Tusk’s Shakespearean tweet shows the gravity of the UK’s EU vote and its potential consequences for both parties

At 11:35 AM on 2 February 2016, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, tweeted: ‘To be or not to be together, that is the question…’ A link to Tusk’s European Council letter outlining his proposed ‘new settlement for the United Kingdom within the European Union’ was included. Jennifer Jackson-Preece suggests that this curious Shakespearean moment invites reflection on the dynamics and significance of Brexit politics on Twitter

Britain risks securitising its future relationship with the EU

On September 22, Theresa May's speech in Florence ostensibly outlined a way forward on Brexit. Is the £20bn on offer too much, too little or too late? Are promises to protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK real or merely rhetorical? What will happen next - renewed dialogue with Brussels or a bust-up with Boris and other Brexiteers? ..

Divorce doesn't have to be bloody difficult

Framing Brexit as overwhelmingly negative prevents productive dialogue. Jennifer Jackson-Preece who has recently introduced the Generation Brexit project on the blog, which gives voice to the millennial generation, addresses ways of developing a less confrontational Brexit identity

An undiscover’d country: the Brexit debate on Twitter reveals widespread democratic discontent

The topic of democracy is emerging as a core value that cuts across both camps active on Twitter in the referendum debate. Jennifer Jackson-Preece writes that the democratic discontent that’s represented there is directed at Westminster and Brussels alike. Her findings show that this kind of populist political resentment has been a growing feature of British and European politics for some time now. People have lost faith in the political elites, want greater democratic accountability, and believe the migration crisis requires urgent action

Is nationalism to blame for the post Brexit vote divisions?

The EU referendum was intended to answer, once and for all, the thorny question of Britain’s relationship with the European Union. But instead it has brought to the fore many even more fundamental questions. The status of Scotland within the United Kingdom is once again a pressing issue. Concern is growing over the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and with it the future of the Good Friday Agreement. The divide in values and outlook between a prosperous greater London and the rest of England, itself underscored by longstanding economic disparities, has become a looming chasm. Jennifer Jackson-Preece explains whether nationalism is to blame for these divisions

In-between identities and cultures: Ms Marvel and the representation of young muslim women

Can superheroes tell us something important about changing public attitudes towards young Muslim women? To answer this question, we compare how young people react to the portrayal of the superhero Ms. Marvel as a young Muslim woman in different locations in the Middle East and beyond. Our findings suggest that a superhero like Ms. Marvel can create a global discourse on gender and Islam that transcends specific cultural contexts

Introducing the Generation Brexit project – a chance for millennials to shape Brexit

Young people don’t vote – or that was the conventional wisdom. However, polling data from the 2017 UK General Election suggest an unprecedented youth turnout, especially when compared with the Brexit vote. Jennifer Jackson-Preece and Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz introduce the Generation Brexit project, which addresses the politicisation of millennials. This LSE-based project will give a voice to the millennial generation that until recently has been largely disengaged from politics

Rearticulating the friend–enemy distinction within states: the HCNM’s ‘new diplomacy’ of desecuritization

This article’s premise is that the practice of representatives of international organizations has something important to tell us about what it means to ‘do desecuritization’. The analysis provides a qualitative process-tracing of diplomacy by the OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM). It finds that ‘new diplomats’ can ‘do desecuritization’ differently. By rearticulating norms, as well as negotiating interests, the HCNM is able to escape the constraints imposed by security grammar and begin to transform the friend–enemy distinction within states. ‘New diplomats’ like the HCNM are capable of initiating such fundamental changes within states because their non-state platforms and institutional cultures transcend traditional international dichotomies of ‘us’ and ‘them’. These findings add nuance to our understanding of desecuritization as practice and suggest a novel methodological approach for studying desecuritization empirically

The Leave campaign won the final BBC referendum debate on Twitter

Yesterday BBC aired the last in its series of EU Referendum Debates from the Wembley Arena in London. The two hour event saw Boris Johnson and Sadiq Kahn go head to head for leave and remain respectively. The debate was watched by a studio audience of 6000 and televised live within the UK. While it aired, Jennifer Jackson-Preece collected a random sample of over 50,000 tweets with the hashtag #BBCDebate using the Discovertext platform

The security threat posed by ‘outsiders’ is becoming a central theme of French politics in the aftermath of Charlie Hebdo

How have minority communities in France been affected by the Paris terrorist attacks in January? Joseph Downing, Jennifer Jackson-Preece and Maria Werdine-Norris write that the response to the attacks has highlighted a long-term trend in French politics: the focus on issues of security and the perceived threat posed to the French nation by ‘outsiders’