Professor Asaf Siniver FRHistS

Department of Political Science and International Studies
Professor of International Security

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6386
Email: a.siniver@bham.ac.uk

Address: Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Asaf Siniver is Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham. He specialises in conflict resolution, international mediation, diplomacy, Foreign Policy Analysis, contemporary US foreign policy, and the politics, diplomacy, and history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has published extensively in these areas, including six books and dozens of articles and edited chapters. His most recent book is The International Arbitration of Territorial Disputes (2024, Oxford University Press), which was funded by a 2-year Leverhulme Research Fellowship.

His current research projects include the role of legal and diplomatic methods of dispute settlement in interstate and intrastate conflicts. He is also PI on a BRIDGE seed funding grant on Development and Diplomacy in the Global South, with colleagues at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of São Paulo. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journals International Affairs and Journal of the Global Security Studies, and Chair of the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Qualifications

PhD, International Relations (Nottingham), 2006
MA, International Relations (Nottingham), 2002
BA, Political Science (Tel Aviv), 1997

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Siniver is happy to discuss research proposals related to international security, diplomacy, conflict resolution, mediation, international law, Foreign Policy Analysis, contemporary US foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Other activities

Co-Editor-in-Chief, International Affairs, 2024-ongoing

Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Global Security Studies, 2020-2024

Co-Editor-in-Chief, Civil Wars Journal, 2010-2016

Chair, Diplomatic Studies Section, International Studies Association

Trainer in Conflict Resolution, Transformation and Peacebuilding at the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies

Affiliate, Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security

Publications

Selected publications

Siniver, A. 2024. 'Territorial disputes and international law: reclaiming the sui generis nature of arbitration.' International Politics.

Siniver, A. 2024. The International Arbitration of Territorial Disputes. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Siniver, A., and Tsourapas, G. 2023. ‘Middle Powers and Soft-Power Rivalry: Egyptian–Israeli Competition in Africa’. Foreign Policy Analysis 19:2, orac041

Siniver, A. 2023. Written Evidence to House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee: The UK’s Engagement with the Middle East and North Africa (Inquiry)

Siniver, A. 2023. 'Israel-Hamas war: history shows the dangers of a creeping occupation'. The Conversation, 16 October.

Siniver, A. 2022. ‘The Power to Blame as a Source of Leverage: International Mediation and “Dead Cat Diplomacy”’. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 17:2, 216-247.

Hart, D. and Siniver, A. 2020. ‘The Meaning of Diplomacy’. International Negotiation 26:2, 159-183

Siniver, A., and Featherstone, C. 2020. ‘Low-Conceptual Complexity and Trump’s Foreign Policy.' Global Affairs 6:1, 71-85.

Siniver, A., and Lucas, S. 2019. ‘Understanding Tacit Security Regimes’. Journal of Global Security Studies 4:4, 510-525.

Siniver, A., and Lucas, S. 2016. 'The Islamic State Lexical Battleground: US Foreign Policy and the Abstraction of Threat'. International Affairs 92:1, 63-79.

Siniver, A. 2015. Abba Eban: A Biography. Overlook Press, New York.

Siniver, A. (ed.) 2013. The Yom Kippur War: Politics, Diplomacy, Legacy. Oxford university Press, New York.

Heemsbergen, L., and Siniver, A. 2011. ‘New Routes to Power: Towards a Typology of Power Mediation.’ Review of international studies 37:3, 1169-1190.

Siniver, A. (ed.) 2011. International Terrorism post 9/11: Comparative Dynamics and Responses. Routledge, London.

Siniver, A. 2008. Nixon, Kissinger, and US Foreign Policy Making: The Machinery of Crisis. Cambridge University Press, New York.

Siniver, A. 2006. ‘Power, Impartiality, and Timing: Three Hypotheses on Third Party Mediation in the Middle East.’ Political Studies 54:4, 806-826.

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