About Geoffrey Gordon

Geoffrey Gordon holds a PhD in political science from the University of Virginia. He wrote a dissertation about the politics of guardian democracies, in which militaries share power with elected governments, over the long term, focusing on Turkey. His research interests include civil-military relations, critical political economy, political regimes, state theory, and anti-racist and post-colonial approaches to political science research.
Geoffrey Gordon holds a PhD in political science. Follow him on Twitter: @geofflgordon.

NBN Episodes hosted by Geoffrey:

Adam Hanieh, "Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market" (Verso, 2024)

November 2, 2024

Crude Capitalism

Adam Hanieh
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Oil is everywhere. It’s in our cars, it’s in the fertilizer used to grow our food, and it’s in the plastics used to produce and transport our consumer…

Sharad Chari, "Apartheid Remains" (Duke UP, 2024)

October 13, 2024

Apartheid Remains

Sharad Chari
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Over the course of the 20th century, the South African state attempted to construct a “White Man’s Country” on the African continent using the biopoli…

Inés Valdez, "Democracy and Empire: Labor, Nature, and the Reproduction of Capitalism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

September 29, 2024

Democracy and Empire

Inés Valdez
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

In scholarly and popular discourse, popular sovereignty and self-determination are typically conceived of as the antitheses of imperialism, while hist…

Ilias Alami and Adam D. Dixon, "The Spectre of State Capitalism" (Oxford UP, 2024)

September 22, 2024

The Spectre of State Capitalism

Ilias Alami and Adam D. Dixon
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial cri…

Terrence G. Peterson, "Revolutionary Warfare: How the Algerian War Made Modern Counterinsurgency" (Cornell UP, 2024)

September 7, 2024

Revolutionary Warfare

Terrence G. Peterson
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The Algerian War of Independence constituted a major turning point of 20th century history. The conflict exacerbated divisions in French society, culm…

Laura Robson, "Human Capital: A History of Putting Refugees to Work" (Verso, 2023)

July 9, 2024

Human Capital

Laura Robson
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

When Americans and other citizens of advanced capitalist countries think of humanitarianism, they think of charitable efforts to help people displaced…

Race, Social Reproduction, and Capitalist Totality: A Conversation with William Conroy

June 30, 2024

Race, Social Reproduction, and Capitalist Totality

William Conroy
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

We live in a historical conjuncture characterized by the rise of a range of social movements that aim to challenge different forms of domination: capi…

Jason Read, "The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work" (Verso, 2024)

June 8, 2024

The Double Shift

Jason Read
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Even as the rewards of work decline and its demands on us increase, many people double-down on their commitment to wage slavery – working harder, doin…

Nicholas Hoover Wilson and Damon Mayrl, "After Positivism: New Approaches to Comparison in Historical Sociology" (Columbia UP, 2024)

May 25, 2024

After Positivism

Nicholas Hoover Wilson and Damon Mayrl
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The scientific method that aspiring social scientists are taught in graduate school seems pretty straightforward: you start with a hypothesis, figure …

Eren Duzgun, "Capitalism, Jacobinism and International Relations: Revisiting Turkish Modernity" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

December 28, 2022

Capitalism, Jacobinism and International Relations

Eren Duzgun
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Western interpretations of the Ottoman age of reform and the Turkish Republic often evaluate these histories against an idealized, essentialized narra…

Natalie Koch, "Spatializing Authoritarianism" (Syracuse UP, 2022)

November 14, 2022

Spatializing Authoritarianism

Natalie Koch
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

How do authoritarian political leaders use the built environment to shape understandings of national identity and history? How do major urban developm…

Jamie Allinson, "The Age of Counter-Revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

October 27, 2022

The Age of Counter-Revolution

Jamie Allinson
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented amount of protests for far-reaching social change around the world – from the Arab Spring and Occ…

Mark Devenney, "Towards an Improper Politics" (Edinburgh UP, 2020)

February 21, 2022

Towards an Improper Politics

Mark Devenney
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Historically, discourses of racial, civilizational, and sexual difference have inevitably been entangled with, shaped by, and constitutive of institut…

Lisa Jane Disch, "Making Constituencies: Representation as Mobilization in Mass Democracy" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

February 4, 2022

Making Constituencies

Lisa Jane Disch
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The common-sense way of thinking about what representatives should do in democracies tends to revolve around the concept of responsiveness: representa…

Zach Sell, "Trouble of the World: Slavery and Empire in the Age of Capital" (UNC Press, 2021)

March 29, 2021

Trouble of the World

Zach Sell
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The middle decades of the 19th century witnessed the expansion of slavery and white settlement and dispossession of Indigenous lands west of the Missi…

Thomas C. Field, "From Development to Dictatorship: Bolivia and the Alliance for Progress in the Kennedy Era" (Cornell UP, 2014)

January 29, 2021

From Development to Dictatorship

Thomas C. Field
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

How do ideologies of development shape the perceptions of security threats of US foreign policymakers and the political and military leaders of develo…

Paulina O. Espejo, "On Borders: Territories, Legitimacy, and the Rights of Place" (Oxford UP, 2020)

November 20, 2020

On Borders

Paulina Ochoa Espejo
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

When are borders justified? Who has a right to control them? Where should they be drawn? Today people think of borders as an island's shores. Just as …

Thea Riofrancos, "Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador" (Duke UP, 2020)

September 14, 2020

Resource Radicals

Thea Riofrancos
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

In 2007, Ecuador joined the Latin American “Pink Tide” by electing a left-wing president, Rafael Correa, who voiced opposition to US imperialism and a…

Adam Hanieh, "Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

September 1, 2020

Money, Markets, and Monarchies

Adam Hanieh
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

When most Westerners think of the Gulf, the first thing that comes to mind is often oil. However, as Adam Hanieh demonstrates in Money, Markets, and M…

George Lawson, "Anatomies of Revolution" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

June 19, 2020

Anatomies of Revolution

George Lawson
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The success of populist politicians and the emergence of social justice movements around the world, and the recent demonstrations against police viole…

Micol Seigel, "Violence Work: State Violence and the Limits of Police" (Duke UP, 2018)

June 17, 2020

Violence Work

Micol Seigel
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Recent calls for the defunding or abolition of police raise important questions about the legitimacy of state violence and the functions that police a…

Begüm Adalet, "Hotels and Highways: The Construction of Modernization Theory in Cold War Turkey" (Stanford UP, 2018)

June 8, 2020

Hotels and Highways

Begüm Adalet
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

During the opening decades of the Cold War, US policymakers and academics used modernization theory to provide an alternative model to communism for i…

Richard Lachmann, "First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship: Elite Politics and the Decline of Great Powers" (Verso, 2020)

May 27, 2020

First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship

Richard Lachmann
Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

Richard Lachmann’s First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship: Elite Politics and the Decline of Great Powers (Verso, 2020) is a two-for-one deal. The f…