Other News

Annual IPE Lecture: Both Sides, Now: Paradigms, Power, Psychology, and Pragmatism at the Midpoint of Crisis

Wesley Widmaier, Griffith University, Australia

2nd November, 17:00-18:30, MS.04 (Zeeman Building)

This year's Annual IPE Lecture offers an overview of IPE and IR debates on ideas, crises and change from a social psychological constructivist perspective. Wes Widmaier is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University. His research interests include International Political Economy, International Relations Theory, in particular constructivist thought, and the specific role of wars and crises as mechanisms of large-scale change. Wes is also the editor-in-chief of the Review of International Political Economy.

In an article for The Guardian, PAIS PhD researcher Ragnar Weilandt argues that remainers' sudden love for the EU looks like plain hypocrisy.

Professor Franklyn Lisk was invited by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to participate as a panellist in their sponsored event to mark the launch of the Continental Free Trade Area for Africa (CFTA) at the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, 26-28 September 2017.

The CFTA discussions were focused on reducing trade costs, expanding Africa’s economic and market space and driving regional competitiveness and efficiency, and at the same time ensuring that attention is not diverted away from important human rights implications of trade liberalisation.

Specifically, Professor Lisk’s intervention drew attention to likelihood that liberalisation of trade will impact differently on diverse socio-economic groups due to unequal access to assets, credit and economic opportunities, and that different types of workers ( in the context of industrialisation resulting from trade liberalisation) will also be differentially impacted depending on their skill-level or whether the sector or industry that they are employed in expands or contracts as a result of liberalisation.

Therefore, from the standpoint of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the CFTA, should also pay particular attention to mechanisms aimed at promoting human rights in addition to seeking to reduce poverty in Africa.

PAIS PhD Columba Achilleos-Sarll's essay 'Reconceptualising Foreign Policy as Gendered, Sexualised and Racialised: Towards a Postcolonial Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis' was shortlisted in the Feminist & Women's Studies Association (FWSA) annual essay writing competition.

Shortlisted essay will now proceed to publication in the special issue of Journal of International Women’s Studies following revisions based on the judges comments, and should be published in early 2018.

The full announcement can be read here http://fwsablog.org.uk/prizes-and-grants/student-essay-competition/

An essay written by PAIS Undergraduate Alp Katalan Nasi has been "Highly Commended" at the Undergraduate Awards. The essay, written for Politics of International Development, was ranked in the top 10% from over 400 global submissions in the Politics and IR section. The essay was titled: "Why Do Countries Give Aid? A Case Study of Swedish Benevolence".

You can find the list of "Highly Commended" contestants here: http://www.undergraduateawards.com/2017-highly-commended/

Having just returned from my year abroad in Hong Kong, it is great to be recognised for the work I had done at Warwick. My teachers played a key role as I found it inspiring to learn about international development from such an enthusiastic lecturer like Ben Richardson.

My essay explored why countries give aid, with a special focus on Sweden as a case study. I really enjoyed exploring this through various angles - social reasons, economic incentives, and political motivations - using various lenses of IR theory. I hope to continue exploring development issues, especially those associated with energy and the environment, in my further studies.

I am honoured to represent not just the PAIS department, but the University of Warwick overall at the Undergraduate Awards. I will be a part of the UA Alumni Network, as well as publish my essay on the Undergraduate Library, which is a fantastic personal achievement!

- Alp Katalan Nasi

Congratulations Alp!