The Global Transformation and Conflict Research Cluster provides a forum for intellectual interactions and research initiatives addressing questions regarding how ongoing political and economic changes are altering the dynamics of power internationally and within nation-states. It seeks to facilitate both theoretical and applied research on regionalism, political economy, international and domestic conflict, corruption, austerity and resistance, and state transformation. Based in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, the Cluster also maintains links with other academic staff and postgraduate students at the University of Limerick and other academic institutions.

Members of the Global Transformation and Conflict Research Cluster are actively involved in the International Studies Association, the European Consortium for Political Research, the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies, the British International Studies Association, the Political Studies Association, the Canadian Political Science Association, and the Royal Irish Institute of International Affairs.

Members of the cluster have co-organised workshops and conferences on the topics of ‘Austerity, Crisis, and Social Fallout’ (Limerick, September 2013).

Cluster members also teach and coordinate the MA in International Studies, MA in European Politics and Governance, MA in Peace and Development Studies, In addition, Politics and International Relations and Public Administration and Leadership are available as core subjects on LM002 Bachelor of Arts and LM019 BSc.Social Sciences and many other courses as electives.

Faculty members

Rory Costello
Scott Fitzsimmons
Frank Häge
Neil Robinson
Owen Worth

 

PhD students

Bernard Banzie
John J. Hogan
Di Hu
Zoe Malone
Sarah Milne
David Moloney
Hama Munyikwa
Pieternella Pieterse
James Emmanuel Wanki

 

Recent cluster member publications in the area 

Fitzsimmons, Scott. (2015) ‘Just War Theory and Private Security Companies.’ International Affairs, 91 (5): 1069-1084.

Ryan, Caitlyn. (2015) Bodies, Power and Resistance in the Middle East: Experiences of Subjectification in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. London, UK: Routledge.

Fitzsimmons, Scott. (2015) Private Security Companies in the Iraq War: Military Culture and the Use of Deadly Force. London, UK: Routledge.

Worth, Owen. (2015) Rethinking Hegemony. Basingstoke: Palgrave.  

Fitzsimmons, Scott (with Allan Craigie and Marc-Andre Bodet). (2014) 'Canadian Public Opinion about the Military: Assessing the Influences on Attitudes toward Defence Spending and Participation in Overseas Combat Operations'. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 47 (3):503-518.

Fitzsimmons, Scott. (2014) 'The Market for Force in the United States' In: Markets for Force. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Worth, Owen. (2014) 'Stuart Hall, Marxism without guarantees, and ‘The hard road to renewal’'. Capital And Class, 38 (3):480-488.

Worth, Owen. (2014) 'The Far Right and Neoliberalism: Willing Partner or Hegemonic Opponent?' In: The Longue Durée of the Far-Right. London: Routledge.

Fitzsimmons, Scott (with Arjun Chowdhury). (2013) 'Effective but Inefficient: Understanding the Costs of Counterterrorism'. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 6 (3):447-456.

Fitzsimmons, Scott. (2013) 'Wheeled Warriors: Explaining Variations in the use of Violence by Private Security Companies in Iraq'. Security Studies, 22 (4):707-739.

Fitzsimmons, Scott. (2013) 'When Few Stood against Many: Explaining Executive Outcomes’ Victory in the Sierra Leonean Civil War'. Defence Studies, 13 (2):245-269.

Robinson, Neil (2013) 'Russian patrimonial capitalism and the international financial crisis' In: V. Feklyunina and S. White (eds). The International Economic Crisis and the Post-Soviet States. London: Routledge.

Robinson, Neil. (2013) 'Natural states and the development of democracy’' In: L.E. Grinin and A.V. Korotayev (eds). Evolution. Development within big history, evolutionary and world-system paradigms. Volgograd: Uchitel.

Robinson, Neil. (2013) 'Russia's Response to Crisis: The Paradox of Success'. Europe-Asia Studies, 65: 450-472.

Worth, Owen (with K. Murray). (2013) 'Building Consent: Hegemony, 'Conceptions of the World' and the Role of Evangelicals in Global Politics'. Political Studies, 61:731-747.

Worth, Owen. (2013) 'Polanyi's Magnum Opus? Assessing the Application of the Counter-Movement in International Political Economy'. International History Review, 35:905-920.

Worth, Owen. (2013) Resistance in the Age of Austerity. London: Zed Books.

Robinson, Neil. (2012) '‘Why not more conflict in the former USSR? Russia and Central Asia as a zone of relative peace?' In: Sussex, M (eds). Conflicts in the Former USSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, Neil. (2012) 'Introduction: the political problems of Russian capitalism' In: Neil Robinson (eds). The Political Economy of Russia. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Robinson, Neil. (2012) 'The edges of Europe: conflict and resistance in the eastern marches and the problematic nature of a “wider Europe”' In: G. Strange and O. Worth (eds). New Regionalism and the Left in Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Worth, Owen. (2012) 'Accumulating the critical spirit: Rosa Luxemburg and critical IPE'. International Politics, 49: 136-153.

Worth, Owen. (2012) 'Beyond the Third Way: regionalism and socialist renewal in Europe' In: Gerard Strange and Owen Worth (eds). European Regionalism and the Left. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Worth, Owen (with Gerard Strange). (2012) 'Global Change, European Regionalism and the Left' In: Gerard Strange and Owen Worth (eds). European Regionalism and the Left. Manchester: Manchester University Press.