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About
Dr Johnson is an LSE Fellow in IPE in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics.
His research examines the relationship between capitalism and empire in the making of global order. His work has been published in Review of International Studies, Review of International Political Economy, and Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. His interdisciplinary scholarship contributes to the fields of IR, IPE, security studies, political theory, and history.
His first book project, Reforming Empire: Decolonization, Macroeconomic Policy, and the Making of the Postwar Order, draws on primary documentary evidence to examine how policy intellectuals across the world shaped the end of formal empire and the birth of the postwar international system. The book argues that the global transformation of the postwar period is best understood as a process of imperial reform, not of the diffusion of a sovereign states system as in standard IR theory.
His second major research project moves to the contemporary period to examine transformations in the political economy of money and finance since the global financial crisis of 2008. Drawing on policy documents, the reports of bank economists, interviews with elite and civil society actors, and new political economy frameworks for analysing the political foundations of money and credit, the project contributes to the contemporary struggle to re-politicise money and the role of monetary and fiscal policy in global politics.
Prior to joining LSE, he completed his PhD in Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He also holds an MA from the University of British Columbia and a BA from Ithaca College.
Research Cluster affiliation
International Political Economy research cluster
Security and Statecraft research cluster
Theory/Area/History research cluster
Research Centre affiliation
Not available to supervise MPhil/PhD students.
Awards
Robert W. & Jessie Cox Award, ISA, International Political Sociology Section
Expertise
International relations theory, international political economy, historical international relations, US foreign policy, politics of money
Research
Reconstructing imperialism: From the new imperialism to the new geopolitics
Article
Author David K Johnson
Review of International Studies February 2026
Walter Rodney and the Method of Political Economy: Retrieving a Critical-Historical IPE
Article
Author David Kenneth Johnson
Review of International Political Economy Volume 30, 2023 - Issue 2
International Political Economy: Overview and Conceptualization
Article
Author(s) Renée Marlin-Bennett, David K Johnson
International Studies