Links-of-the-Month

The ESI was launched in June 1999 in a Sarajevo café by a multi-national group of practitioners and analysts with extensive experience in the regions it studied. The research and policy institute was created in recognition of the need for independent, in-depth analysis of the complex issues involved in promoting stability and prosperity in Europe.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies is the only postgraduate academic institution in the United Kingdom devoted to the study of the Commonwealth. The Institute is the national and international centre of excellence for policy-relevant research and teaching on Commonwealth studies, focusing on North-South relations, global peace and security, development, good governance, human rights and the politics of civil society. The ICS also offers an MA in Human Rights.

GESIS is an institution that provides substantial, nationally and internationally relevant research-based infrastructure services. Based upon extensive research programs GESIS provides services in data (archiving, provision, processing, research, social monitoring), methodology (consultation, developing complex methods), and specialized information (databases containing information on social science literature and research activities).

The Centre for European Reform has issued a new Policy Brief on The new Commission's economic philosophy. The report states that the broad orientation of the Commission's economic policy is unlikely to change. It will continue to defend the single market, free trade and a tough competition policy. However, the economic policies of the Commission and the EU as a whole will inevitably reflect the economic backdrop of slow growth and high unemployment.

Standpoint’s is a new critical right of centre magazine whose core mission is to "celebrate our civilization, its arts and its values - in particular democracy, debate and freedom of speech - at a time when they are under threat. The latest issues looks at universities in crisis in the UK due to  government budget cuts - which could see the closing of up to 30 institutions as well as massive cutbacks.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) publishes a quarterly periodical based on the field of social and human sciences. SHSViews provides news about the work conducted by UNESCO under the themes of Ethics of Science and Technology, Human Rights, Social Transformations, and Sport.

In 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman set out to create a new form of organization of States in Europe, to be called 'a supranational Community' now seen as a key step towards the creation of the modern European Union. A meeting was held in the Spring to mark the 60th Anniversary of this famous Schuman Declaration, organised by The Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust (WPCT).

A new highly useful web-based resource created by the progressive publications Resurgence and openDemocracy, organisations dedicated to the evolution of politics, ecology, and social justice. The new Dictionary of Ethical Politics sets out to be a lexicon of new political thought centered on the relationship between ethics and politics.

The Europaeum has been a long supporter of the online publication openDemocracy.net, often linking to appropriate provoking contributions in our e-Bulletins. It publishes high quality news analysis, debates and blogs about the world, with a strong commitment to human rights and democracy. The founder. Anthony Barnett, took part in our recent Federalisms conference, and it is hoped to post one or two reports on their website.

The Forum for European Philosophy is an educational charity which organises and runs a stimulating programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events based at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Oxford University. All events are free to the public, and include lectures, conferences, reading groups and book forums.

The Forum Transregionale Studien (Forum for Transregional Studies) is a Berlin-based research institution supporting projects on a variety of topics that combine systematic and region-specific topics and pursues them from a transregional perspective. The projects at the Forum aim to contribute to strengthening collaboration between researchers from different disciplines, institutional structures, and national or regional research traditions in Berlin.

The European Science Foundation (ESF) offers many opportunities to set up seminars, attend conferences and receive study bursaries. Most are linked to the sciences, usually applied sciences, but there are also important opportunities for the Arts and Humanities. Thus, the Young Researchers Forum has announced its Spring 2011 Humanities Workshop on the topic: Changing Publication Cultures in the Humanities.

The Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary has emerged as a foremost interdisciplinary institution in central Europe, expressly designed as an international place of learning. Founded in 1990 by George Soros, initially under the care of our own Paul Flather, who was founding CEO and Secretary-General, and others from Oxford and Paris as well as leading dissident academics, it is now an established institutions with an assured future, delivering a range of degree programs at Master and Doctoral levels.

A new website has recently been launched at Oxford based on a British Academy-funded research project on Contemporary Islam in the Balkans. The results of this two-year project are published on the http://balkanmuslims.com/ website, which contains papers, photos and links relating to the role of Islam and Muslim communities involved in the politics of South East Europe.