News
Dr Alan Renwick to Speak to Parliamentary Select Committee
Release Date 21st May 2012
Alan Renwick, the Department's resident expert on constitutional reform, will be taking part in a seminar in Parliament on Thursday 24th of May, on the question of whether the UK should hold a constitutional convention. The seminar is being organized by the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee to launch their inquiry into the subject.
You can find details of the inquiry by clicking on the following link:
The seminar follows other recent select committee appearances by Dr Renwick looking at reform of the House of Lords and government proposals to allow voters to 'recall' their MP early.
Professor Beatrice Heuser on BBC Radio 4
Release Date 17th May 2012
Beatrice Heuser Professor of International Relations at the University of Reading was among the guest panel on the BBC programme 'Clausewitz and On War'.
During the programme Melvyn Bragg and his guests discussed On War, a treatise on the theory and practice of warfare written by the Prussian soldier and intellectual Carl von Clausewitz. Clausewitz's magnum opus is commonly regarded as the most important book about military theory ever written and its influence is felt today not just on the battlefield but also in politics and business.
You can listen to the podcast of this programme by clicking on the following link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hl293
Dr Emma Mayhew Wins Award for Outstanding Teaching
Release Date 16th May 2012
We are very pleased to announce that Dr Emma Mayhew (School of Politics, Economics and International Relations) won an award for outstanding contributions to teaching and learning. This award recognises Emma for her significant, ongoing contributions to teaching and learning. We congratulate Emma for this well-deserved prize.
To find out more about the award, please click on the following link:
SPEIR Research Award
Release Date 15th May 2012
The School of Politics, Economics and International Relations is delighted to announce that it will be offering PhD fee awards to eligible candidates for the 2012/13 intake. These awards cover tuition fees for a maximum of three years at the Home/EU rate.
In order to be considered you must be looking to undertake a research degree to start in October 2012 in the fields of Economics or Politics and International Relations.
To express interest in this opportunity, please contact Professor Geoff Meen g.p.meen@reading.ac.uk
Dr Alan Renwick Wins Student Award
Dr Alan Renwick has won a Reading University Students' Union Gold Star Award for teaching excellence. Dr Renwick was selected as the winner for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and was praised for the time and attention he devotes to students. More details can be found here.
Reading Politics Student Awarded Prize by Prime Minister
Congratulations are due to Wenni Gu, Part 3 student in International Relations in Economics, who met David Cameron at 10 Downing Street on 16rh November to pick up a prize for a mobile phone app that she had helped to design.
The app, called A&Express, aims to give patients with non-life threatening injuries advice on the best Accident & Emergency hospital to attend to receive treatment fast.
The system has won an 'Appathon' prize for students run by Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK), a not-for-profit group that aims to encourage British technical entrepreneurship.
Wenni and Chris Alexander, who is studying for a Master's degree in Robotics in the School of Systems Engineering, conceived the idea and developed it with fellow group member Anna Robinson, a student of Medicine at University College London.
The group were invited with other winners to 10 Downing Street on 16th November, where they met the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who spoke about the importance of encouraging entrepreneurship to boost Britain's flagging economy. More details can be found here: http://www.reading.ac.uk/about/newsandevents/releases/PR418256.aspx.
Eminent military experts visit the University
Friday, 11 November 2011
Annual Report for new School released
The first Annual Report of the new School of Politics, Economics and International Relations has been released, and highlights the principal teaching and research activities of the School in 2010-11. The report is available here (pdf).
Reading scholars receive British Academy Awards
The School is pleased to announced that two of its staff members have received British Academy Small Grants in the latest, and last, round of the Small Grant competition. Professor Beatrice Heuser was awarded a grant for her project on ''Small Wars in Theory and Practice, 1775 - 1914' and Oisín Tansey was awarded a grant for his project on 'The International Dimensions of Authoritarian Rule'.
Reading lecturer publishes major paper on House of Lords reform
Reading Politics Lecturer Dr Alan Renwick has published a new briefing paper exploring the possible implications of the government's proposed House of Lords reform. The paper, published by the Political Studies Association, is available on the PSA's website. It argues that the quality of debate over Lords reform is far too low: the debate so far has been almost an evidence-free zone.
