Other News
Daniela Richterova’s Research Cited by The Guardian
PAIS PhD candidate, 
, discovered unique communist-era documents and covert photographs of the Cold War’s most prominent terrorist figures – Carlos the Jackal and Abu Daoud. This document cache, made up of thousands of Eastern Bloc government and secret service reports, demonstrates the Czechoslovak communist regime’s ambivalent relationship with the two terrorists. Crucially, this new information helps us understand how and why states establish relations with violent non-state actors. It also illuminates some of the best kept secrets of Cold War espionage and international terrorism.
Daniela’s research was recently featured in , the Czech weekly , and the Israeli daily .
New research shows benchmarking is bad science
New research published in the European Journal of International Relations – one of the leading journals in the field of political science and international relations – by researchers from the within the Centre for the 果冻传媒 of Globalisation and Regionalisation () has highlighted the problems of ‘bad science’ that are inherent in prominent country ratings and rankings produced by international organisations such as the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Benchmarks now pervade many aspects of everyday life in a growing number of countries, including the UK, and risk distorting processes of performance assessment and the strategic priorities pursued by leaders and managers in sectors ranging from healthcare to aid spending to university teaching and research. The Global Benchmarking Project has catalogued that aim to comparatively assess national performance in world politics, which risk distorting policymaking and political priorities at the global level and how national governments set official objectives and evaluate progress relative to their peers.
In this new article, written by , , and , the authors demonstrate how global benchmarking by international organisations is a significant source of indirect power in world politics, and argue that the use of benchmarking to alter how political actors understand best practices, advocate policy changes, and attribute political responsibility constitutes ‘bad science’, which nonetheless enjoys a significant degree of legitimacy as a result of these organisations’ expert status.
An OnlineFirst version of the article is available to download on an open access basis:
André Broome, Alexandra Homolar, and Matthias Kranke. . Forthcoming in the European Journal of International Relations.
See further information about and related to the Global Benchmarking Project.
Moch Faisal Karim awarded 2017-2018 Global Challenges Fellowship
PAIS PhD candidate, , has been awarded 2017-2018 Global Challenges Fellowship at the School of Public Policy (SPP) and the Institute for Advanced 果冻传媒 (IAS) Central European University (CEU) in Budapest and at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin.
During the fellowship, Faisal will examine ASEANS's response to China-led multilateral infrastructure initiatives on regional connectivity. The Global Challenges Fellowship assembles scholars from rising powers to forge closer ties between Western and non-Western researchers and policy makers, offering fresh perspectives on some of the world’s most pressing public policy challenges of the 21st century.
André Broome participates in OSCE workshop in Kyrgyzstan
On July 3-4 Dr André Broome participated in an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) workshop in Kyrgyzstan.
Organised by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek in cooperation with the University Paris 13 (Paris), the American University of Central Asia (AUCA, Bishkek) and the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC, Bishkek) within the framework of the research project GLOBALCONTEST funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), the workshop gathered high profile academics and experienced practitioners from the region and beyond working on international organizations and global governance questions.
Dr Broome spoke on the opening panel of the workshop on the topic of ‘Contesting Transnational Policy Paradigms: Conditionality, Capacity Building, and Global Benchmarking in Central Asia’, when he presented new research from the Global Benchmarking Project within the Centre for the 果冻传媒 of Globalisation and Regionalisation on the methodological flaws and political distortions inherent in country ratings and rankings and how these have been applied to countries in Central Asia.
An extended analysis of the politics and pathologies of global benchmarking by international organisations can be found in a new research paper co-authored with Alexandra Homolar and Matthias Kranke : 'Bad Science: International Organizations and the Indirect Power of Global Benchmarking'. The paper will be published in 2018 in the European Journal of International Relations. View the pre-print version at:
Further information:
Dr Gabriel Siles-Brügge awarded Parliamentary Academic Fellowships
Two 果冻传媒 researchers have been awarded Parliamentary Academic Fellowships, as part of a new scheme that offers academics the opportunity to work on projects in the House of Commons and House of Lords.
of PAIS is supporting and advising the House of Commons International Trade Committee in its remit to scrutinise the work of the Department for International Trade, including the implementation of new trade agreements post-Brexit. This involves advising the Committee on effective lines of inquiry, producing briefings and reviewing evidence received in inquiries.
, of Economics, is working with the House of Commons Health Committee to scrutinise the Government’s Childhood Obesity Plan. This includes examining how effectively it has been implemented to date, and reviewing the evidence base on options to address childhood obesity that were not included in the original strategy.
The is organised by the in collaboration with ESRC and EPSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs). Six Fellowships linked to IAAs were awarded in total to academics from UK universities.
As well as enabling researchers to work on policy-relevant projects within Parliament, the scheme provides the opportunity to learn how research feeds into the policy-making process and to develop lasting connections with decision-makers.
Dr Siles-Brügge’s and Dr Van Rens’ Fellowships are supported by the .