Specialisations

• International Relations theory - especially realism, regional security complex theory, & constructivism
• Foreign Policy Analysis - especially EU foreign policy, Russia’s foreign policy, & China’s foreign policy
• Geopolitics & geoeconomics - especially in Eastern Europe, Eurasia, & the Indo-Pacific

Background

Nicholas Ross Smith is an adjunct fellow at the University of Canterbury’s National Centre for Research on Europe. Prior this, he spent three and a half years as an Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo, China. His main research areas include geopolitics in Eastern Europe, EU foreign policy, Russian foreign policy, democratisation and geoeconomics in an emerging multipolar world. He has published two books, numerous journal articles, book chapters, and essays on these topics (and others).

Books

• A New Cold War? Assessing the Current US-Russia Relationship. (2020). Cham: Palgrave.
• EU–Russian Relations and the Ukraine Crisis. (2016). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Book chapters

• ‘The taniwha and the dragon: New Zealand’s relationship with China under the Ardern government at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty’, in P. Grace, B. Kiglics, RG. Patman and D. Wesselbaum (eds), The Foreign Policy of Jacinda Ardern’s Government in the Era of COVID-19 (Singapore: World Scientific, 2022).

• ‘The Two-Level Game Impeding China’s Public Diplomacy Efforts’ (with Tracey Fallon), in X. Zhang, C. Shultz, and G. Shaw (eds), China and the World in the 21st Century: Communication and Relationship Building (Abingdon: Routledge, 2022)

• ‘Realism and the study of EU-Russian relations’ (with Anastassiya Yuchshenko), in M. David and T. Romanova (eds.), Handbook on EU-Russian relations (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021)

• ‘The EU’s trade power: Assessing its triangular trade relationship with Ukraine and Russia’, in M. Garcia, S. Khorana and J. Orbie (eds.), Handbook on European Union Trade Policy (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2018).

• ‘Ukraine’s democratisation path: Examining the internal & external impediments to democratic reform’, in S. Fish, G. Gill and M. Petrovic (eds.), A Quarter Century of Postcommunism Assessed (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017).

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• ”Public diplomacy in an age of perpetual crisis: assessing the EU's strategic narratives through six crises” (with Juan-Luis Manfredi-Sánchez), Journal of Communication Management (2022).
• “Mearsheimer, Realism, and the Ukraine War” (with Grant Dawson), Analyse & Kritik (2022).
• “New Zealand’s grand strategic options as the room for hedging continues to shrink”, Comparative Strategy (2022)
• “The importance of bona fide friendships to international politics: China’s quest for friendships that matter” (with Tracey Fallon), Cambridge Review of International Affairs (2022)
• ‘Neither a new Cold War nor a new Peloponnesian War: The emerging cyber-narrative competition at the heart of Sino-American relations’ (with Ruairidh Brown), Vestnik Rudn. International Relations, Vol. 21, No. 2 (2021):252-26
• ‘The EU’s stability-democracy dilemma in the context of the problematic accession of the Western Balkan states’ (with Nina Markovic & Maja Kovacevic), Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 21, No,2 (2021): 169-183
• ‘When Hedging Goes Wrong: Lessons from Ukraine’s Failed Hedge of the EU and Russia’, Global Policy, Vol. 11, No. 5 (2020): 588-597
• ‘An Epochal Moment? The COVID-19 Pandemic and China’s International Order Building’ (with Tracey Fallon), World Affairs, Vol. 183, No.3, (2020): 235-255
• ‘International order in the coming cryptocurrency age: The potential to disrupt American primacy and privilege?’ Rising Powers Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2019), 77-97.
• ‘Could Russia utilize cryptocurrencies in its foreign policy grand strategizing?’, Russia In Global Affairs, Vol. 17, No.2 (2019), 134-152.
• ‘Can Neoclassical Realism Become a Genuine Theory of International Relations?’, The Journal of Politics, Vol.80, No.2 (2018), 742 -749.
• ‘The re -emergence of a “mirror image” in West-Russia relations?’, International Politics, Vol.55, No.5 (2018), 575-594.
• ‘What the West can learn from rationalizing Russia’s action in Ukraine‘, Orbis,Vol.61, No.3 (2017), 354-368.
• ‘The EU under a realist scope: Employing a neoclassical realist approach for the analysis of the EU’s Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement offer to Ukraine’, International Relations , Vol.30, No.1 (2016), 29-48.
• ‘The EU and Russia’s conflicting regime preferences in Ukraine: Assessing regime promotion strategies in the scope of the Ukraine crisis’, European Security, Vol.24, No.4 (2015), 525 -540.
• ‘The Underpinning Realpolitik of the EU’s Policies towards Ukraine’, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol.19, No.4 (2014), 581–596.
• ‘The EU’s difficulty in translating interests into effective foreign policy action: A look at the Ukraine crisis’, Baltic Journal of European Studies , Vol.4, No.1 (2014), 54-68.
• ‘In Croatia’s Slipstream or on an Alternative Road?’ (with Milenko Petrovic),  Southeast European and Black Sea Studies , Vol.13, No.4 (2013), 553-573.
• ‘The EU’s reaction to the Arab Spring: External media portrayals in China, India and Russia’ (with Serena Kelly), European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol.18, No.2 (2013), 217-234.
• ‘The EU’s Utilization of Conditionality in the European Neighbourhood Policy’, EU External Affairs Review, Vol.2,No.1 (2012), 84-97.
• ‘The EU’s Two-Track Promotion of Democracy in its Eastern Neighbourhood’, Asia-Pacific Journal of EU Studies,Vol.10, No.1 (2012), 19-43.
• ‘Europeanization through socialization? The EU’s interaction with civil society organizations in Armenia’, Demokratizatsiya, Vol.19, No.4 (2011), 385-404.

• ‘The potential of return migration as a resource for EU public diplomacy efforts’ (with Martin Holland and Natalia Chaban), European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management , Vol.1, No.4 (2010), 378-398. 

   

Essays

• ‘Responding to China’s crimes against humanity in Xinjiang: why dialogue is the only pathway for the emerging “coalition of the willing”’, Global Affairs, Vol. 7, No, 1 (2021):  79-86
• ‘When the COVID-19 threat subsides, the EU should employ a “Neue Ostpolitik” towards Russia’, Baltic Rim Economies, No.2 (2020).
• ‘Brexit and the trap of history’ (with Maximilian Mayer), Global Affairs, Vol. 4, No.4-5 (2019), 445-451
• ‘Why China’s ‘Assimilation’ Strategy is Doomed to Fail in Xinjiang’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 39, No. 4 (2019), 582-587.
• ‘Taking Publicist IR Seriously: Plural Audience and Communication Strategies’ (with Maximilian Mayer), New Perspectives, Vol. 27, No.2 (2019), 128-139
• ‘Assessing the trajectory of West-Russia relations in Eastern Europe: Gauging three potential scenarios’, Global Policy, December (2017)
• ‘The Trump-Russia collusion is bad, but let’s not forget the un-answered questions about America’s inept democracy’, Journal of International Affairs (2017).
• ‘Time for fresh ideas in Ukraine’s democratisation efforts’, New Eastern Europe (2016).
• ‘The West, the Liberal Order and (Post-Coup) Turkey’. European Geostrategy (2016).
• ‘Civil society development is the key to rejuvenating Ukraine’s democratisation efforts’, Ukraine Democracy Initiative (2016).
• ‘Rethinking Eurasia's future’ (with Zbigniew Dumienski). Open Democracy (2015).
• ‘A fork in the road? Ukraine’s difficult position between East and West’. Australia and New Zealand Journal of European Studies (2013)