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The School of Social Science

Publications and Papers

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Publications and Papers
Research Impact

Examples of Knowledge Exchange and Social Impact

There is a direct relationship between theories of conflict, transition, and peace, and the acts we take in the world to manage them. Very simply, we believe that particular practices will have particular results, and we act accordingly. However, if the theories on which we base our actions are imprecise or plainly incorrect, practices can be unpredictable and potentially damaging to the maintenance of peace and transition from conflict. The ICTPR, therefore, is grounded in the link between theory and practice. It seeks to develop, test, and validate theories through empirical analysis and communicate findings to policy and practitioner communities to help better inform and direct practices pertinent to conflict, transition, and peace. Below are some examples of how we have done this with our research in the past.

Dr. Luisa Gandolfo

Dr. Gandolfo's primary research interests involve the contribution of art and culture to social change in Morocco and Egypt. She has also worked closely with local Jordanian university's, refugee centres, and local and international NGOs focusing on the plight of displaced Syrians in refugee camps on the Jordanian border with Syria. This research has informed His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal, the Jordanian Interior Ministry, as well as a range of other interested local international organizations.

Dr. John Nagle

Dr. Nagle has been engaged actively in research that explores the design of institutions useful to the mitigation of ethnic conflict, especially in violently divided societies. A particular focus of his work is to analyse the transition from peace agreement to peaceful society in Northern Ireland. This research has led to numerous consultative commissions with public sector organisations in Northern Ireland and across the globe. Given that the peace process in Northern Ireland is often seen as a model of successful conflict resolution, Nagle's work has also been used to explore its efficacy for assisting other divided societies transitioning from conflict to peace. For example, in 2009 he was commissioned by the Asia-Europe Foundation (Singapore) and Friedrich Ebert Siftung to write a policy report on ethnic conflict management in the Caucasus, which was presented to a number of global policy makers and leading politicians from the Caucasus.

Dr. Gearoid Millar

Dr. Millar studies post-conflict transitional justice and peacebuilding and has conducted extensive fieldwork in Sierra Leone over the past six years. His focus is on evaluating local experiences of international projects. In short, he evaluates whether international projects are experienced by local people in the way those projects themselves claim they should be. In 2008/2009, for example, Dr. Millar conducted an evaluation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for Sierra Leone. Subsequent publications from this research have affected debates the practice of future TRCs. He has also been very active in the scholarly debates regarding quantitative and qualitative evaluation and his main publication on evaluation methodologies is included on the TRC's own website as a primary source of information. In addition, Dr. Millar has recently been asked to advise a group of NGO representatives and researchers who are supporting the newly announced Malian Reconciliation and Dialogue Commission.

Books

Gearoid Millar (2014) An Ethnographic Approach to Evaluation: Understanding Local Experiences in Transitional States. London: Routledge. www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415870351/

An Ethnographic Approach to Peace BuildingThis book outlines an ethnographic approach to evaluating peacebuilding processes which focuses on local experiences, and the value of this new approach is illustrated with examples from two large evaluations of international projects in Sierra Leone.

The ethnographic approach proposed recognizes diversity in ideas of peace, justice, development and reconciliation and takes local perceptions, understandings, experiences, and opinions seriously. Such an approach can help to empower local actors, hold the peacebuilding industry accountable, and challenge hegemonic norms and dominant practice.

Bernadette C. Hayes and Ian McAllister (2013) Conflict to Peace: Politics and Society in Northern Ireland Over Half a Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Conflict to peaceThroughout the twentieth century Northern Ireland was a byword for conflict. Since the 1998 Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland has experienced a level of peace unknown since the 1960s.

Conflict to Peace examines how and why the conflict was resolved from the perspective of those most affected by it—the people of Northern Ireland themselves.

Using dozens of public opinion surveys collected since 1968, the book covers changes in public opinion across all areas of society and politics, including elections, education, community relations and national identity.

Zalewski, Marysia (2013) Feminist International Relations: Exquisite Corpse. London: Routledge. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415449229/

Feminist International RelationsThis book offers a contemporary intervention in the field of feminism/international relations.

Partly inspired by Surrealism, the book is written in a series of vignettes and draws on a variety of approaches inviting readers in to inhabit the text.

It is a politically engaged book, though one which does not direct readers in conventional ways, visiting global politics, the classroom, poetry, institutional violence, cartoons, feminist violence, films, violent white men, angry black women, blood and 'English' puddings. the book can be considered part of the current genre of scholarship which attends to complexity, uncertainty, disruption, affect and the creative possibilities of randomness.

McEvoy, Joanne and Brendan O'Leary. eds (2013) Power Sharing in Deeply Divided Places. Philadelphia: P.A.: University of Pennsylvania Press. http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15106.html

Power Sharing un Deeply Divided PlacesPower Sharing in Deeply Divided Places features fifteen analytical studies of power-sharing systems, as well as critical evaluations of the role of electoral systems and courts in their implementation.

