Office: NW 820 i 

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 0121 204 4462

Twitter: @DrThomasEason

Website: www.thomaseason.co.uk

Student Office Hours:  https://wass.aston.ac.uk/pages/viewcalendar.page.php?makeapp=1&cal_id=4453

• British Foreign Policy
• Foreign Policy Analysis
• Secret Intelligence

Thomas is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and PhD Lead for the Department of Politics, History, and International Relations. He joined Aston in 2024, and prior to this, he worked at the University of Lincoln and the University of Nottingham. 

In his research, Thomas explores i) the impact of the UK's foreign and security policy machinery on its approach to the world and ii) how a policymaker's perceptions of past foreign and security policy events shape their policy preferences in the present. His research often takes an interpretivist approach using archival methods, elite interviews, and discourse analysis. He published three peer-reviewed articles in leading International Relations journals, and is currently working on a book project about the 2003 Iraq War and British foreign policy decision-making.

Thomas is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has taught a range of modules on British Politics, International Relations, security, and research methods.

Thomas actively engages in knowledge exchange activities. He has taken part in interviews for BBC Radio and the Guardian and has authored a number of blogs for academic organisations, such as UK in the Changing Europe. He has also provided research support for a project on covert influence commissioned by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. In 2024, he delivered a talk in Parliament for an event hosted by the Foreign Policy Centre think tank.

Current Projects

Thomas is currently working on a book that will analyse the British decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and, in line with his interest in exploring how the UK’s security policy machinery shapes policy preferences, will produce a new analytical framework that can be used to understand how individual perceptions and bureaucratic processes interact together to shape foreign and security policy decision-making. This framework, applied to the Iraq case, will allow the book to challenge dominant Blair-centric narratives in favour of analysing the wider government machine.

Thomas is also co-authoring an article that will explore the concept of 'myth diplomacy' and how Ukraine have actioned memory diplomacy through myth following Russia's invasion.

Previous Projects

Thomas has a record of publishing peer-reviewed articles in leading International Relations journals. In his first article, published in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations with Prof Rory Cormac and Dr Oliver Daddow, he explored how official secrecy can be (mis)used by governments to manipulate political blame games. Additionally, in his first solo-authored article, published in Intelligence and National Security, he argued that scholars can conceptualise the policy networks responsible for British decisions to use covert action by using interpretivist Public Policy Analysis models. This introduced the largely positivist Intelligence Studies to a more interpretivist approach to studying the impact of the UK’s government machine on UK intelligence and security policy. 

Thomas's most recent article was published in the International Studies Association journal Foreign Policy Analysis. This article explores the concept of myth and how myth can extend narrative approaches to studying foreign and security policy. It does this by analysing how the narrative that Tony Blair acted as George Bush's poodle in the build-up to the 2003 Iraq war has functioned as a myth that has shaped negative constructions of US-UK relations for the last twenty years. 

Modules that Thomas currently teach include:

• Understanding Foreign Policy – Year 2: Module convenor, seminars, lectures, and marking. Aston University, 2024
• International Relations: Theories – Year 1: Seminars and marking. Aston University, 2024
• What’s Trending? (Contemporary Debates in Politics and International Relations) – Year 1: Module convenor, seminars, lectures, and marking. Aston University, 2024-2025
• Negotiation Skills: Eurosim and Model UN – PG: Module convenor, seminars, lectures, and marking. Aston University, 2024-2025

Modules that Thomas has taught include:

• Debates in Contemporary British Politics – Year 3: Module convenor, seminars, lectures, and marking. Aston University, 2024
• Conflict and Intervention – Year 3: Lectures and seminars. Aston University, 2024
• Conflict and Security – PG: Lectures and seminars. Aston University, 2024
• Secret Intelligence and International Security – Level 3: Online seminars, lectures, and marking. University of Nottingham, 2020. Student Evaluation of Teaching Score: 4.9/5 (university average: 4.42/5)
• Covert Action and Unacknowledged Interventions – Level 4: Seminars. University of Nottingham, 2019
• Foreign Policy Analysis – Level 2: Seminars, lectures, and marking. University of Lincoln, 2022
• Counter-Terrorism Studies – Level 3: Seminars and marking. University of Lincoln, 2023
• Thinking International Relations – Level 2: Seminars. University of Lincoln, 2023
• Researching Social Sciences – Level 2: Seminars and marking. University of Lincoln, 2023
• Key Social Science Concepts – Level 1: Seminars and marking. University of Lincoln, 2023