Workshop: State-building, Security and Development
29 March - 01 April 2010
Venue: Edinburgh

Call for papers

Sponsored by the ECPR Third World Politics Standing Group (Dr Heather Marquette, University of Birmingham and Dr Lawrence Saez, SOAS - Directors) and International Development Department (University of Birmingham) State-building in Difficult Environments Research Group (Dr Heather Marquette and Dr Danielle Beswick - Directors)

Workshop sessions to include:

• State-building as a New Development Paradigm? (Chair: Heather Marquette)
• International Relations Theory, State-building and Development (Chair: Danielle Beswick)
• Roundtable: The Future of Research on State-building and Development (Chairs: Heather Marquette / Danielle Beswick)
• State-building, Governance and Political Settlement in Developing Countries (Chair: Heather Marquette)
• The Role of Domestic Actors in State-building (Chair: Heather Marquette)
• The Security and Development Nexus: The Role of the State (Re) Considered Chair: Professor Paul Jackson, IDD, and Director of the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform)

RaD Conference: Religion shaping development: inspirational, inhibiting, institutionalised?
Wednesday 21 - Friday 23 July 2010
Venue: University of Birmingham, England

A major event organised by the Religions and Development Research Programme, this conference will bring together research findings that address three central questions and explore their policy and practice implications:

• How do religious values and beliefs drive the actions and interactions of individuals and faith-based organisations?
• How do religious values and beliefs and religious organisations influence the relationships between states and societies?
• In what ways do faith communities interact with development actors and what are the outcomes with respect to the achievement of development goals?

International Development Department (Religions and development research programme)

Previous Events

'Why are we in Afghanistan?'
Thursday 21 January 2010

Ivan Lewis, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister

Ivan Lewis MP was a Minister at the Department for International Development (DfID) from October 2008 to June 2009. Prior to joining DfID he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Health from May 2006 to October 2008.

Ivan has been a member of Parliament for Bury South since 1997. Prior to joining Parliament he worked in the voluntary sector from 1986 to 1997 for Outreach, Contact Community Care Group and as Chief Executive of the Manchester Jewish Federation.

Please register for this event by emailing Eleanor Leftwich at e.g.leftwich@bham.ac.uk stating your name, course title / department and / or organisation

Gender, Governance and Power Workshop: Interdisciplinary Debates
04 July 2008

The aim of the workshop was to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to reflect on the important gendered aspects of power and governance that inform their work.

Aiding the Poor: Ten Years on from the Birmingham G8
16-17 May 2008

The conference was the University’s contribution to the city’s weekend of activities celebrating achievements since the Birmingham G8 and highlighting the further challenges that have arisen.

The conference focused on debt relief - its achievements and problems - to honour the human chain of 1998. But understanding debt relief issues requires analysis of the complex problems facing the poorest countries, and of the wider international efforts to reduce them.

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