Season 2 begins by taking a look at international humanitarian law (IHL) from a Marxist perspective. Critical approaches to world affairs help us re-evaluate established norms and mainstream narratives from a different viewpoint. What does a Marxist analysis of IHL share? What insights are there? Listen to our episode to find out more!

Andreas Piperides is a lawyer and doctoral candidate of International Law at the University of Glasgow. After graduating from the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he continued his studies at Leiden University, graduating with an LLM in International Law, and specialising in International Humanitarian Law, cum laude. Andreas has worked as a researcher of international humanitarian law at the Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum of the Grotius Centre for International Law at Leiden University. He has also worked as an intern at the embassy of Cyprus in Cuba, as a trainee lawyer at the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic of Cyprus, and as a military officer at the Cyprus National Guard.

The Conversation is back with a second season! As we find ourselves in between another pandemic wave bundle, we all struggle to understand deeper what’s happening now at a regional and international level. We use language, research, and different tools to explain how international affairs are shaped. From legal and ideological questions, to questions of identity, warfare, development, and global health, this season is all about the narratives currently present in international affairs.

This episode focuses on e-governance, identity, and cybersecurity in a small European state - Estonia. The Conversation hosted Logan Carmichael, a researcher specialising in governance and security policy in Estonia. We covered issues of governance, cybersecurity, identity and politics, as well as foreign policy.

Logan Carmichael is an Auckland, New Zealand-based researcher, with a particular focus on governance and security policy in Estonia. She holds a Master's degree in Conflict and Terrorism Studies from the University of Auckland, where she currently works as a professional tutor. In addition to forthcoming scholarly work on Estonia, Logan's recent work includes compiling the security profile on Estonia for the King's College London War Studies simulation on Russian aggression, and guest lecturing at the University of Auckland on issues related to Eastern Europe.

This episode focuses on the supposedly more 'uncomfortable' puzzles we should consider yet sometimes neglect in international politics and security. Looking at EU border security and beyond, Madita Standke-Erdmann from the University of Vienna walks us through how post-colonial and feminist approaches in International Relations understand these issues.

Madita Standke-Erdmann is a doctoral researcher with the project

"GBV-MIG: Gender-based violence against women migrants and refugees" (funded through Horizon2020 Gender-NEt Plus) and a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna. She obtained her MSc in International Relations Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2018. In her Ph.D. research, she focuses on feminist and postcolonial approaches to international security with a particular interest in border security practices. She looks at how, through vulnerability assessments of refugees, gendered and racialized logics of international security find expression in the European borderland.

We took a chance to reflect on various issues relevant to Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Gulf. With Alexandros Zachariades, PhD student at the LSE, we discuss foreign and economic policy, small powers, as well as Neoclassical Realism as a framework in International Relations.

Alexandros Zachariades is a PhD student in International Relations at the London School of Economics. He holds a BA in History and Politics from the University of Exeter and an MSc in International Relations Theory from the LSE. His research focuses on the Foreign Policy of Greece and Cyprus in the Middle East, with a particular interest in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. His work also explores the interconnection between Neoclassical Realism and small powers. He is conducting his research at the LSE with the support of an Onassis Foundation scholarship.

View his LSE profile at: https://www.lse.ac.uk/international-relations/phd-students/zachariades-alexandros

In this episode, we discuss with Nicholas James, a doctoral student in Politics at the University of Oxford, about the Radical Right, Authoritarianism, Populism, in Europe and Beyond, during and after the more intense lockdown measures for COVID-19.

This episode was recorded before the outbreak of protests in Belarus. Nicholas has actively taken part in an international academic campaign in support of Belarusian academics.

Petition link: https://www.change.org/p/the-government-of-belarus-letter-of-solidarity-to-belarusian-students

Video: https://youtu.be/CBt30YI9kcM

Nicholas is a second-year doctoral student in Politics at the University of Oxford. His research interests are comparative politics, democracy, and nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. His previous research and current dissertation explore how the ways which people think about their nationality influences their political decision making, including radicalization and extremism, and uses quantitative methods on survey data, computational and qualitative methods on elite-discourses in parliaments, and small-N case study approaches. Nicholas also holds a BA in Government and Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an MSc in Comparative Politics (Nationalism & Ethnicity) from the London School of Economics. He runs a podcast series on the radical right at https://rightrising.fireside.fm/

Within our wider theme of International Relations, Security Studies and Technology, we invited Dr Ruben Elamiryan, Head of the Chair of World Politics and International Relations at the Russian-Armenian University and Associate Professor at the Public Administration Academy, to discuss the deeper questions and research on national security architecture, cyber threats, and small states in the Eurasian region.

