Politics & History Impact Strategy
The Department of Politics and History facilitates high impact research in a broad range of subject areas, including political theory, public policy, comparative politics, international relations, security and war studies, intelligence analysis, international political economy as well as political history, military history, history of political thought, maritime history and cultural history.
At the centre of the Department’s impact strategy is the awareness that societies, cultures and politics are connected across time and space. By understanding not only their histories and heritage, but also contemporary political actors and influences, the Department aims to provide new answers to the challenges and concerns that we are facing today.
Engagement with governments, communities and the private sector plays a central role in our efforts to produce policy relevant research and present our findings to potential end users. To maximize impact, our dissemination strategy targets actors across many levels, including local, national and international events and publications.
International Expertise and Engagement
The Department of Politics and History has world class expertise across a broad range of subject areas and geographical regions. It prides itself on a strong track record of international engagement with public and private actors. Department of Politics and History staff regularly act as advisers, consultants and speakers in many locations across the globe, including on politics and history in the United Kingdom, Europe and the European Union, American and the Caribbean, Asia and Australia as well as on important global issues such as climate change, military diplomacy, and international security and interventions.
Recent examples of our national and international research and impact activities and engagements:
- We have spoken to the European Parliament, NATO and the British Defence Staff College on the geopolitical rise of China and India
- We have given evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee on the arrangements for campaign finance for the proposed referendum on Scottish independence
- We have spoken to the Labour Party on the lessons to be learned from the United States presidential campaigns of Obama and McCain
- We have organized a series of local events on and around Brunel University campus as part of the ESRC Festival of Ideas in November 2012 which will examine cultural heritage and its contemporary presentation
High Impact Research
Research in the Department of Politics and History not only spans the globe, but also concerns important contemporary issues and problems. Recent high-impact research projects have delivered, for example:
- Proposals for an international regulation of Private Military and Security Companies to the European Commission and EU Parliament
- Advice to the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) on how to improve the transparency of party funding
- A two-daysymposium on the challenges of multiculturalism with scholars, parliamentarians and public intellectuals from America and Europe
- Knowledge transfer on horizon scanning as a method for intelligence gathering to the British Ministry of Defence
Policy Advice and Consulting
A close collaboration with government, industry, social and environmental stake holders is central to the Department’s impact strategy. Already at the research funding stage the Department of Politics and History seeks the involvement of public and private end-users where possible.
Major contact points for policy advice, consultancies, research collaboration, dissemination and impact generation are the Department’s Research Centres and Groups. These Centres and Groups organize a wide variety of local, national and international events to present and discuss new research findings with academics, practitioners and the community. They also provide information to the media and public.
- The Magna Carta Institute connects politics, law, business, the media and academia on issues of public policy and civil society
- The Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies is an inter-disciplinary research centre bringing together engineering, law, economics and political science on questions of intelligence as well as national and international security
- The Isambard Centre for Historical Research focuses on the history of transnational connections in the modern period and links academics, practitioners and the wider public over the discussion of heritage
- The Social and Political Thought Research Group involves academics, public figures and citizens in debates, film series and conferences on topical issues such as the right to resistance and revolutions
- The Brunel Heritage Research Network is an inter-disciplinary research network provides a forum for exchange between scholars, practitioners and the wider public on issues of heritage, memory and public history
Contact
For further information on the Department’s Research and Impact Strategy contact the Departmental Impact Coordinator, Professor Elke Krahmann, elke.krahmann@brunel.ac.uk
