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Sociology Research

 

Hazem Kandil is the Cambridge University Professor of Historical and Political Sociology, Fellow of St Catharine’s College and Head of Department. He studies power relations and social interactions, focusing on war, regime change, intellectuals and ideology in America, Europe, and the Middle East. He holds a PhD in Sociology from UCLA, and MA degrees in Political Theory and International Relations. His publications include Power Triangle: Military, Security, and Politics in Regime Change (Oxford University Press 2016), Inside the Brotherhood (Polity 2014), and Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen (Verso 2012). Kandil received the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2014) and a ProFutura Scientia Fellowship (2016). After finishing a book project on US military campaigns from 1960 to the present, he started a new one on encounters with Critical Theory. 

Research Interests

Theory: social interaction; realism; state theory; revolution theory; military sociology; sociology of intellectuals; classical and contemporary social theory.

Topics: war; regime change; intellectuals and ideology.

Method: historical sociology; comparative studies; institutionalism; ethnography.

Regional focus: America; Europe; Middle East.

Teaching

Courses:

SOC1: Introduction to Sociology - Modern Societies I

SOC8: War and Revolution

 

MPhil Module in Sociology: Foundations of Political and Economic Sociology

 

Postgraduate seminar: Talking History

Key Publications - Books

Kandil, H. The Power Triangle: Military, Security, and Politics in Regime Change (Oxford University Press 2016). 

Kandil, H. Inside the Brotherhood (Polity 2014; paperback 2016). 

Kandil, H. Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt (Verso 2012; updated paperback 2013). 

Key Publications - Book Chapters

“Power in Narrative, and Narratives of Power,” in Quentin Skinner and Richard Bourke (eds.), History in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Kandil, H. ‘Back on Horse? The Military between Two Revolutions’, in Bahgat Korany and Rabab el-Mahdi (eds.), Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond. New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2012: 73-97. 

Kandil, H. ‘On the Margins of Defeat: A Sociology of Arab Intellectuals under Authoritarianism’, in Bahgat Korany (ed.), The Changing Middle East: A New Look At Regional Dynamics. New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2010: 85-118. 

Kandil, H. ‘Syrian Foreign Policy and the Challenge of Restructuring’, in Bahgat Korany and Ali al-Din Hilal (eds.), The Foreign Policy of Arab States: The Challenges of Globalization (3rd edition). Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 2008: 421-456.

Key Publications - Journal Articles

“The Fox and the Lion,” History Today, September 2025.

“What Killed Kennedy?,” History Today, November 2023.

“War, Power, and History,” SCAS Talks Podcast, Swedish Collegium of Advance Studies, April 2023.

“America’s Wars: Interventions, Regime Change, and Insurgencies after the Cold War.” Journal of Military History 86 (4), October 2022: 1061-63.

“The Strange Death of Liberal Egypt,” History Today, March 2022.

“Military, Security, and Politics in Regime Change: Explaining the Power Triangle.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.

“Does the Concept of the Third World have any Historical Value?” History Today, April 2023.

“America’s Wars: Interventions, Regime Change, and Insurgencies after the Cold War.” Journal of Military History 86 (4), October 2022: 1061-63.

“Just War,” CAM Issue 93, Feature 4, May 2021.

“How American Carnage Looks from Abroad,” The American Prospect, January 2021.

“Writing about Power,” Diwan, Carnegie Middle East Center, December 2017.

“Sisi’s Egypt,” New Left Review, Vol. 120, 2016: 1-40.

“Why Islamists Count?” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 28 (2), June 2015.

“Why did the Middle Class march to Tahrir Square?” Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 17, 2012: 197-215.

“Revolt in Egypt,” New Left Review, Vol. 68, 2011: 17-55.

“Islamizing Egypt: Testing the Limits of Gramscian Counterhegemonic Strategies,” Theory and Society, Vol. 40, 2011: 37-62.

“Resisting Resistance: Examining the Shifting Balance of Threats in the Middle East,” European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 15, 2010: 717-737.

“Whose Golden Age,” New Left Review, Vol. 73, 2012: 140-145.

Grants and Projects

Kandil, H. The Philip Leverhulme Prize (2015-2018 for £100,000) 

Kandil, H. Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme (2013-2014): £12,000

Kandil, H. (PI) The Military Origins of Freedom and Oppression. Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study Pro Futura Fellowship (2017-2020): £198,797

Awards

Job Title:
Head of Department, Professor of Historical and Political Sociology , Fellow of St Catharine's College
Contact Information: