Faculty

Colin Flint

Colin Flint
  • Professor of Geography
  • Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies in Geography
  • Research Interests:
    Political Geography
    Geography of War and Peace
    Geopolitics
  • Office: 126 Davenport Hall
  • Phone: (217) 333-0415
  • E-mail: flint@illinois.edu
  • Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Colin Flint is a political geographer with research interests in war, militarization, and just war theory. He currently leads the ConflictSpace project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) that aims to understand the diffusion of war through the integration of social network analysis and spatial analysis. He is also pursuing research on just war theory and the geopolitics of the Korean peninsula.

He is the author of "Introduction to Geopolitics", "Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality" (with Peter J. Taylor), and editor of "The Geography of War and Peace".

Dr. Flint obtained his PhD at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1995. He is currently an Associate Professor of Geography and Director of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS) at UIUC.

Recent Publications

(see CV above for full listing of publications)

BOOKS:

FLINT, C. and Taylor. P.J. 2007. Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State and Locality, 5th Edition, Harlow, Essex: Longman, Scientific and Technical.

FLINT, C. 2006. Introduction to Geopolitics. London: Routledge. Translated into Korean and Polish.

FLINT, C. (Ed.). 2005. The Geography of War and Peace. New York: Oxford University Press.

BOOK CHAPTERS:

FLINT, C. 2010. “Introduction to Political Geography Section,” in R. Denemark (Ed.) International Studies Association Compendium. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. clxviii-clxxv.

FLINT, C. 2010. “Geographic Perspectives on World-Systems Theory,” in R. Denemark (Ed.) International Studies Association Compendium. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 2828-2845.

FLINT, C. 2009. 23 separate entries for the new edition of D. Gregory et al (Eds.), The Dictionary of Human Geography. Oxford: Blackwell. The entries are: Anarchy; Balkanization; Domino Theory; Domination; Enclave; Exclave; Federalism; Hegemony; Irredentism; Political Geography; Regime Theory; Regional Alliance; Regionalism; Rogue State; Secession; Self-determination; Shadow State; Sovereign Power; Sovereignty; State; State Apparatus; Turf politics; World-Systems Analysis.

FLINT, C. 2007. “Mobilizing Civil Society for the Hegemonic State: The Korean War and the Construction of Soldiercitizens in the United States,” in D. Cowen and E. Gilbert (Eds.), War, Citizenship, and Territory. New York: Routledge, pp. 345-61.

FLINT, C. 2007. “Netwar, the Modern Geopolitical Imagination, and the Death of the Civilian,” in M. Innes (Ed.) Denial of Sanctuary: Understanding Terrorist Safe Havens. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, pp.34-48.

FLINT, C. 2006. “Nation-state,” in A. J. Cravey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 315-7.

FLINT, C. 2006. “World-Systems Theory,” in A. J. Cravey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, pp. 544-5.

FLINT, C. 2005. “Conflict and Terror,” Text for Plate 17 National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th edition, Washington, D.C: National Geographic Society.

FLINT, C. 2005. “Dynamic Meta-Geographies of Terrorism: The Spatial Challenges of Religious Terrorism and the ‘War on Terrorism’,” in C. FLINT (Ed.), The Geography of War and Peace, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 198-216.

FLINT, C. 2005. “Introduction: Geography of War and Peace,” in C. FLINT, (Ed.), The Geography of War and Peace, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-15.

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Vasquez, J.A, Diehl, P.F., FLINT, C., Scheffran, H., Chi, S-H., and Rider, T. 2011. “The ConflictSpace of Cataclysm: The International System and the Spread of War 1914–1917.” Foreign Policy Analysis (Forthcoming).

Lohman, A. and FLINT, C. 2010. “The Geography of Insurgency.” Geography Compass forthcoming.

FLINT, C. 2010. “The geopolitics of family and nation: Confusing messages of identity and loyalty in the liminal space of London Heathrow Airport” Hrvatska Revija (Croatian Review) forthcoming. (Published in Croatian language).

FLINT, C. 2010. “An Argument for a Grounded Geographical Knowledge System.” Political Geography forthcoming.

Bernazzoli, R. and FLINT, C. 2010. “Embodying the Garrison State?: Everyday Geographies of Militarization in American Society.” Political Geography Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 157-166.

Radil, S., FLINT, C. and Tita, G. 2010. “Spatializing Social Networks: Using Social Network Analysis to Investigate Geographies of Gang Rivalry, Territoriality, and Violence in Los Angeles.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol. 100, No. 2, pp. 307-326.

FLINT, C., Diehl, P., Scheffran, J., Vasquez, J., and Chi, S-H. 2009. “Conceptualizing ConflictSpace: Toward a Geography of Relational Power and Embeddedness in the Analysis of Interstate Conflict.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol. 99, No. 5, pp. 827-835.

