Press Clippings

For various press clippings, please see http://alexgordypress.blogspot.com/

Weekly Economic Briefings on Kuwait

Starting in April 2006, I have been writing weekly briefings on various aspects of the political and economic situation in Kuwait. Operating within Kuwait, these are based on background research and a series of interviews I conducted as part of my overall work for Oxford Business Group, the leading English-language research and consultancy company in the region.

For access to these briefings, please visit http://alexobg.blogspot.com/

BA 3rd year undergraduate essay: The 'Falklands Factor' and Psephological debates

The importance of the ‘Falklands Factor’ in the outcome of the 1983 General Election in Great Britain.

This paper analyses the current psephological debates raging in the academic litterature, and utilises the 1983 General Election in the United Kingdom as a case study. The issue of the 'Falklands Factor' is a useful window through which to analyse competing theories of electoral change.

For the essay, visit http://falklandsfactor.blogspot.com/

Various Articles written for the Communications Department

A selection of business-oriented project stories:

visit http://cd000.blogspot.com/

MA thesis: The Political Economy of Free/Open Source Software

Masters of Arts in International Relations University of Sussex: Graduate Thesis

September 2005

The Political Economy of Governmental Adoptions of Free/Open Source Software: Evolving Global Property Relations

For a full pdf copy of this paper, contact alexgordy@gmail.com
Alternatively, visit http://cooptation.blogspot.com/ for an online version

Abstract

This study approaches the issue of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) from a historical materialist perspective, as it relates the historical dynamics of the software industry to the recent trend of government adoptions of FOSS.

Starting with a brief analysis of Government’s role in fostering a software industry and the backlash this provoked in the form of ‘free software’, the study proceeds to a theoretical discussion of how differing conceptions of property, as represented by proprietary software and ‘free software’, have been integrated into the mechanisms of profit accumulation through the depoliticised ‘open source’ alternative.

Within this framework, insight will be provided into the role of the state regarding this profit accumulation. Our third and final section will focus on more contemporary issues of governmental adoption of FOSS, relating this discussion to the dynamics of the ‘Free Software’ (FS) and ‘Open Source’ (OS) movements, which comprise FOSS.

This analysis of the software industry is enlightening insofar as it reflects the wider relationship of Government to high-technology sectors of the economy, which is viewed increasingly as a merely technical, rather than political, issue.

Undergraduate Dissertation: The Political Economy of Thatcherism

The Political Economy of Thatcherism:

Undergraduate Dissertation

Course Tutor: Dr. Roger Middleton

The implications of the Pergau dam scandal in terms of the power-play of commercial and developmental interests in the allocation of Aid-and-Trade Provision (ATP) funding

Alexander Gordy (History BA 3rd Year) - 19th April 2004

For a full pdf copy of this paper, contact alexgordy@gmail.com
Alternatively, visit http://pergaudam.blogspot.com/ for an online version

I. INTRODUCTION

The Pergau dam scandal, involving the funding of a huge developmentallydubious hydroelectric dam in Malaysia, revolved around the linking of arms sales tooverseas aid, in the form of Aid-and-Trade Provision (ATP) funding. The linkage came topublic attention when a senior civil servant in the Overseas Development Administration(ODA), Sir Tim Lankester, voiced objections over the funding of the un-economical andenvironmentally damaging dam in 1991. His objections were over-ruled by the thenForeign Secretary, Douglas Hurd. Several investigations into the reasons for the UnitedKingdom (UK) government’s proceeding with the funding of the dam project in Malaysiaeventually threw the spotlight on the linkage of the two deals, which was against statedgovernment policy.

Through the investigations into this scandal, both by parliamentary committees and newspapers, the operation of the government’s decision-making process, in the context of the ATP, was opened up to public scrutiny. Interest groups such as Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs), backed by influential academics, used the scandal to highlight the links between arms transfers and aid provision in the Conservative government’s record.

In our analysis of the Pergau dam scandal, we set ourselves the task of chronicling the primacy of commercial interests over developmental ones at every stage of the approval process for ATP funding. We will use the Pergau affair to illustrate the fact that the functioning of ATP is predisposed to favour commercial interests over developmental ones. The question of the power-play between commercial and political interests in the allocation of aid reflects a continuing dichotomy within the Conservative party of Thatcherite free-market advocates on the one hand and paternalist ‘One Nation’ proponents on the other. The implications of the scandal and its review in the High Court also link into the increasing shift towards judicial oversight of ministerial decisions.

MA paper: The Politics of Exchange Rate Pegging

University of Sussex,

Department of International Relations and Politics,

MA Programme.

18th of April 2005

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GLOBAL FINANCE

Course Tutor: Dr. Anastasia Nesvetailova

The politics of exchange rate pegging; was Sterling doomed upon entry to the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System (EMS) at a central rate of DM2.95?

For a full pdf copy of this paper please contact alexgordy@gmail.com

Alternatively, visit http://exratemechanism.blogspot.com/ for an online copy

Curriculum Vitae

For an online version of my CV, please visit http://alexgordycv.blogspot.com/

Alternatively, request a pdf version from alexgordy@gmail.com