Rate My Professor James Headley

Associate Professor James Headley serves as Head of the Politics Programme in the Division of Humanities at the University of Otago. He earned his BA (Hons) from the University of Oxford, an MA, and a PhD from the University of London at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His primary research interests encompass Russian foreign policy, the politics of the European Union, nationalism and ethnic conflict, comparative regional integration, and International Relations theory. Headley has built a career at the University of Otago, advancing from lecturer to Senior Lecturer, and promoted to Associate Professor in 2017. As Head of Programme and Course Adviser, he leads the Politics curriculum and contributes to departmental administration.

Headley authored Russia and the Balkans: Foreign Policy from Yeltsin to Putin, published by Hurst and Columbia University Press in 2008. He co-edited Public Participation in Foreign Policy, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012. Recent publications include 'The Russkii mir and the Anglosphere: Co-constructing a world of civilisations?' in the Australian Journal of International Affairs (2025, advance online publication), and Newsroom articles 'Navalny wasn't Russia's last hope' (February 2024) and 'Putin landslide surprises nobody: But what comes next?' (March 2024). He delivered papers at the British International Studies Association 48th Annual Conference (2024) on narratives of Russian identities and the Ukraine war, and at the Global Britain workshop (2024). He is co-authoring a book on Russian foreign policy for Polity Press. Headley teaches POLS 105: Comparative Politics – Introduction, POLS 216: Politics of the European Union, POLS 315: Nationalism and Identity, and POLS 550: Comparative Regional Conflicts. His media expertise covers Russian politics and foreign policy, EU politics, Eastern Europe, Balkans, nationalism, elections, and international relations in Europe.