Discipline of Government, Development and International Affairs
GDIA Staff
GDIA Staff

Milla Vaha - Senior Lecturer and Discipline Coordinator for Government, Development and International Affairs

Office: 014-216

Tel: 323-2780

Email: milla.vaha@usp.ac.fj‘

Dr. Milla Vaha started at the USP in July 2019. Born and raised in Finland, she did her first degree in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Turku and continued her studies in Political Theory at the London School of Economics. She holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute. She has worked in Lecturer and Senior Lecturer positions in Finland, been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, and the European Union Experts4Asia Fellow at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her research focuses on International Political Theory and the ethics of world politics. In her most recent research project she explores the theoretical and normative features of existential threat in the context of Small Island States and the climate crisis. Her book, The Moral Standing of the State in International Politics: A Kantian Account, was published by the University of Wales Press in July 2021.

Academic Qualifications

Docent (Associate Professor, adjunct), University of Lapland, Finland

PhD in Social and Political Sciences/International Relations, European University Institute, Italy

MSc in Political Theory, London School of Economics, UK

MSc in Social Sciences/ Political Science and International Relations, University of Turku, Finland

BSc in Social Sciences/Political Science and International Relations, University of Turku, Finland

Research

  • Ethics of world politics, esp. climate ethics and ethics of war
  • International climate politics and Small Island Developing States
  • International Political Theory
  • Political philosophy, esp. Immanuel Kant

Research Fellow, Island Lives, Ocean States, University of Bergen

Teaching

Semester 1, International Politics (PL201)

Semester 1, World Politics and International Relations (PL410)

Semester 2, Politics of Development (PL101)
Semester 2,  Politics of Human Rights (PL305)

Recent Publications

In press. ‘Large Oceanic States: Reclaiming Territorial Sovereignty through Statehood at Sea,’ in Jennifer Silver and Paul Foley (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Critical Ocean Studies (London: Routledge) (book chapter).

 

In press. With Christopher Mudaliar, Michael Leach, Kerryn Baker, Julien Barbera, Krishna Kumar Kotra and Trevor Leodoro, ‘Popular political attitudes in Vanuatu: Findings of the Pacific Attitudes Survey,’ Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies (journal article).

 

  1. With Anna Powles, ‘The Pacific Islands and Global Security Challenges,’ in Joanne Wallis, Henrietta McNeil, James Batley and Anna Powles (eds), Security Cooperation in the Pacific Islands: Politics, Priorities, and Pathways of the Regional Security Patchwork (London: Routledge), 61-75. Open access:https://www.taylorfrancis.com/reader/read-online/92160b18-0cd2-4e55-b91c-548efa5ce502/book/epub?context=ubx (book chapter).

 

  1. With Gustav Meibauer, Neil C. Renic, Johanna Rodehau-Noack, Christian Nikolaus Braun, Amber Davis, Andrew Glencross, Vuslat Nur Ṣahil Temel, Liane Hartnett, Christine Andrä and Karen E. Smith, ‘Dead-ends, Disasters, Delays? Reflecting on Research Failure in International Studies and Ways to Avoid it,’ International Studies Perspectives 26(2): 209-237 (journal article).

 

  1. ‘Indigenous Values in International Law and Politics: The Perpetual State of Tuvalu,’ Small States & Territories Journal8(1) (May 2025): 205-222. Open access: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/134816/1/Indigenous_values_in_international_law_and_politics_the_perpetual_state_of_Tuvalu%282025%29.pdf (journal article).

 

  1. ‘Responsibility and Anxiety in the “Pacific family”: AUKUS as a Source of Ontological Insecurity,’ Australian Journal of International Affairs. Ahead of print: 1-17 (journal article).

 

  1. ‘From the Cosmopolitan Right to Radical Hospitality: Reflections on Kant and Climate Mobility,’ in Manuel Becker, Hendrik W. Ohnesorge and Theresa Gerlach (eds.) Politischen Denken nach Kant: Perspektiven aus der Politischen Theorie und den Internationalen Beziehungen(Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag), 229-242 (book chapter).

