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Professor Matt McDonald

Professor

School of Political Science and International Studies
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
matt.mcdonald@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 53042

Overview

Professor of International Relations

Matt McDonald joined the School of Political Science and International Studies in January 2010, and is the current Director of Teaching and Learning. After completing his PhD at UQ in 2003, Matt held lectureship posts in international relations at the University of New South Wales and the University of Birmingham (UK), and was Associate Professor in International Security at the University of Warwick (UK). His research focuses on critical theoretical approaches to security and their application to issues such as environmental change, Australian foreign and security policy, climate politics and Asia-Pacific security dynamics. He has published on these themes in a wide range of journsls, and s the author of Ecological Security: Climate Change and the Construction of Security (Cambridge UP, 2021), Security, the Environment and Emancipation (Routledge 2012) and (with Anthony Burke and Katrina Lee-Koo) Ethics and Global Security (Routledge 2014). He was formerly co-editor of Australian Journal of Politics and History. He is currently completing an ARC-funded project on comparative national approaches to the climate change- security relationship. He is currently leading the cross-disciplinary University research network, Climate Politics and Policy.

Selected Publications

Books (Authored)

  • Ecological Security: Climate Change and the Construction of Security (Cambridge UP, 2021)
  • (with Anthony Burke and Katrina Lee-Koo), Ethics and Global Security: A Cosmopolitan Approach (Routledge, 2014)
  • Security, the Environment and Emancipation: Contestation over Environmental Change (Routledge, 2012).

Edited Volumes

  • (with Paul Williams), Security Studies: An Introduction, 4th ed (Routledge, 2023)
  • (with Paul Williams), Security Studies: An Introduction, 3rd ed (Routledge, 2018)
  • Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific. Special Issue of Critical Studies on Security, 5:3 (2017).
  • (with Mark Beeson), The Politics of Climate Change in Australia. Special Issue of Australian Journal of Politics and History, 59:3 (2013).
  • (with Tim Dunne), The Politics of Liberal Internationalism, Special Issue of International Politics, 50:1 (2013).
  • (with Anthony Burke), Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific (Manchester UP, 2007).

Refereed Journal Articles

  • 'Immovable Objects? Impediments to a UN Security Council Resolution on Climate Change', International Affairs, 99:4 (2023), pp.1635-51.
  • 'Geoengineering, Climate Change and Ecological Security', Environmental Politics, 32:4 (2023), 565-85.
  • (with Jessica Kirk), ‘The Politics of Exceptionalism: Securitization and COVID-19’, Global Studies Quarterly, 1:3 (2021).
  • 'After the Fires? Climate Change and Security in Australia', Australian Journal of Political Science, 56:1 (2021), 1-18.
  • ‘Climate Change and Security: Towards an Ecological Security Discourse?’, International Theory, 10:2 (2018), 153-80.
  • ‘Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific: An Introduction’, Critical Studies on Security, 5:3 (2017), 237-52.
  • ‘Remembering Gallipoli: Anzac, the Great War and Australian Memory Politics’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 63:3 (2017), pp.405-17.
  • (with Lee Wilson) ‘Trouble in Paradise? Citizen Militia Groups in Bali, Indonesia’, Security Dialogue, 48:3 (2017), pp.241-58.
  • ‘Bourdieu, Environmental NGOs and Australian Climate Politics’, Environmental Politics, 25:6 (2016), pp.1058-78.
  • (with Anthony Burke and Katrina Lee-Koo) 'Ethics and Global Security', Journal of Global Security Studies,1:1 (2016), pp. 64-79
  • 'Australian Foreign Policy under the Abbott Government: Foreign Policy as Domestic Politics?' Australian Journal of International Affairs 69:6 (2015), pp 651-669.
  • ‘Discourses of Climate Security’, Political Geography, 33 (2013), pp.43-51.
  • (with Christopher S. Browning),‘The Future of Critical Security Studies: Ethics and the Politics of Security’, European Journal of International Relations 19:2 (2013), pp.235-55.
  • 'The Failed Securitization of Climate Change in Australia’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 47:4 (2012), pp.579-92.
  • ‘Lest we Forget: The Politics of Memory and Australian Military Intervention’, International Political Sociology, 4:3 (2010), pp.287-302.
  • 'Securitization and the Construction of Security', European Journal of International Relations, 14:4 (2008), pp.563-87.
  • (with Katharine Gelber) ‘Ethics and Exclusion: Representations of Sovereignty in Australia’s Approach to Asylum-Seekers’, Review of International Studies, 32:2 (2006), pp.269-89.
  • ‘Fair Weather Friend? Australia’s Approach to Global Climate Change’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 51:2 (2005), pp. 216-34.
  • ‘Human Security and the Construction of Security’, Global Society, 16:3 (2002), pp. 277-95.

