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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
06ISSUE
Head o the Department o PoliticalScience and Director o the Schoolo Public Policy welcomes you tothe fnal edition o the TavistockTimes or 200910.
This is my last Directors message
or the Tavistock Times. The past
ve years have been exciting andexhausting, hugely ullling and
occasionally horribly rustrating and
nerve-wracking. However, there
can be no doubting that we have
achieved our objective o building
a world class department over this
period. We have more sta, more
programmes, many more students
and more research and other money.
We have also done spectacularly
well in both the 2008 Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE) and
the Internal Quality Review (which
assesses teaching).
Things were very dierent back in
2005. The School was carrying a
large decit rather than enjoying
an even larger surplus and had
done rather poorly in the 2001 RAE,
prompting a major rethink o its
strategy o which my appointment
and the creation o a department
o political science were a part.
UCLDEPARTMENTOFPOLITICAL
SCIENCE
SCHOOLOFPUBLICP
OLICY
Professor Richard Bellamy
Head of the Department of Political Science andDirector of the School of Public Policy
DIRECTORS MESSAGE
Welcome to the
fnal edition o
TAVISTOCKTIMES
or 20092010
TAVISTOCKTIMES
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
With the departure o the Jill Dando
Institute and the Health Policy
Centre rom the School o Public
Policy, only the Constitution Unit
and the new fedging departmentremained. These comprised just 10
permanent academic sta two o
those only recently appointed and
6 administrative sta, many part-
time. Robert Hazell and I were the
only Proessors, with all but Cecile
Laborde and David Coen (both
Senior Lecturers) a lecturer and in
their rst job.
Now we have 16 academic sta and
with this years 4 appointments, willhave doubled in size to 20 by the
end o my tenure. There are currently
5 Proessors and a Reader, soon
to be joined by a new Proessor
o International Relations. The
administrative sta has also grown to
8, with an increase in those working
ull time. I one actors in that we have
also replaced 3 academic and 3
administrative sta who let over this
period, as well as appointing some
25 teaching ellows and research
sta , it is small wonder that at times
I have elt as i I am permanently
recruiting or sitting on appraisal and
promotion boards.
Student numbers have also grown.
We have entered undergraduate
teaching or the rst time and now
run 11 aliate courses basically
an entire undergraduate programme
as well as coordinating a politics
pathway within the European Social
and Political Studies BA (ESPS)employing many o these same
courses. We have also seen our rst
5 PhD students graduate, with a
number o others shortly to submit
and doctoral numbers likewise
rise rom below 10 to getting on
or 30. Meanwhile, our Masters
programmes have increased by
two and the numbers o students
taking them more than doubled.
Students rom these programmes
have been as successul as the
department as a whole. We now
have students working at major
universities and governmental andnon- governmental organisations
across the world, rom Oxord and
the Cabinet Oce in the UK, to
the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the
European Commission, Amnesty
International and the UN.
In sum, we have gone in a relatively
short time rom possessing the
basic building blocks or a small
department to having the sta,
structures and students o a largedepartment, that has quickly
established itsel as among the
most vibrant and innovative places
to work and study not just in the
UK but in Europe. That this has
been accomplished while not
losing the collegiality, enthusiasm
and riendliness that marked us
as a department in the pioneering
days pre-2005 is a true triumph. I
am deeply grateul to all my past
and present colleagues as well as
to the Schools students or their
tremendous eorts in this regard.
You can all eel a great deal o
satisaction at what you have
achieved.
Running a department these days
is a little like managing a small
enterprise , given that we have an
income o over 5 million, some
50 permanent and temporary sta ,
400 or more students o dierent
kinds and a large and expensivebuilding and research and teaching
inrastructure. I am especially
grateul to Sally Welham and
particularly Nicky Henson or their
administrative support over this
period as the Schools executive
administrators and to David Coen
as my Deputy though many
others have also gone beyond the
call o duty in their various eorts
and many kindnesses on my behal
during this time or all o which I am
truly thankul.
Since the beginning o March Ihave had the opportunity to begin
to wind down and devote mysel to
the scholarly work we are all here to
oster in the privileged environment
o the Centre o Advanced Studies
in Oslo. It has proved a real haven.
Basak Cali described this magnicent
institution in the last Newsletter (we
have both been here at dierent
times as part o the same research
project). Spending an extended
period in another country alwaysoers a wonderul opportunity to
gain insights into its social and
political culture and indirectly into
ones own. I think the paradoxes I (at
least) have encountered, could be
summed up in the title o the spoo
article I nd mysel regularly drating
in my imagination entitled Skiing
Alone: The Paradoxes o Norwegian
Social Capital. I am greatly looking
orward to my remaining ew months
here, albeit with regular visits back
to the department and hope to
return rereshed and comparatively
unburdened next academic year.
It remains or me to wish my
successor David Coen the very best
o luck and every success or the
uture. I am condent that the next
ve years will prove as stimulating
and successul as the last.
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
other people also has to ups anddowns, since or every nice thingyou can do or your colleagues thereis something less agreeable that youmust oblige them to do or one reasonor another.
However, I do like institutionbuilding and promoting the sort olively research environment that Ibelieve academia should be aboutand that provides the space needed toget the best out o sta and students.I also eel strongly that rst rateresearch and research-led teachingoers the best deal or the public whound us by producing the knowledgebase and skills that a well unctioningdeveloped economy and societyrequire.
What do you consider yourgreatest achievement to date?
Te hope is always what I amcurrently writing. I tend to gothrough a sort o cycle when writingwhereby I hope (or at least ondlyimagine) that what I am working onwill be brilliant or at least my besteort so ar. Ten, once completed,sel-criticism sets in and I decide its
awul - but thats the spur to startall over again and begin writingsomething new. It would be hard to
SPP60SECONDINTERVIEWIn this sixty second interview we quiz Proessor Richard Bellamy,Head o the Department o Political Science and Director o theSchool o Public Policy
Professor Richard Bellamy
Head of the Department of Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy
What is your name?
Richard Bellamy
When did you join UCL?
1 September 2005
What are your responsibilitiesin the Department?
Head o Department and Directoro the School o Public Policy (untilAugust).
