Steven C. Roach

A central focus of Roach's work is the interaction of ethical values and political power. His recent work uses the relationship between decency and moral accountability to study the growing political pressures that threaten the liberal international order.[8] In a 2016 interview with E-IR, he points out that the gap between humanitarian values and emotion has never been greater; that it is not simply the hostile emotions that explain right-wing populism, but liberalism's detachment from these sentiments.[9]

Roach is one the first political scientists to systematically explore the political forces shaping the International Criminal Court. His notion of political legalism functions as a pragmatic instrument to study how best to bring justice to the worst perpetrators of serious crimes.[10] In an article published by Global Governance, he argues that the court cannot escape the effects of operating in an international system.[11] It needs to confront this difficult and complex political reality of the ICC [11] by devising new ways of thinking about its agency and by adopting the political strategies needed to balance the demand for global justice against the constraints of the international system.

Roach has conducted extensive field research in South Sudan and written on the many challenges of governance in South Sudan, Africa's 54th state. His short essays have appeared in Foreign Affairs, African Arguments, and the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, and in 2019, he co-edited The Challenge of Governance in South Sudan. In 2017, he published an article in International Affairs, which argued that the unstable politics of accountability stems of South Sudan's undeveloped institutions.[12]

• Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First Century Warfare: Just War Theory and the Ethical Challenges of Autonomous Weapons Systems (eds). Albany, NY: SUNY Press, with Amy E. Eckert, 2020. ISBN 9781438480015
• Handbook of Critical International Relations (ed). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020. ISBN 9781788112888
• Decency and Difference: Humanity and the Global Challenge of Identity Politics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. 2019. ISBN 9780472131624
• The Challenge of Governance in South Sudan: Corruption, Peacebuilding, and Foreign Intervention (eds), London and New York: Routledge, 2019, with Derrick K. Hudson. ISBN 9781138067752.
• International Relations: The Key Concepts. Third and Second Edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2014, 2009, with Martin Griffiths and Terry O'Callaghan ISBN 9780415844949 (Chinese translation, Peking University Press, 2015; Turkish translation, Nobel Academic Press, 2013, Arabic translation, Gulf Research Center, 2009).
• Critical Theory of International Politics: Complementarity, Justice, and Governance. London and New York: Routledge. 2010. ISBN 9780415774857
• Governance, Order, and the International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik and a Cosmopolitan Court (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780199546732.
• Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations. London and New York: Routledge, 2009, with Martin Griffiths and M. Scott Solomon, 2009. ISBN 9780415775717 (Portuguese translation, University of Recife, 2005; Turkish translation, Nobel Academic Press, 2011; Farsi Translation, University of Tehran Press, 2014).
• Critical Theory and International Relations: A Reader (ed.). London and New York: Routledge.2009. ISBN 9780415954198
• Politicizing the International Criminal Court: The Convergence of Politics, Ethics, and Law. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2006 ISBN 9780742541047.
• Cultural Autonomy, Minority Rights, and Globalization. London and New York: Routledge. 2005 ISBN 9780754645009.

• South Sudan: A Volatile Dynamic of Accountability and Peace, International Affairs, 2016.
• How Political is the ICC? Pressing Challenges and the Need for Diplomatic Efficacy, Global Governance, 2013.
• Critical International Theory and Meta-Dialectics: Fourth Debate or Fifth Dimension? Millennium, 2007.
• Arab States and the Role of Islam in the International Criminal Court, Political Studies, 2005.
• Minority Rights and an Emergent International Right to Autonomy: A Normative and Historical Assessment,” The International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 2004.