果冻传媒

A Pinpoint Politics article by Emanuel Ingold

Human rights norm-setting and the monitoring of their implementation provokes many strong negotiations within the UN. Promoters of human rights such as civil society groups try to push states to increase accountability on an international level. At the same time, alleged violators of legal UN human rights repeatedly try to restrict the influence of various bodies. Within this setting, the state-centred human rights mechanisms within the UN are exposed to a paradox: they are political organs with a normative function. States are criticised by many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and commentators for focusing on the political side more than the normative one. So, do the mechanisms lose their credibility?

A Pinpoint Politics article by Frank Mouritz

This year the fall of the Berlin Wall, which initiated the end of the Cold War, had its 23rd anniversary. Since then many members of the former Warsaw Pact became free and democratic states. Some of them even joined the European Union so that now former enemies of the Cold War are united through one institution that just recently received the Nobel Peace Prize for its inspiring vision to establish peace and friendship among the many diverse nations who call Europe their home. Unaffected by this development, one Cold War conflict survives to the present day and still divides the people of one nation into two countries. I am talking of course about Korea. The liberal democratic south is still officially at war with the communist north.

The Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme is being launched on Monday, 3rd December 2012. The scheme offers the opportunity for undergraduate students to undertake a short (4 to 10 week) research project with a bursary of up to £1000. Information on the scheme, including past projects, the application forms and related information can be found on the URSS website ().

, Assistant Professor in US National Security, was recently featured in a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled 'Great Spy Books: Fact or Fiction?' on 1 December. This feature follows closely on the heels of Dr Moran has participated in recently as a result of his consultancy work for the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Politics researchers at the Universities of 果冻传媒 and Exeter, including , led detailed focus groups across the UK and conducted a nationwide survey as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project which looked at public attitudes towards security threats.

This project used focus groups and an internet survey to identify whether people agree with, or are even aware of, the government’s attempts to make them feel more secure and whether these attempts have any impact. Dr Vaughan-Williams said: “Focus groups told us that they understand ‘security’ to be first and foremost about physical threats to personal safety. Respondents rarely talked about security threats in national terms and most disagreed with the government’s priorities in the ‘National Security Strategy’".