Xavier Mathieu is a PhD student in the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield. His thesis explores the normative character of the concept of sovereignty and its link to Western civilisation through a historical study of French early colonialism in Canada. His research is concerned with the concept of sovereignty, hierarchy and ‘other-ness’ at the international level, intervention and state-building as well as performativity as a theoretical tool for the study of international politics. He recently published (with Nicolas Lemay-Hébert) an article exploring the OECD’s discourse on ‘fragile’ states.