Network of Activist Scholars of Politics and International Relations (NASPIR)

Founding and growth

The stated purpose of NASPIR is ‘to promote British politics and international relations scholarship which supports non-violent action against oppression.’

NASPIR was founded on 11 December 2002 in the form of a Yahoo email group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naspir/.  It has open membership and a public email archive.
As of 5 December 2003, it had 179 members and an email archive of 478 postings. The content of those discussions can be viewed on NASPIR’s yahoo archive. The email discussion list is moderated by Eric Herring and Doug Stokes.

The members include academics, research students, taught course students and non-academic activists, mainly in the UK but also abroad. Its convenor is Eric Herring. Members include Dibyesh Anand, Bela Arora, Andrew Chitty, David Cromwell, Anna Stavrianakis, David Miller, David Hudson, Doug Stokes, Jutta Weldes,  Ken Booth, Maureen Ramsay, Martin Shaw, Michael Randle, Milan Rai, Piers Robinson, Neil Cooper, Ruth Blakeley, Emma Mayhew, Christina Rowley Thomas Diez, Adriana Sinclair, Claire Moon, Glen Rangwala, Julian Saurin, Paul Williams, Brian Doherty, Emma Bircham, Giovanna Bono, Geoffrey Barr, Gwynn Bassett, John Sloboda, Juha Jokela, Jan Selby, Tony McKeown, Mark Curtis and Stuart Hodkinson.

Mainly due to the efforts of its webmaster, Tony McKeown This Email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it but also with the assistance of Anna Stavrianakis, Ruth Blakeley, Doug Stokes and Eric Herring its website http://www.naspir.org has developed steadily. It includes:
·  member pages (set up and maintained free of charge by NASPIR’s webmaster)
·  a research section (with superb work on many key issues such as Britain and the arms trade, the US war of terror in Colombia, and Western policy on Iraq)
·  a section on teaching (including syllabi and methods)
·  a soon-to-be-launched members-only section of successful funding applications
·  expanding, thematically organised links
NASPIR can be joined by going to NASPIR’s email list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naspir/, going to its website http://www.naspir.org, or contact its convenor Eric Herring This Email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
NASPIR does not have a formal decision-making structure beyond the positions of convenor, webmaster and email list moderators, and does not have a formal system of appointment or succession for the existings positions.
The register of domain-name and web-site have been funded by the Department of Politics, University of Bristol, for a small sum (around £100). Recognition of NASPIR by the Political Studies Association and British International Studies Association (see below) gives us access to funds for activities which fall within the remit of NASPIR’s presence within those two professional associations.

Recognition by PSA

NASPIR was accepted into PSA before it was accepted into BISA, and so this report deals with that recognition first. PSA recognition came with a string attached, namely that NASPIR’s presence in PSA be called the Specialist Group on Political Activism.

When NASPIR first applied for PSA recognition, PSA executive expressed concern for its charitable status and stated:

The Executive believed that the group's proposed remit exceeded that of academic study. Specifically, the Executive objected to paragraphs two and five of the proposal, advocating 'non-violent action' which, it felt, took the group beyond academic study towards that of a pressure group/movement, which, whatever its merits, is not the role of a PSA specialist group.

NASPIR replied as follows:

The purpose of NASPIR is not nonviolent action against oppression, but scholarship in support of such action. There is no unified NASPIR political position beyond the view that oppression is wrong (hardly controversial in a liberal democracy).

NASPIR is modelled explicitly on APSA's Caucus for a New Political Science which says on its website http://www.apsanet.org/about/sections/section27.cfm that 'The purpose of this section is to help make the study of politics relevant to the struggle for a better world.' The Post-Structuralism and Radical Politics Specialist Group of the PSA states that 'Post-Structuralists may not necessarily be left-of-centre politically but this group is'. We are interested in understanding and advancing the aims of social movements that also want to broaden the conception of politics and identity that underpin Western democracies.' We pointed these things out in our original submission and noted that 'There is already precedent for the acceptance by both the PSA and APSA of comparable groups which harness scholarship to particular political commitments.' The PSA Executive seems not to have taken this into account at all. It is hard to see how the Post-Structuralism and Radical Politics Specialist Group is acceptable to PSA but NASPIR is not.

The PSA Post-Structuralism and Radical Politics Specialist Group: states that it aims to promote post-structuralism within and beyond PSA and that 'its members are united by advancing a critique of universalism and rationalism and a perspective on politics that emphasises matters of identity and subjectivity.' In contrast, NASPIR does not aim to promote post-structuralism or any other specific school of theory.

