The department is a lively community that is recognised internationally as one of the top centres for research and teaching in development studies.

Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
A new article by Associate Professor Corneliu Bjola and DPhil student Ilan Manor explores how digitalisation has affected the interaction between international and domestic politics in international negotiations.
The authors note that few studies have investigated the impact of digitalisation on Robert Putnam’s two-level game theory – his suggestion that it was not possible to separate international and domestic politics in the context of international negotiations, which should therefore be conceptualised as a two-level game.
The authors note that such an investigation is warranted given that state and non-state actors can employ digital tools to influence decision-making processes at both national and international levels.
The article advances a new theoretical concept, Domestic Digital Diplomacy, referring to the use of social media by a government to build domestic support for its foreign policy. The model is introduced through the case study of the @TheIranDeal twitter channel, a social media account launched by the Obama White House to rally domestic support for the ratification of the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
The study demonstrates that digitalisation has complicated the two-level game by democratising access to foreign policy decisions and increasing interactions between the national and international levels of diplomacy.
Corneliu Bjola and Ilan Manor (2018) 'Revisiting Putnam’s two-level game theory in the digital age: domestic digital diplomacy and the Iran nuclear deal', Cambridge Review of International Affairs, DOI:10.1080/09557571.2018.1476836