Dr Vahid Nick Pay

Director of Graduate Studies (DGS-T)

Departmental Lecturer in International Politics

 

Dr Vahid Nick Pay is a full-time lecturer in International Politics and Research Methods. He also serves as the co-director of Graduate Studies for Postgraduate Taught Programmes (DGS). He is a Fellow of Kellogg College University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is also an official academic advisor to the UK government's Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.

Vahid is a multidisciplinary academic with expertise and interests in several fields of Social Sciences and IT such as Political Philosophy, Diplomacy, Security Studies, Linguistics, Computer Engineering, and AI.

Before coming to Oxford in 2018 he served as an Assistant Professor of Politics and IR at the University of Kurdistan (Iraq), Adjunct Professor in International Relations at the University of Paris (Paris Descartes), Lecturer in International Relations, Global Governance, Security Studies, Middle East Politics and Research Methods at Sciences Po Paris, Lecturer in Linguistics and Discourse Analysis at the University of Milan and a Lecturer in Linguistics at Islamic Azad University, Iran. He was a winner of a Teaching Excellence Award in 2018. He also holds the French higher education teaching and supervision qualification (habilitation).

Throughout his career, Vahid has held various roles within academia, including Chair of Exam Boards, Academic Director, Academic Advisor, and Director of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies. He has also been a member of several academic management boards, and he was a member of the Management Committee at the Centre for International Studies (DPIR-University of Oxford).

In addition to his academic experience, Dr Nick Pay brings several years of experience in both government and private sectors with expertise in national military organisations, computer engineering, digital healthcare and cognitive neuroscience. He has worked in organizations such as the BBC, Vidal and the French National Healthcare Authority and served at the rank of Captain in two national armies (Infantry).

Beyond his full-time lectureship in International Politics and Research Methods, Dr Nick Pay has actively engaged the wider public by developing numerous short and weekend courses over the years. For 2024 he is offering two public courses Religion in International Politics (April 2024) and AI Governance (December 2024). Dr Nick Pay is currently developing a full programme on AI Governance.

 

 

 

Books

• Nick-Pay, Vahid, Republican Islam: Power and Authority in Iran (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016)
• Nick-Pay, Vahid, A Stardust’s Journey, a fictional autobiography (August 2024)
• Nick-Pay Vahid AI Governance and Diplomacy (Current Project 2024)

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Nick Pay Vahid & Ifigenia Xifre Villar, God Save the Planet?: Religion and Global Environmental Politics (Under review Dec 2024)

Nick-Pay, Vahid, and Andrew Omond. "Military ideology and Foreign Policy: A constructivist examination of IRGC's ideological influence." Asian Affairs 56, no. 1 (2023): 96-109.

Nick-Pay, Vahid, and Piotr Buszta. "China in the UK Foreign Policy: Shifting to Progressive Liberal Internationalism." European Journal of East Asian Studies 21, no. 1 (2022): 1-23.

Nick-Pay, Vahid, and Przemyslaw Postolski. "Power and Diplomacy in the United Nations Security Council: The Influence of Elected Members." The International Spectator 56, no. 3 (2021): 44-58.

Nick-Pay, Vahid, and Ronni Gitonga Mutethia. "US-Africa Relations: A Case Study of US-Kenyan Economic Diplomacy." African Studies Quarterly 20, no. 4 (2021): 187-204.

Nick-Pay, Vahid, and Harry G. Calvo. "Arctic Diplomacy: A Theoretical Evaluation of Russian Foreign Policy in the High North." Russian Politics 5, no. 1 (2020): 109-131.

Nick-Pay, Vahid, and Elemchi Nwosu. "Politics of Sino-African Economic Relations: Promoting Rentierism? Case Study Sino-Nigerian Economic Relations." Asian Affairs 53, no. 2 (2020): 236-252.

Nick-Pay, Vahid. "Comparative Constitutionalism: Challenges of Constitutional Sovereignty in Iran and Iraq." Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies 13, no. 1 (2019): 53-71.

Nick-Pay, Vahid. "Constitutional Rights and Liberties in the Islamic Republic: A Critical Review." UKH Journal of Social Sciences 1, no. 2 (2018): 34-45.

Nick-Pay, Vahid. "Religion and International Politics." The International Spectator 57, no. 2 (2022): 133-146.

Nick-Pay, Vahid, "More than thirty articles on contemporary political matters in prominent public outlet media such as Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, OpenDemocracy, Respublica, International Politics, OpenDemocracy etc. in English, French, Persian and Kurdish languages."

 

Commissioned Handbook Review

• Nick-Pay Vahid, ‘ Review of the Oxford Handbook of AI Governance’, Journal of AI & Society, Springer Link,  (June 2024) doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-01961-9
• Nick-Pay Vahid, ‘Religion and International Politics’ The International Spectator, Taylor & Francis (March 2022) doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2022.2053413
• Nick-Pay Vahid, ‘Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, Politics, Religion and Ideology, Taylor & Francis (Sep 2023)

 

Screenplay

Barbaris : A drama feature film (comédie dramatique, long métrage) on tyranny with École de Cinéma Louis-Lumière, Paris France (2019).