News Archive

2015 Millennium Conference
Failure and Denial in World Politics.

Date:  17-18 October, 2015

Location: The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK.

International relations are enmeshed in political failure and denial: from the governing of global climate change, financial collapse, and nuclear proliferation, to liberal statebuilding, development, and the potential for pandemics. Failure and denial reside in the background of world politics. In spite of their ubiquity and global relevance, however, it is paradoxical that these concepts remain under-theorised and under-conceptualised in International Relations scholarship. The 2015 Millennium Conference thus aspires to open new and critical grounds for debate and discussion by examining this paradox. It is a call for IR to theorise what has remained in the background of its thought and theory until now: failure and denial in world politics.

For more information click here

Bill Callahan has published the new documentary film 'Mearsheimer vs. Nye on the Rise of China' on the The Diplomat:

The rise of China is the key issue of the 21st century. Can China rise peacefully? Has America’s engagement policy created a peer competitor? How should the U.S. respond to Beijing’s island-building in the South China Sea, and its institution-building in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)?

This short documentary film (19 minutes) by Bill Callahan examines how the personal experiences of iconic IR theorists John Mearsheimer (Chicago) and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (Harvard) on their first trips to China have framed their strategic understandings of U.S.-China relations. Are Offensive Realists like Mearsheimer correct that a rising China is structurally determined to challenge the hegemonic U..? Can U.S.-China relations be managed through diplomacy and international organisations, as the Liberal Institutionalists argue? Or does America’s China policy need a combination of Realism and Liberalism, as Nye suggests?

Bill Callahan is professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His films can be viewed at www.vimeo.com/billcallahan.

IR Staff - recent activities

Dr Tomila Lankina, associate professor, recently provided evidence to the House of Lords inquiry into EU-Russia relations and has been quoted in the final report that the Inquiry has recently produced.  See here for more information and to read the report.

Dr Peter Wilson, associate professor, gave a lecture to the Bologna Institute for Policy Reseach, Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe, 17 November 2014, on ‘British Liberalism in the Interwar Years’. For further details see https://www.facebook.com/JHUBIPR or https://twitter.com/JHU_BIPR or watch a 3-Question Interview here.

An essay by Professor Fawaz A Gerges on the origins of ISIS, entitled ISIS and the Third Wave of Jihadism has been published in the December 2014 edition of Current History journal.
The Islamic State has taken the world by surprise with its lightning offensives in Iraq and Syria. Understanding the group requires exploring its roots in the global jihadist movement. Available free to non-subscribers here [PDF].

The new book on international negotiations by Dr Kai Monheim, a recent PhD graduate from the Department of International Relations, is due out on 5 November and available for pre-order now:

How Effective Negotiation Management Promotes Multilateral Co-operation: The power of process in climate, trade and biosafety negotiations, will be published by Routledge in November 2014.

The book examines the determinants of success or failure at such summits in an effort to formulate the regimes and management processes which drive multilateral negotiations. It uses in-depth empirical analysis gathered at major global summits from South Africa to Mexico and from Doha to Geneva.

For further information visit our blog.

IR staff - recent activities

Professor Christopher Coker took part in BBC Radio 4's Start The Week on Monday 29 September 2014.  You can listen or download it here (42 mins).

‘Modernity and International Relations: Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It’
Workshop supported by the IR Department at LSE and the BISA Working Group on Historical Sociology and IR
Sept 2014.  Read Report on our blog. 

Professor Peter Trubowitz has been elected the Chair of the International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. 

Dr Kirsten Ainley has recently had a blog published on the Justice in Conflict website: It’s an analysis of reactions to the recent verdicts in Case 002/01 at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The IRD Department has been successful in an application for a Jean Monnet network (involving teaching and research) to which Dr Bicchi, Dr Economides, Dr Sedelmeier and Professor Smith from the IRD participated, together a network of 6 other European universities.

The application for a consultancy project to the EU Council of Regions, to which the IRD/European Foreign Policy Unit participated, was also successful.

US Foreign Policy Conference 17-19 September 2014

Together with LSE IDEAS, the International Relations Department co-hosted the US Foreign Policy Conference at LSE on September 17-19. Please click here for the detailed programme.

Across 3 days, the conference brought together scholars of US foreign policy from the UK, Europe, the United States and Canada, along with policymakers and postgraduate students – over 100 participants in all.

The theme of the conference was ‘Global Perspectives’. It reflects the fact that the impact of US foreign policy is felt everywhere and at every level. Deep histories animate American engagements almost everywhere. The United States dominates the settlements of the global economy and defines the terms of international development. It is the state looked to in times of international crisis, and to lead in addressing global challenges. Yet the power and purpose behind US decision-making is the subject of perpetual debate. Critical approaches contrast American values with US actions. And America’s polarised domestic politics betray a profound ambivalence to its international role.

