Dr James D. Boys

Director of the Postgraduate Program in International Relations
Associate Professor of International Political Studies

James D. Boys, MA, PhD, is the Director of the Postgraduate Program in International Relations at Richmond, the American International University in London and is an Associate Professor of International Political Studies, specialising in the study of the American system of government and the role of the United States on the world stage.

Born in Warwickshire in 1970, he read American Studies, History and Politics and graduated with Honours from Leicester University in 1996. He took a Masters Degree at the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London, reading American Foreign Policy, National Security Studies and Political Philosophy. After three years in industry that climaxed with a role in the Wall Street district of Manhattan, he began his PhD research at the University of Birmingham in 2001, researching the evolution and execution of U.S. foreign policy under the Clinton Administration. Having met President Clinton whilst working on Capitol Hill, his research built upon work conducted at the IUSS that had introduced him to such luminaries as Arthur Schlesinger and Margret Thatcher. His PhD research led to interviews with Tony Lake, Robert Reich, Sidney Blumenthal and Al Gore.

He began lecturing at the University of Birmingham in 2003, leading courses in American Politics and History, which he would do until the completion of his doctorate in 2006. During this time he held posts at the University of Gloucester, where he helped teach American Civil War History; at Leicester University, where he led a final year course examining American Foreign Policy during the Cold War and at De Montfort University, where he delivered a second year module on US Foreign Policy. Following a spell with Syracuse University in London, he was invited to deliver a course on globalisation at Richmond, the American International University in London beginning in January 2006. Following the successful delivery of this course he was appointed Assistant Professor of International Political Studies in the fall of 2006.

Dr. Boys was instrumental in implementing the university's plans for a Master's degree in International Relations. From its inception he was involved in the course design, layout and objectives, working to ensure the viability and legitimacy of the program. In January 2010 he was named Director of the Program, a move that was reinforced by his promotion in September 2010 to Associate Professor, partly in recognition of his work in this area.

Dr. Boys’ work straddles history, politics and international relations, examining politics as history and history as politics. These issues have been considered in much of his work, which sees an attempt to engage in a multi-disciplinary approach, blending history and politics with a personal insight into political and historical developments. His work seeks to challenge prevailing doctrines and the concept of pre-determinism in history.

His initial publications appeared in the 49th Parallel and at the Nth Position.com Subsequent to this, his work has been published in various locations around the world. In October 2009 an article written on the use of Policy Briefs as an assesment tool in conjunction with Dr. Keating, was published in Politics. His work on E-governemnt with Dr. Hind Zantout was published in 2009, as was his paper examining the importance of Kennedyesque imagery in politics.

In 2010 Dr. Boys was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Genocide Studies at the University of North Dakota. Here he delivered a series of papers examining the Clinton Administration’s response to the Rwandan genocide and the Perpetual War on Terror and was awarded the Key to the City of Grand Forks by the mayor for his efforts. In September 2010 Dr. Boys delivered a paper on the topic of Rendition at the BISA US Foreign Policy conference in Leeds thaqt will be published by the International Journal of Human rights in the summer of 2011.

D. Boys is a regular contributor to television and radio on issues pertaining to issues of American politics and international affairs. Since 2007 he has appeared regularly on the BBC, Sky News and Al Jazeera. In addition he has become a regular guest on various radio channels, in both cases offering perspectives on current and historical aspects of American political life.

Dr. Boys maintains a website at JamesDBoys.com and is currently researching the life of Robert S. McNamara.

Contact Details

E-mail: james.boys@richmond.ac.uk

Kensington Campus
Room 103, Asa Briggs Hall
Tel: +44 (0)20 7368 8458

Postgraduate Course Focus

INR 602: THE UNITED STATES: SUPERPOWER IN CRISIS?

This course will examine the manner in which the foreign policy of the United States has evolved and the degree to which it is judged to have altered in recent decades. The course will provide an understanding of the motivating factors behind the nation’s long-term foreign ambitions and the philosophy that drives it. Theories of US foreign policy (which may include the works of Keegan, Kissinger and Nye) will be considered, along with the views of officeholders (Hamilton, Jefferson, Powell and Clarke, for example) to ascertain the philosophical and practical bases for America’s global entanglements. Individuals from Kennan to Reagan, from McNamara to Obama and events from Korea to 9/11 will be addressed to discern the manner in which the United States alternates between excessive intervention and apparent disinterest in global affairs. To what extent is it accurate to consider the US to be in a state of hegemonic decline?