Drawing on extensive evidence from the UK and around the world, the paper finds that the dangers of the government's proposals are often greatly exaggerated. Though they would increase the power of the Lords, there is no reason to think they would end Commons primacy. And the concern that election would drain the House of expertise is not self-evidently correct.
But the paper also finds that important questions remain. Would distinguished experts want to serve full-time for fifteen year terms in a House with only limited powers? What would be the effects of such long terms in the absence of any mechanism of accountability? What would elections look like using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system in constituencies of four million voters? The paper explores these and other questions in depth.
Those who lack the appetite for reading through 96 pages on this topic might read the quick digest on the new Reading Politics blog.
This is Dr Renwick's second briefing paper for the Political Studies Association. His first paper, on The Alternative Vote, was published in March.
Earhart Fellowships awarded to 2 Reading Postgrads
The School is pleased to announce that two of our PhD students, Norma Rossi and Malte Riemann been awarded H B Earhart Fellowships for the 2011-12 academic year. The fellowships, which are worth $29,000 (US), are awarded by the Earhart Foundation, a private charitable foundation based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which supports research and scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
Norma Rossi is working on potential parallels between states' reactions to organized Mafia-type crime within states, and insurgencies. Malte Riemann is working on mercenaries and private military companies. Both students' topics are of great significance and topicality. Their findings are likely to be of both practical and theoretical importance. Both research topics are part of the School's research programme, addressing issues relating to the study of how states respond to different forms of conflict, particularly insurgency and counter-insurgency.
Talk at Reading by Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, gave a talk on the topic of Global Citizenship at the University of Reading on 6 May 2011. The talk was hosted by the Centre for Political Theory, and an audio recording of the talk can be found here.
Reading Politics Lecturer pursues accuracy in the debate over AV
The debate surrounding next month's referendum on whether to keep the First Past the Post electoral system or move to the Alternative Vote has been marred by a lot of exaggerated or outright false claiming on both sides. But Dr Alan Renwick, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Reading, has been out and about exposing unjustified arguments and encouraging a focus on the issues that really matter.
His media briefing paper, published by the UK Political Studies Association, has been widely praised and quoted, for example, in the Guardian, the Times, and the Sunday Express, as well as on the BBC's Daily Politics show. He also has a short opinion piece summarizing the key arguments on the BBC News website.
Earlier this week, he took part in a debate at UCL, which was given a detailed write-up by Michael White on his Guardian blog. On the day of the referendum itself, he will be speaking in another debate, at the RSA in London. Tickets for this event can be booked on the RSA website.
Media Briefing on AV Referendum
The UK Political Studies Association has just published an essential media briefing paper on the Alternative Vote, the electoral system that will be put to voters in a referendum on 5th May. The paper, written by Reading Politics lecturer Dr Alan Renwick, sets out impartially the available evidence on the effects AV would have if it were adopted in the UK. It serves as an antidote to the unsubstantiated claims and outright falsehoods that are being perpetrated by both sides of the referendum campaign.
Dr Renwick commented, "The electoral system is a fundamental part of our democracy. Yet voters are bewildered by the wild claims that are being made by both supporters and opponents of AV. We need solid evidence on which these claims can be properly judged. This paper draws on a wealth of research by political scientists to provide that evidence."
The paper is available for download here.
Keith Sainsbury Tribute
We are sad to announce that a former long-serving member of the Department of Politics, Keith Sainsbury, died in January. A tribute can be found here.
Recent Reading Graduate wins RUSI prize
University of Reading graduate Lukas Milevski has won the Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize for 2010, the Royal United Services Institute's annual competition awarded for original writing on contemporary issues of national and international defence and security issues. Lukas won the prize with his essay entitled "A Collective Failure of Grand Strategy: The West's Unintended Wars of Choice". In it, he develops the idea that, although the West has only waged wars of choice for the past near 30 years, the wars are increasingly of a type that the West does not know how to fight, and which are, due to the foes' use of cumulative strategy, well-suited to exploiting the vulnerabilities of the West's current trend of post-heroic warfare. It will be published in the upcoming June/July issue of RUSI Journal, which will be a special issue on grand strategy and the post-9/11 world and will feature Sir Lawrence Freedman as a guest editor.
