I am the Dame Louise Richardson Chair in Global Security at the Blavatnik School of Government of the University of Oxford. I am also a Fellow at Trinity College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC). My research concerns the role of law and morality in international relations, specifically in war. I focus on three strands of work. I am a 2021 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winner.

First, I write about the legal requirements for the conduct of military operations, speaking to debates on International Law on the use of force and International Humanitarian Law. Second, I develop theories about how international law can be an instrument of morality in war, albeit an imperfect one. This work contributes to debates in just war theory and jurisprudence. Third, I seek to explain how moral and legal norms affect the reality of war. I investigate the capacity of law to constrain military decision-making, how norms shape public opinion and the attitudes of conflict-affected populations i.e. in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iraq.