Other News

PAIS Associate Professor Trevor McCrisken, as Chair of BASIC (British American Security Information Council), hosted a reception on the bridge of the Tattershall Castle paddle steamer at Victoria Embankment in London on Monday to celebrate the release of the BASIC Trident Commission Concluding Report (finalreport.pdf). The Commission brought together a diverse group of opinion from across party lines and was co-chaired by former Labour Defence Secretary Des Browne, former Conservative Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, and former Liberal Democrat Leader and Shadow Foreign Minister Menzies Campbell, and included other former diplomats and members of the defence and foreign policy establishment. The Report concludes a three year investigation, facilitated by BASIC, into the arguments for and against the renewal of Trident, Britain's independent nuclear deterrence system.

Trevor emphasised in his speech at the reception that although BASIC does not agree with all of the Report's conclusions, he believes that the Commission has made an important contribution to the debate over the future of Britain's nuclear weapons, that it has opened an honest and frank dialogue that must now continue as we move toward the final decisions over renewal, and it raises a number of significant questions that are yet to be satisfactorily answered about what threats Trident is supposed to deter and how Britain can best contribute to the steps toward multilateral nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

BASIC has produced a Guide to Interpreting the Report that Trevor co-authored with Paul Ingram, BASIC Executive Director (basic_guide_to_tccr.pdf​). They emphasise that the Commissioners have rejected a number of conventional arguments made for the retention of Britain's nuclear weapons such as their alleged role in ensuring Britain's status as a global power, their insurance against an uncertain future, and the economic arguments concerning jobs and the UK's industrial base. While the Commission concluded that the UK's independent nuclear deterrence should currently be retained for what they perceive as reasons of national security, they do also argue that Britain must play a central role in global efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and that further delay in the final decision for Trident renewal would have a "number of advantages" in terms of "cost, technology and diplomatic terms". There is much, therefore, in the conclusions of the BASIC Trident Commission to stimulate further debate over the future of Britain's nuclear weapons beyond the 2015 general election.

On Tuesday morning, ahead of the formal release of the BASIC Trident Commission Report in the Houses of Parliament, Trevor McCrisken commented on the report's findings on the Shane O'Connor Show on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio.

Trevor McCrisken has also written a blog post, which has been published by the BASIC website.

Erzsebet Strausz, Teaching Fellow here in PAIS, has been judged to be one of the 5 Commendees of this year's Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence (WATE).

The competition is tough with two rounds of quite extensive documentation to be submitted on pedagogical practice and this year there were a record number of entries to the WATE scheme.

Erzsebet has done brilliantly, and it is a great mark of the quality and innovation of her teaching, and reflects really well on the teaching of PAIS as a whole. She will receive prize money of £2000 to enhance her teaching practice.

Erzsebet was one of 5 PAIS staff members who received nominations for this years Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence. The other staff members nominated were Anil Awesti, Alex Sutton, Justin Greaves, and Marijin Nieuwenhuis. Congratulations to all.

You can read more about the WATE here.

Ben Clift has just co-edited a special issue of French Politics on 'The Politics of Austerity' bringing together leading scholars from the Sciences Po, Paris, Kings College London, Queen Mary, University of London and Cardiff University.

The collected articles, two co-authored by Ben, explore the specific dynamics and particularities of French austerity politics under Hollande within a broader context of changes since the 1980s to democratic institutions and electoral practices, the politics of European integration and the conditions of complex economic interdependence.

The main questions addressed are:

• How did the austerity policy approach to the Eurozone’s economic problems come to prevail?
• To what extent has democratic legitimacy for this approach been secured?
• How will the requirements to curtail public spending be enacted at local and central government level?

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/fp/index.html

The PAIS ladies did a grand job in both the 5k Pretty Muddy and Race for Life this weekend. As promised, photographic evidence was gained!

A huge thank you to all those who came to show their support and for all the generous donations that have been received so far. The current total raised for Myton Hospice so far stands at £806 & counting.

If anyone would like to make a donation, it’s not too late!

www.mytonhospice.org/RaceForLife

You can view a gallery of photos from the weekend here.

PAIS PhD student Marcus Wethered has been offered an internship at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC. Marcus is to spend the month of July in Washington working with the museum on the research of their new museum content, the museum is currently being moved to a new location.

The International Spy Museum opened in Washington, DC on July 19, 2002.

It is the only public museum in the United States solely dedicated to espionage and the only one in the world to provide a global perspective on an all-but-invisible profession that has shaped history and continues to have a significant impact on world events.

Museum staff have made it clear that Marcus would be able to take his research in any direction he chooses. If Marcus feels that there was an interesting story on British intelligence from a certain time period and it wasn’t currently on show, then he could work to have it added to the content of their new museum.