CIS was delighted to host the Annual Conference of the Development Studies Association - Ireland on September 5th. The event brought together 120 researchers from the academic and NGO sectors, as well as practitioners, policy makers, and students. The theme was "Responding to the global crises: Linking research, policy and practice".

Dr John Doyle, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, opened the conference. The keynote speech was delivered by Dr Duncan Green, Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies and the Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB. The second edition of his book, From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World is published next month. He also writes a popular blog on development.

Papers touched on taxation, climate change, agriculture and nutritional security, conflict, gender, and equality in health care. The Minister of State responsible for Development, Joe Costello TD, launched Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Closer Perspectives which is edited by Rosarii Griffin (UCC) and published by Symposium Books (2012). The presentations is made available on the association's website.

CIS was represented on the conference organising committee byDr Walt Kilroy.

Seanad Éireann hosted the Inaugural General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group on Parliaments in the Seanad Chamber on Monday, 25 June 2012. This event saw 70 of the world's foremost academics and practitioners of parliamentary studies gather to discuss various topics under the theme 'Parliaments in Changing Times'.

This Seminar was supported by Seanad Éireann and co-organized by Dr Shane Martin (CIS) and featured panel discussions and roundtable debates on a wide range of topics including among others: "Parliaments and the European Union"; "Democratic and Financial Crises: What Should Parliaments do?"; "Second Chambers: Abolish or Reform?" and "The Study of Parliamentary Careers". The Plenary Lecture was delivered in the Seanad Chamber by Professor Kaare Strom, University of California, San Diego.

Speaking in advance of the event, Senator Maurice Cummins, Leader of the Seanad said: "I am delighted to welcome this prestigious Seminar and its participants to Leinster House. This Seminar provides an opportunity for Seanad Éireann to take centre stage as the leading parliamentary academics from around the world gather in its chamber for a day long series of debates and discussions on matters of relevance to parliaments in the 21st century. Parliaments throughout the world must continue to strive to meet the demands of their electorates while also keeping apace with the broad challenges of these changing times. I look forward to hearing some lively exchanges during the discussions on a diverse agenda during the sessions on Monday."

Pictured is Professor Brian MacCraith, President of Dublin City University, speaking at the opening reception in the Oireachtas Bar.

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 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.

Dr Shiera El-Malik will be joining the School on October 1st on an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship for one year. She is currently an Assistant Professor at De Paul University, Chicago and holds a PhD in Political Science from Trinity College Dublin. Her research project is entitled "Theories of Decolonisation and the Idea of Identity". The research aims to provide an account of the development of the idea of identity, or social divisions based on race, gender, and ethnicity, particularly through the writings of now-neglected African revolutionaries and political thinkers (including those of the African diaspora). Dr Kenneth McDonagh will act as her mentor for the duration of the project at the School.

Dr Maura Conway has been invited to contribute to a number of workshops due to take place over the next 12 months at the University of Swansea, Wales, in conjunction with Swansea's Department of Political & Cultural Studies' multidisciplinary project on cyberterrorism. Maura will present her paper 'Three Arguments Against Cyberterrorism: Technological Complexity, the Image Factor, and Accident' at the project's kick-off workshop in Swansea on 13 - 14 September.

Dr Conway will present a paper entitled ''White Pride Worldwide': A Meta-Analysis of Stormfront.org,' jointly authored with her PhD student, Ms. Lisa McInerney, and Indraprastha Institute of Technology Delhi (IIITD) colleague Dr. Ponnurangum Kumaraguru and his PhD student Mr. Prateek Dewan, at the Oxford Internet Institutes's 'Internet, Politics, Policy 2012: Big Data, Big Challenges?' conference, which will take place at Oxford University on 20 - 21 September. This paper is a product of the Onto-X research project, which is jointly sponsored by the Indian Department of Science and Technology and DCU's Office of the Vice-President for Research (OVPR) and on which Dr. Cownay and Dr. Kumaraguru are co-Principal Investigators.