Dr Ruben Elamiryan is the Head of the Chair of World Politics and International Relations at the Russian-Armenian University. He is also an Associate Professor at the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia. He received his PhD in Political Science (specializing in International Relations) in 2014 from the National Strategic Research Institute, under the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

From September 2018 to August 2019, Dr Elamiryan undertook a Visiting Fulbright Scholar position at Princeton University, working on a project entitled, 'Eastern Partnership Countries on the cross-roads of the Eurasian Geopolitics: USA, EU, Russia, and China'. His research and teaching cover international relations, geopolitics, as well as international and cyber security, with focus on the South Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia.

In our third episode, we sat down with Dr Maria Hadjiathanasiou to discuss her new book "Propaganda and the Cyprus Revolt: Rebellion, Counter-Insurgency and the Media, 1955-59", published with I.B. Tauris. The book addresses an important gap on Cyprological studies on history, colonisation, and propaganda. It observes the counter-insurgency period of the British rule in Cyprus, offering a useful insight and a comparative scope of media tactics elsewhere during the colonisation period. The discussion also included a rather captivating thematic on Dr Hadjiathanasiou's Horizon 2020 project "Power through Attraction: British, Greek and Turkish Cultural Diplomacy in Cyprus, 1945-1974".

Visit the link for info and book reviews:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/propaganda-and-the-cyprus-revolt-9781788317313/

Preview the book in the Bloomsbury Collections:

https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/propaganda-and-the-cyprus-revolt-rebellion-counter-insurgency-and-the-media-1955-59/

Dr Maria Hadjiathanasiou is Senior Research Associate at the Diplomatic Academy and MSCA (Widening) Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and Governance, University of Nicosia. She holds a PhD from the University of Bristol in Modern History and has published in international, peer-reviewed academic journals. Dr Hadjiathanasiou has also served as an Assistant Editor to the Cyprological academic journal "The Cyprus Review" and is the Treasurer of the Cypriot Society of Historical Research. Her main research interests are cultural diplomacy and policy, British imperial and colonial history, insurgency/counterinsurgency studies, media studies and cultural history.

Industry 5.0? Society 4.0? In our second episode, we discuss with Nina Pejic, fellow PhD candidate and Research Fellow at the Centre of International Relations, University of Ljubljana, about the trends and priorities in digitalisation, artificial intelligence, security, and the market in China and East Asia. From issues of economic and policy importance, to disinformation, inequality and online technologies, this episode is all about China.

Nina Pejic is a PhD candidate and a Research Fellow at the Centre of International Relations, University of Ljubljana, leading projects with academic and industry partners on topics of AI, digitalization, infrastructure in connection East Asian region, focusing mostly on China. She is the Managing Editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development and a Co-Founder and CEO of the Gender Equality Research Institute. She is Head of Simbioza International, an international wing of Simbioza Genesis, Slovenian enterprise dealing with digital skills. Former COO of WeThink (2018-19) and former Research Fellow at the Slovenian Defense Research Centre (2017-2018).

We had the pleasure of hosting Mr Andreas Kettis, Head of the European Parliament’s Office in Cyprus to discuss the role of Parliament and the EU during crises. From the socioeconomic to the political implications, this podcast episode focuses on European institutions, Cyprus as a small state, and active civic engagement.

Andreas Kettis holds a University Degree in Political Science and Public Administration with specialisation in Public International Law and International Relations from the National and Capodistrian University of Athens. He pursued postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom with a merit scholarship from the Government of the UK. He holds a Master of Arts in Contemporary European Studies from the Sussex European Institute of the University of Sussex at Brighton. Mr Kettis was a career diplomat between 2001 and 2016, where he served under several roles in embassies, missions, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus. In September 2015 after succeeding in a European Competition he was appointed Head of Unit in DG COMM in the European Parliament and posted in Nicosia as Head of the Office of the European Parliament in Cyprus.