Undergraduate Courses Taught Previously

• PLT 388: AMERICAN POLITICS
  This course dealt with the nature of politics and political process in the United States, examining American democratic values, the various components of American democracy, external factors that influence American politics including public opinion, the media and scandal.
• PLT 222: MAJOR POLITICAL THINKERS
  The main objective of the course was to provide students with a basic overview of the major political thinkers and most important conceptual debates in Political Thought, equipping them with a conceptual knowledge that will provide the foundation for their more specialised studies.
• PLT 150: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
  The course sought to outline some of the central issues in politics: politics as art and/or science; power and authority in the state; political obligation; the rights and duties of the citizen; liberty and equality; economic systems and modes of production in political economy.
• HST236: FROM VERSAILLES TO VIETNAM: THE U.S. & THE WORLD
  This course sought to provide students with an understanding of some of the major issues and themes which aided the development of the United States in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
• IR 392: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
  This course examined US foreign policy through the ages. It considered the strategies American policymakers devised to deal with various scenarios, including the communist threat of the Cold War.
• FYS 104: HOLLYWOOD AND HISTORY
  This First Year Experience course challenged students to re-evaluate the films that they have been watching over the past few years, by questioning the underlying rationale for film production. Themes and deeper messages were explored in an effort to ensure that students do not merely see movies as mindless entertainment, but rather understand that there is more often than not a deeper rationale from their existence.
• INR 390: FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS
  This course examined the evolution and execution of foreign policy on a global scale. Rather than attmept to examine any one nation’s policies, the course instead attempted to define the rationale for the decisions that are arrived at. Questions were raised concerning the importance of the individual in the process, when confrointed by precedent and bureaucracy.

Selected Publications

• ‘A Sub-Plot on the Sub-Continent,’ OpEd for The Fresh Outlook, November 2010
• ‘What’s So Extraordinary About Rendition?’ International Journal of Human Rights, Summer 2011
• ‘JFK: The Exceptional Ideal?’ in JFK: History, Memory, Legacy: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry, edited by John Williams, Robert G. Waite and Gregory Gordon, University of North Dakota Press, 2009
• ‘The Policy Brief: Building Practical Skills in International Relations and Political Science,’ James D. Boys and Michael Keating, in Politics, edited by Dr Alasdair Young, October 2009
• ‘E-Government: Big Brother of Athenian Democracy,’James D. Boys and Hind Zantout, in Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference e-society 2009: Volume II, edited by Piet Kommers and Pedro Isaías, Barcelona, Spain, 2009 pp 13-17. ISBN: 978-972-8924-78-2
• "The Dual Containment of Rogue States," Nth Position Web site, April 2005. An examination of the Clinton Administration efforts to deal with Iran and Iraq. http://www.nthposition.com/thedualcontainment.php
• "Clinton and Europe: The Transatlantic Relationship 1993-2001," The 49th Parallel Electronic Journal, Summer 2004. An examination of the Anglo-American relationship during the 1990s. http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue14/boys.htm
• "The Somali Legacy: Black Hawk Two," Nth Position Web Site, February 2004. An examination of the Somali deployment and its impact upon the second Bush Administration. http://www.nthposition.com/Somali%20Legacy.php
• "Early evening, April 4th." Nth Position Web site, February 2003. An examination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s speech announcing the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. http://www.nthposition.com/earlyeveningapril.php
• "With us or against us: Cultural Projections and US Foreign Policy after 9/11." The 49th Parallel Electronic Journal, Spring 2003. A paper, co-written with Prof. Scott Lucas, assessing the stance of the Bush Administration following the attacks of September 11. http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue10/lucas.htm
• "Assessing Clinton’s Culpability for September 11." The 49th Parallel Electronic Journal, spring 2003. An examination of Clinton’s potential responsibility for the attacks of 9/11. http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue10/boys.htm
• "Evolving Intelligence; President Clinton and the CIA." Nth Position Web site, November 16, 2002. An examination of President Clinton’s use of the CIA http://www.nthposition.com/politics_boys.html
• "Two Years in the White House, Clinton’s Foreign Policy 93-95." The 49th Parallel Electronic Journal, Spring 2002. An examination of foreign policy in Clinton’s first two years in office. http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue9/boys.htm