More details about the award can be found here
Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Sir Brian Burridge appointed Visiting Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations.
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sir Brian Burridge, one of the United Kingdom's most distinguished military commanders, as a Visiting Professor in the School. He served in the RAF from 1967 to 2006.
After a series of operational commands he served in the Ministry of Defence, initially with responsibility for force doctrine and development and then as Principal Staff Officer to the Chief of the Defence Staff. In February 2002 he was promoted to Air Marshal and appointed Deputy C-in-C, Strike Command. Sir Brian was in overall command of British forces in Operation Telic during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was appointed KCB 'for gallant and distinguished services' whilst on operations there.
In January 2000 Sir Brian was appointed Commandant of the joint Services Command and Staff College, in which capacity he led the College into a Public Private Partnership at Shrivenham. In June 2003 he appeared before the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, telling MPs of delays in distributing equipment to troops in Iraq and of his role in vetoing potentially controversial air strikes while he was in command in Iraq.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Burridge - cite_note-15 On 8 December 2009 he gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry.
Sir Brian's knowledge of force doctrine, his experience on the battlefield and of the interface between the military and the civilian aspects of defence policy will be of particular assistance to the School's programme of research development and post-graduate teaching in International Relations and Strategic Studies. It is a further step in our strategy of building and nourishing our links with diplomatic, military and academic networks in this country and overseas. We regularly invite serving officers and officials to seminars and other School activities and a number of retired military officers and senior civil servants have accepted appointment as visiting professors.
The School's other visiting professors include:
- Sir Jonothan Band (former First Sea Lord)
- Mr Desmond Bowen (senior cabinet office official overseeing defence)
- Major General Tim Cross (senior British commander in Iraq,2003, and the UK's chief representative to the (US) Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance)
- General Sir Robert Fry (former Commandant General of Royal Marines)
- Andrew Palmer (former Ambassador)
- General Sir Rupert Smith (former Deputy Supreme Commander Allied Powers Europe)
6 December 2010
Major New Publications
Professors Beatrice Heuser and Colin Gray have recently published major new books on strategy subjects.
Colin Gray. The Strategy Bridge: Theory for Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
The Strategy Bridge: Theory for Practice is an original contribution to the general theory of strategy. While heavily indebted to Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and the very few other classic authors, this book presents the theory, rather than merely comments on the theory as developed by others. The book argues that strategy's general theory provides essential education for practicing strategists at all times and in all circumstances. As general theory, The Strategy Bridge is as relevant to understanding strategic behaviour in the Peloponnesian War as it is for the conflicts of the twenty-first century.
Beatrice Heuser, The Strategy Makers: Thoughts on War and Society from Machiavelli to Clausewitz (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, out in Sept. 2010)
"We would do well to read this book as we seek the strategic path through the manifest insecurities of our age; others have been here before us and could show us the way." (General Sir Rupert Smith)
Beatrice Heuser, The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
"This is a real masterpiece. As a history of strategic thinking, ancient and modern, it is comprehensive, learned and authoritative. It is lucid, wise, often witty, and above all, deeply humane. It should be essential reading for all students and practitioners of strategy: indeed I doubt whether they will need any other for a long time to come." (Sir Michael Howard)
Prizes awarded to School MA students
The School is delighted to announce that, following the meeting of the School's examination board, Peter Campbell Prizes have been awarded to Lukas Milevski and Peter Randall for excellent performance in the School's MA programme. The examiners were particularly impressed by the excellent quality of their dissertations. Congratulations to Lukas and Peter!
(The late Professor Peter Campbell became the founding head of Reading's then Department of Politics in 1964 and retained a close interest in it until his death in 2005. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences as it then was. His bequest to the University of Reading included funding for prizes for outstanding performances by students)
New School of Politics, Economics and International Relations
The University is pleased to announce that a new School of Politics, Economics and International Relations will be established on 1st August 2011. In the interim year, the current Schools of Economics and Politics & International Relations will be collaborating closely in order to ensure a smooth transition to the new structure.
