Dr Jon Moran

Reader in Security

BA (York) MA (Manchester) PhD (Newcastle)

Contact Details

• Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2303
• Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5082
• Email: jm457@leicester.ac.uk

Research Interests

My research interests lie in the area of security studies, an interest which grew from work on political development and democratisation. I am interested in the continuing power of the state in the international system and specifically in the role of the state and military and intelligence agencies both domestically and internationally. I am also interested in issues of intelligence and security accountability. I remain interested in other areas of security and state power including the effect of democratisation on the state (including the role of intelligence agencies before and after democratisation) and types and patterns of elite corruption. I have conducted field research with police and security agencies and civil society activists in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South Africa and East Asia.

Current Research

I am working on a book ‘From Northern Ireland to Iraq: British Military Intelligence Operations, Ethics and Human Rights’ which covers the role of army intelligence and special forces since the 1970s.

Recent Research Activities

I have just finished a book The Politics of (In)security: Crime and Corruption in New Democracies (Palgrave, forthcoming 2011). For three years I have conducted training for the EU for security professionals on the reform of intelligence agencies as part of a programme on Security Sector Reform. In 2009 I was part of a team funded by the UK National Police Improvement Agency which reviewed academic and policy analyses of counter terrorism and other aspects of police effectiveness.

 PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising students in the areas of counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, human rights and accountability (internationally and in individual nation-states) and most aspects of democratisation.

Teaching

• PL2017 Globalisation
• PL3124 The Politics of Counter Terrorism
• PL7161 Post Cold War World Order
• PL7090 Counter Insurgency Since 1945

Most Recent Publications

Books

Crime and Corruption in New Democracies: The Politics of (In)security(Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011) 

Policing the Peace in Northern Ireland. Politics, Crime and Security after the Belfast Agreement (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008).

Intelligence, Security and Policing post-9/11. The UK’s Response to the War on Terror (edited with Mark Phythian, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008) 

Corruption in the Developed World (edited with R. Williams and R. Flanary, Edward Elgar, 2000).

Selected Book Chapters

• 'A contradiction in terms? Border security in the UK’ in J. Winterdyk and K. Sundberg (eds) Transforming Borders in the al Qaeda Era (London: Taylor and Francis, 2010). 
• 'Between Democracy and National Security. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service’ in M. Phythian, S. Farson, P. Gill & S. Shpiro (eds) PSI Handbook of Global Security and Intelligence: National Approaches: Volume 1 – The Americas and Asia (USA: Praeger, 2008).
• 'The Role of the Security Services in Democratisation: South Korea’ in H. Born, L. Johnson and I. Leigh (eds.) Who’s Watching the Spies? Establishing Intelligence Service Accountability (Washington: Potomac, 2005).
• A. Doig & J. Moran ‘Anti-Corruption Agencies’ in C. Fijnaut and L. Huberts (eds) Corruption, Integrity and Law Enforcement (Netherlands: Kluwer, 2002)

Selected Journal Articles

• ‘Evaluating Special Branch and Informant Intelligence in Northern Ireland’ Intelligence and National Security Vol.25 No.1 2010 pp.1-23.

• 'Generating more heat than light? Debates over civil liberties in the UK' Policing Vol.1 No.1 2007, pp.80-93.

• ‘State power and the war on terror: A comparative analysis of the UK and the USA’ Crime, Law and Social Change Vol.44 Nos.4/5 2005, pp.335-359.

• M. Phythian and J. Moran (eds) special issue on the ‘war on terror’ Crime, Law and Social Change Vol.44 Nos.4/5 2005.

• “Paramilitaries, ‘ordinary decent criminals’ and the development of organised crime following the Belfast Agreement” International Journal of the Sociology of Law Vol.32 pp.263-278.

• ‘Democratic Transitions and forms of Corruption’ Crime, Law and Social Change Vol.36 No.4 2001/2 pp.379-393.

• A. Doig, S. McIvor & J. Moran ‘A Word Desperately Seeking Scandal: New Labour and Tony’s Cronies’ Parliamentary Affairs Vol.52 No.4 1999 pp.676-687.

• ‘The Changing Context of Corruption Control: the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 1997-1999’ Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics Vol.37 No.3 1999 pp.98-117.

• ‘Patterns of Corruption and Development in East Asia’ Third World Quarterly Vol.20 No.3 1999 pp.569-589.

• ‘Two Conceptions of State: Michael Mann and Antonio Gramsci’ Politics Vol.18 No.3 1998 pp.159-164.

• ‘The Role of Intelligence Agencies in Democratisation’ Intelligence and National Security Vol.13 No.4 1998 pp.1-32.

• ‘The Dynamics of Class Politics and National Economies in Globalisation’ Capital and Class Vol.22 No.3 53-83.

• Contradictions Between Economic Liberalisation and Democratisation: the Case of South Korea Democratization Vol.4 No.3 1996 pp.459-490.