What do you particularly like anddislike about your job?
Research, writing and discussingand pursuing ideas and projects withcolleagues have always been what has
driven me and were my main reasonsor becoming an academic. I also enjoyteaching and being orced to placemy research in a broader context andcommunicate it in an accessible andmore applied way.
I coness, though, that I nd markinginvariably a chore since standardessays rarely tell you much that is new,though dissertations are dierent andare generally enjoyable to read because
they oten do. Like most academics,I dislike humdrum bureaucratic tasks orm lling and the like. Managing
carry on i you elt all your greatestachievements lay in the past.
Tat said, I am proud o the collectiveachievement o both the academic andadministrative sta and our studentsin the tremendous success o UCLs
Department o Political Science andor making it such a vibrant, enjoyableand riendly place to research, teachand study.
Most inspirational person thatyou have met whilst at UCL?
Jeremy Bentham
Favourite location around UCL?
In summer, sitting on the grass by the
cae in Gordon Square. In winter (solong as the heating is working), sittingat my desk looking out over avistockSquare.
What would your ideal aternoon/evening in London include?
Ever since I was a teenager Ive lovedwalking over one o the bridges to thesouth bank on a summers evening,having a drink at the BFI and goingto a concert or a play. Tat I can now
walk rom the department strikes meas truly ideal.
Cont
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What is your avourite book?
Hard to say there are so many and is it ction, politics or
philosophy? and tends to change.
Tere are books that inuencedme hugely as a student, suchas Pococks, Te Machiavellian
Moment; MacIntryesAfter Virtueor Razs, Te Morality of Freedom which I have not touched ora decade or more just as thereare novelists and poets, Hessesomewhat embarrassingly comesto mind, that I similarly adoredonce but no longer though the
discovery o the staying power omuch classic childrens ction hasbeen one o the great delights oatherhood.
However, i re-reading is the test,then Webers Politics as a Vocationmust be the classic work on politicsI re-read with prot and pleasuremost requently, while though itsnot perhaps my avourite in manyways
I always read DickenssA ChristmasCarolto (and now with) mydaughter every Christmas.
What are your hobbies?
Well apart rom the usual o eatinggood ood, drinking ne wines, going
out to concerts, plays and generalcavorting, I love playing and listeningto live music, wild swimming andrambling, going to estivals, readingnovels and poetry, sailing and canalboats, gardening am lookingorward to my roo garden when Imove my ofce cooking and onthe sport side skiing, cycling andmost recently, doing hal-marathons though the latter sometimes eels liketoo much hard work to be a leisureactivity but I love running along the
Tames tow path so am grateul tothose colleagues who got me into thiscrazy past time.
I you had not gone into academiawhat would you be doing now?
Well the dream scenario would havebeen to be a musician and writer o aNick Drake, Richard Tompson orRobyn Hitchcock kind, though myeorts in this direction suggest it was
probably best to stay with the dayjob, as indeed does the ate o the rstto which predictable lack o successmight have driven me.
More realistically, I did a lot ocommunity volunteering at schooland university, mainly with childrenwith behavioural problems and I did
think seriously o doing educationalpsychology at one stage. Again,probably a lucky break as a yearteaching ull time in what was thencalled a List D school on a councilestate near Glasgow was not somethingI think I would still have wanted to bedoing 30 years later though I gaineda lot rom the experience. I really eelvery ortunate that I do something Ienjoy and am reasonably good at.
I you could implement onepolicy in the world today, whatwould it be?
Again, so many but not to becontroversial or once (ie suggestingthe abolition o the new UKSupreme Court), I would go or theintroduction o SV or European andnational elections almost the onlypart o the standard constitutionalreorm agenda I agree with - on thegrounds that it enhances rather than
curtails democracy, though perhapsit remains the least likely to happen(possibly some connection?).
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
ARE WE GLOBAL
CIIZENS?Dr David Hudson, MSc International Public PolicyProgramme Director, highlights the work o the NGO,Invisible Children:
We recently hosted a flm
showing, ollowed by some talks
and an audience discussion,
around the notion o global
citizenship at the Bloomsbury
Theatre.
It was an extraordinarily popular
event. An impressive audience
o 300-plus people turned up
on the night to watch a lm by
the NGO Invisible Children and
listen to three speakers rom the
Department discuss the lm in
the context o global citizenship.
The speakers were Dr Alex
Braithwaite, Dr Avia Pasternak and
Dr Jennier Hudson. We also had
two representatives rom Invisible
Children, Ami Anderson and Lizzy
Chenery who helped to introduce
the lm and the work o Invisible
Children.
Invisible Children is a non-prot
organisation whichbased on the
documentary shot in 2003has
turned into a worldwide campaign
to highlight the plight o children
in Ugandas long-running civil
war. The original documentary
is an amazing and moving lm
highlighting the untold story o how
the violence impacts on children in
Northern Uganda.
The lm was originally made or
and shown to the lmmakers
riends and amily but they passed
it on to their riends and so on until
it was eventually picked up by
the likes o CNN. This lm came
to be watched by over 5 million
people and inspired a combined
awareness-raising, educational,
undraising and sponsorship
campaign to help rebuild the war-
torn communities in Uganda. It is
the way in which the campaign has
been organised through societys
grassroots, through the word o
mouth and the high uptake among
young people that makes it so
interesting and powerul.
As such, the lm and campaign is
much more than just about Uganda.
It provides a wonderul example o
highlighting neglected and unknown
distant problems, the responsibilities
that we might have to act and the
possibilities o social change. The
idea o the event was to take the
work o Invisible Children and the
plight o child soldiers in Uganda
and ask how we have global
responsibilities and obligations to
others less ortunate than ourselves?
Dr David Hudson
Lecturer in International Relations/International Political Economyand Programme Director, MSc International Public Policy
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What does being an active and
inormed global citizen mean?
How does globalisation aect our
knowledge o distant others?
Can young people directly engage
with and take action on international
conficts and humanitarian issues?
And how does an eective global
campaign work?
