Tara McCormack is an academic and author. She is a lecturer in
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the Scientific method, scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities betwe ...
at the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_la ...
.
Education and career
McCormack graduated with a BA in politics from
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and previously Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of ...
, and an MSc in International Relations and Government from the
London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 mill ...
. She completed her PhD in international security at the Centre for the Study of Democracy,
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Augu ...
. She specialises in security, foreign policy and democratic legitimacy; intervention and Britain's war powers. Before taking up her post at the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_la ...
McCormack taught at the University of Westminster and the
University of Brunel
Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In Ju ...
.
Views
McCormack has a long association with ''
LM Magazine
''Living Marxism'' was a British magazine originally launched in 1988 as the journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1978), Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Rebranded as ''LM'' in 1992, it ceased publication in March 2000 followi ...
'' and its successor ''
Spiked'' magazine, and with their related projects such as the Battle of Ideas.
In a 2007 article for ''
Spiked'' reviewing a book by
John Laughland on the
Trial of Slobodan Milošević, she described the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try ...
(ICTY) as practising "utter arbitrary lawlessness".
The
death of Milošević, in her opinion, "brought an end to the farce".
Syria
McCormack is a member of the
Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media
The Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (SPM) is a group of academics and activists whose stated purpose is to study propaganda and information operations surrounding the Syrian civil war. It was formed by environmental political theor ...
(SPM). In April 2018 ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...
'' newspaper described the group as being "apologists for
Assad". In response, McCormack said "What have we learnt from the air strikes? UK, US and France hold the UN Charter in contempt. They bombed on the basis of social media videos. By bombing the day the
OPCW
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 193 member ...
was to start work they also show contempt for this body. ... The front page of The Times was a hatchet job on me and other colleagues who are against intervention". McCormack has tweeted that Syria's civil defence volunteers, the
White Helmets are "basically
Al Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
"
and "run by Jihadis".
Selected publications
Books
* ''Critique, Security and Power. The Political Limits to Critical and Emancipatory Approaches''. Routledge, London, 2009.
Articles
* "Power and Agency in the Human Security Framework", ''
Cambridge Review of International Affairs
The ''Cambridge Review of International Affairs'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal on international relations, particularly in the fields of international studies, international law, and international political economy. It is publish ...
'', Vol. 1, No. 21, pp. 113–128. (2008)
* "The Responsibility to Protect and the End of the Western Century", ''
The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding'', Vol. 4 (2010), No. 1, pp. 69–82.
* "Human Security and the Separation of Security and Development", ''
Conflict Security and Development'', Vol. 11 (2011), No. 2, pp. 235–260.
* "The Domestic Limits to American International Leadership after Bush", ''
International Politics'', Vol. 48 (2011), No. 2, pp. 188–206.
* "The British National Security Strategy, Security After Representation", ''
British Journal of Politics and International Relations
The ''British Journal of Politics and International Relations'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Political Studies Association. It was established in 1999.
Until 2016, the journal was p ...
''. (2015)
The British National Security Strategy: Security after Representation.
Wiley. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
* "The Emerging Parliamentary Convention on British Military Action and Warfare by Remote Control", ''The RUSI Journal'', Vol. 161 (2016), No 2, pp. 22–29.
References
External links
*
Tara McCormack.
''Spiked''.
*http://remotecontrolproject.org/interview-tara-mccormack/
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCormack, Tara
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Academics of the University of Leicester
Academics of the University of Westminster
Alumni of Queen Mary University of London
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of the University of Westminster
Women political scientists