Blog: Brexit has made town twinning a battleground – but it’s always been political

Blog: Brexit has made town twinning a battleground – but it’s always been political

The practice of twinning towns and other communities has often been viewed as a cultural or leisure-based activity. Now though, Brexit has drawn the political side of twinning into sharper public focus. Some people are pressing to erase their towns’ longstanding relationships with European partners. Others have doubled down on their international commitments, trying to show that their community remains open and inclusive. Here Holly Ryan argues that town-twinning has always been political.

Current research: The Duterte method

Current research: The Duterte method

In this new article, Michael Magcamit investigates how a small power re-evaluates its foreign policy and strategic behaviour using neoclassical realism theory. In particular, Magcamit examines President Rodrigo Duterte’s method which is characterized by four key elements: cultivating a more favourable image for China; moderating the country’s American-influenced strategic culture; mobilizing state-society relations supportive of ‘Sinicization’; and reorienting the country’s Western-based institutions to better accommodate Chinese pressures and incentives.

Forthcoming book: The Conservative Challenge to Globalization: Anglo-American Perspectives

Forthcoming book: The Conservative Challenge to Globalization: Anglo-American Perspectives

Ray Kiely’s new book examines the rise of conservative movements, and above all ideas, which in some respects challenge, but also possibly reinforce, neoliberal globalization. These include challenges to liberal cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, migration, and free trade, political correctness and the so-called liberal metropolitan elite.

Current research: Shinzo Abe, North Korea, and the quest for a new Japanese constitution

Current research: Shinzo Abe, North Korea, and the quest for a new Japanese constitution

In his new International Politics article, Michael Magcamit asks whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s desire for constitutional change is precipitated mainly by the resurgence of Japanese nationalist sentiments as what many of his critics claim, or if there are genuinely rational justifications for revising the country’s 72-year old Constitution. And if so, why has it been so elusive for many Japanese leaders?

Current research: Assessing Conservative Populism

Current research: Assessing Conservative Populism

Ray Kiely’s new article, “Assessing Conservative Populism: A New Double Movement or Neoliberal Populism?” examines the populist turn through the lens of changing social policy by relating this to the question of whether or not conservative and far right populism represent a break from, or a new mutation of, neoliberalism.