Biography
I grew up in Dover, Kent, in the UK. Spending time in the busy ferry port made me interested in ships, which grew in to an academic interest in naval and global power and war. I became a geographer because of the way it can connect individuals and events to the global scale and broad historical patterns.
I went to the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for my undergraduate degree and then crossed the Atlantic to earn my Masters and PhD degrees at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
I have been a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University before coming to the University of Illinois in 2005.
Specializations / Research Interest(s)
- Political Geography; War; Militarization; Just War Theory; World-Systems Analysis
Research Description
I am a Political Geographer primarily interested in issues of war and militarization. I use both quantitative and qualitative methodology, depending on the question. All my research tries to connect specific geographic contexts to broad global and historic processes.
The ConflictSpace project blends spatial analysis and social network analysis to explain the diffusion of war. Countries are situated in global networks of cooperation and conflict as well as regional geographic settings to explain whether they join wars or not. The project started with a study of World War One but has been extended by my graduate students and their work on the Congo wars (Steve Radil) and North-east Asia (Sang-Hyun Chi).
I am also interested in the way practices of militarism become taken-for-granted in society. My work with graduate student Richelle Bernazzoli has explored what is meant by the terms militarization and securitization. I am especially interested in how the tenets of just war theory are used by politicians to justify their military actions, notably global military interventions.
My writing has also been focused on developing textbooks. The next batch of political geographers will always be current undergraduates! I have written Introduction to Geopolitics and, with Peter Taylor, Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality.
I am currently developing a project on the connection between large military infrastructure projects and militarization. I am also considering which wars would help advance the ConflictSpace project.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder; degree received August 1995. Dissertation Title: "The Political Geography of Nazism: The Spatial Diffusion of the Nazi Party Vote in Weimar Germany, 1924-1933." Master of Arts, University of Colorado at Boulder; degree received August 1992. Bachelor of Arts in Geography, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom: degree received August 1990. (First Class Honours).
External URLs
- Here is a link to Introduction to Geopolitics
- Here is a link to Political Geography, with Peter Taylor
- Here is a link to a book I co-edited, with Scott Kirsch, on post-war reconstruction
- Here is a link to a short article on Israel-Iran nuclear relations
- Here is a link to a short article on militarizing Santa
Courses
- Geography of International Conflicts (GEOG 110)
- Political Geography (GEOG 310).
- I am developing an online version of Geography of International Conflicts and I am also putting together a class called Resource Conflicts
Office Hours
- Mondays and Wednesdays 11:00 - 12:30 or by appt.
Publications
Books
- Flint, Colin. Introduction to Geopolitics. . Routledge, 2011.
- Flint, Colin, and Peter Taylor. Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality. . Longman, 2011.
Book Contributions
- "The Geopolitics of Religious Terrorism." The Changing World Religion Map. . Springer, 2013.
- "Peace Science as Normal Science: What Role for Geography in the Coming Revolution?." What Do We Know About War. . Ed. John Vasquez. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. 291-300.
- "Intertwined Spaces of Peace and War: The Perpetual Dynamism of Geopolitical Landscapes." Reconstructing Conflict: Integrating War and Post-war Geographies. . Ed. Scott Kirsch and Colin Flint. Ashgate, 2011. 31-48.
Edited Books
- Kirsch, Scott, and Colin Flint. Reconstructing Conflict: Integrating War and Post-war Geographies. . Ashgate, 2011.
Journal Articles
- "The Construction of Family Values in Geopolitical Discourse: The Ongoing Legacy of Adolf Hitler and Britain’s ‘Supreme Emergency’." Geographical Journal (2013):
- Radil, Steve, Colin Flint, and Sang Hyun Chi. "A relational geography of war: Actor-context interaction and the spread of World War I." Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2013):
- Chi, Sang Hyun, and Colin Flint. "Standing Different Grounds: The Spatial Heterogeneity of Territorial Disputes." Geojournal (2013):
- Bernazzoli, Richelle, and Colin Flint. "Embodying the Garrison State?: Everyday Geographies of Militarization in American Society." Political Geography 29.3 (2010): 157-66.