A podcast of 'The Future of Constructivist Research in International Relations' event is now available online.

The event took place on Tuesday 30th April in the Manor Road Building. The event discussed the contributions of constructivism and what the future constructivist research agenda might look like.

Sessions included Professor Kathryn Sikkink, (McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science, University of Minnesota and Visiting Professor, Blavatnik School of Government), speaking on ‘The Role of Agency in Constructivism’; Professor Iver Neumann (Montague Burton Professor of International Relations, LSE), speaking on ‘Constructivism and the Turn to Practice’; Professor Martha Finnemore (University Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The George Washington University), speaking on ‘Are legal norms distinctive and what do they add to the analysis of political change?’; and Professor Amitav Acharya (Christensen Fellow, St Catherine's College, Oxford, and Professor of International Relations, American University, Washington, D.C.), speaking on ‘Constructivism and the Study of Global IR’.

The podcast is available here, and is also available on iTunesU.

Dr Alia Brahimi, Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies, has written two opinion pieces for Al Jazeera. The first article comments on the invasion of Iraq, 10 years on, and the Bush administration’s case for war against Saddam Hussein, and the second article comments on the reasons for closing Guantanamo Bay.

The article on the invasion of Iraq can be read here.

The article on the reasons for closing Guantanamo Bay can be read here.

Dr Alia Brahimi is a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies.

Professor Adam Roberts was a member of a team from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, at joint workshops with leading specialists in New Delhi and Islamabad to discuss India’s and Pakistan’s defence, security and nuclear weapons policies, 3–9 March 2013.

In addition, in both cities he gave lectures on 'Addressing Violent Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka', marking the publication in India and Pakistan of his latest book, Democracy, Sovereignty and Terror: Lakshman Kadirgamar on the Foundations of International Order, I.B. Tauris, London, 2012.

The book is available for purchase from Amazon here

Professor Roberts is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies and an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.

Congratulations to Richard Caplan, who has been awarded a British Academy mid-career fellowship for a project entitled 'Measuring Peace Consolidation'.

This project will investigate how various actors within the UN system differ in their understandings of the characteristics of, and requirements for, a consolidated peace, and the implications that these differences have for the formulation and implementation of coherent peacebuilding strategies. It will focus on the technical, organizational and political challenges of devising operational measures of effectiveness, in particular measures of progress towards the achievement of a consolidated peace.

This project will start on 2 September 2013 and run until 29 August 2014.

Professor Richard Caplan is Professor of International Relations and Official Fellow, Linacre College

Professor Henry Shue has written a column for the Canadian International Council's opencanada.org website entitled 'Canada and Climate: From Leader to Threat'.

In the article Henry comments on the climate change implications of Canada's tar-sands oil project.

The full article can be read here.

Henry Shue is a Senior Research Fellow at Merton College and a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies, Department of Politics and International Relations.

Sarmila Bose appeared on the BBC World Service Newshour program (3 March) to discuss the protests and violence which have engulfed Bangladesh over the last week.

The unrest stems from the convictions at a tribunal assessing war crimes during the country’s 1971 war of independence. Last week Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, a top leader in Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist political party, was sentenced to death by the tribunal.

Criticizing the lack of independence of the trial, Sarmila noted, “I don’t think this is a battle between Islamists and secular people. This is a battle between those who believe there should be a rule of law and those who believe they can get away without a rule of law … The current government has brought about a situation where you don’t have rule of law, because you’re not according rule of law to the Jamaat.”

The interview can be streamed or downloaded here, as part of the episode titled “03 Mar 13 Karachi Explosions” (the interview begins around the 7.00 mark). Sarmila is the author of Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, which is available for purchase from Amazon here.

Dr Sarmila Bose is Senior Research Associate, Centre for International Studies

Writing in The Globe and Mail (28 January), Jennifer Welsh argues that now is the moment for Canada to leave its mark on Arctic governance. This June, Canada will take over the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body created in 1996 which includes a core set of Arctic states (Canada, the U.S., Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark), as well as six indigenous organizations as permanent participants. At a moment in history when interest in the Arctic has arguably never been greater, Jennifer notes that, “[t]he Canadian government would be wise to seize the opportunity of chairmanship to think creatively about the council’s role and the future of Arctic governance more generally, particularly given the interest of so many countries (including the Chinese) in the region’s resources.”

The article can be read in full here.

Professor Jennifer Welsh is Professor in International Relations, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Fellow of Somerville College

In an article for Al Jazeera (24 January), Sarmila Bose, Senior Research Associate at Oxford’s Centre for International Studies, argues that the British continue to fail to confront the realities of their colonial past.

