John Mitton
PhD Candidate
Born and raised in Halifax, NS, I attended Bishop’s University in the Eastern Townships of Quebec where I received an Honours BA in Political Studies. Following stints in Victoria BC, and Ottawa, Ont, I returned home to Halifax where I completed an MA in Political Science at Dalhousie University. Then it was off to Paris, France, as part of the Canada-France Youth Exchange Agreement, before being cajoled back to Dalhousie to work with my MA supervisor, Professor Frank Harvey, on a PhD. As the token Haligonian in the Department, I’m routinely called upon for guidance as to local entertainment, activity, and general divertissement – a task at which I routinely, and spectacularly, underwhelm.
Contact information: john.mitton@dal.ca
Research Interests:
My research interests include international relations theory, Canadian foreign policy, US foreign policy, international rivalry, coercive diplomacy, and the politics of violence. More broadly, I’m interested in the collision of political groups/units over time and across history. Whether city states in Ancient Greece or nation states in the modern era, peoples have organized themselves for the purposes of doing violence and contesting the boundaries of power, a phenomenon sitting at the core of that which constitutes ‘the political’ and an understanding of which remains vitally important for students of history and contemporary politics alike.
Publications
Books
- 2017 Fighting for Credibility: US Reputation and International Politics (with Frank Harvey). University of Toronto Press.
Journal Articles
- 2017 “Rivalry Intervention in Civil Conflicts: Afghanistan (India-Pakistan), Angola (USSR-USA), Lebanon (Israel-Syria),” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 23 (3): 277-291.
- 2016 “History, Science, and the Study of International Rivalry,” Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 17 (1): 61-82.
- 1st Prize winner in National Student Award Essay Competition
- 2015 “Fighting for Credibility: US Reputation Building in Asymmetric Conflicts from the Gulf War to Syria (1991-2013)” (with Frank Harvey) Canadian Journal of Political Science 48 (3): 503-530.
- 2015 “Selling Schelling Short: Reputations and American Coercive Diplomacy after Syria,” Contemporary Security Policy 36 (3): 408-431.
- Winner of the 2015 Bernard Brodie Prize
- 2014 “The India-Pakistan Rivalry and Failure in Afghanistan,” International Journal 69 (3): 353-376.
Book Chapters
- 2016 “Whose Norm is it Anyway? Mediating Contested Norm Histories in Iraq (2003) and Syria (2013)” (with Frank Harvey) in Alan Bloomfield and Shirley V. Scott (eds.) Norm Antipreneurs: The Politics of Resistance to Global Normative Change (Taylor & Francis.)
- 2011 “Autocratic Revival? Optimism, Pessimism and the Future of Russia’s International Relationships” (with Frank Harvey) in Jean-Michel Lacroix (ed) Les Relations Canada- Etats-Unis Revisitées (New York: Peter Lang). pp. 49-86.
Book Reviews
- 2017 “Beyond Afghanistan: An International Security Agenda for Canada,” Fergusson & Furtado (eds), roundtable review forthcoming on H-Diplo
- 2015 “Book Review of ‘Knowing the Adversary: Leaders, Intelligence, and Assessment of Intentions in International Relations’, by Keren Yarhi-Milo’” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 22 (2): 217-219.
Policy Commentary
- 2017 “Trump channels Obama on deterrence in Syria,” Inside Policy, MacDonald-Laurier Institute. April 10 2017. http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/trump-channels-obama-on-deterrence-in-syria-john-mitton-for-inside-policy/
- 2017 “Paranoid or Pragmatic? What Pakistan’s Policy in Afghanistan can tell us about International Rivalry,” OnTrack Magazine 21 (2): 15-20.
- 2016 “Alliances of Convenience: The implications of a regional strategy against ISIS,” OpenCanada.org 22 June. https://www.opencanada.org/features/alliances-convenience-implications-regional-strategy-against-isis/
- 2016 “The Problem with Everybody’s Favourite Solution in Syria,” International Journal 71 (2): 283-290.
- 2016 “Re-assessing red lines: What the conventional wisdom misses about the 2013 Chemical Weapons crisis in Syria,” Conference of Defence Associates Institute. 9 June. https://www.cdainstitute.ca/blog/entry/re-assessing-red-lines-what-the-conventional-wisdom-misses-about-the-2013-chemical-weapons-crisis-in-syria
Conference Presentations
- 2016 “Rivalry Intervention in Civil Conflicts: Afghanistan (India-Pakistan), Angola (USSR-USA), Lebanon (Israel-Syria),” paper presentation at “Problems Abroad? Revisiting the Intervention Trap in an Era of Global Uncertainty,” emerging scholars workshop hosted by the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, October 6-7, Ottawa, Ont.
- 2016 “Under the Same Roof: History, Science, and the Study of Rivalry in IR,” paper presentation at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, March 16, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- 2016 “Fighting for Credibility: US Reputation Building in Asymmetric Conflicts from the Gulf War to Syria (1991-2013)” paper presentation (with Frank Harvey) at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, March 18, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- 2016 Dalhousie Three-Minute Thesis Competition (3MT), Heat Winner and Finalist, Dalhousie University, March 9-10, Halifax, NS
- 2016 “Selling Schelling Short: Reputations and American Coercive Diplomacy After Syria,” Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Cross-Currents Panel, Dalhousie University, Feb 4, Halifax, NS
- 2015 “International Relations: Power, Conflict, and Foreign Policy,” panel discussant at the Atlantic Provinces Political Science Association (APPSA) conference, Sept 26, Halifax, NS
- 2015 “The Study of Rivalry: History, Science, Synthesis?” roundtable chair at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, February 19, New Orleans, NO, USA
- 2014 Participant at the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (IQMR) at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, June 12-26, Syracuse, NY, USA.
- 2014 “Schelling and his Critics: Understanding When, Why, and How Reputations Matter,” paper presentation at the International Studies Association North-East Annual Convention, November 8, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- 2013 “International Rivalry, Civil Conflict, and the Diffusion of Violence” paper presentation at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, April 4, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Scholarships
- 2016-2017 Fulbright Scholarship ($15,000) (School of International Relations, University of Southern California)
- 2015-2017 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship ($40,000)
- 2014-2016 Sir Izaak Walton Killam Pre-doctoral Scholarship (Dalhousie University) ($50,000)
- 2013-2014 Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies Scholarship
- 2012-2013 Margaret Meagher Fellowship (Dalhousie University)
Academic Awards
- 2016 1st Prize National Student Essay Competition (Journal of Military and Strategic Studies)
- 2015 Bernard Brodie Prize (Contemporary Security Policy)
- 2010 Doris Boyle Prize (Dalhousie University)
- 2008 Gerald Theodore Raynor Prize (Bishop's University)
- 2007 E.A. Prince Memorial Scholarship (Bishop's University)
- 2007 CIS Academic All−Canadian (Bishop’s University)
- 2005 Bill & Catherine Young Prize in History (Bishop's University)