Other News
Nick Vaughan-Williams gives keynote lecture at book award ceremony in Houston, Texas
Dr Nick Vaughan-Williams, Associate Professor of International Security in PAIS, gave the after-dinner keynote lecture at the 2012 Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) Annual Conference on 13 April at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Houston, Texas, USA. He was presented with the ABS Gold Award, consisting of a plaque and certificate, for his monograph Border Politics: The Limits of Sovereign Power newly available in paperback.
The judges of the ABS Book Award Committee said: “Border Politics is an agenda-setting book, both in terms of demonstrating how new and challenging ideas can be incorporated into border studies, and more importantly, in leading the way in thinking the problem of the border afresh in order to understand the diversity of bordering strategies which exist in world politics”.
More information about the ABS can be found here: http://www.absborderlands.org/
An order form for Border Politics at a discounted rate can be found here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/vaughan-williams/border_politics_vaughan-williams_2012.pdf
Dr Ben Clift receives Leverhulme grant
Ben Clift was successful this week in being awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 2012/2013. Ben's project is entitled 'Its Mostly Fiscal - The IMF, Evolving Fiscal Policy Doctrine and The Crisis' .
The Leverhulme scheme is extremely competitive and Ben's success is testament to the very high quality of his proposal. Many congratulations to Ben on this great success.
Understanding the Italian Situation
A Pinpoint Politics article by Enrico Longobucco
In recent days, a number of important Italian newspapers published surveys about confidence in Prime Minister Mario Monti. The approval rate for Monti seems to be about 50 per cent, the lowest figure recorded throughout his office. As a result, many Italian political parties want currently to indicate their independence from the government, and so do trade unions and professional associations, by means of a clever media campaign, which aims to tell people that whatever their current problems are, these are not due to politicians and unionists. Hence, political parties and organisations are lately trying to improve their image, after being at an all-time low in terms of credibility and support. However, it is not easy to tell whether this operation is bearing fruit. On one hand, it is true that the confidence in this government seems to decrease but, on the other hand, we are witnessing a steady loss of approval to political parties, as well as to trade unions.
In the “Post-Racial” Age of Obama, Trayvon Martin’s Shooting Revives Debate on Race, Gun Culture and Police Misconduct
A Pinpoint Politics article by Christopher Ogunmodede
The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States was supposed to usher America into a “post-racial” world where Americans would be finally freed of its legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and racial discrimination. The election of a mixed-race, urban Senator from the North over a white, Republican Vietnam War hero was proof for many that America had closed the chapter of its sordid and contentious racial history. Then came the Henry Louis Gates controversy, the Tea Party and now the Trayvon Martin shooting which reopens the discourse on race, police-community relations and guns in America.
A ‘Gorilla’ Eating Up the System: Political Corruption Scandal in Slovakia
A Pinpoint Politics article by Martina Čičáková
The Slovak population seems to have awakened this year after a long time of ostensible hibernation. Slovakia, a small state situated in the heart of Europe, has in the last two months become a stage of intensive political activity on a level that has been compared to the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, when people went into the streets demonstrating against the system and demanding democracy. Similarly, at present, protesters around Slovakia are demanding more democracy and transparency in the financing of political parties and privatisation of state businesses. Although Slovakia has been an officially democratic independent state since the Czechoslovak disintegration in January 1993, the ‘Gorilla’ case suggests Slovak politics has stagnated since the 1990s.