Dr Iain McMenamin has recently published "If Money Talks, What Does It Say? Varieties of Capitalism and Business Financing of Parties" in World Politics, one of the leading journal of comparative government and international relations, published by Princeton University.

Iain's work addresses the relationship between money and politics. In this article, he is the first to ask whether business contributions to political parties convey different messages in different countries, and, if so, why? The article presents a pioneering cross-national study of firm behavior in political finance. It argues that motivations for contributions to parties are either ideological or pragmatic. The author infers motivation by quantitatively relating the payments of 960 firms to various political parties in Australia, Canada, and Germany over periods of between seven and seventeen years. In coordinated market economy Germany, a small number of firms made ideological payments; in liberal market economy Australia and Canada, large numbers of firms made pragmatic payments. Australia's left-right party system creates an awareness of policy risk, which motivated ideological payments, but in Canada's unusually nonideological party system no ideological bias in business financing of politics was found.

These issues will be addressed with greater depth and breadth in a forthcoming book to be published by Oxford University Press. This research provides important lessons for the policy world and Iain has been asked to join the expert advisory board of Transparency International Ireland. For further information on Iain's work, and to download a copy of the paper please visit his website.

Dr. Francesco Cavatorta has just received the President's Research Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences at DCU for his outstanding contribution to field of politics in the Middle East. Francesco Cavatorta is a leading authority on the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. His research emphasises the interaction of international and domestic factors on the interests and preferences of contending groups in the largely authoritarian regimes of that region.

Dr. John Appleby, Prof. Josef van Genabith, Dr. Francesco Cavatorta, Prof. Alan Harvey, Vice-President for Research And DCU President Prof. Brian MacCraith

In addition to authoring numerous works on the topic, Dr Cavatorta has been very active in impacting public policy. His work on the role of civil society in authoritarian Arab states (funded in part by Irish Aid) has also been of significant interest to policy-makers and, in addition to its impact in Ireland, it has been presented (on special request) to policy community seminars in Denmark and the Netherlands. More recently his work on political Islam has attracted a large grant from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, a private foundation based in Germany.

Dr Cavatorta teaches on our BA, MA and PhD programmes.

Dr. Eoin O'Malley of the School of Law and Government appeared on RTÉ Radio 1 Late Debate on 18th January (available here to discuss the new EU Treaty and wrote an op-ed in the Sunday Business Post 29th January on the possible need for a referendum on that Treaty.

Dr. Karen Devine appeared on RTE Radio 1's "Saturday with Charlie Bird" programme to address the theme 'what has Europe done for us?' on Saturday 4th February 2012, along with politicians from the Houses of the Oireachtas and European Parliament, journalists from the Irish Times and Daily Mail and academic and industry researchers. The link to the show is here.

Dr. Karen Devine appeared on TV3's Tonight with Vincent Browne Programme in a series of episodes tracking the progress of the European Council meetings convened to draft the new, so-called "Fiscal Compact Treaty" on Thursday 8th December 2011 (linked to a "trend" on Twitter), Monday 12th December 2011 and Monday 30th January 2012, providing commentary on the political, legal and fiscal issues arising from the Treaties and the implications for the EU and Ireland.

(1) 'the chances of the Eurozone crisis talks succeeding and the consequences of failure' (here).

(2) 'the Euro summit, legal chaos, on-going austerity and the collapse of the Euro' (here).

(3) 'what the new treaty means and to what extent it impinges on our sovereignty' (here).

Along with colleagues from China, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK and US, Dr. Maura Conway acted as faculty for the 25th ISODARCO Winter School on 'Security in Cyberspace: Targeting Nations, Infrastructures, Individuals,' which took place in Andalo, Italy, from Jan. 8 - 14.

In February and March, Dr. Maura Conway and Dr. Francesco Cavatorta, together with PhD student Mr. James Fitzgerald, are running a series of film screenings and accompanying lectures-discussion that seeks to connect themes of terrorism and political violence with the world of cinema and how it represents/deals with such issues. Each film is introduced by a guest speaker who will outline the main themes arising. After the screening the same speaker will provide a few points for discussion followed by a Q&A session.

The screenings-lectures, which will take place in QG13 (on the ground floor of DCU Business School) on Wednesdays from 2pm, are formally linked the modules 'Political Terrorism' and 'Politics of the Middle East and North Africa,' but all are welcome to attend.

Film-lecture schedule:

15 Feb.: Hunger (2008) , with Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin, School of Law and Government, DCU

22 Feb.: Four Lions (2010), with Mr. James Fitzgerald, School of Law and Government, DCU

29 Feb.: Lebanon (2009), with Dr. Francesco Cavatorta, School of Law and Government, DCU

7 March: Goodbye (Bé Omid é Didar) (2011) , with Dr. Roja Fezaeli, School of Religions and Theology, Trinity College Dublin

21 March: The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri) (1966), with Dr. Anthony Lemieux, WHS Center, Emory University

28 March: Paradise Now (2005) , with Dr. Des McGuinness, School of Communications, Dublin City University

Congratulations to Dr.Walt Kilroy who completed his PhD oral examination in January and submitted the final version of the PhD thesis the following week. It is entitled "From conflict to ownership: Participatory approaches to the reintegration of ex-combatants in Sierra Leone and Liberia". It looks at the way in which the programmes to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate former combatants were run, following the civil wars which ended there a decade ago.

Michelle O'Donnell Keating, a PhD Candidate in Law and Government, is co-founded of Women for Election. Women for Election is a non-partisan organisation whose vision is of an Ireland with balanced participation of women and men in political life. After a 9 month programme, Women for Election were recently named as an Impact Awardee by the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. This award provides financial and business support worth €200,000 over 2 years. Further details of the organisation can be found at Women For Election Ireland

Rivetti, Paola. February 2012. "Student movements in the Islamic Republic: shaping Iran's politics through the campus". Chaillot Paper 128, pp. 81-101.

Walt Kilroy's article on the reintegration of ex-combatants after the civil war in Sierra Leone appeared in the 2011 edition of Irish Studies in International Affairs (Vol. 22). It draws on one of the two case studies from West Africa in his doctoral thesis, which was successfully submitted in December.

Kilroy, Walt. 2011. "From conflict to ownership: Participatory approaches to the reintegration of ex-combatants in Sierra Leone?". Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 22, pp. 127?144.

Professor Daniel Diermeier has accepted the invitation to be one of two keynote speakers at the June conference on Parliaments in Changing Times which is being co-organised by CIS staff.

Professor Diermeier is the IBM Professor of Regulation and Competitive Practice of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at the Kellogg School of Management and Professor of Political Science at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, both Northwestern University. In addition, he is the director of the Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship.

Professor Diermeier's teaching and research focuses on political institutions, the interaction of business and politics, crisis leadership, reputation management, integrated strategy, and strategic aspects of corporate social responsibility. His work has been published by numerous academic journals in the fields of management, economics, and political science and has been featured globally in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Business Week, the Financial Times, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and De Telegraaf.

We are excited to welcome Professor Diermeier to Dublin. For further information on the conference please visit: http://leg2012.info/

A reminder also that alumni should join the School of Law & Government Alumni Network on LinkedIn.