Biography

Rob has long specialised in studies of Communism, democratisation and macro-political change in Europe (especially the eastern half of Europe, including the Caucasus), the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Recently he has been working mainly on post-Communist democratization, postcolonialism, Orientalism, the Middle East (including Turkey), cultural and identity politics, conceptions of Europe, xenophobia, genocide and migration.

Born in Argentina, he was educated in Brazil, S-E England and Edinburgh. From 1986 to 1991, he ran Swansea’s BSc (Econ) degree programmes in Development Studies; during the 1990s he was the Director of Swansea's Centre of Russian and East European Studies; from 1993 to 2005 he ran a successful Masters programme in European Politics; he currently coordinates an MA programme in Global Politics and Intercultural Studies; and he has been the Department’s Director of Learning and Teaching since 2002. Most recently, he has developed a new BA degree programme in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).

Current Research

He is currently writing books entitled Oriental Europe (with Catherine Lee), Genocidal Europe, and (with Ian Jeffries) East Central Europe After Communism,   The Caucasus States After Communism, and The Baltic States After Communism.

Selected Recent Publications

• Bideleux, R. (2009) ‘Post-Communist Democratization: Democratic Politics as the Art of the Impossible?’, The Review of Politics,  71(2), March 2009.
• Bideleux, R. (2007) (with I. Jeffries) The Balkans, Routledge.
• Bideleux, R. (2007) (with I Jeffries) A History of Eastern Europe, 2nd edition, Routledge.
• Bideleux, R. (2007) ‘Making Democracy Work in the Eastern Half of Europe: Explaining and Conceptualizing Divergent Trajectories of Post-Communist Democratization’, in Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol 8 (2), pp. 109-30, June 2007.