FLINT, C., Adduci, M., Chen, M. and Chi, S-H. 2009. "Mapping the Dynamism of the United States' Geopolitical Code: The Geography of the State of the Union Speeches, 1988-2008." Geopolitics, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 604-629.

Falah, G-W., McGreevy, P., Renna, F., and FLINT, C. 2009. “Perceptions of American Lifestyle and Democracy among Lebanese and Kuwaiti University Students.” Arab World Geographer Vol. 11, Nos. 1-2, pp. 108-124.

Chi, S-H. and FLINT, C. 2009. “The Rediscovery of Geopolitics and Critical Reconstruction: Critical Geopolitics.” Space and Society Vol. 31, pp. 160-199 (published in Korean language journal).

FLINT, C. and Radil, S. 2009. “Terrorism and Counter-terrorism: Situating al Qaeda and the Global War on Terror within Geopolitical Trends and Structures.” Eurasian Geography and Economics Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 150-171.

Bernazzoli, R. and FLINT, C. 2009. “Power, Place and Militarism: Towards a Comparative Geographic Analysis of Militarization.” Geography Compass Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 393-411.

FLINT, C. 2007. “The need to recognize the limits of the state to recognize the limits of community: A friendly critique of Steve Herbert’s Citizens, Cops, and Power.” Political Geography Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 211-214.

FLINT, C. 2006. “Comment on Brenda Chalfin’s ‘Global customs regimes and the Traffic in sovereignty’.” Current Anthropology Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 265-6.

Falah, G-W., FLINT, C. and Mamadouh, V. 2006 “Just War and Extra-Territoriality: The Popular Geopolitics of the U.S.’s War on Iraq as reflected in Newspapers of the Arab World.” Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 142-164.

OTHER RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

R. Bernazzoli and C.FLINT, “From Militarization to Securitization: Finding a Concept that Works,” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington, D.C., 17 April 2010.

Panelist. Dangerous Liaisons? Costs and Benefits for Academics Working with the National Security Community, Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, New Orleans, LA, 17 February 2010.

C. FLINT, S-H. Chi, S. Radil, P. Diehl, J. Vasquez, and J. Scheffran, “The ConflictSpace of the Diffusion of World War I: Using Social Network Analysis and Spatial Analysis to Evaluate the Role of Network Structure and Its Interaction with State Attributes in the Spread of War,” Eurasian Peace Science Conference, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, 8 January 2010.

“You Have to Kill to be Kind: Towards a Typology of Spaces of Reconstruction as a Process of Militarized Power,” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, NV, 23 March 2009.

Panelist. Teaching Political Geography – In Honor of Julian Minghi, Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, NV, 27 March 2009.

“Asia in the Geopolitical Imagination of U.S. Presidents: An Analysis of U.S. Presidential State of the Union Speeches, 1988-2008,” Fifth East Asian Regional Conference in Alternative Geography (EARCAG), Seoul, South Korea, 13 December, 2008.

C. FLINT, P. Diehl, J. Scheffran, amd J. Vasquez, “The ConflictSpace of World War I; A Spatial Analysis of the Diffusion of War,” The Spatial and Network Analysis of Conflict, September 26, 2008, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

P. Diehl, J. Vasquez, C. FLINT, J. Scheffran, and S. Chi, “The ConflictSpace Project: Testing Complex Models of the Diffusion of War,” American Political Science Association, Annual Meeting, Boston, MA August 28-31 2008.

“Conceptualizing ConflictSpace: A Framework to Integrate Spatial Analysis and Social Network Analysis in the Study of the Diffusion of International Conflict.” National  Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA. April 18, 2008.       

Panelist. Iraq: Problems and prospects. National  Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA. April 17, 2008.

Discussant. Locating the Militray Industrial Complex II. National  Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA. April 17, 2008.

“Mapping US Foreign Policy Foci since Reagan: Cartographic and Quantitative Analyses of Presidential State of the Union Speeches, 1988-2007.” Annual Meeting of the West Lakes Division of the Association of American Geographers, Urbana, IL, November 9, 2007. Co-authored and co-presented with Michael Adduci and Michael Chen.

Panelist. Geographies of Militarism I. National  Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2007.

“Adolf Hitler and the Construction of Family Values in US Geopolitical Discourse.” National  Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA. April 19, 2007.

Panelist. War, Citizenship, Territory. National Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL. March 10, 2006.

Panelist. Iraq: Invasion, Occupation, and Aftermath. National Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL. March 9, 2006.

Panelist. Spoils of War: Private Militray Corporations and the Commercialization of Conflict.” National Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL. March 8, 2006.

Panelist. Author Meets Critics. Steve Herbert’s “Citizens, Cops and Power: Recognizing the Limits of Community.” National Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL. March 8, 2006.

“Citizensoldiers and Soldiercitizens: Hegemony and Militarism in the United States of America.” Political Pre-Conference, Political Geography Specialty Group, Champaign, IL, March 6, 2006.