Durham graduate Sir Graham Brady has returned to Durham to speak at our School of Government and International Affairs.

We are ranked 51-100 in the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024.

Professor Jutta Bakonyi, who works in our School of Government and International Affairs, looks at how a memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland announced on 1 January 2024 set off diplomatic rows in the Horn of Africa – and beyond.

Professor Anoush Ehteshami was recently invited to give evidence to the UK Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry hearing into the UK’s engagement with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Roger Mac Ginty is a Professor in Defence, Development and Diplomacy in our School of Government and International Affairs.

The Leibniz Peace Research Insti­tute Frankfurt (PRIF) is awar­ding this year's Ernst-Otto Czempiel Award to poli­tical scientist Roger Mac Ginty. In doing so, the jury recog­nizes his 2021 mono­graph “Every­day Peace: How So-Called Ordi­nary People Can Disrupt Vio­lent Conflict”, in which Mac Ginty explores how people in conflict zones can resist and disrupt tota­lizing war logics in every­day actions - even in combat.

On International Day of Peace, 21 September, Professor Stefanie Kappler from our School of Government and International Affairs reflects on the politics of peace in relation to art and, in particular, the work of South African artist and activist Haroon Gunn-Salie.

Almost a year ago, the death of young Mahsa Amini in moral police custody, sparked widespread unrests across many parts of Iran, capturing the attention of the world towards the plight of Iranians, especially women. Dr Marzieh Kouhi Esfahani, whose research focuses on women in the Muslim world and international relations of the Middle East, analyses the situation today.

On 16 September 2022, Mahsa Amini died in police custody which sparked protests across Iran. One year on, Anoush Ehteshami, Professor of International Relations in our School of Government and International Affairs, takes a look at what has changed.

Professor Jutta Bakonyi from our School of Government and International Affairs joins Nasir M. Ali and Ayan Yusuf Ali from the University of Hargeisa to discuss energy development in Somaliland.

Our status as a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence has been affirmed once again in the QS World University Rankings 2024, being ranked 78th in the world.

The field trip to Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina offered a great opportunity to see realities of a post-conflict state and the ways in which nations are trying to come to terms with their pasts. In the Easter holidays of 2023, a small group of us on the DGSi programmes (Defence, Development & Diplomacy and Conflict Prevention & Peacebuilding) spent 10 days exploring Belgrade and Srebrenica: visiting museums, speaking to representatives from NGOs and learning more about the history of the region.