Prof Anthony F Lang Jr.

Professor

Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 3006
Email: al51@st-andrews.ac.uk

Biography

Anthony F Lang, Jr. is Professor of International Political Theory. He received his BA in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 1990 and his MA and PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1996. He was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo from 1996 through 2000. From 2000 through 2003, he served as a Programme Officer at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where he directed programmes on ethics and the use of force, religion and US Foreign Policy, and ethics in higher education. Prior to arriving in St Andrews in 2004, he taught courses at Albright College, Yale University, and Bard College.

He is one of the founding editors of the journal, Global Constitutionalism. He now serves on its editorial board, along with the boards of Ethics & International Affairs and Human Rights Review. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of International Political Theory. He has been active in the International Studies Association (ISA), serving as President of the International Ethics section (2003-2004), Programme Chair for the Human Rights Section (2006-2008), Chair of the International Ethics Book Prize Committee (2009-2011), and Chair of the Academic Freedom Committee (2016-2018). He has served as a consultant for the UNODC on ethics in higher education and the UK Ministry of Defense on ethical and legal issues. He has been an external examiner for academic programmes at the LSE, Edinburgh University, Durham University, and Glasgow University. He has examined PhD students at numerous institutions in the UK, Germany and Norway.

Within the University of St Andrews, he founded the Centre for Global Constitutionalism in 2007 and directed it until 2016 (now the Centre for Global Law and Governance). He served as the Head of School (2016-2019) for the School of International Relations, along with numerous other roles in the School. He teaches modules on international political theory, ethics and the use of force, global constitutionalism, speculative fiction, and other themes and topics in international relations and political theory.

Research areas

Professor Lang's research focuses on the intersection of politics, law and ethics at the global level. These themes are explored through the lens of global constitutionalism, human rights, international responsibility, and the just war tradition. Within these different areas, Professor Lang has focused on issues such as global constituent power, international organizations, international law, and military intervention. His work has drawn on 20th century figures such as Hans Morgenthau, Hannah Arendt, and Judith Shklar, and historical figures such as Aristotle and Hugo Grotius. He is currently working on issues of universality and narratives in global politics.

Professor Lang's previous work has addressed international political theory, with a particular focus on questions of agency, responsibility and punishment. These theoretical questions have been explored through various global practices such as humanitarian intervention, international security strategy, war crimes, and counter terrorism policy.

PhD supervision

Nasrin Akhter
David Anderson
Armin Behbahanian
Daniel Drury
Marta Fernandez Albuerne
Karen Katiyo
Zhuangwei Li
Andrew Milne
Filip Scherf
Aarushi Sharma
Chloe Squires
Yuanfuyi Yang
Tiancheng Yu

Selected publications

Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-)
Lang Jr., A. F., 25 Nov 2024, Just war thinkers revisited: heretics, humanists and radicals. Brunstetter, D. R. & O'Driscoll, C. (eds.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 205-218 14 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Open access
Conclusion: Christian traditions of war and peace
Lang Jr., A. F., 18 Jun 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Studies in Christian Ethics. OnlineFirst, 6 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Particulars and universals: what I learned from teaching in Egypt
Lang Jr., A. F., 17 Jul 2024, Moving abroad: risks and rewards searching for an academic life far away. Tomiak, K. & Brown, R. J. (eds.). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, p. 63-76 14 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Open access
A deeper order? A roundtable on William Bain, Political Theology of International Order
Lang Jr., A. F., 3 Feb 2023, In: Journal of International Political Theory. 19, 1, p. 108-109 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Handbook on global constitutionalism
Lang Jr., A. F. (Editor) & Wiener, A. (Editor), 17 Nov 2023, 2nd ed. Cheltenham: Edward Edgar Publishing. 590 p. (Research handbooks on globalisation and the law series)
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Introduction to the handbook on global constitutionalism: protecting rights and democracy while binding power
Lang Jr., A. F. & Wiener, A., 17 Nov 2023, Handbook on global constitutionalism. Lang, A. F. & Wiener, A. (eds.). 2nd ed. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, p. 1-21 21 p. (Research handbooks on globalisation and the law series).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access
Regulating weapons: an Aristotelian account
Lang Jr., A. F., 1 Dec 2023, In: Ethics and International Affairs. 37, 3, p. 309-320 12 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Responsiblity: from the moral to the political
Lang Jr., A. F., 22 Nov 2023, Responsibility in international relations: selected papers from an international roundtable consultation in Vienna. Köchler, H. & Christoph, J. (eds.). Vienna: International Progress Organization, 15 p. (Studies in international relations (Vienna, Austria); vol. 39).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Contesting torture: interdisciplinary perspectives
Cox, R. (Editor), Donnelly, F. (Editor) & Lang Jr., A. F. (Editor), 27 Oct 2022, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 292 p. (Contemporary security studies)
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Contesting torture: continuing debates, questions, and reflections
Cox, R., Donnelly, F. & Lang Jr., A. F., 27 Oct 2022, Contesting torture: interdisciplinary perspectives. Cox, R., Donnelly, F. & Lang Jr. , A. (eds.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 1-15 15 p. (Contemporary security studies).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

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