Welcome to the first CIS newsletter of the 2011/12 academic year! Thank you for all the positive feedback during the last academic year and we look forward to keeping up to date with what is happening at the Centre. Established in 2001, the Centre for International Studies at DCU seeks to co-ordinate and promote research, learning and training in the field of international studies. Sited in the School of Law and Government, CIS takes an interdisciplinary approach to international studies.

Sincerely,
Shane Martin
Director, CIS

CIS is delighted to welcome Dr. Paola Rivetti as an Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences Post-Doctoral Fellow at the School of Law and Government/CIS. Paola obtained her PhD from the University of Siena in March 2010. She edited Civil Society Effect. Rhetoric and practice for Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran (2010, in Italian), Iranian complexities, Evidences from history and land (2011, in Italian), and published a number of essays in English, Spanish and Italian. She works on the Iranian student movement and regime re-configuration, and on refugees and transnational political engagement. Her PhD dissertation examines reformist policies in Iran between mid-90 to Ahmadinejad's first election (2005).

Dr Paola Rivetti

While at CIS, Paola will focus her research on 'Student activism and regime reconfiguration in Iran (1979-2010).' This project aims at exploring the relation between the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran and student activism, with the goal of catching the dynamics ruling elite selection and university control in a country whose regime has survived opposite waves of political ouverture and authoritarian enhancement. The chronological arch this research wants to cover goes from 1979 (date of the revolution) up to today. In particular, Khatami and Ahmadinejad's tenures are targeted (1997-2013), as they are characterized by opposite trends, namely political relaxation vs. authoritarian upgrading. The central core of this research is represented by the relation between student politics and institutional politics. In particular, Paola wants to investigate some dimensions of the Iranian political context (such as elite selection, transformation of 'government styles', control of universities, co-optation and the construction of a system of incentives/disincentives for the students) through the study of the student movement, its changes and ideological transformations.

Dr. Adam McAuley has just returned from a period as Visiting Scholar at the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights at Boston University. The Department is the 2nd ranked centre in the United States. During his stay, Adam worked on comparing the approaches of the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights to certain health law rights.

Dr. Donnacha Ó Beacháin was invited by the Government of Georgia to participate in the international forum entitled "Georgia's European Way: Cooperation in the Framework of the Eastern Partnership, which took place in Batumi, Georgia from the 21-23 July 2011. The forum was attended by, among others, the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, a dozen government ministers, and representations from foreign embassies, international organisations, NGOs and think thanks.. Dr. Ó Beacháin was one of two academics invited to the event.

During July and August, Dr. Donnacha Ó Beacháin has been in the Caucasus conducting field research for the IRCHSS funded project on the role of the EU and OSCE in the post-Soviet frozen conflicts. Among the highlights of this research has been a two week stay in the disputed region of Abkhazia (recognised by Russia and four other UN member states but otherwise considered part of Georgia's national territory) where he, inter alia, followed the presidential election campaign occasioned by the untimely death of incumbent Sergei Bagapsh. Dr. Ó Beacháin interviewed all election candidates and followed each campaign team as it conducted public meetings throughout Abkhazia. The election, again unrecognised by the vast majority of UN member states, took place on 26 August.

It has been announced by the American Political Science Association that Dr. Shane Martin is to be appointed to the editorial board of Legislative Studies Quarterly for a three year term beginning January 2012. Published by Wiley, Legislative Studies Quarterly is the official journal of the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association and is considered one of the most prestigious political science journals in North America.

Dr. Karen Devine delivered a paper entitled "Variation in the content and analysis of Eurobarometer surveys: implications for making cross-national inferences" at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference at Reykjavik, Iceland on 25 August 2011 as part of the 'Analysing Foreign Policy' Section hosting a Panel on 'Mass Foreign Policy Attitudes in Europe and their Impacts'.

The paper critically assesses the relationships between Eurobarometer question wording and the meanings of key concepts of EU foreign, security and defence policy at the elite level. It found that the variability in questions and the range of policies and preferences presented to publics raised problematic theoretical and empirical gaps in research on EU foreign policy attitudes. In the context of elite political agendas, the findings suggest a need to strike a balance between the Eurobarometer functions of evaluating the real preferences of public opinion and acting as a tool of politics for elites for policy adoption and adaptation.

