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.”
John Gledhill is Associate Professor of Global Governance in Oxford's Department of International Development, and a Fellow of St Cross College.
Before coming to Oxford in 2011, he was an LSE Fellow in Global Politics at the London School of Economics, and he has previously taught at Georgetown and George Washington universities.
In his research, writing, and teaching, John investigates diverse themes of peace and conflict, including peacekeeping and peacebuilding, conflict processes, state formation and dissolution, nonviolent resistance, and (transnational) social mobilisation.
His recent academic writings have appeared in journals such as the European Journal of International Relations, International Peacekeeping, Oxford Development Studies, and the Journal of Global Security Studies.
At ODID, John teaches on the MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy. In 2013, he received a Teaching Excellence Award for his work at the University of Oxford, and he had previously received the same award for his teaching at the London School of Economics.
Outside of ODID, he is a member of the Steering Committee of OxPeace, which is a group that brings together scholars and practitioners around Oxford who are committed to promoting the study of peace, peacemaking, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping. He sits on the Governing Council of the Conflict Research Society, is a (Visiting) Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (University of Queensland), and was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Government at the University of Sydney in 2019.
He holds a PhD in Government from Georgetown University, and he received the University Gold Medal for his undergraduate work at Trinity College, Dublin.
John coordinates the foundation course in Global Governance for the MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy. He also offers optional courses on Peacebuilding & Statebuilding and, from 2016-17, Non-Violent Protest Movements.
Conflict processes; social mobilisation and contentious politics; regime change and democratisation; state formation, failure, and reconstruction; transitional justice and collective remembrance; peacemaking and peacekeeping; peace studies.