The power of debate: Reflections on the potential of debates for engaging students in critical thinking about controversial geographical topics

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in on 23 January 2012, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/1080/03098265.2011.619522This article reflects on the potential for teaching through debate in geography. The arguments are illustrated through a debate about whether asylum seekers should be allowed to work in the UK.This book was submitted to the RAE2014 for the University of Chester - Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology: Geography and Development Studies

Values and Ethics of Global Civil Society Actors: Insights from a Survey and Content Analyses

This is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The publisher version is available on its site.This study examines values, ethics, and principles of conduct that underlie activities of global civil society organizations. It uses an international web-based survey, and a content analysis of the codes of conduct for exploring views of global civil society actors active on global issues and participating in global civil society events. The findings of this analysis highlight many similarities in the ways global civil society organizations of different forms and origins define their goals, values, ethical standards, and responsibilities. The normative consensus discerned in this research is limited in scope, however. It revolves around a particular, liberal, view of civil society. The study discusses results of the survey and content analyses in light of the current debates on the nature of global civil society and its relation to the system of states and the global market

Covert operations, wars, detainee destinations, and the psychology of democratic peace

We explore US covert forcible actions against democratic governments and their citizens and show that inter-democratic use of covert force is common and can be accommodated within the theory of democratic peace. Grounded in the Perceptual Theory of Legitimacy, we argue that democracies are constrained by public perceptions of their legitimacy from overtly aggressing against other democratic states. When democracies desire to aggress against their democratic counterparts they will do so covertly. We test the assumptions of the theory and its implication with (1) laboratory studies of the conflation of democracy with ally status, and (2) historical analyses of covert militarized actions and prisoner detention, which show that US forcible actions, when carried out against democracies and their citizens, are carried out clandestinely