I am the John G. Winant Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) of the University of Oxford. I am also a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC). In 2022 I won a Philip Leverhulme Prize for researchers "whose work has had international impact and whose future research career is exceptionally promising."

My research concerns the role of law and morality in international relations, specifically in war. In one strand of research, I develop legal and philosophical theories about how international law can be an instrument of morality in war, albeit an imperfect one. This work speaks to debates in just war theory and international law. The second strand of my research seeks to explain how moral and legal norms affect the reality of war. I use both qualitative and experimental research to contribute to debates about the capacity of international law to constrain military decision-making. I also study how normative considerations can shape mass attitudes towards the use of force and the attitudes of conflict-affected populations. Several of my ongoing research projects concern the moral psychology of decision-making in war. 

My first book, entitled Legitimate Targets? International Law, Social Construction and US Bombing, proposes a constructivist theory of how international law influences the choice of targets of attack in U.S. air warfare. I test the theory with three case studies of U.S. air warfare. I further uncover tensions between a legal and a moral definition of a legitimate target of attack and one guided by strategic considerations alone. The book appeared with Cambridge University Press as part of the series Cambridge Studies in International Relations in 2015. The book is based on my doctoral dissertation, which won the Dasturzada Dr. Jal Pavry Thesis Prize (Oxford, DPIR) and the Lord Bryce Prize (Political Studies Association). The book was joint runner-up for the Birks Prize for Outstanding legal Scholarship (Society of Legal Scholars) and received an Honourable Mention (Theory Section, International Studies Association). 

In my second book, entitled Law Applicable to Armed Conflict (co-authored with Ziv Bohrer and Helen Duffy), I propose a moral division of labour between human rights and humanitarian law. I examine under what circumstances each body of law better fulfils what I argue are the moral tasks of law. My contribution to the book provides a moral justification for the so-called displacement view, i.e. the position that humanitarian law should displace human rights law in certain types of armed conflict. The book appeared in January 2020 with Cambridge University Press.

For information on how to contact me, please follow the above links to my departmental or college websites. Or follow me on twitter @JaninaDill

​
​News

​Prize:
Philip Leverhulme Prize in Politics and International Relations, awarded by the Leverhulme Trust

Media:

The Guardian: The Best Path to Peace is not Talks With Russia (op-ed citing our research by Timothy Garton Ash)

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Widerstand gegen Russland um jeden Preis (article featuring our research by Reinhard Veser)

The Conversation: Ukrainians are not willing to give up territory or sovereignty 

Public Ethics: The moral muddle of muddle of blaming the West for Russia's aggression

BBC Radio 4, The Moral Maze: Putin - did we help create a war criminal? (27 min)

BBC Radio 4, Sunday: What Just War Theory has to say about Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (14:20 min)
​
Latest articles:
Inconstant Care: Public Attitudes towards Force Protection and Civilian Casualties in the United States, United Kingdom and Israel, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2022, early view here

Introduction to a Symposium on War by Agreement: A Contractarian Ethics of War by Yizthak Benbaji and Daniel Statman, Law and Philosophy, 2022, open access

Kettle of Hawks: Public Opinion on the Nuclear Taboo and Noncombatant Immunity in the United States, United Kingdom Israel, and France, Security Studies, 2022, open access

Photography by Keiko Ikeuchi