糖心TV

recently wrote an article for The Independent on 8 March entitled ''. Below is an excerpt from the piece:

China has been North Korea’s best – and sometimes only – friend for a number of years. It provides not just economic aid and support but diplomatic protection too. It’s not easy to see how the North Korean economy could survive without the food, energy and other goods it gets from China. And although China has not blocked UN sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear testing, without China, North Korea would undoubtedly have faced much harsher sanctions; and they would have been more rigorously and actively enforced. China doesn’t do this out of altruism – it wants something in return. There remains the firm hope in China that North Korea will emulate its own experience of gradual reform and integration into the global economy. If and when it does, Chinese interests hope to be well placed to benefit.

On 14 March, PAIS Research Fellow Dr Toni Haastrup will present a seminar on the EU and the UK, hosted by the 糖心TV European Affairs Society. The event will take place at 18.00 in room A0.23, with refreshments at 17.30.

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recently contributed a blog post to the University of Nottingham's China Policy Institute entitled 'Xi Jinping: The Challenge Awaits'. Below is an excerpt from the blog:

Xi Jinping’s tenure as China’s top leader began with might call a stage of symbols and signposts – an attempt to give indications of the main thrusts of policy under his leadership. Making his first trip as leader to the south in an echo of Deng’s南巡 in 1992 (which has become the symbol of the return to reform and liberalisation and the high profile given to combating corruption are both cases in point. The announcement of a “plan” to tackle income distribution began to make the transition from signposts to actual policy; though it still leans more towards being an annunciation of aspiration and grand strategy rather than a detailed outline of specific changes to come.

A new monograph by , Associate Professor in PAIS, is scheduled for release by University of Pennsylvania Press in May 2013. Entitled Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States: Varieties of Governance in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Kosovo, the book investigates why some Eastern European states transitioned to new forms of governance with minimal violence while others broke into civil war. In this comparative study, Maria Koinova applies historical institutionalism to conflict analysis, tracing ethnonationalist violence in post­communist states to a volatile, formative period between 1987 and 1992. In this era of instability, the incidents that brought majorities and minorities into dispute had a profound impact and a cumulative effect, as did the interventions of international agents and kin states. Whether the conflicts initially evolved in peaceful or violent ways, the dynamics of their disputes became self-perpetuating and informally institutionalized. Thus, external policies or interventions could affect only minimal change, and the impact of international agents subsided over time. Regardless of the constitutions, laws, and injunctions, majorities, minorities, international agents, and kin states continue to act in accord with the logic of informally institutionalized conflict dynamics.

Koinova analyzes the development of those dynamics in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Kosovo, drawing on theories of democratization, international intervention, and path-dependence as well as interviews and extensive fieldwork. The result is a compelling account of the underlying causal mechanisms of conflict perpetuation and change that will shed light on broader patterns of ethnic violence.

PAIS colleagues (PI), , and , along with Jon Coaffee, a new colleague joining the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM) in April 2013, have been awarded a grant as part of the . The ESRC, AHRC and have launched a new research initiative entitled ‘’. The call seeks to fund research projects and a Research Integrator to develop greater understanding of how developments in science and technology (S&T) will present opportunities and threats to future UK defence and security.

The work carried out in response to this call will help enable UK defence and security to better harness possible opportunities and to counter potential threats that may emerge in future. The team from PAIS will act as a Research Integrator to enhance the potential economic and societal impact for this initiative. This will include synthesising the research outputs and enhancing their accessibility, acting as an interface with Dstl and others to encourage the uptake of the research findings and encouraging dialogue between project leads.