Dr. Maura Conway is the Principal Investigator on a 60-month, €5.2 million Network of Excellence project that is in the process of being funded through the European Union's Research Framework Programme 7 (FP7).

VOX-Pol integrates the world's leading researchers and research groups in Violent Online Political Extremism (VOPE), to include those researching the intersection of terrorism and the Internet (incl. violent jihadists, violent separatists, etc.), the online activities of the extreme Right, the potential for violent online radicalisation, and related topics.

The purpose of the project is to create a sustainable critical mass of innovative activity among what is currently a burgeoning, but fragmented group of researchers and research topics with a view to ensuring that EU and Member State strategies and policies targeting VOPE are based on concrete evidence, experience, and knowledge about the contours and workings of VOPE thus increasing their likelihood of success.

DCU's partners in the project are the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford; Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology - Delhi; the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Kings College London; University of Amsterdam; TNO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappel); the International Center for the Study of Terrorism, Pennsylvania State University; the Institute for Peace Research & Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH); and the Center for Media & Communication Studies, Central European University, Budapest.

On 25-26 May, the Helix hosted a major international event - "Protracted Conflicts in the former USSR" organised by Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin and Karolina Stefanczak. The conference was an integral part of a successful research grant awarded to Dr Ó Beacháin by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) and the Department of Foreign Affairs Conflict Resolution Unit. Additional funding for the conference was awarded by the DCU Conference Support Fund and from the Irish tourist board, Fáilte Ireland.

Apart from the invited presenters from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, the conference included participants from the unrecognised or partially recognised de facto states of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. These included Maxim Gvindzhiya who until last September held the position of foreign minister in Abkhazia and spearheaded successful attempts to extend Abkhazia's recognition and diplomatic relations beyond that of Russia and into Latin America and the South Pacific. Also presenting was Vladimir Yastrebchak who was foreign minister in Transnistria for 4 years before stepping down from the post in January of this year. The conference was also addressed by Masis Mayilian from Nagorno-Karabakh who was for seven years deputy foreign minister of the unrecognised republic and a candidate in the last presidential election, losing out to the incumbent. The second day of the conference was devoted to four thematic workshops involving all presenters and invited guests. These themes included the origins and sustaining features of the conflicts, external actors (the EU, OSCE, UN, NATO and Russia), domestic politics of de facto states and paths to enduring conflict settlements.

The conference attracted representatives from a wide variety of backgrounds, members of the academic community in Ireland and abroad, diplomats, officials working with the EU and OSCE, and members of international organisations working in the region such as Conciliation Resources, International Alert, and Crisis Management Initiative.

Students from the School of Law & Government were recognised for their work with DCU/Ballymun Community Law Centre Student Mentoring Scheme. Ballymun Law Centre offers a popular FETAC Level 4 course in Family Law Matters and many of its participants require academic mentoring and learning support to help them complete their course successfully. Ruth Crawley, Patrick Collins and Shane Glynn, all Law students, won the Student Award for their voluntary work as mentors, demonstrating how small, practical projects can have a big impact on the learning experiences of students in a community setting. This project was initiated and mentored by Dr Olivia Smith in Law and Government who deserves great credit for her support in this area over a number of years.

Other Faculty based DCU initiatives which received special commendations for civic engagement were:

- DCU Intergenerational Learning Programme Team

- David Nyaluke, Law & Government PhD student - involvement with African Students Association of Ireland and Dublin Swahili Institute

- DCU Raising and Giving Society

- Rebecca Townsend, Founder & Chairperson of DCU Free Legal Advice Centre

David Doyle was recently awarded the Research Career Start Award from the Research Advisory Panel. The amount awarded was €20,439, and this money will be used to fund a project that will create a publicly archived dataset that captures the policy positions of presidents across 18 Latin American countries, from 1978 until 2011, by applying quantitative text analysis to annual presidential addresses. Deriving reliable and valid estimates of the policy positions of political actors is central to the study of political science. Scholarship on Latin America is increasingly making use of policy positions compiled from expert or elite surveys. However currently, this data falls short of providing an extended time-series and neglects presidents as individual actors.