Noting similarities between the current Mau Mau rebellion court case and atrocities committed during the final years of British control in India, Sarmila writes that many Britons continue to believe that empire was a relatively benign phenomenon. “It would be far healthier for the British to confront the realities of their imperial past,” she states. “That would allow today's generations to have a better understanding of their history, acknowledge that their values have changed and move on to a different future.”

The post can be read in full here, and also appears on Politics in Spires, the Oxford-Cambridge politics and international relations blog.

Dr Sarmila Bose is Senior Research Associate, Centre for International Studies

Anne Deighton was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor (17 January) in an article entitled 'Could Britain move away from EU and toward the Commonwealth?'.

In it she said, “The old empire-commonwealth dream is really just that,” adding, “It has long roots among British Conservatives, roots that go back to the 1950s, but it was not viable then, and is not now.”

She also referred to a point in the early 1960s when Britain first applied to join what was then the European Economic Community, causing Australia to “kick up a terrible fuss.”

“By the time of the late '60s, they [Australia] had done the sensible thing and reoriented their trade policies to their own region, and away from the UK. In security and defense, they turned away from the UK to the US, as the dominant power."

The full article can be read here.

Professor Anne Deighton is Professor of European International Politics, University Lecturer, Fellow, Wolfson College

As the United States prepares to wind down its activities in Afghanistan, Richard Caplan was invited to discuss the findings of his research on exit strategies and peace- and state-building at the US State Department on 4 December.

Richard spoke to officials working in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) as well as officials in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). He also presented his work to UN officials at a meeting organised by the International Peace Institute (IPI) in New York on 6 December.

The presentations drew on research that appears in his recent book Exit Strategies and State Building (Oxford University Press, 2012). The book is available for purchase from Amazon here.

Professor Richard Caplan is Professor of International Relations and Official Fellow, Linacre College

Walter Mattli, along with co-author Tim Büthe, has been awarded the 2012 Best Book Award of the International Studies Association (ISA) for ‘The New Global Rulers: The Privatization of Regulation in the World Economy’ (Princeton University Press, 2011).

In an earlier review of the book, John Doces of Comparative Political Studies wrote that it is "an example of first-rate research that offers thick descriptions, compelling theory, and convincing empirical results." He added, "The authors have done a masterful job in expanding our knowledge and understanding of globalization, and the book deserves to be widely read." You can find out more about The New Global Rulers by clicking here.

The International Studies Association (ISA) was founded in 1959 to promote research and education in international affairs. With well over five thousand members around the world, ISA is the most well respected and widely known scholarly association in this field. It cooperates with 57 international studies organisations in over 30 countries, is a member of the International Social Science Council, and enjoys nongovernmental consultative status with the United Nations. You can read more about it by clicking here.

Professor Walter Mattli is Professor of International Political Economy, CUF University Lecturer, Official Fellow of St John's College

Charles Wallace Trust Visiting Fellowship for Burma 2012-2013

The Charles Wallace Burma Trust Visiting Fellowship is now accepting applications for the 2012-2013 round. The deadline for application submission is 16 November 2012.

The Charles Wallace Burma Trust will sponsor one scholar or practitioner from Burma as a visitor to the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, during the Trinity Term of the 2012-2013 academic year.

The purpose of the fellowship is to advance the understanding of contemporary problems and issues facing Burma across a broad range of themes. The Fellowship will provide return economy airfare from Burma and a monthly stipend to cover costs at Oxford. Please note that no specific provision is made for course or bench fees.  

The Visiting Fellow may be a scholar or a practitioner. Selection follows the Department policy and procedure for Academic Visitors and is subject to the approval of the Charles Wallace Burma Trust and the British Council in Burma.

The Deadline for the 2012-2013 round is Friday, 16 November 2012.

• Charles Wallace Burma Trust Visitor Application Form 

Charles Wallace Trust Visiting Fellowship for Pakistan 2013-2014

The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Visiting Fellowship is now accepting applications for the 2013-2014 round. The deadline for application submission is 16 November 2012.

The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust will sponsor one scholar or practitioner from Pakistan as visitor to the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, for one Oxford term in the 2013-2014 academic year.

The purpose of the fellowship is to advance the understanding of contemporary problems and issues facing Pakistan across a broad range of themes. The Fellowship will provide return economy airfare from Pakistan and a monthly stipend to cover costs at Oxford. Please note that no specific provision is made for course or bench fees. 

The Visiting Fellow may be a scholar or a practitioner. Selection follows the Department policy and procedure for Academic Visitors and is subject to the approval of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust and the British Council in Pakistan.