Click here to view short video about the conference

Slacktivists - cover story of Science News

A report on an article about the structure of online activism co-authored by IR Department's Dr Jens Meierhenrich has become the cover story of popular science magazine Science News.

You can read the original article here.

Dr Kirsten Ainley, Director of the Centre for International Studies, was interviewed on challenges to the Responsibility to Protect doctrine at the Hague Institute for Global Justice.

International Relations Department PhD graduate wins prestigious prize for his thesis

Dr Kai Monheim, visiting fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, has been awarded a prestigious prize for his PhD thesis "The 'power of process': the impact of process management on multilateral negotiations”. He received the "Mediations-Wissenschafts-Preis” (mediation science prize) at the 16th Mediation Congress, held on 27-28 June 2014 in Berlin.

The prize is awarded annually by the German academic association "Centrale für Mediation” for the best PhD or 'Habilitiation’ thesis in the field of mediation studies. Dr Monheim’s thesis investigates the role that process management plays in the successful conclusion of multilateral negotiations, with a particular focus on international climate negotiations.

Dr Monheim’s research was supported by a PhD scholarship from the Grantham Research Institute. He conducted his research from 2010 to 2013 under the supervision of Dr Robert Falkner in the International Relations Department. The thesis is to be published by Routledge in November 2014.

2014 Teaching Awards for International Relations Department

We are pleased to announce the following awards for staff in the International Relations Department:

LSESU Student Led Teaching Excellence Awards 2014:
Award for Innovative Teaching

Highly commended: Frederick Laker, Department of International Relations

"I have enjoyed every single class and I truly believe Frederick deserves this award."

Frederick's creative approach to structuring a class, characterized by packing many activities into the hour, has enabled students to fully engage with the debates of this comprehensive course. Frederick demonstrates cases through Powerpoints with embedded short videos, highlights definitions, provides essay outlines and his mini-quizzes are something of legend amongst IR203 students.

Class Teacher Awards
Class Teacher Awards are nominated by academic departments in recognition of the special contribution made by graduate teaching assistants, teaching fellows and guest teachers to their work. 

James Strong, Yuan (Joanne) Yao

Alexander Stubb to become Finnish Prime Minister

Alexander Stubb, who has a PhD from the Department of International Relations, has become the new leader of the centre-right National Coalition Party, and is set to become the new Finnish Prime Minister this week. His supervisor, Sir William Wallace, has written a few words about Alexander for the IR blog here.

Dr Pippa Malmgren,  LSE International Relations alumnus, talks to LSE Connect

Pippa received an MSc International Relations 1986 and a PhD in 1991 from the IR Department. She has an illustrious career as a political economist. She served as financial market advisor to the President in the White House and on the National Economic Council from 2001-2002. She was a member of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets and the Working Group on Corporate Governance. She dealt with Enron, Sarbanes Oxley as well the Anti-Money Laundering provisions of the Patriot Act and had responsibility for terrorism risks to the economy on the NEC after 9/11.

Read the interview here.

IR staff news:

Peter Wilson gave the keynote lecture on ‘Leonard Woolf, The League of Nations, and Peace’ to the Leonard Woolf Society Symposium, The Keep Archive Centre, University of Sussex on 24 May 2014

 Alexandros Petersen

The International Relations Department is saddened to learn that Alexandros Petersen, a former MSc and PhD student in the Department, died in Kabul on Friday 17th January 2014.

Alex was killed in an attack on a popular restaurant for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. Alex began work as an Assistant Professor, Political Science, at the American University of Afghanistan just two days before his death.

Alex was a MSc student in the Department of International Relations during 2006-7, after which he registered on the PhD programme and obtained his doctorate in 2012. Alex had attachments to many research institutes and wrote the book The World Island: Eurasian Geopolitics and the Fate of the West. He was popular at the LSE and will be greatly missed.

(Alex's former supervisor, Dr Roy Allison).

The Economist: Books of the Year 2013: Dr Toby Dodge's From War to a New Authoritarianism

Dr Toby Dodge's most recent book Iraq: From War to a New Authoritarianism has been listed in The Economist's Books of the Year 2013. Described as 'a clear, concise and unsparing view of Iraq’s continuing agony. A tale worthy of Shakespeare'.

Europe@LSE Research Seminar

The interdepartmental Europe@LSE research seminar is jointly organised by the Government Department, the International Relations Department and the European Institute. It intends to provide a School-wide forum for research on Europe, beyond the borders of the European Union and in all disciplines. It is open to the academic public but it is hoped in particular that LSE staff and doctoral students doing research in relevant areas become regular attendants so as to create a scholarly community. Seminars usually take place once a month, over a sandwich lunch.

