Charlie Carter

About Me

As an International Relations Department Fellow at the London School of Economics, my research focuses on the rhetoric used by states in the United Nations General Assembly concerning terrorism. I examine how domestic politics, institutions, and international networks influence how states discuss terrorism in international forums.

I hold a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, an MSc in International Relations (Research) from the London School of Economics, and a BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of Exeter.

Research

Foreign Aid and Influence

Visualization of aid flows earmarked for peace and conflict resolution (1996)

Foreign Aid and Influence

This visualization shows the patterns of aid flows earmarked for peace and conflict resolution (1996). I investigate the determinants of aid allocation and the influence of aid on the political positions states adopt toward terrorism, using experiments, network analysis, and text analysis. A current project, funded by an LSE seed grant, extends the network approach to diplomacy itself. It conducts an ego-network survey of serving diplomats in order to recover the higher-order structures of consultation, trust, and coordination that formal datasets never record.

Peace and Conflict

Ukraine Conflict: Old Tires and Barbed Wire

Photo by babasteve / CC BY-NC 2.0

Conflict Analysis

Examining effects of conflict on state behaviour and international relations.

Conflict Analysis

Within the frameworks provided by peace and conflict studies, I investigate the effects of conflict on state behaviour and international relations. I find significant and durable relationships between conflict, whether past, present, or anticipated, and the positions states adopt toward terrorism. Experiencing terrorism shifts states' rhetoric toward non-state perpetrators and away from criticism of state repression, even as the underlying framing of terrorism remains remarkably stable over decades.

Counterterrorism

Photo by Israel Defense Forces / CC BY 2.0

Counterterrorism

Analysis of counterterrorism policies and their effects.

Counterterrorism

My research analyses why states adopt and promote particular counterterrorism policies, and what those policies mean for international relations and human rights. Drawing on every identifiable use of the word "terrorism" in UN General Debate speeches since 1947, my work shows that how states talk about terrorism reflects their own histories, institutions, and experience of violence. Once formed, these framings rarely budge.

International Organizations

Photo by Steve Cadman / CC BY-SA 2.0

UN Politics

Examining the politics of international organisations.

UN Politics

This research examines how state actors operate within the United Nations to advance their strategic and material interests. In a preregistered survey experiment with over 400 foreign-policy elites, I find that attaching counterterrorism conditions to aid carries real political costs. This holds even when the condition is only public backing for a donor's UN positions, and the penalty is roughly what a larger aid package can offset.

State Rhetoric

Photo by Paul Kagame / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

State Rhetoric

Studying the political positions of states at scale with text analysis.

State Rhetoric

This research employs natural language processing and text analysis, including word embeddings, Bayesian latent variable models, and large language models, to systematically measure states' expressed policy positions and to analyse the factors shaping them. Applying these tools to UN speeches from 1990 to 2012, I find that states receiving conflict-related aid subsequently shift their terrorism rhetoric toward their donors' positions. Aid relationships therefore carry measurable rhetorical influence.