Ben Clift

We are Hiring! We have a 3-year teaching fellow position in IPE. Come and work with an amazing group of IPE scholars and fabulous students in the Department of Politics and International Studies.

warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

deadline is approaching - July 31st.

Please spread the word

It’s remarkable how rarely our “public service broadcaster” now asks serious questions about the “small boats crisis” that do not reflect Farageist framing

One is: how can refugees fleeing persecution actually get to the UK safely so that we can uphold our commitments under international law?

Extremely wise words and applicable widely!
Wishing someone in Number 10 put this above their desks

We are dismantling American higher education & scientific research & health care & all the other things to fund concentration camps

Great to host this workshop on Epistemic Politics with @benclift.bsky.social at Warwick yesterday

Counterpoint: new Public First research shows every UK resident working adult (on a full time equivalent basis) is £466 a year better off on average as a result of international students. So let’s just publicise that instead of levying them
www.publicfirst.co.uk/calculating-...

This level of ‘analysis’ from the Minister in charge of higher education does not fill me with enormous confidence.

Tools like ChatGPT are known to often provide imprecise, incorrect or even blatantly false information. If you ask those tools to provide sources, they might invent them. There are a lot of ethical challenges with using generative AI tools. Those are related to, for instance, data privacy (how the data were obtained or where the data you are feeding the tools come from and whether you are authorized to share them) and environmental costs (how energy-intensive the use of gen-AI is). I do not believe generative AI will make you a better student or a better professional. Maybe in the short run it will help you conduct some tasks more quickly, which could be useful. As a non-native English speaker, I sometimes use it to rewrite my sentences because the right word doesn’t always come to my mind quickly enough. But my (AI-free) training and career have taught me enough to know whether the sentences proposed have the meaning I want to give them. Doing research is inherently about taking the time to find the right data, sitting with them to come up with an accurate analysis and then taking more time to reflect on it. Research is supposed to be slow. In the long run, using generative AI will disincentivize you to analyze what you read, to write, or to think. Those activities are what you learn in a political science programme. If you are just here to get a degree to get a job, maybe you don’t think you need to acquire those skills (after all, you have generative AI). And at the junior level, maybe you don’t. But at the senior level, you most certainly do. Again, think long-term. Also, if you stop using your brain, well, let’s just say that probably won’t lead to a favourable outcome.

How I'm thinking about gen-AI in a university context. Thoughts?

I'm on my way to the Senate floor to talk about the assault on my colleague, Senator Alex Padilla.

This is a horrifying moment in our nation’s history.

Maybe quit voting for their fucking bills then? Maybe quit confirming their nominees? Maybe shut down the Senate with the many procedural tools available to you? Maybe do something other than send sternly worded letters?

Incredible

When a cabinet member announces "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.

We are marching to Senator Thune’s office. There must be accountability for the detainment of a Senator. This is not normal.

As a four-decade veteran of the daily journalism business, let me tell you: Every competent political reporter in this country knows that Trump is trying to establish a dictatorship. The industry's shame is that so few journalists will say so, and the ones who do lose their jobs.

US Senator Alex Padilla was wrestled to ground after raising questions during US Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem's press conference, in a dramatic escalation of tensions in California. www.ft.com/content/93f1...

[Séminaire d'axe] The Disappointments of ‘Billions into Trillions’ & IMF Contradictions on Climate Finance In 2015 the IMF and World Bank announced its ‘billions to trillions agenda’ a developmental framework which recognised that market forces alone would fail to build crucial infrastructure in Developing...

I’m looking forward to presenting my research (co-authored with Sahil Dutta at City University) on the IMF and Climate Finance at Science Po in Paris this Thursday, 12.30-2 CET. Also on Zoom.

thanks to Matthias Thiemann for organising

You can register here:-
www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etude...

YouTube video by The Daily Show Carole Cadwalladr - Broligarchs, AI, and a Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State | The Daily Show

“They are building a techno-authoritarian surveillance state. We can see that happening in real time. This is huge amounts of data on every single person in America that can and will be used in opaque & unaccountable ways—and it is terrifying.”

Must watch interview with @carolecadwalla.bsky.social.

Thames Water chair could face questions after comments to MPs on bonuses Exclusive: Sir Adrian Montague told select committee paying bonuses out of emergency £3bn loan was insisted upon by creditors

They don’t fear questions. 

They fear an end to the gravy train. 

The only way to stop the rip off is to return water to where it belongs: public essentials run for public benefit.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Why Labour shouldn’t shift right The answer to these bruising election results is to govern as the party of social democracy.

Hear, hear once again, @johnmct.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

The government is legitimising Reform with anti-migrant rhetoric while alienating long-time Labour voters by shifting to the right.

This won't defeat the far right, nor will it improve lives ruined by austerity - it's clearly a lose-lose strategy.

This obsession is with “young men turning to the right” is everything that is wrong with the discussion about the far right.

It is not just an inadequate read of what is happening, and a bias towards the male norm, but it also normalizes the far right and obscures support for inclusive politics. 🧵

Our programmes bring together students from around the world to explore global challenges. Be part of a diverse, dynamic, and inclusive academic community.

Find out more about Postgraduate study with us at buff.ly/4aZXoLO.

Image of the Climate Politics ‘Big Questions’ Conference

PAIS recently hosted a half-day conference for UG and PG students on Big Questions in Climate Politics.

The event, held at the University of Warwick, featured panels on the economy and democracy. PAIS academics took part alongside external speakers working on climate policy.

Nodes for Socialization | Melanie Brusseler & Chris Hayes The UK’s carbon for difference scheme and the future of derisking energy

“Public development of renewable capacity ... isn't a suspension of the profit imperative but its subordination to social need”

@brusselermel.bsky.social @chrismwhayes.bsky.social on the UK’s CfD scheme & derisking energy.

🔗 @phenomenalworld.bsky.social
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/nod...

Green Indicative Planning | Phenomenal World With derisking regimes falling short of meeting governments' pledges to reach net zero carbon emissions, what lessons can we learn from governance through indicative planning? Historically strong coor...

"The green state must rise from the ashes of the derisking state... plan for a future of resilience or resign ourselves to chaos and the perils of climate adaptation under authoritarianism." www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ind.... @cornelban.bsky.social #decarbonization #planning #ClimateSky

great work @rosiecollington.bsky.social - nature is the next frontier of #WallStreetConsensus

The Trump regime is now using US Attorneys to intimidate academic journals by sending them letters demanding they explain how they ensure ‘viewpoint diversity.’ Journal editors should be public about this and coordinate to refuse to comply with these fascist tactics.

Calling for growth is not the same as delivering it More cash would certainly make the government's life easier, but it has proved consistently elusive.

THE NEW STATESMAN: The relentless pursuit of growth fails to deliver, exposing the fragile foundations of our economy and revealing a pressing need for a paradigm shift towards resilience and well-being.

- by Tim Jackson

Reeves to reveal biggest UK spending cuts since austerity in spring statement Labour MPs uneasy as chancellor prepares even deeper reductions that economists say will harm key services

*Gold standard vibe intensifies* www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The Trump Doctrine - "chaotic realism" - could "augur not only the end of the Transatlantic Alliance but the emergence of the USA as a national security threat to Europe" (!) writes Ian Kearns. Should seek to protect/rescue the relationship, as far as is possible [post-Trump?]. But it may not be