The Deadline for the 2013-2014 round is Friday, 16 November 2012.

• Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Visitor Application Form

More details about the Charles Wallace Trust Visiting Fellowships for Burma or Pakistan can be found here.

Ngaire Woods was interviewed in the Business Daily programme of BBC World Service (23 April, 2012) on the continuing challenges facing the Eurozone.

Ngaire said, “Europe still does not have a collective growth plan, and without one the countries in Europe are going to be under increasing strain.”

The interview focuses on the recent challenges in the Netherlands, but also the challenge for European leaders’ austerity programmes across Europe, and new IMF plans to deal with the crisis. For Ngaire, the challenge remains that “the Eurozone ministers have to get ahead of the markets; they have to come up with a plan that stops the market from simply hanging out on the sidelines simply waiting for the next piece of bad news.”

The full programme can be heard here [0.03.00 on the iPlayer clock].

Professor Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College

Diagnosing the temporary respite from the crisis while talking on the 'Today' programme, Ngaire said “Europe’s been living on pain relief for the last few months, and that pain relief has been the European Central Bank pumping a trillion euros in the banking system of the European Union states.”  Now that the pressure to stop this pain relief is building, the sense of crisis is also coming back.

Ngaire noted that the long term nature of the structural reforms currently being carried out in some Eurozone countries, and the immediate demands of the markets, require some kind of stimulus for the economies to grow in order to close the gap.  The focus on austerity may therefore be the wrong focus now that the pain relief is stopping.

Ngaire explained how the problems of immediate crisis management and longer term growth plans are coming back on the table.

In 'On the Money' Ngaire also discussed the vexing problem of the consumer bubble that caused the crisis and the consumer confidence necessary to overcome the crisis.

The full 'Today' programme can be heard here, and 'On The Money' show can be heard here.

Professor Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College

Times Higher Education published an article (22 March) entitled 'Education allows our people to make a living anywhere', which mentions the Teaching Contemporary Palestinian Political History programme, led by Karma Nabulsi.

The article deals with some of the challenges faced by universities operating in the Palestinian territories, and refers to the links that these universities often form with other academic institutions overseas.  It also focuses on Birzeit University, which is part of a consortium: "... with An-Najah National University in Nablus, the universities in Gaza, the Lebanese University and the University of Oxford's department of politics - involved in a British Academy-sponsored programme titled Teaching Contemporary Palestinian Political History, which is designed to provide both online course materials and documentary resources for the study and teaching of the period between the Palestine Liberation Organization's founding in 1964 and the Oslo peace agreements in 1993."

The full article can be read here.

More informaiton on the Teaching Contemporary Palestinian Political History can be found on the Centre for International Studies website, here.

Dr Karma Nabulsi is University Lecturer in International Relations, Fellow in Politics, St Edmund Hall

Ngaire Woods commented on Greece’s sovereign debt restructuring in the World Business Report programme at BBC World Service (9 March).

Ngaire said, “Until now, what people call the bailout has not been actually a bailout of Greece; it has been a bailout of the private creditors. It has been money given to Greece so that Greece can keep up its interest payments to its private creditors.”

Ngaire explained that under the new debt restructuring deal, the private creditors for the first time have agreed to take some of the hit by swapping their debt bonds for bonds with longer maturity and lower interest rate.

Listen to the discussion here.

Professor Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College

David Rodin was one of the panellists in The Moral Maze programme of BBC Radio 4 (7 March) discussing whether it can be morally justified to keep our own nuclear arsenal while at the same time preaching non-proliferation to the Iranians as they advance their nuclear programme.

David took the position that our possession of nuclear weapons and the decision to renew the Trident deterrent system absolutely undermines our moral argument towards Iran.  He said “the moral case against nuclear weapons is extremely simple: any use of a nuclear weapon would involve a mass killing of innocent persons; in other words, mass murder and the position of these weapons as a deterrent involves the intention to kill other people, to murder other people as a means of gaining a political advantage, and neither of those two states are acceptable.”

To listen to this combative, provocative and engaging debate, click here (at approximately 26 mins 47 secs on the iPlayer clock).

David Rodin is Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC).

Kirsty Hughes has written a piece for the Politics in Spires collaborative blog with POLIS, University of Cambridge, titled "Low Key EU Summit: Tired Europe mired in crisis and recession or rebounding?"

Kirsty writes: "Europe’s leaders will need a lot more energy and some much bigger and better ideas on growth – and on the EU’s role in the world – if future summits are to convince anyone that Europe is rebounding rather than staggering on."

The piece can be found here.

Comments on Kirsty’s and other blogs at Politics in Spires are most welcome.

