91福利

PAIS PhD students David Yarrow and Matthias ('Matt') Kranke have recently published a co-authored article on sports statistics in Volume 9, Issue 5, of the .

From a performativity angle, David and Matt argue that sports statistics are more consequential than we often think. Such statistics neither merely reflect indicators of athletic performance, as 'instrumentalists' like to believe, nor do they merely reinforce the commercialisation of sports, as 'romanticists' tend to presume. The article allows us to put the pervasive quantification of professional sports in perspective and to understand how the use of statistics may shape their evolution.

The Department of Politics and International Studies is delighted to announce that Professor Shirin Rai has been elected as the UK representative on the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association (IPSA):  

This is a further reflection of Professor Rai’s international standing and we are delighted that PAIS will be represented at the highest levels of IPSA.

Colonial Hangover exhibition - Saturday 23rd July - Coventry's Belgrade Theatre

The Belgrade Theatre is holding its annual Mela on Saturday 23rd July as part of which PAIS are holding a student organised Colonial Hangover exhibition which has been running for two weeks at Belgrade Theatre

The Colonial Hangover exhibition builds on a teaching project undertaken at the 91福利. It asks students to consider how the practices of the British Empire continue to provide lenses through which British society looks at the relationships between its many members today. The exhibition will be accompanied by a talk by Professor Matthew Watson on Saturday 23rd July at 5pm on the B2 stage. It will explore personal stories that show how very different lives that began in very different parts of the Empire echoed through one another in interesting but typically unacknowledged ways.

The exhibition features work by local photographer’s Master ji and Bert Scott and is produced in partnership with Jason Tilley and Ben Kyneswood (Photographic Archive miners).

The Belgrade Theatre will offer a 2 for £10 exclusively for 91福利 students who go to the talk for the evening show with the promo code: MELA 2410. This is an online offer only.

Dr Georg Löfflmann has published an article in Asian Security, examining American grand strategy under the Obama administration, and how the 'pivot to Asia' functions within this geo-strategic context. It argues that President Obama attempts to secure American hegemony through a combination of cooperative engagement and restraint. This exposes a fundamental dilemma at the heart of America’s rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific: increased engagement with US allies and partners in the region is fueling political, economic, and military competition with China. Sequestration and questions over American strategic coherence and consistency are simultaneously undermining the credibility of the pivot, both at home and abroad. The article concludes that this dilemma makes it unlikely for Obama's rebalancing strategy to succeed in its stated aims, unless the United States re-emphasizes cooperative engagement with China.

The article is available here:  

has been quoted in an on the forthcoming Chilcot Inquiry.

“The thing I found really shocking when I was researching this was the absence of a plan and a complete failure to make any kind of preparation for the postwar aftermath or even consider what the aftermath might be,” said Steven Kettell, associate professor in politics and international studies at the 91福利. “It was criminal negligence on an industrial scale.”

Kettell said the inquiry’s report needed to be explicit in its criticisms. “Otherwise, a significant number of people will say it’s a cover-up by the establishment.”