Interdisciplinary and international in formation and execution, the book considers the merits and defects of an array of variant systems and provides explanations of their emergence, maintenance, and failings.

While this volume does not presume that power sharing is a panacea for social reconciliation, it does suggest how it can help foster peace and democracy in conflict-torn countries.

Bain, Mervyn J. (2013) From Lenin to Castro, 1917-1959. Early Encounters between Moscow and Havana. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739181102

From Lenin to Castro 1917 - 1959This book addresses the relationship between Moscow and Havana in the period between November 1917 to January 1959.

It analyses the reasons why a relationship existed between the two countries at a variety of different levels. The primary conclusion is that prior to January 1959, the Kremlin took considerable interest in Cuba and did not suffer from “geographical fatalism,” as has traditionally been thought.

This is significant in light of the relationship that rapidly developed between Moscow and Havana in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, as a number of factors that were important in the pre-1959 relationship would also be significant after 1959.

Galbreath, David and Joanne McEvoy (2012) The European Minority Rights Regime: Towards a Theory of Regime Effectiveness. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=375974

The European Minority Rights RegimeThe European Minority Rights Regime investigates the cooperation between the EU, OSCE and Council of Europe on minority rights in Europe. It tracks the formation and transformation of this international regime and questions its effectiveness in securing minority rights.

The book demonstrates how the three organizations have formalized their linkages and managed their respective mandates in the context of EU enlargement.

This book links two key research areas - international regimes and EU integration - to determine why ethnic politics remain a source of contention for the European project.

Smith, Michael E. (2012) International Security: Politics, Policy, Prospects. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=289404

Michael E. Smith International Security Politics, Policy, ProspectsThe twenty-first century world seems beset by a daunting range of international security problems.

At the same time, the academic study of security has become more fragmented and contested than ever before.

This innovative new text focuses on the politics of international security: how and why issues are interpreted as threats to international security and how such threats are managed.

After a brief introduction to the field and its major theories and approaches, the core chapters systematically analyze the major issues on the contemporary international security agenda.

Each is examined according to a common framework that brings out the nature of the threat and the responses open to policy makers.

Gandolfo, Luisa (2012) Palestinians in Jordan: The Politics of Identity. I.B Tauris. http://goo.gl/pYhIcD

Palestinian in JordanExploring Jordan's diverse Palestinian communities, this book illustrates how the Palestinian majority has been subject to discrimination while also playing a defining role in shaping Jordanian politics, legal frameworks and national identity.

Gandolfo describes how policies put in place over the last century have created a society that is marked by high levels of inter-faith cohesion, while society is divided along lines of ethnic and nationalist loyalty, between Jordanians and Palestinians.

She further argues that domestic politics has become increasingly fractious with the growth of Islamist groups that have gained grassroots appeal, especially in the refugee camps.

Mitchell, James, Lynn Bennie, and Rob Johns (2011) The Scotish National Party: Transition to Power. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580002.001.0001/acprof-9780199580002

The Scottish National PartyThis book is a study of the Scottish National Party (SNP) immediately after it came to power in May 2007, based on a survey of the entire membership and elite interviews with over eighty senior party figures.

The image of the SNP as a youthful and decentralized organization, is challenged and the study questions the value of the civic-ethnic dichotomy in understanding nationalism with SNP members.

The picture that emerges is of a reasonably coherent left of centre party that accepts the pragmatism of its leadership. While independence remains the key motivation for joining and being active, a sizeable minority see the party as a means of furthering Scottish interests.

Nagle, John and Mary-Alice Clancy (2010) Shared society or benign apartheid?: understanding peace-building in divided societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9780230290631

Shared Society or Benign Apartheid?Integrating a vast range of original research, this book gives a holistic analysis of power sharing, social movements, economic regeneration, urban space, memorialization and the symbols associated with the process of transforming divided societies into shared peaceful ones.

The authors posit critical suggestions as to why some projects are counter-productive, while others assist with peace-building.

Focussing on the case of Northern Ireland, the book also has a strong international dimension for those wishing to engage more generally with the peace-building process.

