IIEA Talks

On 13 January 2024, Taiwanese voters went to the polls and elected Lai Ching-Te of the Democratic Progressive Party. Amongst the key points of contention in this election was Taiwan’s future relations with China and how to navigate an increasingly contested geopolitical environment. This expert panel reflects on Taiwan’s election and explores the potential implications its result may have for Taiwan, for the Indo-Pacific, and for the globe. About the Speaker: Nick Marro is the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Lead Analyst for global trade. Based in Hong Kong, he has spent over a decade in Asia analysing trade policy. Nick also concurrently helps to lead the EIU’s award-winning coverage of China and Taiwan. In that role, he shapes the EIU’s view on China-Taiwan relations, including how to prepare for and mitigate the risks attached to cross-Strait tensions. Nick previously conducted trade research in Beijing with the US-China Business Council. He graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in Foreign Affairs and Chinese and holds graduate certification from the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Centre for Chinese and American Studies. Dr. Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy is Affiliated Scholar at the Department of Political Science of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Associated Research Fellow at the Institute for Security & Development Policy (ISDP Stockholm), Head of the Associates Network at 9DASHLINE and Consultant at Human Rights Without Frontiers in Brussels. Based in Taiwan, Zsuzsa is Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National Dong Hwa University in Hualien. Between 2008 and 2020 Zsuzsa worked as a political advisor in the European Parliament. In May 2019 she published her book, Europe, China, and the Limits of Normative Power. Zsuzsa is a regular commentator in international media outlets.

Traditionally, in the UK, women have been more likely than men to vote Conservative, whilst men have been more likely than women to vote Labour. Yet in recent general elections, this gender gap in voting behaviour has reversed, with women now leaning to the left of men in their vote choice. As the gender gap has shifted, parties have increasingly recognised the importance of women voters and have competed for their votes. The lead up to the 2024 General Election is no exception and has seen women voters at the fore of the election campaign, with the ‘Stevenage Woman’ – a fictional key voter – at the centre of Labour Party strategy. In this presentation, Anna Sanders explores the key issues in the run-up to the 2024 UK General Election, and their implications for gender differences in voting behaviour. About the Speaker: Anna Sanders is an Assistant Professor in British Politics at the University of York. Her research brings together the areas of gender, policies and voting behaviour, with a core interest in how policy offers shape gender gaps in vote choice. She has published on these themes in the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, and the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. She is currently working on a monograph, ‘Winning Women’s Votes: Gendered Policies and Campaigns in Britain’.

The 1949 Statute of the Council of Europe requires Member States to accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms, on pain, in cases of serious violations, of expulsion. One of the principal means for achieving greater unity and safeguarding the signatory States’ common heritage was and is the European Convention on Human Rights and its innovative mechanism for the collective enforcement of individual rights. 75 years on, President O’Leary discusses what sort of challenges the European Court of Human Rights is facing as it seeks to uphold democracy, the protection of human rights, and the rule of law across 46 States. Further, President O’Leary addresses what challenges the Court’s judicial work poses for national systems and why, despite some legitimate criticism of the Convention system, we in Europe should not lose sight, at this critical point in history, of what that system was established to do: namely, to monitor compliance with the minimum standards necessary for a democratic society operating within the rule of law. About the Speaker: Síofra O’Leary has been a Justice of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), elected in respect of Ireland, since 2015. Having served as a Section President and Vice-President since 2020, she was elected President of the Court in 2022. Prior to the ECtHR, President O’Leary worked for many years at the Court of Justice of the European Union. She is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and was previously Assistant Director of the Centre of European Law at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Emmanuel College.

'War in Europe: how threatened are Russia’s neighbours?' With full-scale war in Europe now into its third year, the continent’s security environment has been transformed since February 24, 2022. This is most obviously the case for the primary victim of Russia’s aggression – Ukraine – but also for many of its near neighbours. In this edition of IIEA Insights, how the Russian threat is perceived is assessed by a Ukrainian living in Ireland since just after the invasion, an Irishman based in Helsinki and a Polish security expert in Warsaw. Eoin McNamara is a research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs specialising in transatlantic relations; NATO; and security in northern and eastern Europe. He has published in the NATO Review, the Revue Militaire Suisse, the Defence Forces Review and has commented on security, defence and international affairs in outlets such as BBC World, Euronews, the Times of London, the New York Times, El Pais and the Irish Times. Robert Pszczel is a senior fellow at the security and defence department of the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. A former diplomat with many years of service in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both in Warsaw and in Brussels, he was a member of the national team for accession talks with NATO in 1997. From 1999 (until his retirement in 2020) he served on NATO’s International Staff in Brussels and as the director of the NATO Information Office in Moscow. Olena Tregub heads the secretariat of The Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee. The Committee, which is a joint initiative of Transparency International Defence and Security and Transparency International Ukraine, aims to reduce corruption and increase accountability in the Ukrainian defence sector. She has previously worked for Ukraine's Ministry of Economic Development, at UN Headquarters in New York and as a lecturer in international relations.