Dr. Paola Rivetti has been appointed Editor-at-large of the e-journal 'New Middle Eastern Studies'. The journal is published by BRISMES, the British Society of Middle Eastern Studies, and provides a platform for the work of graduate students and young researchers in the field of Middle Eastern Studies.

Dr. Maura Conway and her PhD student, Ms. Lisa McInerney, have been invited to present their individual research on violent online political extremism at workshop (19 - 20 June) on 'Social Media and Counterterrorism' at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Dr. Conway will also contribute to the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Study's forthcoming (13 - 27 July) seminar on 'Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism' in Garmisch, Germany. She will present her research on the emergence of violent online radical milieus to some 70 national security professionals from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, that are tasked by their governments with dealing with WMD and/or terrorism.

Pr. Robert Elgie was asked by International IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) to provide a Commentary Note on Nepal's Constituent Assembly Taskforce Report on their Proposed System of Government. He was asked to comment on some aspects of their draft constitution. Unfortunately, the Constituent Assembly has since been dissolved because the parties failed to reach agreement.

Robert Elgie also contributed to Oxford Analytica. This is a global analysis and advisory firm, which draws on a worldwide network of experts to advise its clients on their strategy and performance. His briefing was entitled 'European heads of state play a role despite few powers'.

Robert Elgie was finally the keynote speaker at a conference at University College Cork in April, 20th. The conference was centered around the French presidential election.

Dr Brenda Daly presented a paper and participated in a one day workshop on "EU's Peace Mediation Capacities: Leveraging for peace through fresh ideas" at the invitation of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki on 13th June. This event was attended by members of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representatives from the EU External Action Service, Crisis Management Initiative, PeaceNexus, Peace Union, Center for Peace Mediation (Frankfurt), European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, Finn Church Aid, as well as academic researchers from Tampere Peace Research Institute, and Karelian Institute. Dr Daly has also been invited to contribute to a forthcoming report on the EU's peace mediation capacities to be published by the Finnish Institute for International Affairs in October 2012.

Michael Breen has a paper in the Irish Political Studies: 'IMF Surveillance of Ireland during the Celtic Tiger'. Irish Political Studies 27 (2). 22nd June 2012.

Francesco Cavatorta has two articles published:

- 'Religion and democratisation in the Middle East and North Africa', Rivista di Politica, No. 2, 2012, pp. 53-68, forthcoming (In Italian)

- (with Rikke Haugbølle) 'Dégage! The end of authoritarianism in Tunisia', Der Burger im Staat, Vol. 16, No. 1/2, 2012, pp. 16-25. (In German)

Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin has a paper entitled 'The dynamics of electoral politics in Abkhazia' in Communist and Post-Communist Studies (45), No 1/2, March-June 2012, pp 165-174. It is the first attempt in the English language to evaluate elections in the partially recognised de facto state of Abkhazia and is based on extensive field research in Abkhazia.

Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin has also a chapter entitled 'Faking It: Neo-Soviet Electoral Politics in Central Asia' in Voting for Hitler and Stalin: Elections Under 20th Century Dictatorships, edited by Professor Ralph Jessen and Hedwig Richter (Campus/Chicago University Press, 2012, pp. 204-227).

Dr. Karen Devine has two publications forthcoming over the summer of 2012:

The first, due for publication in the Thomson Reuters Social Science Citation Index-ranked journal International Politics, is an article arguing for the introduction of a new concept of "epistemethodological pluralism" encompassing a combination of positivist and postpositivist research approaches to issues in International Relations. The article contributes to an on-going debate on the role of epistemology in research in the disciplines of Political Science and International Relations and draws on teaching materials for LG329, an undergraduate course delivered by Dr. Devine on the metatheoretical considerations of research in International Relations, to empirically demonstrate why epistemology matters.

