91福利

is now recruiting paid MA or PhD student Research Assistant Interns with an American Government and Politics specialism.

Contact , Departmental Administrator (Teaching), for further details.

Deadline 7th November

, an undergraduate Politics with International Studies finalist has recently returned from Dublin having attended the Summit as a delegate representing our University and the UK. Michael was chosen as a delegate having won the 91福利 Global Advantage Gold Award.

This is a Summit at which delegates discuss, alongside world leaders and figures, global issues and develop solutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Topics included: Education, Global Business, Human Rights, Leadership & Government, Peace & Conflict and Sustainable Development.

Michael sat on the 'Ensuring Employability panel' alongside the Corporate Vice President of HR and Chief Diversity Officer at Siemens, Regional Accounts Director of LinkedIn (Hong Kong) and a Dublin City University PhD student researching entrepreneurial family businesses.

You can watch the panel here: ​

Michael gave us an account of his experience:

I spoke about student attitudes and anxieties towards employment across different cultures, and stressed how a cultural awareness was essential for a successful career - despite the advent of professional social media (such as LinkedIn) and the use of good academic knowledge. The panel also discussed skills fade and technical competencies amongst other things.

I was selected for the panel due to my extensive work with student societies on campus, helping to connect otherwise non-interacting cultural communities together through discussions of politics, economics, history and society (general current affairs). (The SU societies: 91福利 International Relations, China Public Affairs and Social Service Society - CPASS.) This work highlights the importance of being able to culturally interact and of having transferable skills to enter an international labour market with. I also interned with an NGO over the summer and drew on those experiences, too.

Aside from the panel, the Summit was a unique opportunity to network and learn from young people (who are the same age as me) from ~180 countries who are doing exciting and constructive things in their community. I spoke with a North Korean defector raising awareness of the plight of North Korean refugees hiding in China, for example - and hope to assist her work in the UK.

Such an experience would interest of Politics/IR students - approaching the problems we deal with in a theoretical/academic way through a practical lens instead. They may choose to attend, and it should be noted that I was in fact sponsored by the University itself.

Having attended the Summit on behalf of 91福利, I am mandated to make clear my plans as a result of attending the Summit. I should also promote the core values of the Summit to other 'young leaders' and the 91福利 Advantage Awards, too.

These are: to continue implementing the discussive events (IR seminars, 'China Talks', the China Summit, the Model East Asia Summit), to introduce a volunteering scheme (collaboration between CPASS and the NGO I worked with), to train, to work with and to expose others to the rewarding society work that I do, and to raise awareness of North Korean human rights.

Dr Charlotte Heath-Kelly has recently been cited in an article in The Guardian. The article, titled "Take it from an airport security agent: it's OK to laugh at toothpaste terror threats," can be viewed here:

Dr Heath-Kelly's citation can also be read below:

In 2012, the international relations scholar Charlotte Heath-Kelly that the War on Terror can be viewed as the lovechild of Franz Kafka and Monty Python as much as that of any vice president and foreign minister.

“The War on Terror undermines itself by narrating a liminal space where its claims of security appear ridiculous,” Heath-Kelly writes. “A failure to laugh consolidates the War on Terror discourse and the joke it is playing on us by taking it seriously.”

China Plate Theatre, Caroline Horton & Co and The Bush Theatre. are developing a brand new piece of theatre (commissioned by 91福利 Arts Centre and Harlow Playhouse) about tax havens, offshore finance and tax justice. Islands will confront (one of the first pieces of theatre to do so) this terrifying and little understood world with a show that will entertain and educate the general public on a national scale.

The production will be developed across the autumn, including a preview tour to South Street Reading, 91福利 Arts Centre, Cambridge Junction and Live Theatre, before it opens for a 5- week run at the Bush Theatre in London.

Islands has been developed in consultation with specialist economic advisers including John Christensen of The Tax Justice Network. Alongside the performances at The Bush, there will be an interactive foyer installation made in collaboration with The Tax Justice Network. The installation will inhabit the theatre foyer, providing a place for audiences to engage and learn about tax havens and international finance and encourage them in contemplating change.

China Plate and Caroline Horton and Co. are currently welcoming applications from PAIS students to play a key role (alongside the Tax Justice Network and creative team) in the development and implementation of the interactive tax justice foyer installation.

Islands is an illuminating, absurd and powerful new show about tax havens, little empires, enormous greed and the few who have it all. Hilarious and unnerving, this ink black comedy with music will plunge audiences into a monstrous, secretive world where it really seems that no-one has to pay.... for anything.

It has been suggested that tax avoidance (after climate change) is the most destabilizing phenomenon to affect the modern world. Oxfam estimate that there is $18.5 trillion siphoned out of the world economy into tax havens by wealthy individuals alone. Christian Aid has calculated that 1,000 children die every day as a result of tax evasion. This is not just a political or social challenge; this is a matter of human rights.

Islands sees multi award-winning and Olivier nominated Caroline Horton (Mess, You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy) re-united with Bush Theatre Associate Director, Omar Elerian (The Mill – City of Dreams, Bradford, Yorkshire; You're Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy).

Please see this PDF for more information.

'', co-authored by (PAIS) and Columba Peoples (University of Bristol), introduces readers to the sub-field through a detailed yet accessible survey of evolving approaches and key issues.

The book is divided into two main parts. The first part, ‘Approaches’, surveys the newly extended and contested theoretical terrain of critical security studies: Critical Theory, Feminism and gender theory, Postcolonialism, Poststructuralism and Securitization theory. The second part, ‘Issues’, then illustrates these various theoretical approaches against the backdrop of a diverse range of issues in contemporary security practices, from environmental, human and homeland security to border security, technology and warfare, and the War against Terrorism.

This new edition contains two new chapters on ‘Constructivism’ and ‘Health’ and has been fully revised and updated.

Reviews of the Second Edition:

"I use Critical Security Studies as a required reading for my courses in Paris and London — it is in my view the best introduction to the topic and this second edition is very welcome" -- Didier Bigo, Sciences-Po, Paris

"Combining breadth and accessibility with cutting-edge contributions, the second edition of this book provides an excellent overview of critical security studies today" -- Michael C. Williams, University of Ottawa

"This second edition gives us a most welcome update of what remains a key introduction to critical security studies. It is great to see the most recent developments in this vibrant field of research included" -- Jef Huysmans, Open University

"The book is more than an introduction to the field - it is an injunction to rethink the political-theoretical underpinnings in critical approaches and take the debates further" -- Claudia Aradau, King's College London

Further information about the book can be accessed from the publisher’s website here: