Irish Research Council "Cara" Fellow, Dr. Barry Cannon of the School of Law and Government, DCU and Professor Peadar Kirby briefed President Higgins in Aras an Uchtarain on September 25th, regarding the political situation in Latin America, in preparation for his state visit to Chile, Argentina and Brazil. They also presented the President with a copy of their newly published edited volume, Civil Society and the State in Left-led Latin America: Challenges and Limitations to Democratization (Zed Books).

The book critically examines the role of civil society throughout left-led Latin America with respect to mechanisms encouraging popular participation in state sponsored decision making processes, with chapters on Central America, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru. It assesses to what extent these new initiatives are redefining relations between the state and civil society in the region, including a special section covering the impact of mining. The briefing and book were well received by the President and members of his staff.

The Irish Research Council has granted CIS €107,000 to study "Credibility and the Politics of Austerity". The project participants are Dr Iain McMenamin, Dr Michael Breen and Juan Muñoz-Portillo.

This project will investigate how political institutions and political rhetoric can influence the credibility of states as borrowers. The first part of the research will test whether elections and budgets affect borrowing costs in twenty-three rich countries between 1970 and 2009, while controlling for debt dynamics, political institutions and political polarisation. The second part of the project will investigate whether electoral manifesto and budget debate rhetoric influence borrowing costs in Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. The effects are likely to be larger in majoritarian and polarised polities and after crisis budgets and close elections.

Dr. Karen Devine, Fulbright Scholar 2012-2013 visiting Columbia University, gave a guest lecture on US Public Opinion on Foreign Policy to the Columbia University undergraduate students of American Foreign Policy on Tuesday 16th October 2012, kindly facilitated by the course Professor Eric Blanchard. A week prior to the lecture, students participated in a short foreign policy survey and as part of the lecture, their responses were compared to selected data from a 2011 national survey of opinion used by Dr. Devine in her research on the role of patriotism in public opinionon US foreign policy (conducted as part of the collaborative project led by Professor Bill Chittick, Integrating Research on Domestic and Foreign Policy Opinions? sponsored by a 2009 ISA Venture Grant).

Dr. Karen Devine also wrote and presented a paper entitled - "For Better Or For Worse - The Impact of EU membership on Ireland's Policy Toward the Third World" on Saturday 13th October 2012 at the 30th Annual Conference of the Association of Third World Studies held at Berry College, Rome, Georgia, USA. As part of her cultural experience aspect of the Fulbright programme, she took the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful day with friends at a Cotton Pickin' Fair in Georgia, listening to bluegrass bands and experiencing traditional Southern hospitality, crafts and fare. See more on their website .

Dr. Eileen Connolly presented with Aurelie Sicard a paper entitled “Researching the impact of international gender initiatives in post conflict transformations – evidence from Sierra Leone and its relevance in South Asia” at the Research Workshop "The Changing Dynamics of Conflict in South Asia" Thursday 18 October 2012.

Paola Rivetti attended the International Conference on Iranian Diaspora on 13-14 October in Los Angeles. Her talk, "The Role of Diasporas in Establishing Transnational Activism: The Case of Iran," examines the influence that the Iranian Diaspora has exerted on the activists within Iran, shaping the contents and forms of the political activities they carry out.

Paola Rivetti will deliver a talk at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick on October, 31st. Her talk will focus on political activism in Iran after the 2009 and the transnational practices of political engagement in the Iranian Diaspora.

Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin, on 28 September, hosted in DCU a joint-presentation of John O'Loughlin, Professor at the Institute of Behavioural Science and Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, and Gerard Toal (Gearóid Ó Tuathail), Professor of Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech University. Entitled "Inside the Eurasian 'de facto' states: Surveys of beliefs and attitudes in Transdniestria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh, 2010-2011", the presentation was based on a major research project involving 3500 survey respondents within the four unrecognised or partially recognised post-Soviet de facto states.

Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin, on October 2, was interviewed on RTE’s Drivetime programme to discuss the parliamentary elections in Georgia that led to a surprise defeat for the United National Movement, led by President Saakashvili. The interview can listened to here.

Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin,on 14 October, participated in an hour long live discussion on Newstalk’s “Talking History” programme to discuss the politics and legacy of Mikheil Gorbachev. The show can be listened to here: http://media.newstalk.ie/podcast/68142/popup

Lisa McInerney was invited by the OSCE to participate in a an 'Expert roundtable meeting on youth engagement to counter violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism', October 23-24 in Vienna.

Dr Niamh Gaynor presented findings and analysis from field research carried out in burundi last year at trocaire's annual meeting of programme officers from overseas. Trocaire staff from 17 countries participated in the ensuing discussions.

Dr Maura Conway gave a brief run-down on VOX-Pol to You-Tube's Irish-based Community Engagement team at Google's Dublin premises on 18 October, which was followed by a lively exchange on the role of the Internet in political extremism and the intricacies of researching same.

