ABOUT US

The Global Politics Network is an unique international internet platform where a community of critically-minded students as well as young professional from all over the world can 'meet' to exchange ideas and theories, read and publish innovative and exciting papers in a new internet journal dedicated to global politics and find excellent first-hand information about international careers and professional development.

The Idea
The Global Politics Network was founded by students to address three crucial problems that most ambitious and dedicated students and even young scholars face:

1) There is a horrific lack of opportunity for students to exchange ideas and theories on an academic level with others beyond one's own university, city, country or continent. Similarly, it is almost impossible for most students to access new research material of like-minded students especially if it does not find its way into a book. Students that do not feel fully at ease with their own department's academic approach to global politics usually suffer an additional disadvantage.
‡Hence what is needed is a meeting place for this community of critical students

2) Although some conventional journals occasionally accept articles by graduate students the sad truth is that many valuable ideas which could be further developed never reach the public's eye and are being lost and forgotten.
‡Hence what is needed is a journal that stimulates and preserves these ideas thus promoting new debates and empowering students.

3) At some point all students try to build a academic or professional career. However, they always face three common problems. Despite the many online job sites and career centre databases what often makes the difference is firstly specific and relevant information that goes beyond stating the 'usual suspects' (i.e. UN, MNCs, Amnesty), secondly the inside perspective of the job or academic program which only insiders can give you and thirdly 'career talk' with other people to exchange insights and advice.
Hence what is needed is a place where one can find information about a much broader range of jobs and programs, get first-hand insider information about these and have the opportunity to exchange career information and experiences.

The Research mission
Apart from addressing these three major problems the Global Politics Network also aims to embrace and fulfill a particular research mission:
We believe that 'the world is in motion'. Whether we think the world has changed in the last decade or just our perception of it, old methods, concepts and approaches need to be critically re-thought. The global politics network believes that nurturing and promoting a generally more open, interdisciplinary, less eurocentric and more self-reflective agenda is one essential step towards addressing the new challenges in the theory and practice of global politics. Hence it is our aim to encourage new and unconventional thinking which is too often being marginalized but which we see as crucial for the furthering of our understanding of the world and our place within it.

The Concept
One of the most important elements of the global politics network is to provide students and young practioners with the opportunity to publish critical and exciting work and thus to 'empower' them. Too many valuable and innovative ideas in essays and theses which could spark new approaches or debates are lost and forgotten because they are produced for a single professor at worst and the local library’s PhD/M.A. section at best. But even if articles of that academic quality are being published it is usually in small journals, unavailable to most people around the world. Hence through ‘Globalics’ our online journal we try to remedy this situation by publishing carefully selected papers (normal essays, MA and edited PhD theses) while also publishing short provocative and innovative debate papers which are meant to spark discussion about conventional views of seeing global politics.
Another crucial concern of the global politics network is with graduate’s problems in the world of international careers and professional development. While more and more graduates seek work related to international issues information is often either overwhelming, non-existent or of low quality. Finding local human rights organisations in Ecuador which do not have web presence, getting first-hand information about the unofficial selection criteria of the UNHCR in Berlin or the Economist and learning about the academic climate in Columbia’s Department of Political Science are often crucial but unobtainable without any contacts. For this purpose a career section was created which not only provides links and information about jobs, internships and graduate programs but more importantly offers unique first-hand assessments of academic institutions, companies and other employers by people who actually have been inside.
One main element in building a community is providing the opportunity to interact with each other. People want to criticise articles, argue over global politics, exchange advice on job-hunting or just find others interested in their particular research topic, theory or world view. While some of features of the website will have interactive elements, the main virtual meeting place is the forum which serves all these needs.

The people behind the global politics network
The global politics network was founded by students from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UK) and the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich (Germany). It is international and already counts over 20 representatives in Universities (inc. LSE, Oxford and Columbia) across Europe and the US while further expanding. The global politics network is legally represented by the Global Politics Network e.V., a non-profit organisation registered in Munich, Germany.

The managing directors are

Karim Bakhit bakhit@globalpolitics.net

Julia Mager mager@globalpolitics.net

Sophie Warttmann warttmann@globalpolitics.net