Anna Leander

Presentation

My research focuses on the role of business in international politics and especially on the role of private military and security companies. My publications direct attention the politics of commercial security and develop theoretical approaches and methodologies suited for studying it. In recent work I explore the transformation of politics through commercial security expertise, risk-models, and regulatory arrangements drawing on and developing sociological practice approaches. My present projects explore the politics of commercial security knowledge as re-produced in marketing, web-communication and digitized/big data. This work is developed in the context of collaborative projects about security knowledge/expertise more generally.

Primary research areas

• Sociological Theory
• International Politics
• Commercial Security
• Technological Politics
• Legal Theory

Courses

I teach at all levels. During the academic year 2015-16 I coordinate and teach the course Markets, Regulation and Security in the Maritime Sector offered by the BSc in International Shipping and Trade and I contribute to the HA (Kom) course Analytical Strategies. I have earlier developed and taught a wide range of courses including introductions to international relations and international political economy, specialized courses in political risk, international security, globalization, international finance, theories of the state, and Turkish politics and seminars for BSc, MSc, and PhD thesis writing.

Supervision

I enjoy supervision. I supervise at all levels (undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD). I take on the full range of projects (from academic to internship reports). However, I rarely take on supervision of projects unless they directly relate to my own research interests.