 

  1. ‘It’s Not Aid, It’s Reparation: Corrective Climate Justice in the Context of Nuclear Legacy,’ Global Justice: Theory, Practice, Rhetoric14(2): 26-50. Open access: https://www.theglobaljusticenetwork.org/index.php/gjn (journal article).

 

  1. ‘Reparations for Loss and Damage? The Cosmopolitan Right in the Context of the Coloniality of Climate,’ in Howard Williams, David Boucher, Peter Sutch and David Reidy (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of International Political TheoryVol. 2 (London: Palgrave), 113-131 (book chapter).

 

  1. With Christopher Mudaliar, Michael Leach, Kerryn Baker, Julien Barbera, Krishna Kumar Kotra and Trevor Leodoro, Pacific Attitudes Survey: Vanuatu. Open access: https://bellschool.anu.edu.au/dpa/our-research-dpa/pacific-attitudes-survey (research report).

 

  1. The Pacific’s Nuclear Legacy in the Context of the Climate Crisis, Asia-Pacific Leadership Network Research Paper Series March 2023. Open access: https://www.apln.network/projects/voices-from-pacific-island-countries/the-pacifics-nuclear-legacy-in-the-context-of-the-climate-crisis (research report).

 

  1. ‘We Are All in This Together: Evaluating Human Rights Restrictions in Selected Pacific Island Countries During Pandemic,’ Journal of Pacific Studies 41(2): 54-78. Open access: https://www.usp.ac.fj/journal-of-pacific-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/162/2023/05/Abstract-We-Are-All-in-This-Together-Evaluating-Human-Rights-Restrictions-in-Selected-Pacific-Island-Countries-During-Pandemic.pdf (journal article).

 

  1. with Eberhard Weber and Andres Kopf, ‘Covid-19 in Fiji: From Health and Economic to Major Political Crisis,’ in Rais Akhtar (ed.), Coronavirus (Covid-19) Outbreaks, Vaccination, Policy and Society (Springer Nature), 45-66 (book chapter).

 

  1. The Moral Standing of the State in International Politics: A Kantian Account (Cardiff: University of Wales Press) (book).

 

  1. with Eberhard Weber and Andres Kopf, ‘COVID-19 Pandemic in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories,’ in Rais Akhtar (ed.), Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreaks, Environment and Human Behaviour (Springer Nature), 25-47 (book chapter).

 

  1. ‘Protection for “Climate Migrants”: Global Challenges and a Call for Political Leadership’ in Leal Filho, Walter et al. (eds.), Handbook of Climate Change Management: Research, Leadership, Transformation (Springer), 2565-2581 (book chapter).

 

  1. ‘Kantian Insights on the Moral Personality of the State’, in Larry Krasnoff et al. (eds.) Kant’s Doctrine of Right in the Twenty-first Century (Cardiff: University of Wales Press), 163-182 (book chapter).

 

  1. With Leena Vastapuu. ‘My Heart Was Already Cooked’: Girl Soldiers and Situated Moral Agencies,’ Cambridge Review of International Affairs 31(2): 223-238 (journal article)

 

  1. ‘We Kant Have Bad States’: On Evilization in Liberal World Politics,’ International Politics 55(2): 297-315 (journal article).

 

  1. ‘Hosting the Small Island Developing States: Two Scenarios,’ International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management 10(2): 229-244. Open access: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ijccsm-10-2017-0183/full/html (journal article).

 

  1. ‘We as peoples have the right to exist: Threatened Nations and Climate Justice,’ Pacific Affairs 90(4): 767-776 (review article).

 

  1. ‘Drowning Under: Small Island States and the Right to Exist,’ Journal of International Political Theory 11(2): 206-223 (journal article).