Department of International Relations

LSE IDEAS and Department of International Relations:
Book Launch: Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy
|
Monday 17th June 2013, 6.00pm, COL 2.01, Columbia House
Speakers: Professor Andrew F. Cooper, Sir Nicholas Bayne, Dr. Stephen Woolcock; Chair: TBC

In a recent column, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, discussing the diplomatic stalemate over Syria, argued that diplomacy is in its death throes. Others would say that it is only a certain type of diplomacy that is coming to an end. How has globalization affected diplomatic practices? What is the role of the foreign mission in this new environment? Are we shifting from "club" to "network diplomacy? The recently released Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy (OHMD), edited by Andrew F. Cooper, Jorge Heine and Ramesh Thakur, is the most ambitious publishing venture in diplomatic studies today and addresses many of these critical questions. On the occasion of its publication, it gives us great pleasure to invite you to a panel discussion on the current state and future course of diplomacy.

If you are interested in attending please register by emailing ideas.events@lse.ac.uk|

Recent IR Department PhD graduate Naz Masraff wins award |

The IR Department is delighted to announce that Naz Masraff, who was awarded her PhD by the LSE in March 2012, has won the European Union Studies Association (EUSA) Prize for Best Dissertation submitted/defended in 2011 and 2012.

Her dissertation topic was: Why Keep Complying? Compliance with EU Conditionality under Diminished Credibility in Turkey.

Professor Fred Halliday's papers available to view online|

A collection of Fred Halliday's papers is now available to view via the LSE Archives.  The collection consists of over 350 files of personal effects, correspondence, memoirs, draft texts, travel-notes and work documents, all available for researchers to consult.  The collection should appeal to students of the history and politics of the Middle East and those with an interest in the more theoretical issues dealt with in the discipline.  A bibliography listing all of Halliday's academic works, both published and unpublished, has also been created.

Further information available here.|

The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy
|(Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)
Edited by Robert Falkner

This book presents an authoritative and comprehensive overview of international policy on climate and the environment. It brings together a global team of experts from the fields of environmental politics, international relations, economics, and law, who explore current debates and the latest thinking in the search for global environmental solutions. The volume reviews the key environmental challenges, concepts, and approaches; examines the role of global actors, institutions, and processes; and considers the links between the global economy and global environmental politics.

Diplomatic Sites: A Critical Enquiry|
(Hurst Publishers, 2013)
Iver B Neumann

Although diplomacy increasingly takes place in non-traditional settings that are increasingly non-Western, our debates about diplomacy still focus on traditional points of contact such as the conference table, the ministerial office and the press conference. This book is framed as a discussion on whether increasing globalisation and the rise of powers such as China, India and Brazil will precipitate a crisis in diplomacy; it also tackles the problem of diplomatic Eurocentrism head on. In a media age, popular understanding of diplomacy is a force to be reckoned with, hence the book discusses how diplomacy is represented in an almost wholly overlooked space, namely that of popular culture. The author concludes that, far from being in crisis, diplomatic activity is increasingly in evidence in a variety of sites. Rather than being a dying art, in today's globalised world it positively thrives.

Warrior Geeks: How 21st Century Technology is Changing the Way We Fight and Think About War
|(Hurst Publishers, 2013)
Christopher Coker

This book examines how technology is transforming the way we think about and fight war, taking three major changes that are driving this process: cybernetic technologies that are folding soldiers into a cybernetic system that will allow the military to read their thoughts and emotions and mould them accordingly; the coexistence of men and robots in the battle-spaces of tomorrow; and the extent to which we may be able to re-engineer warriors through pharmacological manipulation. By referring back to the Greeks who defined the contours of war for us, Coker shows how we are in danger of losing touch with our humanity – the name we give not only to a species but the virtues we deem it to embody. The journey from Greeks to Geeks may be a painful one.

IRAQ - From War to a New Authoritarianism
|(IISS Adelphi Paper 2012)
Toby Dodge

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was undertaken to dismantle a regime that had long threatened its own population and regional peace, as well as to establish a stable, democratic state in the heart of the Middle East. In his latest book, Toby Dodge looks at the legacy of that intervention. He analyses the evolution of the insurgency, the descent into civil war and the ‘surge’ as a counter-insurgency strategy and examines US and Iraqi efforts to reconstruct the state’s military and civilian capacity. He concludes by arguing that Iraq is heading back into authoritarianism under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Review in The Economist 16 March 2013|

Obama and the Middle East: The End of America's Moment? |
(Macmillan Palgrave, 2012)
Fawaz A Gerges

Taking stock of Obama's first two and a half years in the White House, this book places his engagement in the Middle East within the broader context of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11 and examines key areas that have posed a challenge to his administration: negotiation with Israel and Palestine, troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, engagement with the Arab Spring, intervention in Libya, and the death of Osama bin Laden.