Stephen is a political scientist specialising in the domestic and external politics of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the wider post-Soviet region. He works as well on authoritarianism - principally authoritarian learning and the survival of authoritarian regimes. His work has appeared in numerous academic journals and a book on the Authoritarian International with Cambridge University Press. Stephen has spoken regularly about events in Russia and Russia's war on Ukraine to political issues about the post-Soviet region to multiple media outlets including the BBC, France 24, Talk TV and LBC to name but many.