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'Hard but not Impossible: State Building and the Peace Process in Afghanistan'

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Afghanistan faces increasing challenges following the withdrawal of the bulk of international combat forces from 2012, sharp declines in foreign aid, legacy of the highly contested 2014 presidential elections, and the ability of Taliban insurgents to challenge central government control of the country. This situation, on the one hand, undermines state building processes and stabilisation while, on the other, it offers an opportunity to readjust the course of state building and the peace process.

The panel discussed the following questions:

Session 4: Topic Modeling

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Félix Krawatzek and Andy Eggers present a new podcast series in which they discuss Text in the Social Sciences.

[Please scroll down for podcast recordings.]

Language is essential to human interaction, and so is essential to understanding politics and society.

Researchers in many disciplines now employ a variety of methods to analyse large bodies of text in more systematic and reliable ways. These techniques are complementary to conventional reading techniques and may generate new insights for understanding texts or using text as data.

'Valuable journalism: what journalists need to know about audiences, but seldom ask'

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Fed Power: How Finance Wins

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The Federal Reserve is the most powerful central bank in the world. Without its central bank, the American economy would be subject to devastating fluctuations and instability. In maintaining this stability, The Fed dictates interest rates and designs bailouts without the usual checks and balances that pervade US policy making. Most commentators treat the Fed as an impartial referee exercising its independence to advance the best interests of America.

Wrong.

Russia in Chechnya and Syria: Pursuit of Strategic Goals

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In recent months, as Russia has stepped up its involvement in the Syrian civil war, there has been a flurry of analysis by Western observers of Moscow's possible objectives. On a spectrum of interpretations concerning Russian actions are claims that the Kremlin's main concern is ensuring the survival of the Assad regime. Others assume broader strategic foreign-policy goals, including no less than a "grand bargain" with the West over the Ukraine crisis and Moscow's re-admission into the club of Western nations.

Session 3: Scaling and Dictionary Approaches

Read more about Session 3: Scaling and Dictionary Approaches

Félix Krawatzek and Andy Eggers present a new podcast series in which they discuss Text in the Social Sciences.

[Please scroll down for podcast recordings.]

Language is essential to human interaction, and so is essential to understanding politics and society.

Twenty-five Years in the Search for Peace: Reflections on the Nobel Peace Prize

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Geir Lundestad was the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and from 1990 to 2014 was the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2015 Geir published a frank account of his 25 Nobel years. The lecture was based on Geir's book, which discussed what the Nobel Peace Prize can realistically achieve.

‘What does the failure of the Lords Bill 2012 tell us about the British Constitution?’

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Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, delivered a lecture entitled ‘What does the failure of the Lords Bill 2012 tell us about the British Constitution?’ Dr Norman graduated in classics from Merton College and twelve years later continued on to University College London, where he earned his MPhil and DPhil in philosophy. He is the author of numerous books in political theory, including a biography of Edmund Burke.

Measuring Government Policy with Text Analysis

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An index of assembly dissolution powers

Read more about An index of assembly dissolution powers

Assembly dissolution is a key dimension of constitutional variation in parlia- mentary democracies. It conditions the timing of elections, influences electoral accountability, and shapes how politicians bargain about government formation, termination, and policy. Yet, despite the importance of dissolution rules, no mea- sure exists that applies to the different actors involved in dissolutions and records the complexity of the rules sufficiently accurately to capture their substantive im- plications.

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