To this end our three speakers
tackled dierent aspects o these
questions based on their research
expertise. Dr Braithwaite discussedthe security situation in Uganda
and raised the puzzle o why the
Great Lakes region o Arica, as
perhaps one o the least secure
places in the world, had been
the ocus o so little attention
and action by the international
community. This was ollowed by Dr
Pasternak who set out two dierent
answers to the question o whether
we have a moral duty to help stop
the suering o distant others. Finally,
Dr Hudson discussed at length the
evidence to which individuals think
and act as national or global citizens.
To watch the talks, ollow this link:
http://vimeo.com/9346093
Audience of Invisible Children
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HUMAN RIGHTS STUDY GROUP
TRIP TO GENEVA
Ater a very early morning ight to
Geneva, we met with Dr Baak ali
our guide to the UN or the day.
We were quickly swooped o onto
the bus and through stereotypically
efcient security in time or our frst
stop, to watch the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) in action. The UPR is
a recently ormed mechanism othe
UNs Human Rights Council, in which
every member countrys human rights
practices is peer reviewed by every
other member country over a periodo time.
The second MA Human Rights study trip to the United Nations in Geneva took place on
1617 February 2010. Dr Baak ali arranged or students to meet Peter Gooderham, British
Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and the Counsellor o the Maldives Mission to the
UN, Marc Limon, the British Foreign Ofces senior human rights expert, Bob Last, the Geneva
Representative o SOS Childrens Villages International, Alan Kikuchi-White and Anita Goh,
Advocacy ofcer o Child Rights Network. This time the visit was during the Universal Periodic
Review the process that provides the opportunity or each State to report on what actions it has
taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and peers to scrutinize these reports.
MA Human Rights student Eliza Ward gives her view o the day:
We frst watched rom the gallery as
Egypt was presented with its UPR,
with a number o member states
oering their recommendations.
Excitement came when Iran was
up to accept its UPR. It accepted
some o the recommendations but
rejected several others including
that oered by the UK, on the
basis o accusatory behaviour
and poisonous language. In its
fght-back Iran suggested that while
torture is not legalised in Iran, it has
been in the US since September
11th 2001. The UKs comments on
Irans ripostes were quickly ollowed
by France, the US and Austria;
all citing each others statements;
sparking discussions about the
inuence o external politics in the
UPR and the potential o an ensuing
eect on the neutrality o the UPR.
Ater lunch we met with Anita Goh
rom the Childs Rights Network.
Students at the Main Entrance of the UnitedNations in Geneva
Anita spoke to us about the positives
and the negatives o the UPR;
namely that without the UPR there
would not be such a stringent and
thorough system o monitoring
states human rights records and
that issues can be isolated and
taken up at a national level. She
also highlighted its shortcomings
such as the act that diplomats
were not used to criticising other
states and thereore ound problems
identiying the aults with their own
systems. Anita painted a generally
good picture o the Review but
noted that it was unlikely to produce
overwhelmingly positive results due
to the act that it is not binding and
states accept recommendations
purely on a voluntary basis.
We then met two representatives
rom the UKs Permanent Mission
to the United Nations in Geneva
Ambassador Peter Gooderham and
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Bob Last, the Foreign Ofces senior
human rights expert. Ambassador
Gooderham was candid enough to
answer the rather difcult questionsthat we put to him about his opinions
on the inner workings o the UPR
and the UKs role in the system.
Ambassador Gooderham obviously
believed that the UPR benefted
every state under the theory that
weve all got something to learn.
The issues with the system that he
outlined to us included that there
was a problem with time where each
state is given only three hours or the
review and that there were too many
recommendations to be meaningul.
Ater meeting with UCL MA in Human
Rights Alumnus Johannes Icking
who explained his experiences as in
intern at the UN in Geneva (and whoimportantly outlined how he went
about getting his internship) our long
and eventul day ended with a visit to
the iconic row o ags representing
each member state at the Palais des
Nations and a look at the The Broken
Chair by Swiss artist Daniel Berset,
an impressive 12 metre high wooden
chair, which stands at the end o the
row o ags and symbolises opposition
to the use o land mines and cluster
bombs in warare.
Students with the British AmbassadorPeter Gooderham and Senior HumanRights Adviser Bob Last
Many thanks to Baak ali or
organising this study trip and Alice
Wyss who accompanied us to London
rom Geneva. It provided us withan invaluable opportunity to have
an introduction to the ascinating
mechanisms o the UN.
On Saturday, 13 February the School o
Public Policy attended the 2010 EU Studies
Fair, organised by the Brussels-based
newspaper European Voice and eaturing
60 higher education institutions and their
graduate courses in EU and international
studies. The event attracted more than
700 students rom across Europe and the
world. A highlight was the visit to UCLs
stall by the European Commissioner or
Education, Androulla Vassiliouhere with
the Departments executive administrator
Nicola Henson.
SPP AT EU STUDIES FAIRIN BRUSSELS
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ENFOLD: EXPLAINING,
MODELLING ANDFORECASTINGGLOBAL DYNAMICSDr Alex Braithwaite leads security strand oUCL CASA-led 2.9 million EPSRC project
ENFOLD is a multidisciplinary, ve
year modelling project unded by
the UK Engineering and Physical
Science Research Council (EPSRC:
2.9 million FEC) spanning seven
UCL departments. It will develop
new orms o complexity science to
address the most dicult o human
problems: those involving global
change where there is no organised
constituency and whose agencies
are largely regarded as being
ineective.
ENFOLD addresses problems
arising rom the act that thatglobal systems tend to be treated
in isolation rom one another. Their
characteristically unexpected
dynamics are thus due to the
aspects o coupling and integration
between them that are all too oten
ignored.
To demonstrate these dynamics
and develop appropriate policyresponses, ENFOLD will study
our related global systems: trade,
migration, security and development
aid. Integrated and coupled models
will be developed, whose dynamics
can be described in the language
o complexity theory, including
chaos, turbulence, biurcations,
catastrophes and phase transition.
The programme will apply spatial
interaction models to trade and
migration; reaction diusion to
conficts and terrorism; and network
models to international trade,
migration and crime. These models
will be extended to incorporate new
events, such as the emergence o
new entities, including countries,
coupling them together in diverse
ways.
