We are delighted to announce that the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) at the University of Warwick has moved up to joint 2^nd place out of 79 UK Politics Departments in The Times/The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023. This prestigious league table continues to place us 1st in the Russell Group for both ‘teaching quality’ and ‘student experience’.

Professor Matthew Clayton, Head of PAIS, commented: “It is always really pleasing when the collaborative efforts of staff and students to sustain an inclusive and productive learning environment are recognised in national league tables. PAIS is a special department in which every member of the community is supported to find their own voice by engaging with the best scholarship in our discipline. I congratulate colleagues and students alike for their work and look forward to our building on this consistent success in the future.”

Dr Justin Greaves, Director of Student Experience and Progression, commented: “This is brilliant news for the PAIS Department and all our students, alumni, and staff. It follows our great success in the 2022 National Student Survey (NSS) where we were once again 1st out of all Politics departments in the Russell Group in all categories, including 1st for overall student satisfaction. These consistent results are a testament to the hard work and brilliance of everyone who works and studies in PAIS, along with our ethos as viewing students as partners, producers, and collaborators, and valuing and acting on student feedback. We will continue to place a strong emphasis on academic support, including on study choices, and employability and skills. I look forward to working with our incoming and returning students to ensure that the PAIS Department continues to go from strength to strength. Congratulations everyone!”

Thank you to all our students and staff for PAIS' continued success.

Tom Long joined Mark Leon Goldberg on the podcast Global Dispatches to discuss small states in world politics. Goldberg is an experienced foreign affairs journalist and the editor of the UN Dispatch. They discussed Tom's recent book, A Small State's Guide to Influence in World Politics, and the lessons for small states facing growing competition among great powers. As Goldberg summarized, "If you overlook small states, you are missing a complete picture of world politics today."

You can listen to the podcast on their website: https://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/how-small-states-can-influence-world-politics/

Wednesday 15th March 2023, 5.00pm, S0.18.

Professor Conor Gearty (London School of Economics) will be speaking on “Homeland Insecurity: Why anti-terrorism laws are here to stay – and what to do about it”.

Professor Gearty’s seminar will be a joint PAIS/Law event.

Joseph Chan (Distinguished Research Fellow, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan), ‘What is wrong with social inequality (or hierarchy)?’

13 March 2023, 5-7pm, SO.11

All welcome.

EASG Talk with Dr. Gabrielle Cheung on Democracy, Free Trade, and Backlash Mitigation in Japan
Date: Wednesday, 8th March
Time: 16:15-17:30
Venue: FAB3.25, Faculty of Arts Building

This EASG talk is based on her book manuscript, Resilience in Global Economic Governance. The manuscript investigates the emerging approaches through which democratic governments mitigate domestic backlash against international economic regimes. Drawing upon the case of Japan, this talk examines how elected representatives use the legislative branch as an instrument of insulation to minimise the impact of backlash on policy-making processes. Through statistical analysis and case studies that address Japan’s negotiations over, and accession to, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its subsequent Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement (CPTPP), the talk shows that governing status significantly influences parties’ level of advocacy for protectionist interests in deliberations on the agreements. More broadly, the manuscript and talk aim to specify how domestic conflicts over global rule-making on issue areas of mutual interest to nation-states may be better managed.

Gabrielle Cheung is a Lecturer in Global Challenges at Brunel University London. Her research focuses on international and comparative political economy, with an emphasis on the politics of trade liberalisation, central banking, and inequality. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California in May 2021. During the 2021-2022 academic year, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs. Prior to graduate school, she worked at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Politics and Public Administration (2011-2016), and held a visiting position at the United Nations University’s Institute on Computing and Society (2016).

For more information, please see: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/currentstudents/postgraduatephd/academicsupport/eastasiastudygroup/events/dr_gabrielle_cheung/