Dr Amanda Hall
Department Director of Teaching and Learning
Module Convenor for:
- International Relations (PO1IRE)
- International Terrorism (PO3ITE)
- Terrorism in a Globalising World (PIM74)
Areas of interest
I am interested in the relationship between governments and terrorist groups, as well as questions of the quality of peace established after negotiated settlements and the degree to which violence and its threat continue to shape that peace long after ceasefires, especially in deeply-divided societies. My current research addresses the evolution of British counter-terrorism since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, attempting to understand variations to these policies across actors and regions.
My previous work has addressed the quality of peace in Northern Ireland after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, with a particular focus on the 'inter-referendum' years of 1998-2016 - from 1998 to the Brexit vote. My first monograph, Strained Peace: Northern Ireland from Good Friday to Brexit was published by Liverpool University Press in 2024 and won the 2024 British Association for Irish Studies Book Prize. This book examines the relationship between the 'opportunity for a new beginning' imagined in peace negotiations and the division, animosity, and threat of violence that have characterised much of the period since. This project sheds light on why negotiated settlement has fallen short of its goals two decades later and why the uncertainty of Brexit has the potential to further strain tensions in the region.Academic qualifications
PhD - International Relations, University of St Andrews
MA - Politics, Queen's University Belfast
BA - American Studies, Yale University
Awards and honours
Winner of the 2025 British Association for Irish Studies Book Prize
British International Studies Association Founders Fund, 2020
Selected publications
- Hall, A. 2019. ‘Peace at Any Cost? The Necessity of the On the Runs Scheme to the Endurance of Peace in Northern Ireland’.Irish Political Studies34(3), p. 357-378.
- Hall, A. 2018. ‘Incomplete Peace and Social Stagnation: Shortcomings of the Good Friday Agreement’.Open Library of Humanities4(2), p. 7.