Summary of the impact

Dr Lee Jones' research on sovereignty, intervention and security in Southeast Asia has helped non-academic users understand this region and formulate policies towards it. This research is typical of work conducted in the School of Politics and International Relations' (SPIR) interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Security and Development: it explores interactions between international and domestic social, economic and political processes, is based on regional expertise, and generates policy-relevant findings. Dr Jones' audiences have included the UK parliament, UK and other European government departments, the Myanmar government, civil society organisations, and the general public via the media.

Underpinning research

The research underpinning the impact emerged from two streams of research, conducted since 2006, published since 2007 in leading peer-reviewed outlets, and supported by major grants acquired with SPIR support.

The first strand of research explores the politics of sovereignty, intervention and security in Southeast Asia. Earlier research investigated how international security governance and interventions are shaped by domestic socio-political conflicts, pioneering a novel explanatory framework rooted in social conflict theory and critical political economy. Key publications arising from this research include four journal articles and a widely praised book, ASEAN, Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia (2012). This framework was further developed using concepts from political geography and is being used in new research to explain the governance of non-traditional security issues in Southeast Asia and beyond. This work, an international collaboration with Dr Shahar Hameiri of Murdoch University, is funded by the Australian Research Council (£192k). It explores how and why non-military threats (e.g. transboundary pollution, cross-border crime and pandemic diseases) are securitised and governed. The framework analyses security politics as contestation over the scale of governance (its scope and `level', e.g. local, national, regional, global) between contending socio-political coalitions, rooted in the political economy of the particular issue area. Articles arising from this study include `Beyond Securitisation: Explaining the Scope of Security Policy in Southeast Asia' (2011), and `The Politics and Governance of Non-Traditional Security' (2013).

The second, related stream of research has focused on how international intervention impacts upon and is mediated through socio-political struggles in target states. This began with work on statebuilding interventions, resulting in three publications including `(Post-)Colonial Statebuilding and State Failure in East Timor: Bringing Social Conflict Back In' (2010). The major focus of this strand is `How Do Economic Sanctions (Not) Work?', funded by an ongoing, three-year ESRC grant (£120k). This project investigates the mechanisms by which economic sanctions are mediated through domestic political economy contexts into political conflicts and outcomes. A major case study in this project has been Myanmar (Burma), enabling Jones to establish himself as a leading expert on this country. Two articles arising from this project, `The Political Economy of Myanmar's Transition', and `Explaining Myanmar's Transition: The Periphery is Central', are forthcoming in 2014.

References to the research

All references can be supplied by the HEI on request. Those asterisked are part of the REF submission.

Details of the impact

Dr Jones' research has significantly influenced decision-makers, civil society groups and the wider public, in the UK and internationally.

Policymaker Engagement

As one of Britain's leading experts on Southeast Asia, Jones is regularly asked to advise British and overseas government agencies and has thereby improved understanding of the region, supported policy analysis, and enhanced policymaking.

Much of this engagement concerns regional security. In the UK parliament, Jones was the academic consultant on Southeast Asia: A Political and Economic Introduction, a report to inform debate and scrutiny of government policy (December 2011), and contributed to two seminars on intervention at the House of Lords (January 2011). With the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Jones participated in a policy planning session on EU-ASEAN relations in August 2012. He recommended the EU focus on conflict resolution capacity-building on the South China Sea; EU- ASEAN negotiations on such cooperation began in September. He also suggested developing academic exchanges under the UK-ASEAN Knowledge Partnership; in July 2013 the FCO launched `Collaborative Development Awards' for this purpose. In September 2013, he provided policy analysis and recommendations on Southeast Asian security to officials from the FCO, Ministry of Defence Department for International Development, and the EU. Jones taught on the FCO's Diplomatic Excellence and Knowledge Enhancement programme in January 2012. He has also presented briefings and policy recommendations on East Asian security issues to: Southeast Asian policy elites (Singapore, October 2009); EU, Danish and Dutch foreign affairs officials (The Hague, June 2010); World Bank and AusAID officials (Perth, December 2010), and French Defence and Foreign Ministry officials (May 2013).