The Coordinators for the 2013/14 academic year are Jan Komarek (EI), Eiko Thielemann (EI/GOV), Federica Bicchi (IR) and Steve Woolcock (IR).

For more information, please contact Dr Eiko Thielemann (E.Thielemann@lse.ac.uk).

Click here for further information and to see the schedule of dates and topics of seminars.

NEW BOOK!

Classics of International Relations: Essays in Criticism and Appreciation
|(Routledge, 2013)
Edited by Henrik Bliddal, Casper Sylvest and Peter Wilson

This book introduces, contextualises and assesses 24 of the most important works on international relations of the last 100 years. Providing an indispensable guide for all students of IR theory, it asks why are these works considered classics? Is their status deserved? Will it endure?

With an international cast of contributors, many of them leading authorities on their subject, Classics of International Relations will become a standard reference for all those wishing to make sense of a rapidly developing and diversifying field.

For more information click here

New strategic partnership with the Development Bank of Latin America, Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF)

The London School of Economics and Political Science will lead a global debate in early 2014 about the role of emerging nations on the world stage.

This is part of a new strategic partnership the School has forged with the Development Bank of Latin America, Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF).

CAF-funded research led by Dr Chris Alden from LSE’s Department of International Relations into the growing importance of China, India, Latin America and Africa on a global scale will form the basis of an international conference hosted by LSE next year.

The funding will also support a three-month postdoctoral fellowship within LSE’s Department of International Relations, as well as a postgraduate scholarship for students from CAF’s 18 member states.

Click here for more details.

My New Book in 750 words: Interview with Professor Iver Neumann

Professor Iver Neumann recently conducted an interview with the Exploring Geopolitics website in which he talks about his new book Diplomatic Sites - A Critical Enquiry.

You can read the interview here.

IRD GTA wins BISA-HEA Award for Excellence in Teaching and International Studies by a Postgraduate Student, 2012/13

The International Relations Department is very pleased to announce that the BISA-HEA Award for Excellence in Teaching and International Studies by a Postgraduate Student was won this year by Robyn Klingler. The award was announced at the BISA annual conference in Birmingham at the plenary session on 20 June. In selecting Ms Klingler's nomination for the award, the judging panel wrote:

“The BISA Teaching and Learning Committee makes this award in recognition of the innovative and engaging techniques that Robyn has developed to enhance, stimulate and deepen her students’ learning. The range of approaches to teaching which she has developed, deftly tailored to both the subject matter and the needs of a diverse student body, are exceptional for a graduate teaching assistant. Of particular note are her use of information technology and simulations to facilitate her students’ critical explorations of international studies. Robyn is also to be highly commended for the support she provides her students, both in and outside the classroom, and her willingness to explore and share best practice with her colleagues".

The Future of Constructivist Research in International Relations - half-day workshop audio podcasts

Professor Iver Neumann took part in a half-day workshop on this topic 30 March 2013 at Oxford University.  The audio podcasts of the sessions can be listened to or downloaded here, including Professor Neumann's contribution: Constructivism and the Turn to Practice (45 mins).

Dr Peter Wilson recently lectured on Alternatives to Realism: The English School to the Institute for Policy Research, Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Centre.

Click here for a summary [PDF], or watch the 3-min YouTube video

Recent News

Dr Tomila Lankina recently took part in a radio discussion on the Voice of Russia radio entitled Russia: has the opposition lost its way? which you can listen to or download here.

International Relations Public Conference, December 2012: Ten Years On: Sierra Leone's Post-Conflict Transition
The detailed report of proceedings is now available here. The report will be published in the Journal of Sierra Leone Studies, and has been circulated around the British Foreign Office Sierra Leone network, as well as to the Sierra Leone High Commission in London.

Report: LSE Special Event: ‘Can the Iranian Nuclear Situation be resolved without the use of force’? - a podcast and report on this event are now available on our blog.

International Affairs March 2013: Middle East Special Issue

The March 2013 Special Issue of the Chatham House journal, International Affairs, is currently available in full online for free.

Two members of the IR Department have contributed major articles, and also take part in a 30-min audio podcast about the issue.

Dr Toby Dodge: State and society in Iraq ten years after regime change: the rise of a new authoritarianism
[Available to read online or download.]

Professor Fawaz Gerges: The Obama approach to the Middle East: the end of America's moment?
[Available to read online or download.]

Europe 2025

Europe 2025 is an exciting initiative that aims to contribute with concrete policy proposals to the future of Europe discussion.

Students from LSE, Science Po and Hertie School have developed and designed a blog to have people participate in the initiative. And IDEAS is supporting them. Please have a look, take the survey, and forward to anyone whom you might think interested

Professor Fred Halliday's papers available to view online

A collection of Fred Halliday's papers is now available to view via the LSE Archives.  The collection consists of over 350 files of personal effects, correspondence, memoirs, draft texts, travel-notes and work documents, all available for researchers to consult.  The collection should appeal to students of the history and politics of the Middle East and those with an interest in the more theoretical issues dealt with in the discipline.  A bibliography listing all of Halliday's academic works, both published and unpublished, has also been created.

