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Dr James Brassett and Dr Nick Vaughan-Williams have recently published a Special Issue of Alternatives, entitled: 'Governing Traumatic Events'. The volume draws together leading critical scholars on the politics of traumatic events, covering subjects like 9-11, Mumbai, and the Norway Massacre, as well as the ideologies of 'response' and 'resilience' that predominate. This publication is part of an ongoing research project on 'Resilience and the Politics of Security' that seeks to interrogate contemporary practices of civil contingency planning in the UK and abroad.

Effective from 1 September, , Professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies and Head of Department in PAIS, will serve as the new Chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Prof Hughes will also continue in his current role as Head of Department.

, current Research Fellow and future Assistant Professor in PAIS, has recently been featured in an article by Mark Tran in The Guardian entitled 'EU sugar aid for Swaziland leaves a bitter taste'. Below is an excerpt from the piece:

"The attempts by the European commission to integrate the EU sugar regime deeper into the world market as part of its 2013 common agricultural policy (CAP) reform – not to mention prospective liberalisation under the Doha round or an EU-Mercosur (Latin America's trade bloc) – would effectively sacrifice its poverty reduction agenda on the altar of price competitiveness," says Richardson.

A Pinpoint Politics article by Lena-Sophie Demuth

Energy is of major importance to almost every challenge and opportunity we face today, be it of economic, environmental or social nature. Leading a Sustainable Energy for All initiative that ensures universal access to modern energy services, improves efficiency and increases use of renewable sources, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is advocating a paradigm shift away from a global economy highly dependent on oil towards the use of renewable energies for all to foster sustainable development. This rhetoric of a ‘green economy’ ran like a common thread through the RIO+20 United Nations Conference of Sustainable Development, which took part last week in Brazil. In line with the motto ‘The Future We Want’, thousands of high level representatives from governments, UN organizations (e.g. UNESCO, FAO UNEP), the private sector, as well as NGOs, set their sights high to come to a binding agreement in the two main areas of a) a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and b) the institutional framework for sustainable development.

A Pinpoint Politics article by Andrew Kelly

Have you heard? Hope swirls in the air again. It is only over a month now since President Francois Hollande cried in his victory speech in Tulle: “le changement est arrivé. L’espérance est arrivé.” Austerity will have to go, as Greece, Spain, and Italy all lift their heads towards France in the hope that Hollande is right. With pleasantries and formalities out of the way, the austere world continues to wait as the Hollande-Merkel relationship tries to resolve to a position that is favourable for themselves and the Eurozone. A process that some may progressively liken to Sisyphus’s eternal relationship with his rock, or perhaps the more popular association between a rock and a hard place. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, President Obama has dusted off his fabled ‘Hope’ portrait (courtesy of Shepard Fairey), along with the highs and lows of his first term in office, to remind the people of why they had turned to him.