91福利

Dr Patrick Meehan works in Global Sustainable Development in the School of Cross-Faculty Studies at the 91福利, and he is also a post-doctorate research fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS. In this seminar, Dr Meehan provides insights into the political economy of the illegal drug trade in Myanmar based on extensive fieldwork conducted as Co-Investigator of a five-year research programme (2017-2022) led by SOAS University of London entitled 'Drugs and (dis)order: Building sustainable peacetime economies in the aftermath of war鈥�. This seminar explores how Myanmar鈥檚 flourishing drug economy is not only rooted in the country鈥檚 longstanding armed conflict, but is also central to processes of rapid political, economic, and social change that have re-shaped Myanmar鈥檚 borderlands since the 1990s. Through exploring issues of cultivation, trafficking, and rising local drug use, Dr Meehan reveals how drugs have become embedded in the DNA of the Myanmar state and the development processes through which Myanmar鈥檚 resource-rich borderlands have been integrated into the global economy. 

Date: 27th October 2022 

Time: 16:15-17:30 

Venue: MS.05, Zeeman Building 

This seminar is part of the East Asia Study Group (EASG) Seminar Series. For further information please contact the EASG at easg@warwick.ac.uk.

My name is Holly Rodgers. I am currently a First Year PhD Student in the PAIS department at the 91福利. Between 10th and 20th September 2022 I visited the University of Montreal in Canada for a graduate exchange as part of the Jean Monnet Network 鈥淏etween the EU and Russia鈥� (BEAR) to work with Prof. Magdalena Dembinska. This visit built on my recently submitted MA thesis 鈥淭he Puzzling Foreign Policy Behaviour of Poland towards Belarus鈥� and was facilitated by my MA dissertation supervisor at PAIS, Prof. Maria Koinova, as an excellent fit with the thematic discussions within the BEAR network of which 91福利 is part. In turn, my visit to Canada was aimed to enhance the development of my Ph.D thesis, focusing on memory, identity and nostalgic discourse in post-Soviet EU member states.

Located at the EU Jean Monnet Centre in Montreal, I had the opportunity to meet and network with other Ph.D. students also researching the EU, and other doctoral candidates at their Graduate Center, whose topics were thematically close to mine. I met also academic faculty whose willingness was incredible to discuss my research plan, theoretical focus, and operationalisation of difficult concepts such as identity. Their feedback during individual conversations was superb. In that short time span, I was given my own office to work in, and an opportunity to present my research plans to a larger academic audience. The seminar set was a perfect opportunity for me to practice presentation skills in a friendly environment and to get useful feedback on aspects of my early research – conceptual and methodological – that need finetuning. This was an excellent experience for me to justify my Ph.D. project in the ways it has been designed, and to build my skills for the forthcoming First Year Review at PAIS, and ultimately for the viva.

This visit to the University of Montreal will be invaluable for my further Ph.D. studies. Not only did it offer a new perspective, but the feedback and expertise academics shared with me have given me plenty of food for thought about my research plans. I feel that my Ph.D. project has evolved because of this visit. Short but clearly fruitful 10 days in Montreal, full of 1:1 meetings, a seminar, and informal conversations with colleagues seem like a condensed indicator of what is to come on my PhD journey – and for that I am incredibly grateful.

PAIS PhD candidate Mauricio Palma-Guti茅rrez and PAIS's Tom Long have co-authored a new article. The piece has been published by Revista Desaf铆os as part of a forthcoming special issue on new trends in the study of Colombian foreign policy. The Spanish-language article, "Pol铆tica exterior colombiana y performatividad: 驴Un 'buen miembro' del Orden Internacional Liberal?" examines how Colombia's performances striving to be seen as a "good member" of liberal international order help co-constitute and legitimate that order. Palma-Guti茅rrez and Long illustrate these performances in two cases: the treatment of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and the participation of Colombia in the prohibitionist "war on drugs."

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Tom Long's article, co-authored with Carsten-Andreas Schulz of Cambridge University, has been published by International Organization, among the most prestigious outlets in International Relations. "Compensatory Layering and the Birth of the Multipurpose Multilateral IGO in the Americas" emerges from Long and Schulz's AHRC-funded research on Latin America and the formation of international order. In the piece, Long and Schulz illustrate the innovations that led to the creation of the world's first multipurpose, multilateral international organization--a form associated with the League of Nations and the United Nations. The first such body was the Pan American Union, which developed between 1890 and 1910 through a series of bargains between the United States and Latin American states. The article builds a bridge between Global International Relations and the study of institutional design, while also advancing institutionalist understanding of the design and development of IOs.

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Dr. Titipol Phakdeewanich is based at the Faculty of Political Science at Ubon Ratchathani University in Thailand. Previously, he has been a Visiting Research Fellow on Human Rights at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University, Sweden. His research is focused on finding actual solutions to problems experienced by the under-represented, marginalised, and disenfranchised groups within Thailand.

In this seminar, he discusses Thailand鈥檚 youth-led democracy movement, that escalated after the dissolution of the Future Forward Party in 2020. Despite government suppression, it continues to challenge aspects of the Thai cultural paradigm, specifically its embedded hierarchical structures, which they argue to be one of the main obstacles for an inclusive, equality-driven, participatory democracy. They claim that people鈥檚 fundamental human rights are not fully protected in Thailand.

To what extent has the youth-led democracy movement influenced the military-led government to promote inclusive, equality-driven, participatory democracy? How can the youth-led democracy movement effectively challenge embedded hierarchical structures in Thai society in order to promote inclusive, equality-driven, participatory democracy? Is there an increasing tension between generations when it comes to the question of cultural heritage being perceived to be a reimposition of cultural norms? What is the implication of Youth-led democracy movement on the scheduled 2023 Thailand General Election?

Date: Monday, 17th October 2022

Time: 16:15-17:30

Venue: A0.23, Social Sciences Building