A KnowledgeCentre article by Dr Ben Richardson

Crisis is often understood in two senses: as an imminent threat requiring immediate intervention, and as the inevitable breakdown of a system resulting in fundamental change. In the case of the Eurozone crisis, we seem to have oscillated between the two. When fragile governments have failed to pass unpopular austerity bills or financial companies refused to write-off some of their loans, the media have invoked an urgent sense of peril.

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Prof Richard Aldrich, Professor of International Security in PAIS, worked on the documentary feature "The Fall of Singapore: The Great Betrayal" this year with Brave New Films and Director/Producer/Editor Paul Elston. The documentary tells the incredible story of how it was the British who gave the Japanese the knowhow to take out Pearl Harbor and capture Singapore. For 19 years before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, British officers were spying for Japan. Worse still, the Japanese had infiltrated the very heart of the British establishment - through a mole who was a peer of the realm known to Churchill himself.

Watch the premiere of "The Fall of Singapore: The Great Betrayal" on BBC2, 21 May at 21:00.

A Pinpoint Politics article by Helen Jane Martin

An abyss for the lost and stolen, and a refuge for the takers, failed states are characterized as the black holes of the international system. Somalia, the archetypical failed state, is condemned by policy makers who maintain that it incubates terror, breeds crime, facilitates piracy and infects regions; with stereotypical images of pirates in tiny skiffs, or an unyielding insurgent and terrorist campaign from al Shabab, it is seen as a land ruled by dangerous warlords. Their problems are not just their own but a menace to everyone, or so the story goes.

On the 24^th of February world leaders convened in London, in a meeting described by British Prime Minster David Cameron as “the largest and most influential gathering that has ever come together,” to seek a lasting solution to the problem of Somalia. This two-day long conference was aimed at ending the civil strife in the country, which consistently tops the ranks of the Failed State Index, and to enhance the level of ‘stateness’ in order to curb the international ramifications that this deviant threatens. However, it seems that this conference, in labelling the country as ‘failed’, was labouring under a set of misapprehensions rather than focusing on what is actually affecting Somalia itself.

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A Pinpoint Politics article by Neil Dooley

Reaction to austerity in Europe has been varied. In Greece, measures have frequently been met with forceful opposition, prompting political outrage, mass demonstrations, incidents of violence and civil disobedience. In marked contrast, The Republic of Ireland has been applauded as the ‘poster child for austerity’, implementing its reforms with no apparent social unrest. It is in this context that the events surrounding the recent ‘household charge’ have seemed so surprising to many.

The new annual tax is the latest austerity measure launched by the Irish Government. Temporarily, it requires each household in the state to pay a levy of one hundred euro. In response, aided by a successful campaign organised by political and community activists, at the time of writing, almost 50% of households have refused to pay the household charge.

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Dr Nick Vaughan-Williams, Associate Professor of International Security in PAIS, gave an invited talk at the 'Regulating Unregulated Migration' Conference hosted by the European Union Center of Excellence and the Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh, PA, 3-5 May 2012. The conference brought together policy experts from academia, think tanks, and the professional world to examine policy responses to immigration in the U.S. and Europe. Nick's presentation, entitled 'Europe's Border Wars and the Arab Spring', was based on research for a book he is currently writing on the impact of border security on migrants' lives.

http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/euce/content/regulating-unregulated-migration