Media

Matt has been interviewed on television and radio, and has contributed opinion editorials to ABC News, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Literary Review, Australian Outlook, ABC's The Drum, Insight, the Lowy Interpreter and is a regular contributor to The Conversation. For his recent articles in The Conversation, see here: https://www.theconversation.com/profiles/matt-mcdonald-12655/articles

Research Interests

  • The relationship between security and climate change
  • Australian foreign and security policy
  • The politics of climate change in Australia
  • Critical approaches to security
  • The politics of Geoengineering

Research Impacts

On climate change, and in particular its relationship to security, Matt has consulted the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Decence, the New Zealand Ministry of Defence, the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UN's Climate and Security Mechanism. He is a member of Australia's stakeholder briefing group for the UNFCCC climate change talks. He has also worked with policy-makers, industry groups and NGO representatives in communicating research work on the politics of climate change in Australia. He hosted a dedicated interdisciplinary workshop on this theme at UQ in 2012, and is leading University-wide interdisciplinary network on Climate Poltics and Policy.

Matt has contributed to broader public debate on issues relating to climate change and Australian foreign policy through media work, in particular opinion editorial publications in ABC News, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Literary Review, ABC's The Drum, The Conversation and the Lowy Interpreter. And he has been invited to present his research in Australia and beyond: a combination of seminars and public lectures at leading institutions in Australia (ANU, Sydney, UNSW, Griffith, Adelaide, Deakin), the UK (Warwick, St Andrews, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Queen Mary, Leeds, Nottingham, Aberystwyth, Leicester), the US (George Washington, Denver), Europe (Copenhagen, Sciences Po Paris, Geneva, Hamburg, NUPI Norway, SIPRI Stockholm), India (Manipal), Turkey (Bilkent), Thailand (Chiang Mai), Israel (Hebrew University) and New Zealand (VUW).

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Masters (Coursework) of International Studies, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Arts, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Human security and climate migration: making sense of vulnerability to climate change in the Pacific

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Climate change and security in France

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Identity, Institutions and Policy: Ontological security and the Australian Defence Force

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • The climate change-security nexus: a critical security studies perspective

    McDonald, Matt (2024). The climate change-security nexus: a critical security studies perspective. Climate change and conflict in the Pacific: challenges and responses. (pp. 1-12) edited by Ria Shibata, Carroll Seforosa and Volker Boege. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003001744-3

  • Climate change and ecological security

    McDonald, Matt (2023). Climate change and ecological security. Handbook on climate change and international security. (pp. 51-64) edited by Maria J. Trombetta. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar. doi: 10.4337/9781789906448.00010

  • An introduction to security studies

    Williams, Paul D. and McDonald, Matt (2023). An introduction to security studies. Security studies: an introduction. (pp. 26-39) edited by Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003247821-1

  • Constructivisms

    McDonald, Matt (2023). Constructivisms. Security studies: an introduction. (pp. 52-66) edited by Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003247821-5

  • Environmental change

    McDonald, Matt and Dalby, Simon (2023). Environmental change. Security studies: an introduction. (pp. 599-614) edited by Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003247821-39

  • Protecting the Vulnerable: Towards an Ecological Approach to Security

    McDonald, Matt (2021). Protecting the Vulnerable: Towards an Ecological Approach to Security. International Relations in the Anthropocene: New Agendas, New Agencies and New Approaches. (pp. 191-208) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-53014-3_11

  • An Introduction to Security Studies

    Williams, Paul D. and McDonald, Matt (2018). An Introduction to Security Studies. Security Studies: An Introduction. (pp. 1-13) edited by Wiliams, Paul D. and McDonald, Matt. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

  • Constructivisms

    McDonald, Matt (2018). Constructivisms. Security Studies: An Introduction. 3rd edition. (pp. 48-59) edited by Wiliams, Paul D. and McDonald, Matt. London: Routledge.

  • Ethics and critical security studies

    McDonald, Matt (2018). Ethics and critical security studies. Routledge handbook of ethics and international relations. (pp. 196-207) edited by Brent J. Steele and Eric A. Heinze. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315725932-17

  • Ecological Security

    McDonald, Matt (2017). Ecological Security. Reflections on the posthuman in international relations: The anthropocene, security and ecology. (pp. 62-72) edited by Clara Eroukhmanhoff and Matt Harker. Bristol, United Kingdom: E-International Relations.

