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.”
Jörg Friedrichs is Associate Professor at ODID and Official Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. Taking a broad transdisciplinary approach to academic research, his main interests are in the fields of international relations and political sociology. Among other things, he has proposed an intercultural theory of international relations and a theory about the political use of emotions like fear and anger.
In recent years, Jörg has taken an interest in relations between Muslim minorities and non-Muslim majorities. He has published a book on Hindu-Muslim Relations: What Europe Might Learn from India (2019). In the context of the same project, Jörg has also published on Han-Muslim relations in China. Subsequently, Jörg has started investigating community relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in English inner cities. His focus is on community relations in a diverse set of urban neighbourhoods in East London, Birmingham and Halifax (West Yorkshire).
Jörg has studied Classics in Germany and Italy, finishing with a book on political rhetoric in the work of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides (2000). His doctoral studies in Political Science at Munich led to another book on European Approaches to International Relations Theory (2004). His postdoctoral research led to a third book, Fighting Terrorism and Drugs: Europe and International Police Cooperation (2008). His fourth book was The Future Is Not What It Used to Be: Climate Change and Energy Scarcity (2013).
Jörg has published on other topics ranging from denial and self-deception to security regionalism in East Asia and from pragmatic research methodology to China’s popularity in the Middle East and Africa. His articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as International Organization, International Theory, Third World Studies, and Philosophical Psychology.
Jörg Friedrichs teaches for the MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy. He teaches a seminar on Religion in World Politics and contributes to the foundation course on Global Governance and Diplomacy. He also teaches Qualitative Research Methods.
Jörg is keen to supervise research in international relations and political sociology. He takes special interest in work on religion and world politics, as well as Muslim-majority relations.
International relations; political sociology; Muslim-majority relations