A generic ramework will ultimately
be developed or a coupled global
dynamics spanning many spatial
and temporal scales, pertaining to
dierent systems whose behaviours
can be both quantitatively and
qualitatively simulated.
Models will be developed which
incorporate all these ideas into a
global intelligence system to inorm
global policy makers about uture
events. Several UK government
departments as well as global
businesses are partners in this
project.
The project is led by Sir Alan Wilson at
the UCL Centre or Advanced Spatial
Analysis (CASA). Dr Alex Braithwaite
is one o the co-investigators and will
lead the security strand o the project,
working closely in conjunction with Dr
Shane Johnson in the Department oSecurity & Crime Science. Together,
they will shortly be advertising unded
positions or a 3-year PhD Studentship
and a 5-year post-doctoral Research
Assistant.
For more details:
www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/news/newsStory.
asp?ID=216
Dr Alex Braithwaite
Lecturer in International Relations and Programme Director,MSc Security Studies
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universities and research institutions
throughout the world. I will be a
Member o the School o Social
Science, along with twenty other
international visiting scholars, the
majority o whom will be researching
on the theme selected by the School
or the 201011 academic year,
Secularism, rom within their own
disciplinary perspectives.
During my time at the Institute, I
am planning to write a new book o
political philosophy, provisionally
entitled In Deence o Secularism.
I interpret secularism, not as a
comprehensively anti-religious
doctrine but rather, as a political
doctrine o ocial agnosticism o the
state towards the truth o religion. I
argue that a secular state, because it
neither denies nor arms theistic (nor
atheistic) views, is the only one that
can be justied to all citizens, given
the act that they prooundly disagree
about the good. Critics have retortedthat secularism cannot be neutral
PROFESSOR CCILE
LABORDE ELECTEDMEMBER OFPRINCETONS INSTITUTEOF ADVANCED STUDIES
I will be spending the next academic
year at Princetons Institute o
Advanced Studies. The Institute
or Advanced Study (I.A.S.) is an
independent private institution
ounded in 1930 by philanthropists
Louis Bamberger and his sister
Caroline Bamberger Fuld and
established through the vision o
ounding Director Abraham Flexner.
Past Faculty have included Albert
Einstein, who remained at the
Institute until his death in 1955 and
distinguished scientists and scholars
such as Kurt Gdel, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, Erwin Panosky, Homer
A. Thompson, John von Neumann,
George Kennan and Hermann
Wey. The Institute is a community
o scholars ocused on intellectual
inquiry, ree rom teaching and other
university obligations.
Each year, the permanent Faculty
o 29 eminent academics awards
ellowships to some 190 visitingMembers, rom about one hundred
Proessor o Political Theory, Ccile Laborde writes:
towards religion in the relevant sense
and more generally, that the secular
state cannot avoid being biased
against religion.
In my book, I plan to address this
criticism head-on by clariying the
nature, justication and implications o
the secularism-as-ocial-agnosticism
thesis. In the process, I will engage
with a number o contentious issues
such as: What is special about
religion? Do religious belies deserve
special treatment in law and why?
Are religious arguments illegitimate
in democratic public debate? Is
secularism compatible with the
symbolic establishment o religion by
the state? What kind o citizens does
the secular state require and what
kind o education should it promote?
Is reedom o conscience the central
value o the secular state and what
does its protection entail? And is
secularism only valid or countries with
Judeo-Christian or more broadly,monotheistic traditions?
Proessor Ccile LabordeProessor o Political Theory and Programme Director, MA Legal and Political Theory
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It is a propitious time to research
ideas o secularism in the U.S.A. While
the country has a long-established
tradition o non-establishment andseparation o church and state, civil
society has remained more religious
than in most o Europe and religious
themes and claims have become
prominent in the public sphere.
Easy slogans or or against
secularism are clearly not enough
and I look orward to the prospect o
sharing thoughts and perspectivesabout the philosophy o secularism
with lawyers, historians, literary and
other experts, who will contribute to
the Schools seminar next year.
I will be going to the Institute with
my amily (my partner, also a UCL
academic, has also been elected as a
member) and our children are excitedat the prospect o living in a deer park
(on the Institutes own grounds) and
nding out which language people
speak in Aremica (sic).
On Tuesday 9 February 2010, a group
o SPP students embarked on a visit to
Parliament, organised by Teaching Fellow
Dr Mark Bennister. The students were a
mix o undergraduates studying the British
Constitution and postgraduates studying
Parliaments and Parties. The group spent a
morning touring the Palace o Westminster
and then met with Michael Foster MP or a
lively question and answer session.
Special thanks go to Masters student and
parliamentary researcher, Juan Leahy,
who hosted the trip and led the tour. The
group visited both the Commons and Lords
chambers and also went through the voting
lobbies. It was a particularly interesting trip,
one that we hope to repeat next year.
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT VISITDr Mark Bennister, Teaching Fellow in British Politics, reports on the recent visit:
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PhD PROGRAMME NEWS
The Department would like to welcome the ollowing students who have just joined the programme:
Volkan Gul (Supervised by Proessor Albert Weale)
Kwanhu Lee (Supervised by Proessor Albert Weale)
Nicholas Martin (Supervised by Proessor Albert Weale)
Dimitri Ponomarjovs (Supervised by Dr Alex Braithwaite)
Dr Jennifer Hudson, MPhil/PhD Programme Director reports:
Welcome!
AWARDS
The Department extends its warmest congratulations
to Laura Valentini (PhD, Political Theory 2008) who
has recently been awarded the Sir Ernest Barker
Prize or Best Dissertation in Political Theoryby the
UK Political Studies Association (PSA). Dr Valentini is
Junior Research Fellow in Politics, The Queens College,
Oxord. She is currently spending a year at Princetons
University Center or Human Values as a post-doctoral
research associate where she plans to complete a book
manuscript tentatively titled Justice in a Globalized
World: A Unifed Framework.