Articles

Dr. Mervyn Bain

  • Bain, Mervyn J. (2014) 'Cuba and Russia at a Time of Change.' International Relations and Diplomacy 2(7): 451-461. http://www.davidpublishing.com/davidpublishing/Upfile/8/15/2014/2014081508241559.pdf.
  • Bain, Mervyn J. (2012) 'Revolution to Revolution: Moscow and Havana from 1917 to 1959'. Diplomacy & Statecraft 23(1):1-22. 10.1080/09592296.2012.651958
  • Bain, Mervyn J. (2011) 'Russia and Cuba: "doomed" comrades?'. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 44(2):111-118. 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2011.04.001

Dr. Luisa Gandolfo

Professor Christian Haerpfer

Professor Bernadette C. Hayes

Dr. Joanne McEvoy

Dr. Gearoid Millar

Dr. Martin A. Mills

  • Mills, Martin A. (2013) 'The Opposite of Witchcraft: Evans-Pritchard and the Problem of the Person'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19(1):18-33. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9655.12001/full
  • Millar, Martin A. (2012) 'Ritual as History in Tibetan Divine Kingship: Notes on the Myth of the Khotanese Monks'. History of Religions 51(3):219-220. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662190

Dr. John Nagle

Professor Michael E. Smith

Dr. Andrea Teti

Professor Claire Wallace

Professor Marysia Zalewski

Chapters

Dr. Mervyn Bain

  • Bain, Mervyn J. (2012). 'Havana and Moscow: The Washington Factor'. in S Castro Marino & R Pruessen (eds.), Fifty Years of Revolution: Perspectives on Cuba, the United States and the World. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, pp. 72-89.
  • Bain, Mervyn J. (2012). 'Havana and Moscow in the Post-Soviet World'. in J Loss & JM Prieto (eds.), Caviar With Rum: Cuba-USSR and the Post-Soviet Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 239-249.

Dr. Luisa Gandolfo

  • Gandolfo, Luisa (2012). 'Birthing Democracy: The Role of Women in the Democratic Discourse of the Middle East'. in B Isakhan & S Stockwell (eds.), The Secret History of Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 177-191.
  • Gandolfo, Luisa (2011). '(Cyber)Palestine and the Quest for a National Identity'. in F Liénard & S Zlitni (eds.), La communication électronique: enjeux de langues. Lambert-Lucas, Limoges.
  • Gandolfo, Luisa (2010). 'The Voice of the Youth?: The Emergence of Radical Political Islam in Jordan'. in K Koscielniak (ed.), Dilemmas of Democracy in the Middle East: Cases from Turkey, Jordan and Israel. UNUM Publishing House, Krakow.

Dr. Joanne McEvoy

  • McEvoy, Joanne (2010). 'No Exit? International Organizations and the Politics of Withdrawal in Bosnia and Herzegovina'. in D Galbreath & C Gebhard (eds.), Cooperation or Conflict? Problematizing Organizational Overlap in Europe. Ashgate, Farnham, United Kingdom, pp. 121-138.

Dr. Gearoid Millar

  • Kriesberg, Louis and Gearoid Millar (2011). 'Protagonist Strategies that Help End Violence'. in C Webel and J Johansen (eds.), Peace and Conflict Studies: A Reader. Routledge, Oxford, pp. 208-220.

Dr. John Nagle

  • Nagle, John M. (2012) 'Between Trauma and Healing: Tourism and Neoliberal Peace-Building in Divided Cities'. in J Skinner (ed.), Writing the Dark Side of Travel. Berghahn Books, Oxford. pp. 29-46.

Professor Michael E. Smith

  • Smith, Michael E. (2012) 'Developing a 'Comprehensive Approach' to International Security: Institutional Learning and the ESDP'. in J Richardson (ed.), Constructing a Policy-Making State?: Policy Dynamics in the EU. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 253-269.
  • Smith, Michael E. (2011) 'Norms, Institutions, and EU Foreign Policy: Advancing the Research Programme'. in D Thomas (ed.), Making EU Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 217-233.
  • Smith, Michael E. (2011) 'Implementation: Making the EU's International Relations Work'. in C Hill & M Smith (eds.), The International Relations of the European Union. Second edn, Oxford, Oxford University Press. pp. 171-193.

Professor Claire Wallace

  • Abbott, Pamela and Claire Wallace (2012) 'Satisfaction and Societal Quality in Kazakhstan'. in H Selin & G Davey (eds), Happiness Across Cultures: Views of Happiness and Quality of Life in Non-Western Cultures. vol. 6, Springer, London, UK, pp. 107-120.
  • Abbott, Pamela and Claire Wallace (2012) 'Happines in a Post-Conflict Society: Rwanda'. in H Selin & G Davey (eds), Happiness Across Cultures: Views of Happiness and Quality of Life in Non-Western Cultures. vol. 6, Springer, London, UK, pp. 361-376.

Mr. James Wyllie

  • Wyllie, James H. (2010) 'Regional Nuclearization: Motives, Risks and Threats'. in The Middle East and North Africa 2011. 57 edn, Routledge, London, pp. 110 -117.

Professor Marysia Zalewski

  • Zalewski, Marysia (Forthcoming in 2014) 'Feminist International Relations: Making Sense'. in L.S. Shepherd (ed), Gender Matters in Global Politics. Second edn, Routledge, London.
  • Zalewski, Marysia (2013) 'Asking the Hard Questions About Women's Human Rights'. in C. Holder and D. Reidy (eds), Human Rights: The Hard Questions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 362-381.