The second publication is a genealogical analysis of the motivations and foundations of Irish neutrality, to be published in English and Serbian, in a book on European states' neutrality arising from a Conference held in Belgrade in December 2011 on Neutrality in the XXI century - Lessons for Serbia. The paper evaluates neutrality in the context of Ireland's historical narratives and security identities using speeches and policies of successive Irish leaders and governments from the 18th to the 21st Century, from Wolfe Tone who sought "a safe and honourable neutrality" for Ireland in a conflict between Britain and Spain in 1790, to the present day government's meaning of the term of 'military neutrality'. This paper shows that Irish neutrality was driven by ideas and norms that were constitutive of survival and material interests and is intimately tied to Ireland's independence, peace policy and Irish people's identity.

This month sees the release by Routledge of Life in Post-Communist Eastern Europe after EU Membership: Happy ever after?, which Donnacha Ó Beacháin has co-edited with DCU colleagues Vera Sheridan and Sabina Stan.

This book examines how membership of the European Union has affected life in the ten former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe that are now members of the European Union. It attempts to answer some fundamental questions: Was the reward of EU membership worth the sacrifices made? Has the promise of EU membership, on which so many expectations were based, been realised? Or have the new member states traded a Socialist Commonwealth with Moscow pulling the strings for an over-centralised Brussels bureaucracy that lacks transparency and accountability? How has a shared communist past influenced the countries' post-socialist and post-accession trajectory? How have the populations of post-communist Europe fared? Have some done better than others? If there have been disappointments, how have the populations reacted to these?

By taking stock of debates within domestic elites, popular opinion, non-governmental organisations, civil society, and external actors, this book seeks to answer these crucial questions.

The foreword for the book is written by Aleksander Kwasniewski, who as President of Poland from 1995 to 2005 guided Poland's through its accession to the EU.

The book can be ordered here.

Dr. Karen Devine took part in a RTÉ Radio 1 Late Debate panel on the [Non-EU] Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union or "Fiscal Treaty" with Sarah McInerney, Sunday Times, Dan O'Brien, Irish Times, Damien English, TD, Fine Gael and Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin on Tuesday 29th May 2012.

Dr. Devine critically assessed the difference between the terms "independent" and "objective" in reference to the Referendum Commission's role in providing information in the referendum debate. To illustrate the significance of the Fiscal Treaty in the context of Ireland's historical struggle for independence, Dr. Devine drew on Theobald Wolfe Tone, Daniel O'Connell and several members of the 1916 Volunteers who had fought to achieve Irish political and fiscal sovereignty and the establishment of an Irish parliament mandated to take decisions in the interests of the Irish people. More specifically, she outlined the move from the current Treaties' EMU provisions permitting "coordination" and "surveillance" of member-states' economic policy affairs to the new Fiscal Treaty's provisions for "coercion" and "control" by EU institutions, i.e. the former through Article 3.1.e's "automatic correction mechanism" providing for automatic fines as sanctions and the latter through Article 5's "budgetary and economic partnership programme" involving the European Commission's macro and micro-level controls over a state's structural economic reforms and annual budgets.

The link to the podcast is here .

Dr. Karen Devine spoke on the EU Fiscal Treaty referendum on Seattle's main public radio station, KUOW-FM 94.9 Seattle on the Steve Scher-hosted Weekday programme, Thursday 31st May 2012 in a head-to-head with Dan O'Brien, Economics Editor for the Irish Times.

