Ruth Blakeley

Ruth Blakeley is a Reader in International Relations at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Her research focuses on the use of state violence and state terrorism, particularly by liberal democratic states. She is Co-Director of The Rendition Project, an ESRC-funded project which investigates the globalisation of rendition and secret detention since 2001.  Described by the Guardian as ‘a groundbreaking research project which sheds unprecedented light on one of the most controversial secret operations of recent years’, the Rendition Project has produced the Rendition Flights Database and Interactive Map which enables users to navigate their own way through the global rendition system.  Ruth is the author of State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South (London: Routledge, 2009), and has published articles on state terrorism and torture in various academic journals including Review of International Studies and Journal of Human Rights. She acted as academic consultant to investigative journalist John Pilger for his award winning documentary War on Democracy, screened in UK cinemas and on ITV1 during 2007.