91福利

 Annie Machon

“MI5: Spies, Lies and Whistle-blowers"

Thursday 3rd November

5.15 in OC1.05 – Oculus - New Teaching Building

As a former intelligence officer with MI5, Annie Machon has a rare perspective on the inner workings of governments, intelligence agencies and the media, as well as the wider implications of calls for increased openness and accountability in public and private sectors. In her lecture, Annie will consider the place of Whistle-blowers and explore the tensions between democracy, security and intelligence.

has recently been interviewed for about the ERC project "Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty."

The interview discusses the emergence of the idea for the ERC project "" out of a previous research program on conflict studies; patterns of conflict and cooperation regarding Armenian diaspora mobilization for genocide recognition during an entire century; and the role of diaspora ministries in transnational diaspora politics. The conversation also mentions the work of individual researchers within the larger project, in the context of conducting interviews in 10 languages, the development of inter-coder discussions, and an original dataset from interviews with diaspora activists across Europe in preparation for the forthcoming cross-national survey.

The interview can be read at:

, Associate Professor in PAIS, recently gave evidence to the parliament of the Spanish region of Extremadura based on his research on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - published most recently as a book with and an article in .

Speaking via videolink to the special committee investigating the effects of TTIP for the region of Extremadura, he stressed that the economic benefits of the agreement were overblown, that the agreement was unlikely to lead to the protection of the region's denominations of origin in the US and that its likely effects were predominantly to encourage subtle deregulation.

To see a video of the session (with Gabriel's intervention starting around 2:05:33), follow this link: (in Spanish)

PAIS PhD candidate, Alexandra Dobra, has been selected as a finalist to present her innovative idea at the “Falling Walls Lab Finale” in Berlin - "The brightest minds on the planet” BBC - presided by the Chairman of the Board of the Nobel Foundation.

Alexandra’s innovative idea, the "High-Performance Corporate DNA Transformation Model” aims to break the walls of unethical corporate behaviour. Following 2007, investment banks have been under the spotlight for unethical corporate behaviour. They responded by implementing new core control systems, organisational structures and (formal) corporate cultures. Nine years later, these investment banks continue to incur damages due to unethical corporate behaviour and to drive down social value. So how can this be fixed? The "High-Performance Corporate DNA Transformation Model”, that Alexandra has developed as part of her PhD thesis, answers how this can be fixed. The "High-Performance Corporate DNA Transformation Model” shall be commercialised by Swiss Economics, a leading independent consulting company with proven experience in supporting companies, associations and public authorities in regulated industries.

Falling Walls is a unique international annual gathering of leaders from science, business, government, and the arts. Inspired by the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, the question of every Falling Walls meeting is: Which are the next walls to fall - in science and society? The meetings are acclaimed for the high-level speakers, the brevity of presentations, the diversity of issues and the amicable open atmosphere. The Falling Walls Foundation, a charity, is generously supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Helmholtz Association, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Berlin Senate, and numerous other acclaimed academic institutions, foundations, companies, non–governmental institutions and individuals.

Many congratulations, Alexandra!

ESRC Doctoral Research Fellow Jennifer Philippa Eggert will be giving a talk at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon on 24 October. Jennifer will present findings of my research on female fighters during the Lebanese Civil War.

Abstract: What role do women have in times of war and violent conflict? In much of the literature on political violence, the role of women is either completely omitted or women are seen as victims or actors for peaceful change only. The fact that in most conflicts worldwide, women, too, perpetrate and facilitate violence is often overlooked. This is no different in the majority of the literature on the Lebanese Civil War, despite the fact that women played an active role in practically all militias that were operating in Lebanon during the war. Taking into account individual motivations, organizational characteristics, societal factors as well as the security context, this talk explains the phenomenon of female fighters during the Lebanese Civil War. Based on interviews with former militia members, it undertakes a comparison of women’s inclusion in the different politico-military groups that were active during the war and highlights why women were employed as combatants in some of the militias, whereas they assumed supportive roles only in others.