Introduction from the Editors-in-Chief

In the five months that it has taken to construct the sixth edition of the Cambridge Journal of Political Affairs, both British and global politics has continued to develop rapidly, often in unexpected and alarming ways. In times such as this, the Journal’s mission—to provide space for young people to advance new ideas and provoke meaningful discussions amongst wider student bodies—is more important than ever. Set up only three years ago, the Journal aims to be a small part of the project to dismantle the ‘ivory tower’ of academia through the ethics of transparency and inclusivity, cultivated through a student-led and blind peer review process.

Building on the work of previous issues and editorial teams, we are proud to present a varied collection of undergraduate articles on important and oft-pressing political topics. The number of submissions that the Journal received this issue was unprecedented, and we are humbled to be part of a publication with such great and international interest. This process is only possible alongside the creative engagement of all authors involved, and we thank them for their collaborative work throughout this issue. Of course, the Journal would also not come to fruition without the hard work of our Managing, Senior and Junior Editors, who we thank for their commitment and thoroughness over the last few months. We would also like to extend our thanks to Sai Hou Chong, who has now been the Journal’s Graphic Designer for three consecutive issues and continues to provide us with original and creative content.

During the production of this issue, we were pleased to again hold and publish interviews with academics as part of our endeavour to cultivate community and better dialogue between academics and students in universities. These are available on our website. We thank Emma Sunesen, our Interviews and Academics Officer, for conducting these interviews.

This is the first year that the Journal has been physically published in addition to being digitally available, and we hope that access to publications will continue to widen as the Journal succeeds further in the issues to come. In keeping with the Journal’s established commitment to embrace a broad definition of ‘politics’ and to promote creative thinking amongst undergraduate authors, the articles in this issue address a vast range of topics.

We begin with Comparative Politics. Linn Leon Junge opens the issue with an analysis of a particularly topical issue: the European energy crisis. Junge begins by historicising France and Germany’s respective energy systems, noting that the French model has proven much more suited to recent issues; he then contextualises the energy crisis with reference to the EU’s long-term energy integration goals. In the next article, Ciara McGarry draws our attention to Ukraine and Belarus, an under-studied pairing for comparative studies of nationalism. With reference to both pre-Soviet and Soviet history, McGarry identifies a number of important factors - mythologisation, the dissemination of local-language texts, ethnic homogeneity - in explaining the relative weakness of Belarussian nationalism.

All three articles in International Relations take constructivist approaches to their chosen topics. In our first IR article, Ben Brent develops a distinction between tacit and deliberate absences in IR-related imagery. Analysing photographs, television advertisements, and maps, Brent points out that such absences reinforce information and power asymmetries between nations. Next, Carl Lawrence introduces reputation theory to the subject of international conflict, suggesting that the duration of conflicts is dependent on combatants’ reputation for aggression. Closing the International Relations section is Chloe Lee’s article on China’s attempts to mobilise members of the Chinese diaspora in Britain as ‘public diplomacy actors’. Primarily focusing on the use of social media, Lee evaluates the success of such attempts, and ends by suggesting that sub-national (not national) institutions have proven most successful.

In Political History, Dominic McGinley provides a stimulating snapshot of mid-to-late twentieth century British politics through his analysis of immigration policy between the 1950s and 1970s. Invoking the parallel of Mons Sacer, he argues that the liberal immigration policies of the 1950s became increasingly untenable as right-wing elements of the Conservative Party developed more popular alternative narratives.

Both Political Philosophy articles grapple with tricky ethical issues. Marta Bax carefully explicates the idea of moral actualism and defends it from the criticism of Caspar Hare. Bax then questions how we might apply such insights to politics and policy making, particularly in regard to the climate crisis. Conor Walsh confronts a similarly contested topic, that of collective impact. In contrast to the general scholarly consensus, Walsh argues that collective harm must be attributed only to the collective, not to individuals; pursuing this line of argument across the issues of consumerism, voting, and climate change, he provokingly reframes everyday ethical dilemmas.

Political Sociology proved to be an especially popular field for this issue; of a number of high-quality submissions, we have selected four topical and methodologically-diverse articles. Kirill Bedenkov’s article focuses on the role of the British media in creating a political identity for Leave voters. Taking an implicitly comparative approach, Bedenkov determines that pro-Leave media played a major role in the referendum’s outcome and, more broadly, sheds light on the role of mediacracy and media democracy in the present moment. This is followed by a second article exploring Brexit: through surveys and a series of interviews, Harris Columba Sidefin assesses the impact of Brexit on attitudes towards violence in Northern Ireland. In doing so, he provides valuable insight into the identity-based nature of recent unrest, highlighting the need for better understanding of these identities in future negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol. In the third article, Erin Stoner turns to the topic of the alt-right in Europe and North America, and the myriad ways in which it attracts young people. Comparing existing anti-extremism strategies, Stoner calls for educational systems to actively combat radicalisation, particularly through what she calls ‘weatherproof ’ strategies. Finally, Justin Weir analyses Mexico’s political developments, characterising recent violence there as the result of ‘double fragmentation’ - that is, the simultaneous fragmentation of state and criminal power. Weir subsequently explores the impact of this ‘double fragmentation’ on Mexican democracy and stability, particularly under the leadership of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

We hope that you enjoy reading, and perhaps take some meaningful insights from, the sixth issue of the Cambridge Journal of Political Affairs.

Danielle Salt & Laura Burland-O’Sullivan

Editors-in-Chief