Publication by Rory Butcher a member of the Imperial in Imperial History cohort 2018/19

Congratulations to Rory Butcher who has published his first article in The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict and Warfare. Rory’s article is an assessment of the British Government’s response to the evolving nature of the Northern Irish “Troubles” during its first decade. Written as an expansion upon earlier research, it is intended as a brief overview of three key shifts in governmental policy during this period – with evidence drawn from both contemporary and modern scholarship. Rory discusses the implementation of “Direct Rule”, the so-called “Normalisation” of the conflict for the public of Northern Ireland, and the gradual reliance on the local paramilitaries in the place of the British Army’s deployed forces. All were implemented with varying degrees of success over “The Troubles”, with the initial stages of the conflict acting as the catalyst for these three shifts. Recent scholarship of these events has endeavoured to situate them within the larger global community; reference is made to the impact on wider diplomatic issues, along with the impact on the communities in Northern Ireland itself. Warfare is entering an increasingly common guerrilla dimension in the twenty-first century, and so Rory argues that an examination of this conflict closer to home can give insight into appropriate and reactionary responses by governments to the challenges posed by this style of warfare.

Rory’s article is open access and can be read here: https://jicw.org/index.php/jicw/article/view/654

An MA Christmas Tale…

By George Styles

The 2017/18 has seen a new cohort of students tackle the MA in Imperial History convened by Dr Giacomo Macola. The four students taking the MA, Katie, Ralph, Brad, and myself, and our Sleeper agent in the Modern History MA, Dan, decided, after finishing Giacomo’s Themes and Controversies in Imperial History, to buy him a present and a card for Christmas.

The time for gift-giving was chosen to be after the research seminar of 14 December delivered by Dr Alex Sutton from the University of Chichester on ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism, Idealism and the State’. Back to Christmas however, in this belated yuletide blog post, the seminar had a surprise guest in attendance: Santa Claus himself!

We are sure Giacomo wracked his brains as to the identity of the guest and was very surprised, when all was said and done and the man behind the whiskers was revealed. It was, in fact, aspiring actor Nicholas Kemp who kindly offered to deliver our gift to Giacomo.

You must be wondering what we got him? What do you get the man who has everything? What do you get the man who, by his own admission, ‘hates mandatory fun’? To quote Katie: ‘you get him something you know he doesn’t want.’

If you have had more than a ten minute conversation with Giacomo you know that the answer to that search is Orientalism by Edward Said. Not only did we get him Said’s famous book, but also we made him a custom card, a Christmas version of his picture here on the blog. We all signed the card and there was even a ‘dedication’ to Giacomo from Said.

It’s safe to say he enjoyed the card and the gift, Photos of the opening and his reaction can both be found here. The book and the card and both can be found in Giacomo’s office, which is honestly a little better than we expected!

Hopefully this won’t be the last post on this blog by Students for the 17/18 MA but it is certainly the first so we hope you enjoyed it and look forward to the next one.