Kirsty Hughes is Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford

In a letter to the Financial Times (24 February 2012), Kalypso Nicolaïdis discusses the structural flaws of a German-centric eurozone.

Discussing the European Union’s relativity principle, Kalypso notes that the outcomes are not relative at all, for “when it comes to a theory of real gravity, or general relativity, larger masses will determine space-time curvature and the space-time curvature will determine what counts as free fall.”

The letter can be read here.

Professor Kalypso Nicolaidis is Professor of International Relations, Director of the European Studies Centre, Faculty Fellow, St Antony's College

Ngaire Woods commented on BBC Radio 5 On the Money show (5 February) on the demands made on Greece in return for the second bailout for its economy.

Ngaire said “what the Greek government has been asked to do is quite extreme.” She noted that the Greek government is expected to deliver on a 25% cut in the minimum wage among other things on top of what it has already cut.

Since Greece has already lost one government over the handling of the crisis, Ngaire said that “my concern is that these measures at this speed are going to break Greece both politically and economically.”

The full programme can be heard here (at c. 39 min on the iPlayer clock).

Ngaire also discussed the Greek crisis and the Eurozone in the Business Daily programme of BBC World Service (16 February, 2012). She compared the conditions for the second Greek bail out to other IMF conditionality arrangements.

Ngaire said “why it is nevertheless surprising is that the IMF then went through a period of real learning and decided after the East Asian crisis that it would stop doing such intrusive conditionality in part because it simply does not work and in part because they returned to their core mission which was macroeconomic stability.”

She discusses the reasons for ths reversal of course by the IMF, the factor of time in reform implementation, and the political costs of the reform package. She continued “The tricky balance is this: is that you want to be offering support to those in Greece who really want to reform and want to be doing the right thing. You want to be strengthening their hand domestically but not make it look like they are simply your puppets. And it is that fine balance that I think the European ministers have got wrong.”

 The full programme can be heard here (0.06.29 on iPlayer clock).

As the Eurozone ministers finally agreed on a bailout package, Ngaire discussed the terms of the deal on the Today programme at BBC Radio 4 (21 February). She said that Greece is "unlikely to meet its targets" in what she termed a "political game".

The full programme can be heard here.

Professor Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College

Ngaire Woods was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 (11 January) on the Hungarian economic crisis and the possibility of bankruptcy without a bail out from the IMF or the EU.

Ngaire suggested that the Hungarian government's response to its current economic crisis has been a nationalist one, but while its rhetoric may have been popular, the government is finding that it cannot deliver on its promises.  She then discussed some of the options facing Hungary in the days ahead, and the likely path of negotiations between the IMF and the Hungarian government.

The full programme can be heard here.

Professor Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College.

In a letter to The Financial Times (6 January) Kirsty Hughes responded to an article on Hungary ('Democracy under threat in Budapest', 3 January) by arguing that the EU has the power to act if a member state violates fundamental democratic principles after joining the Union.

Kirsty notes that “under article 7 of the Lisbon treaty, the European Council can indeed suspend the voting rights of a member state that violates the key values of the EU including values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. And it can do this under a qualified majority vote – so there is no veto by the erring member state."

She concludes that the challenge facing the EU is political and therefore it is entirely up to the EU to decide what to do.  The letter can be read here.

Kirsty also published a piece in openDemocracy.net entitled 'EU democracy in crisis: mired in a perfect storm or rebounding?' (16 January).

In this article, Kirsty argues that the economics and politics of the euro crisis could be managed differently and that "EU leaders and other politicians should be focused on citizens, on society, on the practice of politics at least as much as on placating the markets."

She concludes that "EU leaders are divided, focused on their short-term national political careers, with none of them showing serious strategic or forward-looking European political imagination, or real conviction about the intertwining of national and European interests, let alone a real concern for the perilous economic and political state of much of the EU."

The full article can be read here.

Kirsty Hughes is Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford.

Jennifer Welsh has written an opinion piece in The Mark News (Canada, 5 January) on the evolving nature of the relationship between regional and global organizations in resolving armed conflict.

She uses the monitoring mission of the Arab League in Syria, which she suggests is facing a legitimacy crisis, as an example.

She goes on to say that although there are a number of reasons why the UN Security Council has not yet authorized coercive measures to prevent further atrocities; a growing political reason is the perception that regional organizations ought to take the lead in any global action as intended in Chapter VIII of the original UN Charter.

However, Jennifer sees a “capacity problem.”  She writes that “it may be fine for the UN Security Council to call upon players in the region to act first, as it did when it asked the African Union to take the lead in the crisis in Darfur in 2004-5.  But what happens when such organizations do not have the resources (financial or human) to do so?  In this instance, deferring to regional organizations risks looking like avoiding responsibility rather than delegating it.”