Dr Francesco Cavatorta won 200.000 euro from an FP7 of the European Union on a project with the title 'The Political and Social Transformations of Arab Societies'. 'The central objective of this project is to analyse the processes of political transformations and economic transformations in seven Arab countries in order to ascertain homogeneities and heterogeneities in regional and historical development. The aim is to look comparatively at the beliefs, values and behaviour with respect to political transformations and social transformations through use of comparative sample surveys. The countries covered are: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. This subjective survey data will be grounded in a series of contextual reports for each country. The project will compare the values, attitudes and behaviour of the citizens of Arab countries over time by systematic comparison with other comparative cross-national and national surveys carried out in the region since 2000.

Dr Paola Rivetti presented at the biennial conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies a paper entitled "Civil and political activism under Ahmadinejad" which examines the transformation of political engagement towards corporativism in the last ten years and after the 2009 crisis in particular. The conference has been held in Istanbul (1-5 August 2012).

Dr Rivetti organised and co-chaired the two-sessions panel entitled "The spring of Arab movements? The role of the movements in fostering political change in the Arab world" at the annual conference of the Italian Society for Political Science (Rome, 13-15 September 2012). The sessions examined the role, the characteristics and strategies of the political and religious actors involved in the revolts.

Dr. Michael Breen delivered a guest lecture on the Masters in Development Practice at Trinity College Dublin on 19th September 2012. The lecture focused on 'Top down' governance in development.

Dr Paola Rivetti and Riccardo Redaelli, "The Arab spring and the Iranian winter", in The Arab spring. Origins and consequences of the uprisings that are changing the Middle East (Editrice Vita & Pensiero Editrice, Milano, 2012, in Italian). The chapter examines the differences between the 2009 Iranian uprisings and the Arab Spring from a regional perspective. It argues that the Iranian soft-power and influence over the region has decreased due to the repression of the protests and the political developments in Bahrain and Syria.

Francesco Cavatorta published:

(with Michelle Pace). 2012. "The Arab uprisings in theoretical perspectives". Mediterranean Politics, 17(20), pp. 125-138.

(with Rikke Haugbølle). 2012. "The end of authoritarian rule and the mythology of Tunisia under Ben Ali". Mediterranean Politics, 17( 2), pp. 179-195.

Dr Michael Breen published with Robert Gillanders "Corruption, Institutions and Regulation" (2012, in Economics Of Governance (13(3), pp263-285).

Gezim Visoka will be presenting at two conferences in September the following entitled papers:

- 'The Phenomenology of Agents in Peacebuilding Practices' at the Conference 'New Frontiers for Peacebuilding: Hybridity, Governance, and Local Agency', hosted by the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI), University of Manchester, 13 - 14 September, 2012.

- 'The Discourse of Unintended Consequences in Statebuilding Research', at the Conference 'Civil War and the State-building Challenge', hosted by the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security, University of Birmingham, 17 - 18 September, 2012.

Priyanka Talwar presented her research 'Perceptions, Frames and Practice: Analysing discourse and policy on conflict in India' at the PSAI postgraduate conference, held in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth on 22-23rd June 2012. The presentation focused on the need for a discourse theoretical approach to study conflict management and resolution practices of governments by analyzing India's experience across three conflicts - Punjab, Kashmir and the Naxalite conflict.

Peter McCrossan presented a paper at the XXII IPSA World Congress in Madrid in July (8-12 July 2012). The paper was entitled 'The Political Economy of EU Trade Policy: Selective Bilateralism and the Prospects for Interregionalism'. It was based on his research in into the relationship between the EU and ASEAN.

Lydia Beuman presented a paper entitled 'Cohabitation in New Post-Conflict States: the Case of Timor-Leste'. Reshaping Power, Shifting Boundaries' at the XXII IPSA World Congress in Madrid in July (8-12 July 2012).