Commenting on the PhD thesis the judges said :
The thesis explores the question o global justice by
challenging the validity o the two main approaches to
the topic. Both cosmopolitans and social liberals, it isclaimed, are so entrenched in their existing positions
that they fnd it impossible to conront the theoretical
and practical difculties inherent in their arguments. In
an attempt to break the deadlock, Valentini proceeds
to develop her own approach to global justice the
coercion view which steers a middle course between
the two standard alternatives and is consistent with the
Kantian/deontological oundations o Rawlsian liberalism.
With exemplary clarity and rigour, she demonstrates that
principles o justice can be coherently extended rom the
domestic to the global arena, without assuming that all
cases o world poverty will generate duties o justice or
rich societies. In its originality, its theoretical subtlety, and
its masterul analysis o the existing literature, the thesis
undoubtedly constitutes an impressive contribution to a
philosophical debate o great importance.
Dr Valentini is the rst UCL student to win such award.
Cordelli, C. 2010. AHRC unding or study visit abroad.
Residential Scholar, Kluge Center, Library o Congress,
Washington, D.C.
PUBLICATIONS
Cordelli, C., Private Groups Acting Publicly: The Limits o
Religious Associations Right to Exclude in Hagiwara Y.
ed., Democracy and Governance or Civil Society,
(Fuko: Tokyo, March 2010);
EMPLOYMENT
Congratulations are in order orKaterina Mantouvalou,
who has been hired by GBK, a leading independent
multi-discipline consultancy or public policy providing
services to the European Commission, World Bank and
UN agencies. Katerina will join the European Social
Policy team o the company and specialise in equal
opportunities and employment issues in Europe
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
PROFILE
David Karp,Current PhD student,Department o Political Science
David has recently submitted
his thesis titled Human Rights
Responsibility and Transnational
Corporations: An International
Political Theory Analysis.
CONFERENCES
Cordelli, C. 2010. How Privatization Threatens the Private
at the Princeton Graduate Conerence in Political Theory,910 April 2010, held by the Department o Politics and
the Center or Human Values, Princeton University, NJ.
Karp, D. 2010. Location, Location, Location: What
is Human Rights Practice? International Studies
Association Annual Convention in New Orleans,
17 20 February.
Karp, D. 2010. Non-state Actors and Human Rights
Responsibility in Weak Governance Zones: Unpacking
the Public-Private Distinction. International Studies
Association Annual Convention in New Orleans,
17 20 February.
Wearing, D. 2010. Relating Scholarship to Activism
in the Study o British Foreign Policy, 51st
International Studies Association Annual Convention,
New Orleans, 17 20 February.
MEDIA
D. Wearing. The antidote to Browns caution,
The Guardian, January 2010
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisree/2010/jan/19/
gordon-brown-abian-conerence
D. Wearing. Whose oreign policy is it?,
The Guardian, December 2009
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisree/2009/dec/21/
british-oreign-policy-democratic-defcit
His thesis provides a normative
and conceptual analysis o the
policy argumentcurrently being
advanced at UN, EU and national
levels o governancethat
transnational companies should
be assigned a special category
o human rights responsibilities.
Davids research has been
published in leading IR and
political theory journals such
as International Theory, Review
o International Studies and
Contemporary Political Theory
and he has been invited to peer-
review articles or some o theseand other journals.
He was a Teaching Assistant or
the Political Science Department
at UCL in the 20067 academic
year and since September
2007, he has been a part-time
Teaching Fellow at the Centre
or International Studies and
Diplomacy (CISD), SOAS.
He has presented research
at several major national and
international political studies
conerences, including the BISA
Annual Conerence (Cambridge),
the ISA Annual Convention
(San Francisco), the Brazilian
International Relations Association
Joint Conerence (Rio de Janeiro)
and the ECPR General Conerence
(Potsdam). He has also presented
research at smaller specialist
conerences and workshops
including Thinking Without Borders
(St Andrews) and the CRIPT/BISA
workshop series (London and
Aberystwyth).
He is now looking orward to
the next steps o beginning an
academic career, whether through
a Lectureship or a postdoctoral
research programme and hopes that
with his thesis out o the way his
research can begin to make an even
greater impact on academic and
non-academic communities.
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
CONGRATULATIONS
AND GOOD LUCK!
Leaving any job provides an
excuse or introspection and in this
case I have Basak and Helen tothank or the extra nudge in that
direction! Looking back at my
time at SPP I was quite surprised
to realise just how large a role it
has played in shaping my goals,
interests and uture career.
From starting out as a student on
the Human Rights MA to my return
as a research assistant, Ive been
lucky enough to have the space to
develop my research skills, as well
as to develop an awareness o
where my academic interests lie.
In particular, working on the
ESRC project on the legitimacy
and authority o supranational
human rights courts has allowed
me to deepen and broaden myknowledge o human rights in
Europe and the workings o
international bodies designed to
help protect them.
An incredible highlight o the
project had been travelling across
Europe to interview people directly
engaged in the eld o human
rights, rom lawyers and NGO
workers, to judges and politicians.
The characters have been diverse,
the views oten conficting and
sometimes challenging but each
one let an impression. The same
might be said o some o the
conerences I attended!
Alice WyssResearch Assistant
However, ater a combined
total o a little over three years
my time at the department hascome to an end. I will be moving
to a new post as a researcher
or the EU team at Amnesty
International, where I will be
conducting research on human
rights in the UK, Scandinavia and
the Netherlands. Though I am
looking orward to the challenges
this new role will bring, I will
miss both the department and in
particular the people who make it
what it is.
The Department is sad to say Goodbye to Alice Wyss,Research Assistant and ormerMA Human Rights student.Alice writes:
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NEWS FROM THE
CONSTITUTION UNITThe Constitution Unit is an
independent research institute
situated within the School o Public
Policy. The Constitution Unit is the
UKs leading centre or the study
o constitutional change and has
a long track record o conducting
high-quality research and
inluencing policy debates
through publications and events.
As reported in the last issue o the
newsletter, research by Dr Meg
Russell o the Constitution Unit was
very infuential on the report last
November o the Select Committee
on the Reorm o the House o
Commons, chaired by Tony Wright.
On March 04 2010 these proposals
were voted upon and agreed by
the House o Commons. They
should thereore be in place rom
immediately ater the generalelection. One element is changes
to the way in which members and
chairs o select committees (which
scrutinise government policy) are
chosen.
