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Mark Field, University of Portsmouth, reflects on his experiences as a first PhD student, discussing the motivations behind his research into the European Commission's expert groups, as well as the challenges it has raised.

What is the most important lesson that the European External Action Service should take from the 'Arab Spring' ? In an interview by Cristian Nitoiu from Loughborough University, Professor Michael Smith evaluates the development of the External Actions and the goal of creating a coherent strategic diplomacy within the European Union’s foreign policy.

By Pablo Calderon Martinez Adjectives such as ‘paradigmatic’, ‘inspiring’, ‘impressive’ and ‘remarkable’ have been widely used in academic circles to describe Spanish democracy and the process that successfully established it; referring to a “Spanish model” of democratisation was common practice when analysing what Huntington referred to as the Third Wave of transitions to democracy. The […]

We are thinking about the future for the platform and we need the help or our readers! We would very much appreciate if you could spare a few minutes and  complete our short survey here. The main questions of our evaluation are quite straightforward:  How can we improve ideasoneurope regarding content, design and technology? What […]

A guest post by Jacob Christensen* in our series of blogging academics. Check out the rest of the series here and here.  If you are an academic (European studies, social science, humanities etc) with a blog and you would like to share your views about blogging and social media here –  please contact us via […]

By Simon McMahon The Arab Spring has defined contemporary world politics, and has been interpreted by many as a new beginning for societies in North Africa and the Middle East. It has also in many ways challenged the common perceptions of policy makers in Europe. But in Libya, Colonel Gaddafi continues to try and hold […]

Guest post by Anamaria Dutceac Segesten* “Publish or perish”: Academia has its own jungle law. To thrive (or even to survive, it feels like occasionally) one needs to produce texts and in this case I mean specifically texts as words (images, videos, audio presentations are not yet acceptable). Articles, book chapters, monographs, conference papers, working […]

By Pablo Calderon Martinez The international community was, once again, caught by surprise and overwhelmed by the speed and intensity of the events unfolding in one of the most volatile regions of the world. The much-maligned Bush “doctrine” claimed that, after a short war, Iraq would become a functional Western-like democracy, whose prosperity, freedom and […]

Guest post by Anamaria Dutceac Segesten* When I first told my undergraduate students that we will have a blog connected to the one of their first semester courses, they looked at me with incredulity. A blog? Why, a blog can have nothing to do with academia, right? Well, wrong, was my reply. I have written […]

By Simon McMahon The English Defence League (EDL) has over the last year been building an increasing amount of support across the UK, particularly in England. Formed in the town of Luton in 2009 as a response to Muslim protest groups’ criticism of British soldiers, the EDL is an organisation boasting thousands of members and […]