Moran Mandelbaum

Biography

Dr Mandelbaum teaches and researches global politics, security, and nations and nationalism from a psychoanalytical lens. He has written peer-reviewed research papers on the Brexit vote, the inclusion of LGBTQ population as a form of sovereign legitimation in Israeli society, the ideal of nationally congruent societies in modernity, and the power of belonging in global politics. His recent book, The Nation/State Fantasy, offers a psychoanalytical genealogy of nationalism from early modernity to contemporary political and IR theory.

Dr Mandelbaum has also written for E-IR on Brexit, and on the problematic IHRA definition of antisemitism for Open Democracy. He is an associate editor for Frontiers in Political Science, and the Journal of Global Faultlines.

Since joining Keele, Dr Mandelbaum has contributed to several funded projects on psychoanalysis, global politics, and the social sciences. As PI, he has recently concluded the project ‘Psychoanalysis as Methodology’, an ESRC-Collaborative Innovation Grant (2022/2023), which entailed a one-day conference and that will lead to a methodology manuscript on psychoanalysis in the social sciences. Other projects include ‘Psychoanalysing the 21st Century’ (Led by Ronnie Lippens and funded by Keele University), and ‘Interrogating the Void: Lacan and International Relations’ (funded by The European International Studies Association Exploratory Symposia, and co-organised with Andreja Zevnik from Manchester University).

Dr Mandelbaum joined Keele in January 2014 as Lecturer in International Relations and has since fulfilled various roles at school and faculty levels including Acting Director of PGT Studies for the Faculty of Humanities and the Social Sciences; the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion; Director of PGR, and Director of PGT studies. Since January 2023 he has been the IR programme director. He has also served as external examiner for the MA programme in IR at Staffordshire University for 5 years.

Research and scholarship

Dr Mandelbaum’s research lies at the intersection of nations and nationalism, political theory, and critical approaches to IR and security, with a focus on Israel/Palestine. His work is influenced by discourse analytical and psychoanalytical approaches to (global) politics, particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis and the works of Slavoj Žižek. Key concepts he has been developing and applying to political and IR theory as well as Israel/Palestine include 'fantasy', 'enjoyment' (jouissance) and interpellation, and belonging.

His first book, The Nation/State Fantasy, offers a psychoanalytical genealogy of nationalism from early modernity to contemporary political and IR theory (2020: Palgrave Macmillan).

He has published research papers on the Brexit vote and discourse, and the rise of national-populism through a psychoanalytical lens, focusing on the bodily enjoyment (jouissance) the narrative of 'Making Britain Great Again' entails (International Journal for the Semiotics of Law); on homonationalism in Israeli society (Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society); on the relationship between nationalism and insecurity (Critical Studies on Security), and on the nation/state in modernity and IR theory (Philosophy & Social Criticism, and the Journal of IR & Development). He is also the co-author (with Andreja Zevnik) of the entry on Psychoanalysis in Global Politics and International Relations, published by Oxford Bibliographies. His entry on Nation in the Elgar Encyclopaedia of International Relations is forthcoming (2025).

Dr Mandelbaum has recently co-edited a special issue on psychoanalysis and IR in the journal International Studies Quarterly. His contributing paper to the special issue offers a psychoanalytical framework for the analysis of interpellation and belonging in global politics.

Currently, Dr Mandelbaum is working on the Geopolitics of Antisemitism, offering a critical and psychoanalytical reading of white nationalism and antisemitism in global politics.

Teaching

Dr. Mandelbaum is currently the module leader of:

• Securing Global Order (level 4)
• War and Peace in IR (Level 5)
• Israel/Palestine: Key Issues and Debates (level 6)
• The Geopolitics of Nationalism and Populism (Level 7)
• Human Rights and Global Politics (level 7)
• He also contributes to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (PGT, PhD)

Previously, he has led the following modules:

• Introduction to IR (level 4), Dissertation Module (level 6), Gendering Global Politics (level 6), and the Other Middle East (level 6).

Supervision

I am happy to supervise research students on the following topics:

• International Relations and political theory
• Critical security studies
• Nations and nationalism
• Emotions and affect
• Gender and sexuality
• Israel/Palestine

PhD students

Dr. Mandelbaum is the lead supervisor to the following students:

• Nacera Haouche, ‘The Resurgence of the Muslim Immigrant as a Barbarian in Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of the World Order’ (since 2017).
• Keith Lewis, ‘Mystical Post-Anarchism’, (completed in 2023).
• Moaz El-Sayed, ‘Intra-Sunni contestations in contemporary Lebanon: A framing-theory approach to the analysis of political divides within Lebanon’s Sunni demographic (2005-2016), (completed 2019).

He is the co-supervisor to the following students:

• Sophia Taha, ‘Progressing a transformative critique; from necropolitics to abolition: Migrant Women, and Third-Sector Resistance to No Recourse to Public Funds (ESRC funded, submitted 2024).
• Eleanor Assaf, ‘Syrian Refugees, the Lebanese State, and local NGOs’ (since 2019).

PhD Supervision

I am the lead supervisor to the following students:

Nacera Haouche, ‘The Resurgence of the Muslim Immigrant as a Barbarian in Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of the World Order’ (since 2017).

Keith Lewis, ‘Mystical Post-Anarchism’, (since 2016).

Moaz El-Sayed, ‘Intra-Sunni contestations in contemporary Lebanon: A framing-theory approach to the analysis of political divides within Lebanon’s Sunni demographic (2005-2016), (completed 2019).

I am happy to supervise research students on the following topics:

International Relations and political theory

Critical security studies

Nations and nationalism

Emotions and affect

Gender and sexuality

Israel/Palestine