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Rekawek

Kacper Edward Rekawek, PhD Student (MA Lodz, Poland)
krekawek01@qub.ac.uk

Thesis

My PhD project is a comparative study of Official and Provisional republican politics and militarism before and after the ceasefires of 1972 and 1994 respectively. I am mostly interested in the problems which both factions of republicanism faced in their post - ceasefire situations and trying to answer the questions dealing with the validity of their "farewells to arms". Moreover, I am also looking at and for possible similarities, on top of obvious differences in scope, size and significance, of the two factions’ political and military evolutions. 

The Provisional faction has already been compared on numerous occasions with all the major violent organisations throughout the world, including Al Qaeda. However, it has never been compared in a more localised setting with other republican groups which attracted less academic or journalistic attention. In my view this could be done on a thematic analysis basis which would aim to produce a qualitative study of the two factions. 

Areas of Research

My research interests include contemporary British and Irish politics; counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in different economic, political and social settings; the rise of militant Islamism from late 1970s onwards and the contemporary politics and history of the Central/Eastern European region post 1945.

Supervisors:  Professor Richard English and Professor Paul Bew