Further information available here

Teaching Matters, January 2013: Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee, 2011/12 findings

There was high praise from the external members of the review teams that visited the International Relations Department last year, and our programmes were seen to be at the cutting edge of their fields.

The Department won particular praise for its support of graduate teaching assistants and the Teaching and Learning Centre reported on the experiences of Zeynep Kaya in their recent publication of Teaching Matters. [PDF

Emeritus Professor Margot Light made Honorary Fellow of LSE

We are delighted to announce that Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Margot Light, has been made an Honorary Fellow of LSE.

Margot came to the UK from South Africa in 1963. Her original qualifications were in the field of physiotherapy, but she decided to take a ‘short’ career break in 1966 to study Russian and International Relations – a break that has now lasted for well over 40 years. She studied for her PhD at the LSE, taught at the University of Surrey 1971-1988 and then joined the Department of International Relations at LSE. She became head of the Department between 2002-2004 - at that point only the 2nd woman to do so in the history of the Department. Since retirement in 2005, she has continued to teach, research and publish.

Read the full oration from Professor Kim Hutchings here [PDF].

House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee inquiry into "The Road to UNFCCC COP18 and Beyond"

Dr Robert Falkner recently gave evidence the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee inquiry into "The Road to UNFCCC COP18 and Beyond". Both written and oral evidence are available at the following links:

Dr Falkner's written evidence [PDF]

Report with formal minutes, oral and written evidence [PDF]

Teaching Excellence Awards

Every year the LSE Students' Union invites students to nominate the teachers who have inspired them.  This year there were five winners, including Marco Pinfari from Government and IR. With a glowing nomination, Marco's time and energy for teaching go beyond the seminar - offering extensive feedback on submitted work and actively prompting students to read additional materials relevant to their learning style and interests.

Departmental Class Teacher Awards

These awards recognise the special contribution made by graduate teaching assistants, teaching fellows and guest teachers to LSE's academic departments. The winners were nominated by the departments themselves as a result of exceptional feedback from students, lecturers and other department members.

The 2012 winners from IR were:

• Daniel Falkiner
• Roberto Orsi
• Luca Tardelli

In addition, Dr Kirsten Ainley won a Major Review Teaching Prize for 'candidates who have shown exceptional flair and effectiveness as teachers.' (See below for further details).

Congratulations to all the IR Teaching Prize winners!

Article by Dr Robert Falkner from International Relations Department included in MIT Press’s “50 Influential Journal Articles” anniversary celebration

Dr Falkner’s article “Private Environmental Governance and International Relations: Exploring the Links” (Global Environmental Politics 3:2, 2003) has been included in the list of 50 influential journal articles published in MIT Press journals in honour of the Press’ 50th anniversary. The 50 articles were chosen from a wide range of disciplines, including economics, international affairs, history, science and technology. Dr Falkner’s article is the only one chosen from the journal Global Environmental Politics, which rose to an impact factor of 2.231 and ranked 5th out of 139 journals in political science in 2010. It remains one of the journal’s top-cited articles.

From The MIT Press: “As part of our 50th anniversary celebration, and with suggestions from our editors, we’ve selected 50 influential articles published by the Journals division of the MIT Press. Each of these select articles will be freely available through 19 June 2012.”

Full details of the MIT list are available here.

IR Staff - recent activities

Kirsten Ainley recently gave a 40min talk on 'Excesses of Responsibility and the Power of Political Approaches to Atrocity', presented at the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Network, 1st May 2012.  Download the mp3 here.

Professor Fawaz A Gerges has written an article for Newsweek and The Daily Beast on How the Arab Spring Beat Al Qaeda.

Professor Barry Buzan recently gave a talk for TEDx at St Martins Central on 'A world order without superpowers', which can be viewed on YouTube (21 mins).

Dr Katerina Dalacoura has contributed an entry in the LSE British Politics and Policy blog entitled: The on-going conflict in Syria presents a great challenge to proponents of human rights. A consensual strategy must be found that saves lives and prevents an escalation of violence

Mr Erik van der Marel has contributed a piece on Nicolas Sarkozy and the French elections to France 24.

Dr Toby Dodge has written an article for Open Security on 'The Resistable Rise of Nuri al-Maliki'.

Professor John Sidel has written an article for The Guardian on Indonesian democracy

Reflections on 42 years in the International Relations Department at the LSE

Nicholas A Sims, Reader in International Relations, retired in 2010 after 42 years in the IR Department at the LSE. He sets out his reflections on the Department, the students and the discipline during those years, in the IR Department blog here.