The PSA's response was to accept our text unchanged, but require that the Specialist Group be called the Specialist Group on Political Activism. After some discussion (which you can read in NASPIR’s email archive), NASPIR accepted the name change for NASPIR’s presence in PSA. However, we may choose to revisit this issue via a close examination of the Charity Commission’s rules and an assessment of the experiences and activities of other relevant bodies such as Oxfam. If you have anything to say on this matter, please post to NASPIR’s email list.

Activities within PSA

At present, NASPIR’S activities are very much focused within BISA rather than PSA. There are no NASPIR panels planned for the PSA annual conference 5-8 April 2004 at the University of Lincoln. However, we expect that NASPIR will become more active within PSA as it grows.

Recognition by BISA

NASPIR was accepted into the BISA as a Working Group. However, BISA stated that it was concerned about the wording of NASPIR’s statement of purpose in relation to BISA's charitable status which prevents 'political' activity. BISA made the following requests for changes in wording. The text that BISA wanted removed is in bold and in square brackets and the text that BISA wanted inserted is in capital letters:

You may have noticed from BISA's draft conference programme that it has a new Working Group: the Network of Activist Scholars of Politics and International Relations (NASPIR). We will be having a lunchtime meeting at the BISA conference in Birmingham - all welcome: details to be announced.

The purpose of the Working Group is to promote British politics and international relations scholarship RELATING TO/CONCERNING [which supports] non-violent action against oppression. The premise of the Working Group is that, at present, the academic discipline of politics and international relations in Britain FREQUENTLY [primarily] serves the function of diverting attention from or legitimating [the] oppression. [carried out by the elite of which it is a part.] SUCH [The] oppression may be domestic or international, and may take many forms, including physical violence or denial of economic, social, cultural or political rights. Those carrying out the oppression may be states, corporations or other non-state actors. It already has 159 members, and has also been recognised by the UK Political Studies Association as the Specialist Group on Political Activism. The membership is a mix of politics and international relations academic staff and research students (many of whom are members of PSA and/or BISA); academic staff and students from other disciplines; and non-academic activists. NASPIR's members include Andrew Chitty, Anna Stavrianakis, Bela Arora, Dibyesh Anand, David Miller, David Cromwell, David Hudson, Doug Stokes, Eric Herring, Jutta Weldes, Ken Booth, Maureen Ramsay, Martin Shaw, Michael Randle, Milan Rai, Piers Robinson, Neil Cooper, Ruth Blakeley, Emma Mayhew, Thomas Diez, Adriana Sinclair, Claire Moon, Glen Rangwala, Julian Saurin and Paul Williams.

The work of the Working Group is likely to develop in terms of clusters of research on various topics - such as British foreign policy, anti-war and anti-militarist activities, gender politics, the politics of the news media, the environment, democracy, and the relationships between academia and oppression. These will be complementary to various existing BISA Working Groups, and it is hoped that membership of this Working Group will overlap with that of others. The Working Group welcomes [non-academic activists,] research students and taught course students as well as established scholars. The Working Group will develop mutually supportive links with, and welcomes as members, others who share its perspective. These links will extend across the disciplinary boundaries within academia, outside of academia and internationally.

An important objective of the Working Group is to ensure that those in academia come through their professional training with their [activist] values intact and are able to protect and promote those values in their professional lives. As what we choose to study and how we choose to study it are unavoidably political, the traditional academic pretence of neutrality is unsustainable. Scholarly standards are enhanced by explicit acknowledgement of that situation and by accounting for how
one deals with it.

After some discussion (which you can read on NASPIR’s email archive), NASPIR decided for now to accept the changes in wording for NASPIR's presence in BISA. However, we may choose to revisit this issue via a close examination of the Charity Commission’s rules and an assessment of the experiences and activities of other relevant bodies such as Oxfam. If you have anything to say on this matter, please post to NASPIR’s email list.

Activities within BISA

The BISA annual conference at the University of Birmingham, 15-17 December 2003 includes the following NASPIR-organised panels:

Panel One: ‘Western Policies and Emancipatory Alternatives’
Anna Stavrianakis (University of Bristol) (Chair)
Ruth Blakeley (University of Bristol) - 'Fatal Combination: Comprehensive Economic Sanctions and Targeting Electric Power in Iraq'
Eric Herring (University of Bristol) (Convenor) and Glen Rangwala (University of Cambridge) 'The Political Impact of Evaluations of the Humanitarian Situation in Iraq: From Sanctions to Reconstruction'
Adriana Sinclair (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) 'The Emancipatory Potential of Law: Theory Versus Practice'
Alex Pritchard (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) 'Property, Citizenship and International Politics: A Proudhonist Approach'.