The new School is designed to strengthen and extend research and teaching in the social sciences across the University. Although Economics and Politics & international Relations will retain their identities within the new School as separate Departments, the School will exploit the important synergies between the two disciplines. The Head of the new School will be Professor Geoff Meen, who will work with Dr Philip Giddings and Professor Uma Kambhampati, the current Heads of Politics & International Relations and Economics respectively.
8 September 2010
Reading at ECPR Summer School on Parliaments
Reading graduate student Daniel Ruiz de Garibay attended - together with other 17 PhD students from 14 different universities - the ECPR Summer School on Parliaments that took place at the University of Bamberg, Germany between 2nd and 14th August. A report on the experience can be found here.
New Book by Dr Alan Renwick
The Politics of Electoral Reform: Changing the Rules of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Elections lie at the heart of democracy, and this book seeks to understand how the rules governing those elections are chosen. Drawing on both broad comparisons and detailed case studies, it focuses upon the electoral rules that govern what sorts of preferences voters can express and how votes translate into seats in a legislature. Through detailed examination of electoral reform politics in four countries (France, Italy, Japan and New Zealand), Alan Renwick shows how major electoral system changes in established democracies occur through two contrasting types of reform process. Renwick rejects the simple view that electoral systems always straightforwardly reflect the interests of the politicians in power. Politicians' interests are complex; politicians are sometimes unable to pursue reforms they want; occasionally, they are forced to accept reforms they oppose. The Politics of Electoral Reform shows how voters and reform activists can have real power over electoral reform.
'This is an agenda setter for the next generation of electoral systems research. Renwick makes a major contribution by combining recognition that there is more than one path to electoral reform with a schema that enables us to move beyond a series of narratives to more systematic understanding.' Richard S. Katz, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University
Further information is available on the Cambridge University Press website.
Visiting Professor Tim Cross gives evidence at Iraq Inquiry
Major-General Tim Cross, a Visiting Professor at the School of Politics and International Relations, gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry on 7 December on the topic of 'Post Invasion Iraq: The planning and the reality after the invasion'.
The full details of the Inquiry can be found here.
The transcript of Major-General Cross's evidence can be found here.
PhD Student wins Award
Emmanuel Sigalas from the School of Politics and International Relations has been awarded the THESEUS Award for Promising Research 2009 for his thesis titled, 'People Mobility and European Union Legitimacy: the Effect of the Erasmus Student Exchange Program On European Identity and EU Support'. The research was supervised by Dr Jonathan Golub. The prize recognises promising work of a researcher at the beginning of his or her career.
Students win Awards
Two students of the School of Politics and International have been awarded University Achievement Prizes. They are Adam Stanley (Politics and International Relations) and Robert Erskine (War, Peace and International Relations).
These prizes are awarded each year to the top 150 students following Part 1 examinations, and the top 150 Part 2 students.
Teaching Award
Dr Alan Renwick was awarded the Faculty of Social Science student award for teaching excellence by the Vice-Chancellor Gordon Marshall. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Award of Prizes
The Head of School is delighted to announce that the following students have been awarded Peter Campbell Prizes in recognition of their excellent performances in this year's examinations.
Part Three [for overall excellence]
Flora College
Laura Rees
James Dearden
Peter Randall
Christian Kourtis
Part Two [for best mark in the three core modules]
Geremy Sagoe [Comparative Government and Politics]
Robert Trounce [Political Classics]
Adam Stanley [Modern International Relations]
Part One [for best mark in the four modules offered by the School]
Michael Hester [British Society]
James Pawelek-Lacey [Introduction to Political Ideas]
Callum Lea [International Relations and Strategic Studies]
David Ireland [Modern Government]
Research Feature
Dr Jeremy Lester's British Academy funded research has been featured in the latest addition of the British Academy Review. The article can be found here
Major Funding Award
Power after Peace: The Political Economy of Post Conflict Statebuilding
Professor Mats Berdal (King's College London) and Dr. Dominik Zaum (University of Reading) have been awarded a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York in support of their three-year research project on Power after Peace: The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Statebuilding.