The full article can be read here.

Professor Jennifer Welsh is Professor in International Relations, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Fellow of Somerville College

Kirsty Hughes published a piece in openDemocracy.net on David Cameron’s use of the veto on the EU treaty that aimed to solve the euro crisis.

Kirsty notes that the Prime Minister found himself isolated by the decisions of the other 26 EU members to forge ahead with an intergovernmental treaty. Given the circumstances, the use of the veto “is unlikely to be forgotten, and bad feelings will linger.” Moreover, although there should be plenty of “wiggle room” for Britain to get what it wants within the treaty, Cameron’s insistence on not contributing to the IMF fund to aid the eurozone suggests that Britain may be unwilling to mend fences any time soon.

While the debate so far has been around the modalities of a two speed Europe, the British veto suggests that a “three speed Europe” with the UK “in the third outer circle close to the exit door” may be in the making.

The full article can be read here.

Kirsty Hughes is Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford.

Congratulations to Professor Rosemary Foot, whose book - "China, the United States, and Global Order", co-authored by Dr Andrew Walter (LSE) - was awarded 'Favorite Read of 2011' by US magazine Foreign Policy.

A reviewer writes: "One does not have to dig very deep into foreign-policy punditry to find the belief that the question of the next decade is how world order will adapt to a waxing China and a waning United States. Will China embrace, reject, or simply ignore the set of pre-existing global norms? Will the United States continue to assert its privilege in setting global norms, or will it retreat into unilateralism? Beyond the punditry, very few scholars have bothered to look systematically at how both of these countries interact with global governance norms and structures. Rosemary Foot and Andrew Walter tackle the general question of Sino-American interactions with global rules and norms in a rigorous and informative manner, discussing issues as diverse as nonproliferation and financial regulation with a degree of empirical sophistication that borders on the astonishing. Foot and Walter have produced a must-read for anyone interested in the future of global governance."

The 'Favorite Reads of 2011' article can be found here.

Professor Rosemary Foot is John Swire Fellow in the International Relations of East Asia, St Antony's College

As Bangladesh marks 40 years of independence, Sarmila Bose has frequently been asked to comment on the research in her controversial book 'Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War', which questions many widespread views on the 1971 war of independence, particularly the number of casualties incurred during the war.

On 16 December she was interviewed live for BBC Worldservice Television on the subject, and she also commented in a special report for the BBC Asian Network (12 December), in which she was asked specifically about the likely numbers of people killed during the war.

“What I can say for sure," she said, "is that the official figure put out by Pakistan of around 26,000 is clearly absurdly low, while the figure of several million put out by the Bangladeshi nationalist side is equally absurdly high, and neither of them can be supported by evidence to date...”

The full radio programme can be heard here.  (Sarmila appears c.26.54 on the iPlayer clock.)

Dr Sarmila Bose is Senior Research Associate, Centre for International Studies

Kirsty comments that 'Franco-German dominance and bad-tempered lecturing reveals a fractious, politically sluggish EU' that could have potentially disasterous implications if the EU falls apart. 'With no EU,' Kirsty argues, 'there is no European voice in the world'.

Please see the full piece 'Europe in the Soup' here.

Kirsty Hughes is Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford

Professor Ngaire Woods, Director of the University of Oxford’s Global Economic Governance Programme and member of the IMF’s European Regional Advisory Group, discussed the Greek bail-out crisis on 4 November on BBC Radio 5.  The full programme can be heard here (c.2.10.35 on the iPlayer clock).

On the same day she also appeared on the BBC News Channel and BBC Radio Three Counties (which can be heard here, c.0.07.39 on the iPlayer clock)

She also appeared on BBC Radio Oxford, where she said: “It’s very easy for the European finance ministers to look longingly at the reserves which have been built up in China and Brazil, but in China and Brazil they’re saying well, hold on, the European Central bank is sitting on huge reserves of its own.  Why do you want to protect those reserves and come and ask us to use ours?”  Again, the full programme can be heard here (c.0.59.02 on the iPlayer clock).

Ngaire also appeared on the BBC News Channel on 10 November, discussing economic instability in Europe.

Dr Othon Anastasakis, Director of South East European Studies at Oxford and senior research fellow at the Department, has also commented extensively on the Greek crisis.  He appeared on BBC World News on 6 November, as well as ‘Newsdrive’ on BBC Radio Scotland, and ‘Newshour’ on the BBC World Service (which can be heard here, at c.0.03.45 on the iPlayer clock).