Dr. Devine evaluated the overall significance of the referendum for Ireland in the context of Ireland's history, culture and politics:

(1) to illustrate the historical change in Ireland's fiscal sovereignty Dr. Devine referenced the 1921 Treaty characterised as "the first treaty that admits the equality of Ireland....We have brought back to Ireland her full rights and powers of fiscal control…" (Arthur Griffith, Dail Éireann, 19th December 1921);

(2) to set the changes in the context of Irish culture, Dr. Devine quoted Éamon De Valera's famous 23 September 1932 speech to League of nations in which he placed limits on international cooperation in the area of economic policy - "For certain items of the task international action is necessary, but the change of purpose - the deliberate shaping of economic activity to an ethical and social end is work which each can best advance in his own State";

and finally, (3) putting the Treaty's reversal of current EMU policy in the context of Irish politics Dr. Devine quoted the Irish Government's White Paper on the Treaty of European Union which specified that "the excessive deficit procedure is not concerned with the details of budgetary policy, which rightly, remain the responsibility of individual member states" (Government of Ireland, 1992: 51).

The link to the "Seattle Shootings, Arctic Drilling, And Irish EU Vote" podcast (the "Irish EU vote" section is 18 minutes in) is here.

Dr. Karen Devine was interviewed as part of RTÉ's Week in Politics news and current affairs television programme on the Eurozone Crisis due to air on Sunday 17th June 2012, in which she discussed the concept of a federal European "Fiscal Union" and the future of the Eurozone and the Euro currency. The podcast is available on RTE Player until the 8th July (Karen's quotes are at the 29'10 and 30'14 marks).

Professor Robert Elgie has revamped his Facebook page, that you can "Like" and his blog on semi-presidentialism. You can still follow him on Twitter.

Michael Breen was interviewed for ORF TVM (Austria) about Ireland and the European sovereign debt crisis (In German).

Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin was interviewed on RTE Radio 1's, "Drivetime programme" on 23 May to discuss the internal politics of Azerbaijan.

On 25 May Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin was interviewed by Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1's, "Today with Pat Kenny programme". The interview was devoted to the themes of the conference "Protracted Conflicts in the former USSR" that Dr Ó Beacháin was organising at DCU.

Aurelie Sicard was the co-convenor with fellow colleague Douglas Cubie from UCC for the Development Studies Association Ireland (DSAI) Postgraduate Workshop, in UCC on the 7 and 8 June. She attended, in company of Morina O'Neil to the second Postgraduate Workshop, amongst fellow Development students from universities across the Isle of Ireland. The workshop aimed to create a network among fellow researcher and a space for students to present and discuss their present work surrounded by experimented facilitators.

Amina Adanan attended the conference in Griffith College Cork was called 'Beyond the law: Critical Reflections on International Human Rights Law and Policy' and presented a paper entitled 'Universal Jurisdiction: Principle v. Reality'.

Gëzim Visoka will spend this summer as a Visiting Scholar at the American University in Kosovo where he will complete his field research, share the knowledge with local faculty, and co-organize an international academic conference on the political economy of peacebuilding in Kosovo.

Juan M. Muñoz-Portillo was presenting a paper at the conference: "The Effects of District Magnitude", to be held in Lisbon, 29 - 30, May. The paper's title is "Legislators' behaviour under closed-list PR and open-list PR systems: analysis of bills initiation patterns in the Honduran Congress".

Gëzim Visoka has two articles coming out in two specialized Taylor and Francis journals:

- 'The 'Kafkaesque Accountability' of International Governance in Kosovo', Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding , Vol. 6, No. 2, June 2012.

- 'Three Levels of Hybridisation Practices in Post-conflict Kosovo', Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Vol. 7, No. 2, August 2012.

DCU is to host the Annual Conference and AGM of the Development Studies Association- Ireland. It will take place on Wednesday 5th September. The theme is "Responding to the Global Crises: Linking Research, Policy and Practice". Full details here.

Panel topics will include:

- Tax

- Food security

- Health equity

- Conflict

- Climate justice

- Gender

The keynote speaker is Duncan Green of Oxfam GB and author of From poverty to power: how active citizens and effective states can change the world (2008- new edition is forthcoming).

There is an open call for posters on development research. Please indicate your intention to submit a poster by 20th August by emailing dsaiconference2012@gmail.com. A template is available (size A0), for those who wish to use it, here.