Jones' expertise on sanctions and Myanmar has helped policymakers and NGOs reorient themselves at a critical juncture, as Myanmar emerged from decades of military dictatorship. Jones was the sole academic expert invited to an FCO conference held to reformulate UK and EU policy towards Myanmar (Wilton Park, March 2012). His follow-up briefing paper, EU Sanctions Against Myanmar: Proposals for Change, proposed radically curtailing economic sanctions; this policy was subsequently adopted. Jones briefed the new British ambassador to Myanmar in July 2013, and participated in a UK/EU policy review on Myanmar in September 2013. He also briefed staff from Medécins Sans Frontières and the Norwegian Refugee Council as they intensified their engagement in Myanmar (January 2013), and the Malaysian High Commission (August 2013). Jones also participated in a British Council policy dialogue with a Myanmar minister and senior officials in London (May 2013). A workshop on sanctions for UK policymakers is being organised for spring 2014, with support from SPIR's Marketing and Communication Officer. Dr Jones also produces briefs for Oxford Analytica, a global analysis and advisory firm. These briefs translate research findings into easily-digestible summaries which are delivered to clients worldwide, including many businesses, over 50 governments, and major international agencies.

Public Engagement:

Dr Jones strives to enhance the wider understanding of Southeast Asian politics and intervention by engaging with civil society and the wider public directly, and via the media, supported by SPIR and QMUL media and events teams and QMUL's Widening Participation office.

Jones's sanctions research has reached NGOs, activists and the wider public through public debates (London, January 2012, c.150 attendees); seminars (c. 50 Myanmar civil society activists, British Council, Yangon, July 2012); and internal policy discussions (Australian BDS activists, Perth, July 2013). His research on Southeast Asia reached NGOs, activists, UK policymakers and others via public debates on Thailand's political crisis (London, May and July 2012, c.150 participants) and Myanmar's transition (Oxford, March 2013; London, September 2013, c.100 participants). Jones has also engaged secondary school students through RCUK's Global Uncertainties programme, visiting schools to improve students understanding of security challenges and stimulating debate (2010), and by presenting research insights and controversies about intervention to students at BSix college, Hackney (2010-).

Dr Jones appears regularly in national and international media. Selected highlights include: The Daily Telegraph, 28.9.2009; Associated Press, 12.4.2010; The Jakarta Post, 2.8.10; op-eds in Le Monde Diplomatique, 9.11.2010 (2.5m print readers, plus online) and The Australian, 10.11.2010 (770,000 print readers, plus online); regular contributions to Monocle 24 radio since 2012 (2m listeners); Al-Jazeera, 5.3.2013 (52.3m viewers); BBC World News, 28.4.12 (239m viewers); Voice of Russia, 8.6.12 (109m listeners); and Channel News Asia, 20.10.2013 (45m viewers). Jones also maintains a YouTube channel, Twitter feed and blog, digesting his research findings for public consumption (c.5000 visitors annually).

Sources to corroborate the impact

(a) EU Sanctions Against Myanmar: Proposals for Change, 7 March 2012 (on-file with the author).

(b) Research Analyst, Asia-Pacific Research Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office - corroboration for policymaker engagement with the FCO .

(c) Southeast Asia: A Political and Economic Introduction (Commons Library Research Paper RP11/78, 14 December 2011; available at http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/RP11-78).

(d) Senior Research Analyst, International Affairs and Defence Section, House of Commons Library — corroboration for policymaker engagement with UK Parliament on Southeast Asia: A Political and Economic Introduction report.

(e) Governance Manager, British Council, Yangon — corroboration for engagement with Myanmar civil society actors.

(f) Analyst, Oxford Analytica — corroboration for work with Oxford Analytica.

(g) `Burma: Sanctions Won't Help', Le Monde Diplomatique, 9 November 2010.

(h) Recording of debate on economic sanctions, Voice of Russia, 8 June 2012 (available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E5E3fZ3FZ0).

(i) Recordings of interview on Myanmar and sanctions, BBC World TV, 28 April 2012, and Cape Talk 567, 3 May 2012 (available at http://www.leejones.tk/blog/wordpress/?p=691)

(j) Recordings of public debate on Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions against Israel, 30 January 2012 (available via http://soasisraelsoc.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/watch-is-bds-working).