Sam Raphael is a senior lecturer in International Relations at Kingston University, London and co-director of The Rendition Project.

His research focuses on the intersection between US foreign policy, human rights and counterterrorism. He completed his PhD at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he examined the academic field of ‘terrorism studies’ and the ways in which this body of expertise worked to legitimate US counterterrorism campaigns in the global South.

He has also published on the topics of Colombian state terror, and on US energy security, global oil supplies and human rights (where he charted the evolution of US strategy and the provision of counterinsurgency training and arms to oil-rich states outside of the Middle East).

He is co-author, with Doug Stokes, of Global Energy Security and American Hegemony (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), and has published in various edited volumes and academic journals.