Tegan Harrison

(she/her)

BSC, MA, PhD

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Research Overview

My research examines the intersections of the United Nations, international law, and security governance, focusing on how global institutions define and manage conflict in emerging technological domains. I am particularly interested in the politics of responsibility and how law, diplomacy, and infrastructure together shape what counts as peace, restraint, and security.

Current Research

Space Situational Awareness and On-Orbit Verification

My current research investigates how Space Situational Awareness (SSA) technologies and verification practices are reshaping global approaches to on-orbit activity governance. It explores how states and international organisations attempt to monitor, attribute, and regulate behaviour in orbit, and how these practices influence the development of international law and the UN’s responsible behaviours agenda. This project situates verification as both a technical and political process—one that determines visibility, trust, and accountability in outer space security.

Politics of Responsibility

Across my work, I explore the politics of responsibility—how obligations, blame, and accountability are negotiated in international security. This includes examining how concepts like restraint, proportionality, and peaceful use are codified in law and enacted in practice, particularly in UN forums addressing space and disarmament.

Theorising War, Peace, and Governance

My theoretical research engages with Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of the war machine and assemblage to rethink how war and peace are understood within global governance. Rather than treating them as opposites, I analyse how they coexist as immanent conditions that shape the organisation of international order. This approach provides a critical framework for understanding how infrastructures, treaties, and technologies sustain both conflict and cooperation.

Doctoral Research

My doctoral thesis, Martial Assemblages of Orbit: The United Nations, Law, and the Organisation of War and Peace in Outer Space, examined the UN’s Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) agenda. The project analysed how the UN, through legal instruments and diplomatic practice, sought to maintain peace in orbit while managing the latent potential for conflict. Drawing on extensive UN archival research and discourse analysis, the thesis traced how the principles of “peaceful purposes” and “non-weaponisation” emerged during the Cold War and how they continue to frame contemporary debates on militarisation, verification, and security in outer space.

Research Themes

• United Nations international security and disarmament

• Space governance and verification (SSA and on-orbit activities)

• International law and the politics of responsibility

• Theories of war, peace, and global order

Teaching

Current Teaching

• Convenor: Introduction to Globalisation (Year 1)

• Lecturer: International Law in a Changing World (Year 2)

• Lecturer: International Politics in the Nuclear Age (Year 3)

• Supervisor: Undergraduate dissertations in Politics and International Relations (POLIR)

Other Roles

• Associate, International Study Centre, developing a new course on Journalism and Media Studies

• AdvanceHE Fellowship training in progress

Biography

AdvanceHE Associate Fellowship (2024) 

PhD Politics and International Relations (2021-2025) Cardiff Univeristy 

MA Security (2020-2021) Loughborough University.

BSc Sociology (2017-2020) Loughborough University.

Professional memberships

British International Studies Association (BISA)

European International Studies Association (EISA)

Academic positions

PGR Tutor, Politics and International Relations, Cardiff University (2022-present).

PGR Tutor, Journalism and Media, cardiff University (2024-present).

Committees and reviewing

Defence Research Network - Editor