  • Introduction

    McDonald, Matt and Mitchell, Audra (2017). Introduction. Reflections on the posthuman in international relations. (pp. 1-8) edited by Clara Eroukhmanhoff and Matt Harker. Bristol, United Kingdom: E-International Relations.

  • Australia and Global Climate Change

    McDonald, Matt (2016). Australia and Global Climate Change. Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases. (pp. 394-410) edited by Steve Smith, Amelia Hadfield and Tim Dunne. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

  • Whose security? Ethics and the referent

    McDonald, Matt (2016). Whose security? Ethics and the referent. Ethical security studies: a new research agenda. (pp. 32-45) edited by Anthony Burke and Jonna Nyman. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

  • Australia and climate change

    Eckersley, Robyn and McDonald, Matt (2014). Australia and climate change. Australian foreign policy : controversies and debates. (pp. 230-251) edited by Daniel Baldino, Andrew Carr and Anthony Langlois. South Melboure, Vic., Australia: Oxford University Press.

  • Constructivism, US foreign policy, and counterterrorism

    Jackson, Richard and McDonald, Matt (2014). Constructivism, US foreign policy, and counterterrorism. Obama and the world : new directions in US foreign policy. (pp. 15-28) edited by Inderjeet Parmar, Linda B. Miller and Mark Ledwidge. New York, NY United States: Routledge.

  • Contesting border security: emancipation and asylum in the Australian context

    McDonald, Matt (2014). Contesting border security: emancipation and asylum in the Australian context. Contesting Security: Strategies and logics. (pp. 154-168) edited by Thierry Balzacq. Abington, Oxon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203079850-19

  • Australia and global climate change

    McDonald, Matt (2012). Australia and global climate change. Foreign policy: theories, actors, cases. (pp. 384-399) edited by Steve Smith, Amelia Hadfield and Tim Dunne. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

  • Human security and the politics of security

    McDonald, Matt (2012). Human security and the politics of security. Why human security matters. (pp. 107-126) edited by Dennis Altman, Joseph A. Camilleri, Robyn Eckersley and Gerhard Hoffstaedter. Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

  • Australian identity, interventionism and the War on Terror

    Holland, Jack and McDonald, Matt (2010). Australian identity, interventionism and the War on Terror. International Terrorism Post-9/11. (pp. 184-206) edited by Asaf Siniver. London & New York: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203852002

  • The environment and global security

    McDonald, Matt (2010). The environment and global security. Global security and international political economy. (pp. 283-305) edited by Pinar Bilgin and Paul D. Williams. Oxford, U.K.: UNESCO; EOLSS Publishers.

  • Constructivism, US foreign policy and the 'war on terror'

    Jackson, Richard and McDonald, Matt (2009). Constructivism, US foreign policy and the 'war on terror'. New directions in US foreign policy. (pp. 18-31) edited by Inderjeet Parmar, Linda B. Miller and Mark Ledwidge. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203878811

  • Emancipation and critical terrorism studies

    McDonald, Matt (2009). Emancipation and critical terrorism studies. Critical Terrorism Studies: A New Research Agenda. (pp. 109-123) edited by Richard Jackson, Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning. London: Routledge.

  • Constructivism

    McDonald, Matt (2008). Constructivism. Security studies: An introduction. (pp. 59-72) edited by Paul D. Williams. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, U.K.: Routledge.

  • Global security after September 11 2001

    McDonald, Matt (2008). Global security after September 11 2001. Security: Sociology and Social Worlds. (pp. 47-80) edited by Simon Carter, Tim Jordan and Sophie Watson. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

  • Introduction: Asia-Pacific security legacies and futures

    Burke, Anthony and McDonald, Matt (2007). Introduction: Asia-Pacific security legacies and futures. Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific. (pp. 1-9) edited by Anthony Burke and Matt McDonald. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press.

  • US Hegemony, the War on Terror and the Asia-Pacific

    McDonald, Matt (2007). US Hegemony, the War on Terror and the Asia-Pacific. Critical security in the Asia Pacific. (pp. 198-211) edited by Anthony Burke and Matt McDonald. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Journal Article

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Human security and climate migration: making sense of vulnerability to climate change in the Pacific

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Climate change and security in France

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Identity, Institutions and Policy: Ontological security and the Australian Defence Force

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Middle Power as a Strategy of Resistance: Indonesia's Middle Power Diplomacy Under the Yudhoyono and Jokowi Administrations

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Australian foreign policy, International security, climate politics

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: F-8833-2014

ORCID: 0000-0001-6636-2731

Scopus ID: 8583057900

Google Scholar ID: qLucUV0AAAAJ

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