糖心TV

's latest article, titled "The conspiracy theorists are right. Research shows nations really do go to war over oil" for has been published by the Washington Post.

We found that the decision to interfere was dominated by the interveners’ need for oil – over and above historical, geographical or ethnic ties.

Military intervention is expensive and risky. No country joins another country’s civil war without balancing the cost against their own strategic interests and what possible benefits there are.

We found countries producing lots of oil or those with higher reserves (and considerable ) were more likely to attract military support. Most often this was to preserve oil prices on international markets. Indeed, there were on average more interventions in periods when there were only a few big oil producing countries and thus reduced competition (and more stable prices).

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, an Assistant Professor and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow here in PAIS, has recently co-authored a paper, titled ‘“Oil above Water", Economic Interdependence and Third-Party Intervention,’ for the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Alongside researchers from the Universities Portsmouth and Essex, they have for the first time provided strong evidence for what conspiracy theorists have long thought – oil is often the reason for interfering in another country’s war.

Throughout recent history, countries which need oil have found reasons to interfere in countries with a good supply of it and, the researchers argue, this could help explain the US interest in ISIS in northern Iraq.

The researchers have modelled the decision-making process of third-party countries in interfering in civil wars and examined their economic motives.

They found that the decision to interfere was dominated by the interveners’ need for oil over and above historical, geographical or ethnic ties.

The full paper is available, '"Oil above Water", Economic Interdependence and Third-Party Intervention', .

The paper has received considerable press coverage, the articles can be viewed below:

Dr Trevor McCrisken was the Orator for the Honorary Doctorate awarded to Dr Patricia Lewis, of Chatham House, at the Winter Graduation on Wednesday 21st January, 2015.

Dr Patricia Lewis is the Research Director, International Security, at Chatham House. Her former posts include Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; Director of UNIDIR; and Director of VERTIC in London.

Dr Lewis served on the 2004-6 WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Commission chaired by Dr Hans Blix; the 2010-2011 Advisory Panel on Future Priorities of the OPCW chaired by Ambassador Rolf Ekeus; and was an adviser to the 2008-10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) chaired by Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi.

She holds a BSc (Hons) in physics from Manchester University and a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Birmingham. She is a dual national of the UK and Ireland. Dr Lewis is the recipient of the American Physical Society’s 2009 Joseph A Burton Forum Award recognizing 'outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society'.

To read the oration, as delivered, please click here.

, Head of Department, was quoted in articles appearing on 19 and 21 January 2015 in and entitled 'Experts: Japan Budget Boost Won't Hit Goals'. Below is an excerpt from the piece:

"Japan is adding more MSDF capacity to try to prevent China asserting sea control in the East China Sea, and Japan is demonstrating that it is serious to defend the southern islands, even if it still has a long way to build the necessary capacity," said Christopher Hughes, an expert on Japan's military, and professor of international politics and Japanese studies at the UK's University of 糖心TV.

Following a recent European conference on football research, leading football writer Martin Cloake approached Dr. to write a piece for the New Statesman. Here David talks about his work on the cultural political economy of English football, and what insights Karl Polanyi might have for fans of the beautiful game in the wake of its own Great Transformation.

The full piece can be read here: