Professor Janina Dill

About

Janina Dill is a Professor of Global Security at the Blavatnik School of Government of the University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow at Trinity College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC).

Her research concerns the role of law and morality in international relations, specifically in war. She is an expert on the legal requirements for the conduct of military operations, about which she has written, including two books. 

One strand of research investigates how international law can be an instrument of morality in war, albeit an imperfect one. This work speaks to debates in just war theory and international law.

Another strand of her research seeks to explain how moral and legal norms affect the reality of war. She contributes to debates about the capacity of international law to constrain military decision-making. She also studies how norms shape public opinion on the use of force and the attitudes of conflict-affected populations, for instance, in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iraq.

In 2021, Professor Dill won a Philip Leverhulme Prize for researchers 'whose work has had international impact and whose future research career is exceptionally promising'. She will use the prize to conduct further research on the moral psychology of decision-making in war. 

In 2022-2024, she co-convened (with Scott Sagan) a research project on the 'Law and Ethics of Nuclear Deterrence', which is part of the Research Network on Rethinking Nuclear Deterrence, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and hosted by the Harvard Belfer Centre. 

In 2024-2027, Professor Dill is working on a three-year project entitled 'Cumulative Civilian Harm: Addressing the Hidden Human Cost of the Law's Blind Spot', which is funded by a joint grant from the ESRC and the National Science Foundation. She is also working on the legal definition of military objectives. 

Professor Dill’s commentary/research is often cited in the press (including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Zeit, The Guardian, The Times). She has frequently appeared on TV (including CNN, DW, the BBC) and on the Radio (BBC, National Public Radio, SFR). She is available to give comments in English and German. Please see her media page for details. 

(Image: John Cairns)