Philippe Le Billon (MBA Paris, PhD Oxford) is a Professor at the University of British Columbia with the Department of Geography and the Liu Institute for Global Issues.

Before joining UBC, I was a Research Associate with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), with fieldwork in Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, Iraq, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and the former-Yugoslavia.

Please click on this link to download a PDF copy of my CV.

Research Interests

• political ecology
• natural resource governance
• international development
• violence and space

I am interested in relations between environment, development and security, with an empirical focus on primary commodities.

Using a political ecology approach, I investigate socio-environmental relations and commodity networks linking spaces of exploitation, consumption and regulation. Such work engages with the spatiality, materiality and socio-natural construction of ‘resources’, their political economy and socio-environmental impacts, as well as associated development challenges and conflicts.

This research also relates to policy reforms in resource governance as well as international development and trade frameworks, notably to reduce environmental impacts, improve the well-being of populations, and increase the accountability of governments and businesses.

I also work on the political economy of war and reconstruction.