Dr Maura Conway was invited to attend as an observer at a forthcoming workshop of the EU-funded Clean IT project, which will take place on November 5 - 6 in Vienna, Austria. The project has been engaged in consideration of ways of reducing "the impact of the use of internet for terrorist purposes, without affecting our online freedom," but has come in for significant criticism after its draft recommendations, which have an emphasis on 'take-down' measures, were released online.

Dr Maura Conway have also been invited to contribute to the inaugural meeting of the European Commission's Radicalisation Awareness Network's (RAN) Internet Working Group, which will take place in London on 14 November. The group has a mandate to look for innovative and practical responses to extremism via the Internet, including social media. It is a public-private partnership and will focus on harnessing the know-how and creativity of the private and voluntary sectors to push back on extremist messages via positive efforts and counter/alternative-narratives.

Cliodhna Murphy delivered a paper on "The Impact of Migration Law on Rights Protection for Migrant Domestic Workers" at this conference organised by the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Faculty of Law, UCC. She was one of a long list of international and Irish speakers lined up for the event. These included the Minister of State for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People Kathleen Lynch; Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, OSCE; Dr Jean D'Cunha, UN adviser on women, gender, employment and migration, Prof Janie Chuang, American University, Washington DC; Dr Bridget Anderson,Oxford University; and Prof Siobhan Mullally, UCC.

Cliodhna Murphy was asked to participate in the EU-China Human Rights Seminar, which is taking place on 30-31 October at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUIG, where she will be speaking on labour disputes and access to dispute resolution for migrant workers. The EU-China Human Rights Seminar is an EU-funded project which brings together Chinese and European academics, NGOs and government officials to analyse human rights practices and developments in both regions. The overall objective of the EU-China Human Rights Project is to strengthen the realisation of human rights in China and to support China in its efforts to align its human rights policy with international norms. A blog post on the rights of migrant domestic workers employed by diplomats, and the operation of international diplomatic law can be accessed here.

Dr Eoin O’Malley and Dawn Walsh have published a chapter in collaboration "The Slow Growth of Sinn Féin: From Minor Player to Centre Stage", in Liam Weeks and Alistair Clark (eds.). 2012. Radical or Redundant? Minor Parties in Irish Politics Dublin: The History Press.

James Fitzgerald presented a paper entitled ' Why Me? An authoethnographic account on the bizarre logic of counter-terrorism' at the conference, PREVENT AND COUNTER-RADICALISATION IN 2012: CHALLENGES AND WAYS FORWARD, Kings College London, September 6. This paper utilises storytelling as an alternative mode of critque to challenge the dominant logics of counterterrorism. It is specifically based on my personal experience of being stopped at Heathrow airport for the possession of 'suspect materials' (academic books on terrorism), a first-hand account of which can be found here.

James Fitzgerald presented delivered two lectures to Irish Naval Cadets at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) on 3 September. The lectures were entitled a) 'Drone Warfare and the Future of Security' and b) 'Terrorism, Guerrilla Warfare and Insurgency'.

Aurelie Sicard presented a paper entitled "UNSCR 1325: (Re)defining the postwar moment", at the Political Studies Associations of Ireland (PSAI) on Saturday 20 October. Her paper demonstrated how UNSCR 1325 should prevent the postwar moment, instead of reinforcing gender roles in post conflict reconstruction.

Dawn Walsh presented a paper at the PSAI conference in Derry, entitled "What type of mediation?: The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning".

Gezim Visoka published a book chapter on: 'The Obstacles to Sustainable Peace and Democracy in Post-Independence Kosovo', in: Carol Rank and Marwan Darweish (eds.), Peacebuilding and Reconciliation: Contemporary Challenges and Themes , Pluto Press, London, 2012.

Gezim Visoka presented the paper 'The Phenomenology of Informality in Kosovo: Challenges and Opportunities for Development', at the Conference 'Economic Development and Political Transition in Kosovo ', hosted by the American University in Kosovo, Prishtina, 12-13 October 2012.

He also presented the paper 'Making Peace Between Peace Theories' at the Conference 'In Search of Peace: Dialogues between theories and practices', European Science Foundation and LIU, Norrkoping, Sweden, 20-24 October 2012.

He was featured in a blog about Kosovo scholars.

The Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies (IARCEES) annual conference is being organised by IARCEES vice-president Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin will be held at DCU on Friday, 15 March and Saturday, 16 March 2013. Established in 1975, the IARCEES annual conference is an inter-disciplinary scholarly gathering for those engaged with the study of the former USSR and its former satellites in Central and Eastern Europe.

The deadline for panel and paper proposals is 20 December 2012.

Proposals and queries should be directed to Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin. More information and the full call for papers can be obtained from IARCESS's website and at the association’s new Facebook page.