The last fifteen years have seen the increased involvement of donor countries and international organisations in the governance and development of post-conflict countries, to assist with the creation of representative political institutions, build governance capacities, promote judicial reform, and reform economic structures. Their efforts of institutional and societal transformation aim to change the underlying structures and dynamics that are thought to have fuelled a conflict. However, the results of these efforts have been mixed at best.
This project will provide an in-depth analysis of the political economy of post-conflict statebuilding, assessing the impact of statebuilding on the distribution of power and of scarce resources in post-conflict societies. To that end, it will establish a research group bringing together renowned international scholars and practitioners to examine nine case studies of post-conflict statebuilding, as well as three major thematic issues cutting across the different cases: institution-building and political representation; economic reform; and the global governance and post-conflict statebuilding.
For more information on the project, please contact Dominik Zaum (d.zaum@rdg.ac.uk) or Marts Berdal (mats.berdal@kcl.ac.uk).
SPIRS PhD thesis awarded the Lord Bryce Prize - February 2009
Emmanuel Sigalas from the School of Politics and International Relations has been awarded the Lord Bryce Prize for 2009 for his PhD thesis titled, 'People Mobility and European Union Legitimacy: the Effect of the Erasmus Student Exchange Program On European Identity and EU Support'. The research was supervised by Dr Jonathan Golub.
Reading Scholars win Leverhulme Award to study Security and Liberty
The University of Reading has successfully secured a Leverhulme Trust Programme Award of £610,000 to study Security and Liberty. The Programme title is 'The Liberal Way of War: Strategy, Ideology, Representations' and it will involve fourteen scholars from Politics, Law, History, and Modern Languages. Amongst other things, the money will be used to fund a series of small conferences and fund nine postgraduate students.
The team sets out to understand the way that liberalism – which puts a high value on the rule of law and on the rights of individuals - constrains military strategy in liberal states. The very nature of war threatens rights to liberty, property and life. It can also involve the identification of real or imagined 'enemies within', which may result in the treatment of fellow-citizens as if they were outsiders. This is something which liberal states and individuals find difficult to tolerate, and which can then destroy the will to fight. Because of this, major liberal states find it easier to win battles than win wars.
The research team will be led by Dr Alan Cromartie, who is a historian and political theorist, and the approach will historical. Scholars from a wide range of backgrounds – including Contemporary History, International Relations, and International Law - will work upon three overlapping sub-themes. First, there will be studies by military strategists about the past, present, and future of legal constraints on the behaviour of generals. Secondly, there will be research into the concept of emergency powers and the growth of universal (as opposed to territorial) jurisdiction. Thirdly, there will be a series of case studies of twentieth-century episodes that illustrate the trends we are discussing.
Dr Alan Cromartie said "we are delighted to receive this award. It recognises Reading's strength as an international centre for Strategic Studies and its ability to look at military problems within a larger intellectual context. The Leverhulme Trust's generosity will give us the opportunity to take a hard look at how we reached our present situation, how we could understand it and how we could handle it better in the future."
For more information, please contact Dr Alan Cromartie on 0118 378 8501 or by email on a.d.t.cromartie@reading.ac.uk
See also the Liberal Way of War Programme website.
General Sir Rupert Smith, Visiting Professor at the School of Politics & International Relations
General Sir Rupert Smith will be a Visiting Professor at the University from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2010. Sir Rupert has been described as one of Britain's most distinguished soldiers. His book The Utility of Force: the Art of War in the Modern World (2006) combines his deep practical experience of leadership, command, and the interface between the political and the military with profound thought about how the character of war has changed in the past part of the twentieth century. Amongst Sir Rupert's senior commands were:
- General Officer Commanding 1 (UK) Armoured Division, in the Gulf War 1990-91;
- Assistant Chief of Defence Staff for Operations, 1992-1994;
- Commander, UNPROFOR in Sarajevo, 1995;
- General Officer Commanding in Northern Ireland, 1996-98.
- From 1998-2001 he was Deputy Supreme Commander Allied Powers Europe
General Smith retired from the British Army in January 2002.
Weekly research seminar series
The School hosts a weekly staff-graduate seminar that sets out to foster vigorous discussion. For a full list of forthcoming events please see our research seminar calendar.