Panel Two: Critical Perspectives on Britain, Weapons and War
Eric Herring (University of Bristol) (Chair, Convenor)
Emma Mayhew (University of Bristol) 'Blood Brothers: The Close Relationship between New Labour and Arms-producing Companies'
Anna Stavrianakis (University of Bristol) 'The Role of British Arms Trade NGOs in Global Governance'
Paul Williams (University of Birmingham) 'New Labour and Other People's Wars'
Neil Cooper (University of Plymouth) 'Re-evaluating Contemporary Arms Control Theory and Practice: A Critical Security Studies Perspective'

Panel Three: ‘War on Terror’
Dominic Kelly (University of Warwick) (Chair)
Bela Arora (University of Wales, Swansea) (Convenor) 'Authoritarian Without Authority: America's Hegemonic Crisis'
Peter Kerr (University of Birmingham), 'The Role of Discourse and the War on Terror'
Paul Rogers (University of Bradford) 'The “War on Terror”: Current Status and possible Development'
Jan Selby (Aberystwyth) “The War on Terror and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”

NASPIR member Doug Stokes (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) also organised this round-table, though not formally under the NASPIR banner:
‘Critical Security Studies, Peace Studies and Activism: A Common Agenda in an Age of Terror?’
Chair and Convenor: Doug Stokes (University of Wales, Abersystwyth)
Paul Rogers (University of Bradford)
Ken Booth (University of Wales, Aberystwyth)
Eric Herring (University of Bristol)
Michael Dillon (University of Lancaster)

Further past, continuing and potential activities

· Mapping out of relevant research agendas attractive to undergraduate, Masters and PhD students and which will lead to individual or collaborative research projects. The collaboration could be amongst academics or could include non-academic activists.

· Securing funding for research projects. This could involve mutual support in working out how to retain a normatively worthwhile research agenda while still securing funding from bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council.

· Developing resources for monitoring news media coverage of current issues on which Working Group members have expertise in order to disseminate their research.

· Exchanging information about how to develop contacts with and provide support for sympathetic journalists, NGOs, officials and MPs in the development and dissemination of Working Group research.

· Putting together special issues and special sections of academic journals. It will be important to create political space in leading mainstream journals. This may be more valuable than setting up a separate journal, although that is also a possibility (Within the American Political Science Association, the Caucus for a New Political Science has its own journal New Political Science). The October 2003 issue of the Review of International Studies contains a NASPIR-member forum on Noam Chomsky and World Politics, with papers by Eric Herring (University of Bristol) and Piers Robinson (University of Liverpool), Doug Stokes (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) and Noam Chomsky himself (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). It also contains a paper by NASPIR non-member Mark Laffey (SOAS).

· Organising sets of panels for academic conferences. NASPIR has three panels at the December 2003 BISA conference in Birmingham, and NASPIR member Doug Stokes has organised a round-table on ‘Critical Security Studies, Peace Studies and Activism: Common Agendas in an Age of Terror?’. There will also be a substantial NASPIR-member presence at the ISA in Montreal in March 2004.

· Developing ongoing working relationships between clusters of members who specialise in particular issues and the relevant activist organisations.

· Making members aware of employment opportunities such as research assistantships, post-doctoral fellowships and lectureships.

· Maintaining a list of speakers with speaking tours of institutions to disseminate and encourage research. The speakers may be academics and non-academic activists.

· Developing libraries of syllabi and bibliographies.

· Providing a forum to discuss how to ensure that scholarship will be enhanced by NASPIR’s engagement with activism and its abandonment of the myth that academia can be objective.

· Developing NASPIR’s own ‘indicators of esteem’ as they were called in the Research Assessment Exercise, such as annual prizes for best thesis, article, book and scholarly contribution to activism.

· Coordinating research-based rebuttal in the media or in academic journals of misrepresentations of the roles of Britain and its allies in world politics.

· Running launch events for noteworthy books, articles, reports or actions which promote the goals of NASPIR.

· Writing a textbook.

· Linking up to groups such as the American Political Science Association’s Caucus for a New Political Science. Its website http://www.apsanet.org/about/sections/section27.cfm says 'The purpose of this section is to help make the study of politics relevant to the struggle for a better world.' This is very much in line with aims of NASPIR.

· Developing online study resources and promoting them outside formal education.

· Promoting research which leads to a better understanding of why some academics engage in scholarship aimed at supporting non-violent action against oppression and other do not. This is could include an exploration of the extent to which professional training generally represents a process of ideological disciplining.

Eric Herring (Convenor)

5 December 2003