Other News

PAIS PhD candidate, Alexandra Dobra, was selected as a finalist (top 4% internationally) to present her innovative idea at the “Falling Walls Lab Finale” in Berlin - "The brightest minds on the planet” BBC - presided by the Chairman of the Board of the Nobel Foundation.

Falling Walls Lab 2016 - Alexandra Dobra - Breaking the Wall of Unethical Corporate Behaviour from Falling Walls on Vimeo.

Alexandra’s innovative idea, the "High-Performance Corporate DNA Transformation Model” aims to break the walls of unethical corporate behaviour. Following 2007, investment banks have been under the spotlight for unethical corporate behaviour. They responded by implementing new core control systems, organisational structures and (formal) corporate cultures. Nine years later, these investment banks continue to incur damages due to unethical corporate behaviour and to drive down social value. So how can this be fixed? The "High-Performance Corporate DNA Transformation Model”, that Alexandra has developed as part of her PhD thesis, answers how this can be fixed. The "High-Performance Corporate DNA Transformation Model” shall be commercialised by Swiss Economics, a leading independent consulting company with proven experience in supporting companies, associations and public authorities in regulated industries.

Falling Walls is a unique international annual gathering of leaders from science, business, government, and the arts. Inspired by the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, the question of every Falling Walls meeting is: Which are the next walls to fall - in science and society? The meetings are acclaimed for the high-level speakers, the brevity of presentations, the diversity of issues and the amicable open atmosphere. The Falling Walls Foundation, a charity, is generously supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Helmholtz Association, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Berlin Senate, and numerous other acclaimed academic institutions, foundations, companies, non–governmental institutions and individuals.

Professor Shaun Breslin has recently given The Sir John Monash Lecture, titled "Where is China heading? Domestic uncertainties and global ambitions" at Monash University Malaysia.

When Xi Jinping took over the reins of power in China, he identified four major tasks. He needed to change the model of economic development; repair the relationship between the Communist Party of China (party) and the people; strengthen the party; and fill a moral and ethical void in society.

The environmental problems that hit Beijing was added as a fifth urgent task. Trying to deal with all of these at the same time has proved far from easy. The result has been uncertainty and unease over where China is going domestically - politically, economically and socially. Xi also moved on to consolidate China's global role, and to more clearly articulate a vision for China as a new type of Great Power.

This lecture traces the evolution of both of these domestic and international agendas, and tries to seek the ways in which they interact. It has a specific focus on the domestic sources (or otherwise) of Chinese power on the global scene.

Vincenzo Bove has recently published a column titled "Diversity and Economic Development" on VoxEU.org.

The column explores evidence on how immigration affected economic development between 1960 and 2013 through its effect on the cultural and ethnic composition of the destination country. Cultural heterogeneity appears to have had a positive impact on economic development, and the positive effect of diversity seems to have been stronger in developing countries.

VoxEU is the Centre for Economic Policy Research's policy portal and promotes "research-based policy analysis and commentary by leading economists."

The article can be read at: http://voxeu.org/article/diversity-and-economic-development

Dr Trevor McCrisken, Associate Professor, US Politics and International Studies, recently appeared on ABC News in Australia discussing whether or not NATO allies have anything to fear about a Donald Trump presidency.

The video can be viewed at this link.

The Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) at the University of Warwick is delighted to announce a rise in our ranking from 6^th to 4^th out of 83 Politics Departments nationally in the 2017 Complete University Guide.

The CUG says of PAIS:

“At fourth place, the University of Warwick remains one of the most reliable choices of university, staying ahead of Durham in this year's Subject Tables due to their admirable scores for Student Satisfaction. There are five core BAs to choose from, including a joint honours degree with Sociology, and a combination degree with French, German, Hispanic or Italian Studies.

This news of course follows on from our recent ranking of 3^rd overall in the 2017 Times/Sunday Times University Guide and 1^st for overall student satisfaction in the 2016 NSS among Politics Departments in the Russell Group.