About

Selim Yilmaz teaches Politics and International Relations at the University of Warwick. I am a theorist of international relations interested in how states build power without relying solely on force. My work sits between history, political economy and international relations, and asks a simple question: when does solving another state’s problems become a form of statecraft? 

I am completing my PhD (viva in July 2026) at the University of Nottingham. I was previously a Predoctoral Fellow at Lehigh University, United States. 

My PhD thesis theorises the recurring pattern of problem-solving statecraft, what I call state initiatives. Analysing the German Zollverein, the Marshall Plan, and the post-1990s competitive provision in Africa, I argue that states gain power by simply solving the right problems for other states. 

My teaching philosophy, reviving the Socratic method in social sciences, was recognised by the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and the competitive Postgraduate Teaching Award. 

Since 2020, I have held teaching positions at the University of Nottingham,  the University of Manchester, Birkbeck University of London, and the University of Warwick. 

Born and raised in the German Rhineland, I completed my BA in Social Sciences at the Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Germany, and MA in International Relations at the University of Nottingham.