Talk by Simon Usherwood, University of Surrey

Cyberspace is both a deeply technical and a deeply political space with daily reminders at all levels, from small businesses through to national institutions, as to how vulnerable we all are. The events of the past decade have served to show that cyber security is and will remain one of the world’s most pressing security concerns, yet in many ways our understanding of this space remains infantile and prone to hyperbole.

QMUL

Prescribing and policing gender norms and relations, in other words controlling society’s experiences of femininity and masculinity, along with social exclusion practices, is arguably at the very heart of the protracted and violent struggle for political and ideological power in today’s Somalia.

In When Political Transitions Work, Fanie du Toit, who has been a participant and close observer in post-conflict developments throughout Africa for decades, offers a new theory for why South Africa’s reconciliation worked and why its lessons remain relevant for other nations emerging from civil conflicts.

How does ethnic stacking as a form of coup-proofing affect military loyalty during major anti-authoritarian protests? Drawing largely on case studies of the Arab Spring, much existing research argues that ethnic stacking generates in-group loyalty and out-group defection, leading stacked militaries to staunchly defend the regime while other armies step aside and allow revolutions to unfold. There is, however, much greater nuance in both ethnic stacking practices and the types of military loyalty shifts that regimes experience.