Dr. Devine also presented a paper on "The political psychology of repeat referendums on EC Treaties: the impact of media, campaign messages and image-making on public opinion and voting behaviour" at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference at Reykjavik, Iceland on 27 August 2011 as part of the Section on 'Political Psychology in Europe: public opinion, political preferences' hosting the 'Media Campaigns and Image-Making' Panel.

The paper employs a content analysis of media discourses in the referendum campaigns I and II on the Nice Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, respectively, to identify changes, if any, between campaigns I and II in (1) emphasis on specific agenda-setting themes, (2) levels of 'pro', 'contra' and 'neutral' discourses (3) presence of 'emotive', 'polarizing' discourses, and (4) the number and nature of campaign groups/actors, in order to understand the impact of campaign strategy, issue salience, framing effects, and campaign intensity on voter behaviour.

Dr. Devine also served as discussant for a panel, chaired by her Cooperation and Conflict co-contributor Professor Laurent Goetschel, on 'Natural Born Peacemakers? Ideas and Identities in the Foreign Policies of Small States' as part of the Analysing Foreign Policy section on 27 August 2011 at ECPR, finding common foreign policy themes in papers on Iceland, Norway, Finland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The work of this panel will be further developed at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in San Diego in March 2012.

Dr. Karen Devine presented a paper on 'Small states and the [social] construction of the EEA: the case of Ireland' on 6th September at The University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) Annual Conference, held in Cambridge, UK, as part of a Panel on 'The EEAS and the EU's Periphery'.

The European External Action Service (EEAS) was created in response to the EU's concern that "We are a superpower economy with half a billion people, but are still accused of not punching our weight politically" (Ashton, 2 December 2009). Small states will undoubtedly seek positions within the EEA in response to elite concerns of being seen to 'punch below their weight' within CFSP and ESDP (Jorgensen in Bailies et al (eds) 2006: 213). These expectations raise interesting puzzles about the role of small states in the [social] construction of the EEAS. The paper evaluated the construction of the EEAS in Government, Political Party, Oireachtas, Media, Academic and Think-Tank discourses in Ireland, as well as EU Institutions' and European External Action Service discourses, in order to understand the role of the EEAS as a central component of the development of (1) the EU's external identity and (2) the EU's CFSP and CSDP.

Representing Women Project (from left to right): Pr Jenny Willaim, Grainne Tooney, Dr Eileen Connolly, Dr Barbara O'Connor, Basia Pieta and Veronica Mkilanya.

The Representing Women Project is an interdisciplinary project investigating the issue of representation and the role of women in Irish parliamentary democracy. CIS is one of three research centres engaged in this collaborative project. The project hosted a successful one-day conference on Representing Women: Images, Discourses and Realities in Irish Political Life, on 15 September 2011, which brought together researchers, politicians and other stakeholders to exchange ideas and share experiences on the gender dynamics operating within Irish parliamentary democracy with a particular focus on the gendered nature of representation, role(s) and performance of politicians in the Dáil.

Speakers include: Mary Banotti (MEP 1984-2004), Stephen Donnelly TD, Olwyn Enright (TD 2002-2011), Professor Yvonne Galligan (Queen's University Belfast), Susan McKay (Director, National Women's Council), Mary O'Rourke (TD 1982-2002; 2007-2011), Dr Eileen Connolly (CIS) and Dr Sylvia Shaw (Middlesex University).

This was the first multi-disciplinary academic conference to investigate the factors contributing to the significant gender imbalance in Irish parliamentary democracy. The aim of the conference is to make a contribution to the discussion about developing strategies for political change in this area. The project is planning to host a second one day conference on 'Gender in Local Government' in 2012, which will include a discussion on 'gender quotas' in local government.

We welcome nine students to our PhD Programme: Amina Adanan, Ian Kelly, Mide Ni Shuilleabhain, Basia Pieta, John Quinn, Akisato Suzuki, Cathal Fitzgerald and Veronica Mkilanya.

Congratulations to Veronica Mkilanya whose MA dissertation by research has just successfully completed the examination process. Veronica's thesis is entitled "The Substantive Representation of Women in the Tanzanian Parliament" and was supervised by Dr. Eileen Connolly.

Institute of International & European Affairs Lecture

Mary Fitzgerald, The Irish Times Foreign Correspondent will speak to the group about her experiences covering the conflict in Libya, and the wider issues relating to the Arab Spring. She has recently returned from Libya, following an extended period reporting from Tripoli, Benghazi and eastern Libya.

