James Mayall, a renowned international relations scholar, and for almost thirty years a much-loved and much-valued member of the editorial board of The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, died on 5 November 2025, aged 88.

The son of Robert Cecil Mayall, a colonial official in the Sudan Political Service, and his wife Rhoda Anne, née Stoate, James Bardsley Lawson Mayall (he sometimes wrote as J.B.L. Mayall, sometimes as James) was born on 14 April 1937 in Swindon. He went to Shrewsbury School and then (after national service in West Africa) Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating in history in 1960. In 1960-1 he was a Sir John Dill fellow at Princeton University, and enjoyed his year in New Jersey. On his return he joined the civil service, at the Board of Trade, and in 1964-5 he was seconded to the British High Commission in New Delhi, sparking a lifelong love of India, where he had many friends and later many academic connections.

Returning to academia in 1966, James took a post as lecturer in international relations at the London School of Economics, where he became professor of international relations (and convenor of the Department of International Relations) in 1991. In 1998 he moved to Cambridge as the inaugural Sir Patrick Sheehy professor of international relations, and a fellow of his old college, Sidney Sussex, where he was vice-master in 2003-4. He ‘retired’ in 2004, becoming emeritus professor and emeritus fellow, but carried on teaching for another twenty years in various contexts, including as director of studies in human, political and social science at Sidney Sussex.

James took on many other roles, including as a member of the council of Chatham House from 1992 to 1998 (from 1967 to 1971 he had been associate editor of Chatham House’s Survey of international Affairs), chairman of the advisory board of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London (2006-14), and academic adviser to the Royal College of Defence Studies (2008-13). He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 2001.

James was the author or editor of many books, with a particular focus on the international relations of African states; relations more generally between the West and the Global South; intergovernmental institutions; the role and rise of nationalism; and the resurgence since the end of the Cold War of ethnic, national, and religious conflicts. His first book was Africa and the Cold War (1971); probably his most famous were Nationalism and International Society (1990) and World Politics: Progress and its Limits (2000); his last two were the edited collections, Values and Foreign Policy: Investigating Ideals and Interests (2019), and Power, Legitimacy, and World Order (2023), both co-edited with Krishnan Srinivasan and Sanjay Pulipaka. He also wrote numerous chapters for other books and journal articles.

James joined the editorial board of The Round Table in 1996; he was a close friend of the journal’s then editor, Peter Lyon, and the two of them were a regular sight at every CHOGM over a number of decades. On these occasions James would have to travel light – since he knew he would be pressed into service by Peter, carrying copies of the journal on the way to the CHOGM, and Peter’s newly-acquired second-hand books on the way back. They made a formidable team, and very often not just journalists but diplomats and even ComSec officials would hunt them out to find out what was really going on: Peter with the facts, and James with the context.

James’s contributions to The Round Table were numerous. His first article for the journal (on India-British relations) was published in 1978 and his last (on Brexit) in 2016. He edited a collection of essays to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Round Table organisation in 2009, The Contemporary Commonwealth, 1965-2009. He spoke at or helped arrange many conferences and meetings (sometimes held at Sidney Sussex). He wrote a number of book reviews. He was also throughout his time as a board member an assiduous peer reviewer and suggester of topics and contributors.

James was incredibly well read (he seemed to know obscure government reports as well as the latest academic literature inside-out), and a deep thinker. He taught or mentored an unusual number of Round Table board and international advisory board members at some point in their academic careers, and all of them feel they owe a great debt to him. His views, always cogently put, could be arresting and even challenging – but never delivered in anything but a friendly, urbane, co-operative, and generous manner. His friends and colleagues will remember (and miss) his wisdom and intelligence – but also, and especially, his ever-ready smile, the twinkle in his eye, and his impish and ever-present sense of humour.

You can pay tributes to James on the Round Table LinkedIn page

11 November 2025: Please note that this page has been updated with article references.

Related links:

Professor James Mayall (in memoriam) – University of Cambridge Department of Politics and International Studies

Religion and Commonwealth values – A Round Table Journal seminar

Video: Religion and Commonwealth values seminar

Professor James Mayall – Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University

Profile of James Mayall – British Academy