Currently these members are
appointed, with signicant input
rom party whips. In uture they
will be elected, with committee
chairs elected by the whole
House. This will enhance the
Parliament agrees reorms based on Constitution Unit research
A ew recent highlights are discussed below:
The Unit is led by its director, Proessor
Robert Hazell, who conducts research on
a wide variety o constitutional topics and
comprises another two teams responsible
or conducting research on parliament
and reedom o inormation. The Unit also
requently recruits interns to assist in its
research projects, including many SPP
graduates. Robert Hazell, Meg Russell
and Ben Worthy all teach courses within
SPP and act as supervisors or students
dissertations in relevant areas. SPP
students can get involved in the Units
research through their public seminars
and conerences which are attended
by practitioners and policy makers.
The Unit has extensive networks or all
aspects o constitutional research.
Full details o the Constitution Units
activities can be ound at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit
prole, independence and hence
hopeully infuence o these
committees. Another key reorm
is the creation o a Backbench
Business Committee, which will
have responsibility or scheduling
business in the House o Commons
chamber. Currently these
scheduling decisions are largely
taken by the government. From
the next parliament there will be
regular time set aside or debateon backbench business and
decisions on how to use this time
will be made by the new committee,
made up o elected backbenchers.
This move again loosens the
governments grip on parliament,
giving more responsibility to its
members.
It is highly unusual or reorms
o this kind to be so clearly
traceable to academic research
but the proposal or a Backbench
Business Committee was the
central recommendation o a
Constitution Unit report by Dr
Russell published in 2007 and
had not previously been made
by others. The recommendation
was inormed by comparative
research on parliaments elsewhere
and picked up enthusiastically by
some parliamentarians including
Tony Wright. Meg Russell wassubsequently an adviser to the
committee which he chaired
and which made the ormal
recommendation. The eect
o the reorms remains to be
seen in the next parliament (and
would be an interesting topic or
uture research!) but it has been
suggested by some commentators
that this could prove to be the most
important package o parliamentary
reorm or over 30 years.
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Conservative Agenda or Constitutional Reorm
In February 2010, the Constitution Unit published a
report by Proessor Robert Hazell on the Conservative
agenda or constitutional reorm. The headline items
are the Conservative plans to reduce the size o
Parliament, introduce a British bill o rights, legislate
to require reerendums on uture EU Treaties, rearm
the supremacy o Parliament in a Sovereignty Bill and
introduce English votes on English laws.
I was surprised to fnd how bold their plans are,
Robert Hazell said. David Camerons plans are
much bigger than perhaps even he realises. No onehas pulled the Conservatives constitutional agenda
together and viewed the elements as a whole beore.
I also worked hard on how their plans might be
implemented, talking to the policy experts in Whitehall
as well as all the lead Conservative spokesmen.
People tend to think o Conservative policy as
a single whole, a maniesto to be implemented
once in government but some policies are better
thought through than others and which policies get
implemented depends crucially on which Ministers are
put in charge: how committed they are to the policy
and how competent.
Roberts tests or early signs that Cameron means
business on reorm include:
Reducingtheshadowcabinetof30toareal
Cabinet o 20.
MergingthethreeterritorialSecretariesofState,for
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland into one, nowthat justice powers are being devolved to Northern
Ireland.
Reducingthenumberof Ministers,tomatchthe
Conservative commitment to reduce the size o the
House o Commons by 10 per cent.
RestoringcollectiveCabinetgovernmentwitha
strengthened Ministerial Code and new Cabinet
Manual.
In December 2009, the Constitution Unit published
Making Minority Government Work, anticipating a
possible hung Parliament ater the next election.
As the polls narrowed, Robert Hazell and the other
authors o the report (Akash Paun, Mark Chalmers
and Ben Yong) have been in strong demand on TV
and radio explaining what will happen i no party
wins an overall majority ater the election.
They have also been active behind the scenes
helping Whitehall and Westminster prepare or a
hung Parliament: something Britain has not seen
since the 1970s. Robert Hazell brieed the Cabinet
Secretary Sir Gus ODonnell and in February 2010
Will Britain have a hung Parliamentand Minority Government?
gave evidence to the Commons Justice Committee
on the reports main proposals. Gus ODonnell
ollowed and announced his acceptance o the
reports central recommendations, to codiy the
constitutional conventions on government ormation
and dissolution and incorporate them in a new
Cabinet Manual.
The Constitution web pages on Minority Government
and hung Parliaments are at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/in-the-
round/minority-government.htm.
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
The Constitution Unit has had a
busy winter hosting a number o
high prole events both as part
o our Public Seminar Series and
Government Inormation Policy
The Unit has been pleased to
host seminars with Dr Tony Wright
(MP and Chair o the Committee
on Reorm o the House o
Commons) in November 2009
discussing the report Rebuildingthe House, which concludes
that urgent changes are needed
to make the House a more
responsive and eective institution
Constitution Unit Seminars
and Sir Christopher Kelly (Chair,
Committee on Standards in Public
Lie) in January 2010 discussing
the Committees report on the
uture system o MPs expenses.
In February 2010, Proessor
Robert Hazell, Director o the
Constitution Unit, delivered a
seminar to launch his report
on the Conservative agenda
or constitutional change. Theremaining seminars or the rst
hal o 2010 are How to Ensure
More Eective Transitions o
Government, with Peter Riddell
(Senior Fellow at the Institute or
Government and Chie Political
Commentator, The Times), and
Pre-Appointment Scrutiny
Hearings in the UK, with Peter
Waller and Mark Chalmers (The
Constitution Unit).
More details at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/
events/2010/seminars/index.htm
Full details o the Constitution
Unitsactivities can be ound at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
The Department would like to welcome the ollowing new sta:
Sarabajaya Kumar joined the
Department in January 2010 as
a Teaching Fellow in Voluntary
Sector Policy. Sarabajaya is alsoan Associate Fellow o the Institute
or Science, Innovation and Society
at the University o Oxord, where
she is currently researching
Social Capital in UK Public
Policy or the Social Capital and
Competitiveness: New Perspectives
Project.
