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This is a friendly reminder to all students seeking to obtain PhD funding that there are four remaining opportunities for both Home/EU and International students, as well as those beginning their PhDs in 2013 or those already in their first year of study:

1. . The DTC awards available to PAIS PhD students must follow one of the following training pathways: Security, Conflict and Justice or Politics and International Studies. Open to Home/EU students starting in 2013 or in their first year of study. Full tuition fees covered for Home/EU students; maintenance grant for Home students only. Deadline: 28 February 2013.
2. . This department-funded scholarship is aimed at any candidate starting their PhD in PAIS in 2013 or in their first year of study. Because women are under-represented in this field, female candidates in particular are encouraged to apply. The fellowship will be highly competetive and is open to Home/EU and Overseas students. The scholarship includes for the payment of full academic fees and a maintenance grant in line with the UK Research Council standard stipend for three years. Deadline: 28 February 2013.
3. . This doctoral research will form part of PAIS’s programme to consolidate the study of East Asia in the department and across the University. The successful candidate will be supervised by Professor Chris Hughes and another member of staff in PAIS. The fellowship will be highly competitive and is open to Home/EU and Overseas students. The scholarship includes for the payment of full academic fees and a maintenance grant in line with the UK Research Council standard stipend for three years. Deadline: 28 February 2013.
4. . In partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council funded Doctoral Training Centre, PAIS is able to offer a studentship in collaboration with , an international non-governmental organisation that works to bring about a lasting change in the lives of mentally ill people around the world. Open to Home/EU students starting in 2013 or in their first year of study. Full tuition fees covered for Home/EU students; maintenance grant for Home students only. Deadline: 30 April 2013.

There can be no doubting the power of the Internet. News from around the world can be accessed in seconds in real time. Yet recently, acts such as SOPA and PIPA have received large amounts of attention in the press in efforts by government to increasingly regulate and censor the Internet. Meanwhile, in other countries around the world, the influence of social media in uprisings, freedom movements and education suggest that, as technologies develop, we are heading towards greater freedom and connectivity of information than ever before. This presents, therefore, a dichotomy for the near future of the Internet; Are we heading for increasing liberty or a lockdown of information.

Join Wael Abbas from Egypt and Monica Marks from Tunisia, who will be speaking about how the internet has affected the Arab Springs, as well as Denis Campbell and Bill Thompson who will be speaking about how censorship and social media affects the western society. Dr Nicola Pratt will chair the event.

The event will take place on Thursday 31st of January in room H0.52 from 6pm to 8pm. More information can be found on the ; the event is also .

Dr Chris Moran appeared on BBC Radio Ulster on 13 January to discuss his recent monograph Classified. You can on the BBC website; Chris' spot begins at 05.44 into the programme.

A Pinpoint Politics article by Krzysztof Siczek

On October 28th, 2012, parliamentary elections, long awaited and surrounded by controversies, were held in Ukraine. They were widely seen as a democratic test for that country. Two weeks later, on November 12th, 2012, the Central Electoral Commission announced the final results of the vote which meant that the Party of Regions could celebrate an important victory. Nevertheless, it would be rash to conclude that Ukraine is about to return to business as usual post-election operating mode. The special representatives of the European Parliament, Pat Cox and Aleksander Kwasniewski, are expected to deliver their final report on the court proceedings involving former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko in early January. This ”issue” has been at the peak of all the electoral controversies and and it might be the case that observers will be able to treat the report as the European Union’s verdict on the shape of its future relationship with Ukraine. On the other hand, Ukraine is being resolutely lured by Russia into a customs union which Dmitry Medvedev has previously described as an alternative not easily reconcilable with the European integration path. It seems that in the shadow of the dramatic developments in Egypt and Syria there is an on-going silent battle, if not an open confrontation, for the future of Ukraine.

A Pinpoint Politics article by Lisa Jorke

On December 8th, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change was concluded in the Qatari capital of Doha. Apart from a prolongation of the Kyoto Protocol, the participating governments failed to reach a promising consensus. Even the climate damage funds for the poorest countries will be designated as aid to bypass any legal obligation of the industrialised world towards the developing countries. In the struggle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within an international framework, agriculture plays an important role as one of the main contributors to these emissions. In this respect the venue of the conference seems almost ironic, as it is exactly in Doha where in 2001 a new round of WTO negotiations on the international trading system commenced, revolving around issues such as agriculture and development. The negotiations, also referred to as the ‘Doha Development Agenda’, were aimed at improving the trading chances of developing countries on the global market, especially in the field of agriculture. A central means to achieve this is through the reduction of subsidies and import tariffs in the developed economies, especially in the EU countries. However, to date there has been no breakthrough and the negotiations will have to be considered unsuccessful.