrounding military power and the use of force. Following the evolution in security studies and in understandings of security the module `broaden¿ and `deepens¿ its scope. The module looks at sectors beyond security such as society, the economy, and the environment. It also deepens the account of security by looking at actors below the states, such as groups and the single individual (human security). Finally, the module analyses alternative approaches to security such as critical, feminist, and post-modern approaches to security.
PO-3317 Dissertation

The Politics and International Relations dissertation is a free-standing, 40-credit module for Politics and International Relations students only, which runs across both semesters of Level 6. Candidates conduct research upon a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of staff teaching on the Politics and International Relations degree. The topic must fall within staff research and teaching interests.
PO-M40 Southeast Asian Security

Security is a multifaceted and contested concept that provides an analytical prism to capture the depth and breadth of issues impacting on human, state and regional peace and stability. Southeast Asia not only manifests the different security issues that face the developing world but the states in this region have begun to encounter the security problems that plague the developed world. The region thus offers an opportunity to examine how developing states can overcome the traditional problems that undermine the security of the third world, and whether these states can avoid the security dilemmas that generate insecurity amongst states in the international system. The aim of the module is two-fold: first, to determine what the security issues of the Third World are and how the states of Southeast Asia have sought to solve them; second, to understand the reasons behind tensions amongst the members of ASEAN, and between ASEAN and China, and to determine whether the region¿s peacekeeping structures are adequate.
PO-PX10 The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M (Semester of Study Abroad)

This module is delivered at The Bush School of Government and Public Service for those students who participate in an Extended MA Programme in either International Relations or Public Policy.
PO-PX20 University of Oklahoma (Semester of Study Abroad)

This module is delivered at The University of Oklahoma for those students who participate in an Extended MA Programme in International Security and Development.
PO-X240 PO-X240 United International College (UIC)

This module is delivered at United International College, for those students who partipate in an Exchange Programme
PO-X241 PO-X241 United International College (UIC)

This module is delivered at United International College, for those students who partipate in an Exchange Programme
PO-X242 PO-X242 United International College (UIC)

This module is delivered at United International College, for those students who partipate in an Exchange Programme
PO-X243 PO-X243 United International College (UIC)

This module is delivered at United International College, for those students who partipate in an Exchange Programme
POX210 POX210 City University, Hong Kong

This module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who partipate in an Exchange Programme
POX211 POX211 City University, Hong Kong

This Module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme.
POX212 POX212 City University, Hong Kong

This Module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme.
POX213 POX213 City University, Hong Kong

This Module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme.
POX214 City University, Hong Kong

This Module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme.
POX215 City University, Hong Kong

This Module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme.
POX265 POX265 Universitat Mannheim

This module is delivered at Mannheim University, Germany for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme
POX266 POX266 Universitat Mannheim

This module is delivered at Mannheim University, Germany for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme
POX267 POX267 Universitat Mannheim

This module is delivered at Mannheim University, Germany for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme
POX268 POX268 Universitat Mannheim

This module is delivered at Mannheim University, Germany for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme

Key Grants and Projects

Enablement besides Constraints: Human security and a Cyber Multi-disciplinary framework in the European High North (ECoHuCy) 2017 - 2019

, €864,000

Invited Presentations, Lectures and Conferences

The Great Powers and the Security Dilemma

April 2023

University of Lisbon

Professor Alan Collins

Telephone number

Email address

Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Research Highlights

All Research

Low-skilled Migrant Workers in Thailand: A Nexus of Human Security and Human Rights. (current)

Reinterpret 4As framework of energy security from the perspective of human security - an analysis of the electric vehicle industry in China (awarded 2023)

Lost in Translation: Incoherency within United Nations Peacekeeping and How it Affects the Protection of Civilians (current)

PO-248 International Security

PO-3317 Dissertation

PO-M40 Southeast Asian Security

PO-PX10 The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M (Semester of Study Abroad)

PO-PX20 University of Oklahoma (Semester of Study Abroad)

PO-X240 PO-X240 United International College (UIC)

PO-X241 PO-X241 United International College (UIC)

PO-X242 PO-X242 United International College (UIC)

PO-X243 PO-X243 United International College (UIC)

POX210 POX210 City University, Hong Kong

POX211 POX211 City University, Hong Kong

POX212 POX212 City University, Hong Kong

POX213 POX213 City University, Hong Kong

POX214 City University, Hong Kong

POX215 City University, Hong Kong

POX265 POX265 Universitat Mannheim

POX266 POX266 Universitat Mannheim

POX267 POX267 Universitat Mannheim

POX268 POX268 Universitat Mannheim

The Great Powers and the Security Dilemma