Sarabajaya has post graduate
degrees an MSc and PhD in
Public Policy and Management
rom the University o Aston and
an undergraduate degree BA
(Hons) in Sociology and Religion
rom Goldsmiths College, University
o London. Between 2000 and
2007, she held a Lectureship in
Social Policy, Voluntary Sector and
Civil Society and was Programme
Director o an MSc at the London
School o Economics and Political
Science (LSE).
Chris Boyle took an MA at York
University, Toronto and received his
doctorate in Politics and International
Relations rom the University o
Sussex. He has taught graduate
courses in international political
economy at London Metropolitan
University and UCL. Also he teaches
In 2007 she moved to the University
o Oxord, where she held a Senior
Research Fellowship at the Sad
Business Schools Skoll Centre
or Social Entrepreneurship until
2009. During this period, she was
also the series editor and editor or
the LSEs Centre or Civil SocietyVoluntary Sector Working Paper
Series - unded by the Charities
Aid Foundation and served as an
Advisor to the Home Oce as a
member o the Governance Strategy
Group - set up to advise and oversee
the development o an integrated
Governance Strategy or the Third
Sector.
Sarabajayas research interests
relate to: Accountability,Participation, Social Capital, Social
Exclusion, Governance, State
-Third Sector Relations, Public-
Private Partnerships, Third Sector
Organisations and Organisational
Theory, Her methodological
interests are: qualitative research
methodology, action research and
grounded theory. Sarabajayas
doctoral research considered
inter-organisational accountability
relationships between government,
the voluntary sector and users o
contracted out health and welare
services.
Sarabajaya served as a Trustee or
a social justice charity or ve years,
and is currently a Governor o an
inner-city, community, secondary,
state school, and a member o
several Advisory Committees,
including a social enterprise Future
First, the Institute o Volunteering
Research and the National Council
or Voluntary Organisations.
Prior to academe, Sarabajaya worked
as a volunteer co-worker with Mother
Teresa in Calcutta and with lay health
workers in West Bengal, India. She
was also the ounder worker or a
community organisation working
on public health issues in the East
End o London and managed our
partnerships between the charitable
voluntary sector, local government
and the NHS in the London Borough
o Haringey.
NEW STAFF
Dr Sarabajaya Kumar
Dr Chris Boyle, Teaching Fellow
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
at the School o Oriental and Arican
Studies, University o London.
His research interests include: the
politics o nationalism and economic
development; historical sociology
and the contemporary international
system; institutions o global
governance; the history o modern
economic thought; and social theories
o capitalism. Chris lives in London
with his wie and two sons.
Daniel Stevens joined the
Department in February 2010 as
a teaching ellow, supervising
dissertations within the MSc
International Public Policy. He has
a PhD in Development Studies rom
the School o Oriental and Arican
Studies and a MSc and BSc in
Government rom the London School
o Economics.
His research centres around the
concept o civil society and his
doctoral research ocused on how
international development actors
understand and then build civil
society in developing contexts,
Ph.D., M.A., Government and Politics,
University o Maryland, United States
M.A., Diplomacy and Security, Ewha
University, Republic o Korea B.A.,
English Language, Literature and
Translation, Universit de Franche-Comt, France.
Dr Daniel Stevens,Teaching Fellow
Dr Virginie Grzelczyk,Teaching Fellow
using the case study o Uzbekistan.
Subsequently he spent ve years in
that country as Head o Research
and Consultancy at WestminsterInternational University in Tashkent,
where he helped develop its research
and postgraduate provision.
At the same time he worked closely with
international aid agencies, particularly
the United Nations, in planning and
evaluating development programmes.
Currently he is Head o Research
at the Institute o Volunteering
Research, where he is ocusing on the
role o volunteering in international
perspective and he is also a
Research Associate at the Centre or
Contemporary Central Asia and the
Caucasus at the School o Oriental
and Arican Studies where he has
been looking at issues o orced child
labour in the region.
I am a specialist in international
relations and ocus most o my
research on security eorts
regarding how the internationalcommunity and especially European
countries have, are and should be
dealing with dangerous actors such
as prolierating, terrorist, rogue or
isolated states. In parallel, I am also
working on analyzing the role o
amily dictatorships including the
Kim amily in North Korea and their
succession patterns.
Prior to joining UCL and my position(Tutor in Politics) at the University
o Surrey, I taught in the eld o
international politics, Asian politics
and international security at George
Washington University, the University
o Maryland and Laayette College
while in the United States, as well as
at Victoria University while in New
Zealand.
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
I was a policy manager at the charity CancerResearch UK when I started my MSc and
moved to Head o Policy during the course.
Towards the end and or a while ater my MSc
I was seconded to the Department o Health
to work on a new cancer strategy or England.
Doing the masters helped conrm to me
that while I enjoyed the lobbying and
campaigning side o my job what really
motivated me was policy research and
analysis. In March last year, I moved to
become a Senior Fellow in policy at The
Kings Fund, an infuential health policy
research institute. Its a antastic place towork, and my job now involves managing a
programme o policy research on the quality
o health care, advising policymakers and
critiquing and commenting on policy.
Recently Ive been holding ocus groups
about the local accountability o the NHS,
researching and writing sections o a review
o Labours record on health since 1997,
studying the quality o diagnosis and reerral
in general practice and working with the
Department o Health on their policy agenda
on patient-centred care.
PAST STUDENTS
WHERE ARE HEY NOW?
Catherine FootMSc Public Policy, part-time, 20057
Since the launch o the frst Tavistock Times in the summer o 2008, we have beenkindly contacted by many past students inorming us o their progress since leavingthe Department. A selection o progress reports ollows:
Maita SoukupMSc International Public Policy, part-time 20072009
For the ew years while studying or my Masters in International PublicPolicy, I was moonlighting as a public relations manager working with
energy and environment companies rom the private sector. Since
completing the course with SPP in September 2009, I have ound a new
role combining my knack or spin with my newound knowledge o UK
and European policy making.
Working or a public relations rms public sector division, I am now part
o a team that communicates government policy to the masses, using the
print media, television, word o mouth and o course, the internet.