Mary has extensive knowledge, and experience of reporting on Islam and current affairs in the Middle East and North Africa. She was the recipient of the 2005/6 Douglas Gageby Irish Times Fellowship in Journalism, awarded for her work on "Under the Crescent: The Faces of Islam." Mary worked for a number of media organisations including The Washington Post, the Guardian, BBC, and the Belfast Telegraph, prior to joining The Irish Times, and is a graduate of Queen's University Belfast, the University of Ulster, Barry University, Miami, and the University of Jordan.

Date: Tuesday 18 October 2011
Time: 6.30 p.m.
Location: 8 North Great Georges Street, Dublin 1
RSVP: iieayoungprofessionals@gmail.com

(with Emanuela Dalmasso) 'Political Islam in Morocco: negotiating the Kingdom's liberal space', Contemporary Arab Affairs, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2011, pp. 1-17.

(with Rikke Haugbølle) Will the real Tunisian opposition please stand up?! Opposition coordination failures under authoritarian constraints?, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2011, pp. 323-341.

(with Rikke Haugbølle) Vive la grande famille des media tunisiens! Media reform and authoritarian resilience in Tunisia?, Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2011, pp.1-16.

Karen Devine 2011 'Neutrality and the Development of European Union Common Security and Defence Policy: Compatible or Competing?', Cooperation and Conflict (Special Issue) , September 46 3 (currently free to download: http://cac.sagepub.com/content/46/3/334).

* This article examines the content of concepts of neutrality articulated in elite and public discourses in the context of the development of the European Union's (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). In parallel with security and defence policy developments in successive EU treaties, many argue that the meaning of neutrality has been re-conceptualized by elites in EU 'neutral' member states (specifically, Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden) to the point of irrelevance and inevitable demise. Others argue that the concept of 'military' neutrality' or 'military non-alignment' is compatible with the CSDP in the Lisbon Treaty. An investigation of these paradoxical discursive claims yields findings of a divergence in public 'active' and elite 'military' concepts of neutrality that embodies competing foreign policy agendas. The article concludes with an analysis of the compatibility of both 'military' neutrality and the 'active' concept of neutrality with the CSDP in the Lisbon Treaty and draws conclusions on the future role of neutrality both inside and outside the EU framework.

Karen Devine 2011 (with Christine Agius) 'Neutrality: a really dead concept?' A reprise.' Cooperation and Conflict (Special Issue) , September 46 3 (currently free to download at: http://cac.sagepub.com/content/46/3/265).

* This article approaches 'neutrality' as an essentially contested concept and traces its meaning and purpose over centuries-long historical timelines. It distinguishes neutrality from other concepts such as 'neutralization' 'non-belligerency', 'non-alignment', 'military non-alignment', 'military neutrality' and 'non-allied'. The analysis focuses on changes to neutrality in accordance with the rise and fall of particular empires and international actors over time, and changes to its status linked to the development and reification of particular meta-theoretically-based subfields of International Relations and Political Science.

Dr. Karen Devine appeared on RTE Radio 1's DriveTime programme to discuss 'day 1 of the official Presidential campaign' on Wednesday 28th September 2011, along with RTE's political correspondent Brian Dowling and Dr. Theresa Reidy of UCC. Dr. Devine suggested that voters will use three dimensions of independence, identity and 'presidentialness' to evaluate the candidates and suggested that vote transfers will be important given the relatively open and crowded field of candidates. The "And they're off…" podcast can be downloaded here

Declan Hughes, Larry Hackett, Beryl Bömer, Garrett Harrison and Dominic Courtney

Against strong competition from what were mostly final-year students from a large number of institutions, five of this year IR2 class were awarded the overall prize for the best poster presentation, for undergraduate research at the Dublin Regional Higher Education Alliance Conference in the Helix on Wednesday. The students - Beryl Bömer, Dominic Courtney, Larry Hackett, Garrett Harrison and Declan Hughes - prepared a poster and presented on the topic 'Young and Greedy: A relationship between the current economic crisis and support for overseas aid?' The prizes were presented by Muiris O'Connor of the HEA.

As part of last years module 'Core Skills and Methods for International Relations', all students conducted a group research project as part of their module assessment, on a wide variety of topics, and using different methodologies including using questionnaire design, quantitative data analysis. Lisa McInerney was the lecturer in charge of the module and she deserves a huge credit for setting this great achievement.