School of Politics and International Relations

Past Projects

This is a selection of past projects that that have been undertaken by members of the School of Politics and International Relations.

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Pathways Through Liberation - Revealing Survivors' Support Journeys Outside of the UK National Referral Mechanism

Funder: Economic and Social Resource Council (ESRC)
PI: Dr Andrea Nicholson
Duration: Ends August 2024

In collaboration with 10 NGOs, and partnering with St Mary’s University Twickenham and the Office of the Independent Antislavery Commissioner, this ESRC funded project addresses the above knowledge gap. Undertaking a comparative study of survivors’ experiences across the UK, the research team are working with adult survivors to record and share their experiences of recovery and of their encounters with state and third sector services to better inform antislavery policy and the process of NRM transformation.

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Deterrence in the era of unconventional intervention

Funder: Research England - Research Policy Support Fund
Principal Investigator: Professor Andrew Mumford
Duration: August 2023 – June 2024

This research project aims to enhance understanding of how the rise of unconventional intervention has changed the nature of contemporary deterrence policy. ‘Unconventional intervention’ refers to how states leverage non-traditional means, including disinformation and sponsorship of proxies, to generate the ambiguous use of force. This project aims to deliver both conceptual innovation and policy impact by working with the main branch of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) responsible for forging advances in thinking about deterrence – the ‘Exploration Division’ of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). 

 

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What Data? What Happens? Barriers to Generating Evidence-Based Policy to End Honour-Based Abuse

Funder: British Academy
Principal Investigator: Dr Helen McCabe
Duration: February 2023-January 2024

This project is a British Academy Innovation Fellowship in partnership with Karma Nirvana, a leading charity who run the national helpline for honour-based abuse (HBA).

It seeks to map key stakeholders who are, and who should be, collecting data on HBA; identify and share best-practice in data-gathering; recognise barriers to effective knowledge-exchange faced by stakeholders; and co-develop ways to overcome them. 

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Can the Centre Hold? The Middle Ground from the French Revolution to Today

Funder: Mercatus
PI: Dr Hugo Drochon
Duration: Ends September 2023

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen both reject the left-right divide in French politics, either claiming to incarnate it 'en même temps', or being beyond it. They propose new oppositions: for Macron, progressives vs. reactionaries, for Le Pen, patriots vs. globalists. Both refuse to acknowledge the other's new framework or their respective place in it. What consequences for our understanding of history and contemporary politics of seeing political dynamics not through a left/right divide but a centre/extremes one?

 

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Tackling Antisemitism in the US and the UK

Funder: Institute for Human Studies
PI: Dr Hugo Drochon; Co investigators: Professor Maiken Umbach and Dr Annemarie Walter 
Duration: Ends August 2023

This project seeks to develop the first scientifically validated questionnaire to correctly measure levels of antisemitism in the US and the UK, to better understand it so as to better combat it.

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Candidate Backgrounds and Online Behaviours in the French 2022 Legislative Elections

Funder: Digital Society Project
PI: Dr William Daniel
Duration: May 2022-July 2023

This project explores how the professional experiences and personal backgrounds of candidates for the 2022 National Assembly elections impacted their online campaign strategies. It generates a complete set of publicly available biographical information on each of the more than 6000 candidates that contested the legislative elections and aligns these data with campaign behaviour on the popular Twitter social media platform.

 

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Creating a Taxonomy of Coercive Influence

Funder: Australian Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs
PI: Professor Rory Cormac; Co-investigator: Professor Andrew Mumford
Duration: October 2022-July 2023

This project, in collaboration with the Australian National University, aims to distil mechanisms states use to influence others, from propaganda to paramilitary activity. It pays particular attention to scales of secrecy, visibility and acknowledgement, what each can achieve, and how observers can assess success. 

The project is supported by Research Fellows Thomas Eason and Katie Bayford. 

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The Role of Political Parties in Building Resilience in an Age of Democratic Decline

Funder: The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) 
PI: Dr Fernando Casal Bertoa
Duration: February-July 2023

By examining various party dimensions, the project looks at the way WFD party aid programs could be improved, making recommendations based on good practices and international standards.

 

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The importance of strategic and political context for military reforms in Ukraine

Funder: British Academy/Leverhulme Trust
PI: Dr Bettina Renz, Co-investigator: Dr Sarah Whitmore (Oxford Brooks University)
Duration: October 2019 - March 2023

This research project explores the type of military in Ukraine that is best suited to the needs and wants of the country.

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Survivors' Voices, Stories, and Images: Survivor-led Empowerment

Funder: AHRC
PI: Dr Helen McCabe
Duration: February 2021 – August 2022

Investigators from the University of Nottingham are working with researchers at Azadi in Kenya, and survivors of human trafficking through engagement with arts-based methods.

 

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Advancing knowledge exchange in the UK Parliament

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
PI: Professor Andrew Mumford
Duration: April 2020 - July 2022

Dr Mumford will work with policy makers and parliamentarians to identify issues, assess evidence, formulate and then implement a review of UK security, defence and foreign policy.

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Lobbying for Riders' Rights in a Changing Transport Landscape

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council Impact Accelerator Account
PI: Professor Matthew Humphrey
Duration: January - June 2022

Professor Mathew Humphrey collaborates with the Motorcycle Action Group and RideTo Motorcycle Training on this impact project to understand the motivations and aspirations of new riders of powered two-wheel (PTW) transport.

 

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Does ethics training reduce corruption in the civil service?

Funder: Global Integrity/UK Department of International Development
PI: Prof. Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling
Duration: January 2019 - March 2022

This project provides robust evidence and tools to assess the effectiveness of distinct civil service designs and put policies in place to tackle corruption in developing countries.

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Understanding the relationship between forced marriage and modern slavery

Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council
PI: Dr Helen McCabe, Associate Professor
Duration: January 2020 - December 2021

Dr McCabe’s Fellowship explores why certain types of marriage should be seen as forms of modern slavery, by gathering current legal definitions of forced marriage and exploring existing survivor narratives.

 

 

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