*ISA Blog

Disarmament and Globalisation Project

Disarmament and Globalisation: Old and New Wisdom
Public Conference, 7 January 2008, Brunei Gallery, SOAS

Marking the launch of a new research project at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy

Disarmament has almost disappeared from Western-led academic, civil society, and international political debate. The academic shift away from disarmament as a whole in favour of distinct compartmentalized approaches follows changes in governments’ strategies, especially the change of US-led policy from mutual reduction and control towards pre-emption and assertion of the rights of ‘haves’ against ‘have-nots’. One by one the painfully created traditional foundations of global security are being undermined, discarded, halted in mid-construction or simply allowed to decay. This project is designed to re-energise an international constituency capable of carrying through a realistic risk-based global disarmament agenda linked to an effective trajectory for arms control based on applied international and development studies and public policy.

The launch of this project will take place at a public conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies on the 7 January 2008. Baroness Shirley Williams and the leading German SPD MP Gert Weisskirchen will give keynote addresses. Participants include Lord Archer of Sandwell, Prof. Alyson Bailes, Dr Kennette Benedict, Prof. Ken Booth, Prof. Stephen Chan, Prof. Chris Cramer, Lord Hannay of Chiswick, Prof. Anatol Lieven, Dr Dan Plesch, General The Lord Ramsbotham, Prof. Ron Smith, Prof. William Walker, and Brian Wood of Amnesty International.

For further information on the conference and research programme see our website.

Award Info Deadline

The deadline for ISA Award Committee Chairs to submit the 2008 ISA Awards Order Form for awards to be presented at the Annual Convention has been extended to Feb. 11, 2008.

UN Declaration on International Indigenous Rights

Professor of Law, Rob Williams, Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law  and Policy Program, Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona, will  present: The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A New Era for the Protection of Indigenous Human Rights. This free educational presentation is sponsored by the United Nation  Association of Southern Arizona, non-profit organization. This presentation will take place at the Arizona Historical Society Museum Auditorium (949 E. 2nd St), Wednesday, Nov. 14th 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM.

Miller Center Fellowship

The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia is proud to announce the 2008-2009 Miller Center Fellowship, a competitive program for individuals completing their dissertations on American politics, foreign policy and world politics, or the impact of global affairs on the United States. It provides up to eight $20,000 grants to support one year of research and writing and pairs each fellow with a senior scholar as fellowship “mentor.” Applicants must be either 1) a Ph.D. candidate who is expecting to complete his or her dissertation by the conclusion of the fellowship year; or 2) an independent scholar working on a book.

Residence is strongly encouraged but not required. Each fellow is expected to participate in conferences at the Miller Center in fall 2008 and May 2009. All applications must be postmarked by February 1, 2008; applicants will be notified of the selection committee's decision in April 2008.  For more information and to download the application visit http://www.millercenter.org/academic/gage/fellowship.

Send TWO copies of your application materials to Miller Center National Fellowship Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs, 2201 Old Ivy Rd, P.O. Box 400406, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4406.

Inquiries should be directed to Chi Lam, CKL2Q@virginia.edu or 434-924-4694, or Anne Mulligan, ACM8K@virginia.edu or 434-243-8726.

Officer Election

The ISA Nominating Committee is proud to nominate Thomas Weiss for President of ISA for 2009-2010. We also nominate Mark Boyer, Sandra Halperin and Ido Oren as Vice Presidents of ISA for the same time period. Our line-up is based on a careful consideration of three criteria: a) scholarly work, b) past contributions to ISA, and c) diversity in terms of theoretical and methodological perspectives, geographical location, and gender and ethnicity. ISA members will receive e-mail ballots today to be returned by December 7th. You may review the information submitted by the candidates here. Thank you.

University Channel

We would like to recommend the new University Channel to ISA Sections. The new technology (that Princeton has helped to pull together) is perfect for our members and also will be a great resource for our  students. It's along the lines that a visionary ISA committee (chaired by Matt Bonham), that was ahead of  its time, explored in the 1990s. The UChannel (also known as the University Channel) makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public. It is a place where academics can air their ideas and present research in a full-length, uncut format.

The University Channel service has been organized with 40+ founding members (Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Council on Foreign Relations, Royal Society, London School of Economics, Beijing University, Brookings Institution, U of CA system, etc.). It is free to users in all countries. It is open to contributions from all colleges and universities, research centers, think tanks and NGOs. There is an open invitation from Princeton  President Shirley Tilghman on the University Channel website:

One of the ways universities can serve the public interest is to make academic discourse on public and international affairs as accessible as possible.  The University Channel enables faculty and others at institutions of higher education around the world to present their ideas  unedited and unfiltered – to a broad and diverse audience.  I invite all academic institutions to participate in the University Channel and thereby to increase the scope and depth of public engagement in a broad range of timely and critical issues.

There's also a YouTube portal that provides a different user interface. It may be more useful for ISA Sections for uploading & tagging to create global virtual colloquia series to build larger-scale collaboration systems and accelerate scientific progress in their areas.

ISA Section members (& students of ISA members) might be interested to know that NSF, UC San Diego Computer Center, and the Public Library of Sciences launched in September another (free) YouTube global video service for technical science. Their project will also offer technical assistance to users, and evolving interfaces to support global virtual colloquia series that bring the best and latest ideas, from all sources, at an earlier stage in the creative process to the desktops of research scientists (in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors), students, and scientifically-trained members of the public in all countries as quickly as possible.

Convention Hotels

The Parc 55 hotel is now SOLD OUT. If you were unable to reserve your preferred dates  please try the Hotel Nikko. For more information on our convention hotels, please see the hotel website. Thank you.

Melbourne Journal of Politics

The Melbourne Journal of Politics has been added to the ISA Internet Directory. Melbourne Journal of Politics (MJP) is an interdisciplinary academic journal produced annually since 1968. The journal publishes widely in all fields associated with political science, including political theory, public policy, international relations, European studies, post-colonial studies, political science and sociology. All articles are fully refereed and are published in accordance with DEST requirements as specified in the Higher Education Research Data Collection handbook. The journal encourages submissions primarily, but not exclusively, from post-graduate students.