Sameera Khalfey’s research while affiliated with University of Portsmouth and other places

The war in Syria, and its ongoing analysis, is burdened by a variety of seemingly irreconcilable political motivations, actions, ideologies, religious affiliations, and power dynamics of multiple state and nonstate actors. In this context, various moral perspectives appear to come into direct conflict, underpinning the actions of the actors involved and to varying degrees influencing their competing political interests. Is there a coherent dialogue of moralities between the rivals involved or is Babel reborn with moral claims being launched but with no real exchange of meaning involved? On Syria, the answer is a complicated mixture of both but within which are important and as yet underappreciated patterns of convergence and divergence. This article looks at the leading states involved as well as the role of individuals to elucidate this pattern of overlap and difference in the morality discourses surrounding Syria. Ultimately, it is argued that a moral Babel is not reborn in Syria: there is sufficiently common moral language being used by all sides for a degree of shared meaning to emerge. The challenge is for the protagonists to listen and really hear what is being said and work with those commonalties as tools toward peace.

The war in Syria, and its ongoing analysis, is burdened by a variety of seemingly irreconcilable political motivations, actions, ideologies, religious affiliations and power dynamics of multiple state and non-state actors. In this context, various moral perspectives appear to come into direct conflict, underpinning the actions of the actors involved and to varying degrees influencing their competing political interests. Is there a coherent dialogue of moralities between the rivals involved or is Babel reborn with moral claims being launched but with no real exchange of meaning involved? On Syria, the answer is a complicated mixture of both but within which are important and as yet underappreciated patterns of convergence and divergence. This paper looks at the leading states involved as well as the role of individuals to elucidate this pattern of overlap and difference in the morality discourses surrounding Syria. Ultimately, it is argued that a moral Babel is not reborn in Syria: there is sufficiently common moral language being used by all sides for a degree of shared meaning to emerge. The challenge is for the protagonists to listen and really hear what is being said and work with those commonalties as tools towards peace.

This article introduces an innovative approach to the role-play teaching technique: one driven by the presence of substance incentives. We analyse the effectiveness of this incentive-driven role-play approach in the engagement of students with International Relations and Security Studies seminars. We assess its usefulness on multiple fronts. We propose that incentive-driven role-play is an effective method of teaching that caters for students’ different learning styles, particularly in theory topics. Its interactive component makes theory tangible for students, allowing them to grasp why certain actions are taken and the consequences of these actions. The use of incentives was found to be important in ensuring motivation, participation and providing easily understandable outcomes that can be transferred to the theory they were studying. This article also highlights the practicalities involved in incentive-driven role-play exercises, noting the importance of clear instructions and precursor lectures on the subject matter.