The European Union is often depicted as a cradle of judicial activism and a polity built by courts. In a keynote address based on his award-winning book, The Ghostwriters, Dr Tommaso Pavone shows how this judge-centric narrative conceals a crucial arena for political action. He argues that, beneath the radar, European integration unfolded as a struggle between judges who resisted European law and lawyers who pushed them to embrace change. About the Speaker: Dr Tommaso Pavone is Assistant Professor of European Politics at the University of Toronto and Visiting Researcher at the ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. His research traces how interactions between lawyers, courts, and policymakers impact political development, social change, and the rule of law in Europe. He received his PhD in 2019 from Princeton University.

In his address to the IIEA, F. Gregory Gause III discusses how while the Gaza War has its own unique history and immediate causes, it is also representative of a broader crisis in the Middle East. This crisis has its roots in the weakening of state authority in the Arab world. He also discusses how state collapse has empowered non-state actors to challenge state authority and struggle with their domestic rivals for control over the fallen Arab regimes. The political vacuums created by the collapse of state authority invited outside interventions, as local groups sought allies. In Prof Gause’s view, the long-term solution to the crisis is the reconstitution of central authority in these weakened states. However, this process will be long, difficult, and violent. About the Speaker: F. Gregory Gause III is Professor of International Affairs and John H. Lindsey ’44 Chair at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the international politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. He has published three books, most recently The International Relations of the Persian Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

In this IIEA event, which has been organised to mark International Women's Day, an expert panel shares their perspectives on the recently agreed EU Directive to combat Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The panel discusses the various measures contained within the Directive and assesses whether the Directive goes far enough in placing enough onus on EU Member States to tackle violence against women. Speakers at this event include:  •   Frances Fitzgerald MEP, Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for the Directive •    Sarah Benson, CEO, Women’s Aid •    Rachel Morrogh, CEO, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre

Professor Anu Bradford discuss her new book, Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology, which analyses the struggle between the US, China, and the EU in shaping the realm of digital technologies and in influencing digital policy regulation worldwide. Professor Bradford assesses how this contest interacts with the concentration of economic and political power within a small number of technology companies and explains how this competition may have profound implications for society and the future of democracy. About the Speaker: Anu Bradford is Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organizations at Columbia Law School and director for Columbia’s European Legal Studies Center. Bradford is the author of The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World which was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by Foreign Affairs. Her most recent book: Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology was published in September 2023, and listed as one of the Best Books of 2023 by the Financial Times.

In his remarks to the IIEA, Dr Declan Downey discusses how since the promulgation of its Constitution in 1947, Japan has forsworn war and the use of nuclear weapons, maintained military neutrality, and pursued a pacifist foreign policy. Yet, it has not adopted ‘the ostrich pose’ regarding recent and emerging challenges to international stability. Over the past decade, successive governments have augmented national defence capabilities, and most recently, on 16 December 2022, the current government of Premier Kishida launched its new national defence policy,  ‘The Three Strategic Documents’, which has received considerable public support. This presentation explores how this transformation has occurred, how it may be implemented, and the challenges that it would face. Further, Dr Downey also discusses how Japan may provide pointers as to how another pacifist and neutral island nation off the coast of a major continental world power might learn how to meet the same challenges of current global realpolitik. This event has been organised in conjunction with the Embassy of Japan, Ireland. About the Speaker: Declan M. Downey was awarded the Ph.D. in Legal & Diplomatic History from the University of Cambridge in 1993. Since 1995, he has been lecturing in European and Japanese Diplomatic History at University College Dublin, where he coordinates the BCL degree programme in Law with History. In 1995, he initiated the first ever Japanese History course at degree level in Ireland at UCD. He also supervised the first ever doctoral dissertation in Japanese Studies in Ireland. A former trustee of the Chester Beatty Library (2012-2017), he is closely involved with Japanese cultural and academic events in Ireland. In 2009, he was the first Irish citizen to be elected to membership of the Spanish Royal Academy of History. Since 2018, he has been an Assessor for the Publications Board of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. His extensive publications and leading role in major international research projects have been recognised with international distinctions and awards, including Austrian and Spanish state honours, and the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation in 2020. In Autumn 2022, Dr Downey was the first Irish academic to be awarded the prestigious Gaimushō Visiting Scholarship, which he took up in Tokyo during his semestral research leave from UCD last Spring.

Great Yarmouth in Norfolk is probably a town you have never heard of, but it has a large population of EU migrant workers who came to the UK before Brexit to work in chicken factories and on farms. We wanted to know about their lives especially their working conditions. The working conditions were not good, and harassment and bullying were common. We were interested to know what they did about this, did they actually enforce any of their employment rights and if not, why not? In her address to the IIEA, Professor Barnard answers the question: “What Happens When Enforcement Doesn’t Happen: The Implications for the Individuals, for Other Employers and for The State.” About the Speaker: Catherine Barnard is Professor of EU law and Employment Law and senior tutor and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is the author of EU Employment Law, The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms, and European Union. She is a member of the European Commission funded European Labour Law Network (ELLN). She is also a Senior Fellow of the UK in a Changing Europe (UKCE). Her work focuses on the legal issues around migration, together with the legal and constitutional issues associated with Brexit, in particular examining the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.