We run public interest campaigns or the Departments o: Health;
Children, Schools and Families; Innovation, Universities and Skills and
Energy and Climate Change.
Currently, I am working on a major education initiative to encourage more
teachers to work in underperorming schools. Recently we ran a pressevent and teacher recruitment drive with Schools Secretary Ed Balls.
Other current projects include a public awareness campaign to increase
the number o people on the UKs organ donation register and a targeted
advocacy campaign to encourage urther education management
reorms to help cope with the impending cuts to public spending.
You can see some o our work by visiting:
www.guardian.co.uk/society/video/2010/mar/04/nhs-hepatitis-c
www.talktalk.co.uk/video/21464/news/Little-girl-gives-the-Tin-Man-a-
heart/#21464
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
PROTECTING LIBERTIES IN THE
ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE:FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNS?
Praveen Velu, MA Legal and Political Theory 0910 student, supports the orthcomingLegal and Political Forum:
A Legal & Political Theory Forum
Date: 18 May 2010Time: 6.30pm
Venue: UCL Chadwick Lecture Theatre
The question, What is the point o
political philosophy? is requently
asked and seldom adequately
answered. In act, such is the lack
o refexivity on the part o political
philosophers themselves that, as PaulKelly once observed, anyone making
such inquiries is seen as spending
time on the theory o tying shoelaces
rather than actually going or a walk.
All o this has perhaps engendered
a view o political philosophy as a
ruitless exercise in hair-splitting
distinctions and irrelevant trifing when
compared to its sister disciplines
like public policy and international
relations.
The truth however is that political
philosophy is always intensely
engaged with the conditions o human
existence. That is to say, it connects
the realm o ideas with the real world
o practical aairs in which we must
all inevitably live; a view that was
perhaps perectly allegorized by the
central gures o Plato and Aristotle
in Raphaels painting, The School o
Athens. That is why this year, a group
o students rom the MA in Legal and
Political Theory (LPT) programmehas organised a public orum which
will bring to bear the critical lens
o political philosophy on what is
perhaps the most hotbutton issue o
our time: climate change. The orum,
taking place on 18 May 2010 at UCLs
Chadwick Lecture Theatre, will beentitled Protecting Liberties in the Era
o Climate Change: Fiddling while
Rome Burns?
The genesis or the idea o this
orum came rom the Meanings o
Liberty methodology course, which
every student enrolled in the LPT
programme is required to read.
Meanings is a rigorous, semester
long examination o liberty; one
o the cornerstone concepts o
political philosophy. The course
itsel, conducted by Proessor Ccile
Laborde, takes as its starting point
John Stuart Mills denitive statement
on the subject and proceeds to trace
the intellectual development o the
concept through the works o thinkers
like Marx, Berlin, Rawls and Foucault.
When we speak o liberty, very
oten we have in mind a kind o
reedom that allows us to go about
the business o our lives withouthindrance rom others. This is what
political philosophers call negative
liberty and typically it is thought o
as the reedom rom government
intervention. There is however another
kind o liberty, a positive liberty which
may be characterised as the reedomto have the power and resources
which enable us to pursue our lies
goals. These include jobs, healthcare
and shelter but we might also add
access to clean air and water which
are taken or granted in the developed
world.
A problem like climate change, one
that requires collective action, leads
these two orms o liberty into confict.
The response to climate change
is at least partly predicated on the
notion o a duty to preserve the
worlds resources, leaving enough
and as good or uture generations.
The fipside is that achieving this will
necessitate placing greater burdens
on the present generation. In Britain
or example, a central eature o the
governments climate change policy
is the shit to more expensive orms
o energy such as oshore wind. In
an economy that has already been
battered by a nancial crisis, thiswill conceivably put more strain on
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April 2010 TAVISTOCKTIMES SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY NEWSLETTER
productivity as we will have to spend
more to meet the same level o
demand or energy. This in turn will
likely result in an increase in taxation
and possibly a net loss o jobs.
It is also not clear that liberal
democracy is an ideal political
ramework or tackling an issue
like climate change. The language
o rights and liberties in which its
discourse is ramed makes it dicult
to speak o the reciprocal duties
which obtain rom those rights. Very
oten, Western governments are
unable to take the kinds o radical
actions necessary to meet a crisis
like this because any appearance o
impinging on their citizens negative
liberties is switly punished in the
polls. Politicians then are let with little
choice other than to preserve some
trivial liberties o their citizens, such
as the right to continue using cheap
but highly pollutive sources o uel, in
order to retain their mandates. They
are, as it were, reduced to ddling
while Rome burns all around them.
These are just some o the issues
that will be addressed by the our
distinguished panellists this year. The
panel will comprise rstly Dr Benny
Peisner, the Director o the Global
Warming Policy Foundation and a
prominent sceptic o climate change.
Joining him will be Mark Sauven, the
Executive Director o Greenpeace
UK. Rounding o the panel will be
Proessor Albert Weale, who has
recently joined the Department and
is a oremost expert on environmental
policy, who has also written extensively
on the orms and limits o the liberal
state and Proessor Jonathan Wol,
who is perhaps one o the UKs best
known public intellectuals. Proessor
Wol recently joined with a multi-
disciplinary group o academics,
including SPP Director Richard
Bellamy, to co-author an infuential
LANCET report on managing the
health eects o climate change. Theorum will be chaired by Proessor
Laborde, who is also the Director
o the LPT programme. It will ollow
a Question Time ormat which will
allow SPP students to air their views
and challenge the opinions o the
experts regardless o whether their
predilection is towards philosophy or
policy.
Ultimately however, the issues
themselves will change but it is hoped
that this inaugural Legal and Political
Theory orum will be the beginning o
an annual tradition that showcases
the programmes commitment to
training political philosophers who are
engaged with the real world and who
walk the talk.
FUTURE EDITIONS OFTAVISTOCKTIMES
TAVISTOCKTIMESis published three times a year
with the next edition due to be published in September 2010.
Ideas or uture articles should be sent to:
Helen Holt,[email protected] the end o June 2010
Contributions rom past students are especially welcome keeping the
Department up to date on their progress since leaving UCL.
Top Related