Rocio Ferro-Adams (please cite if using this work at Research Capacity)
I am a British independent Political Science Researcher and publish under Research Capacity Ltd (Word Press https://research-capacity.com). With a previous career in the UK Civil Service as a senior policy lead for over 10 Years, with a background in constitutional policy, justice and Parliament. Documents published here regularly, are protected under Research Capacity intellectual property rights. I first published on Academia Education in 2019, up to four papers these included:
Global Diplomacy: Brexit the United Kingdom’s position in the global economy. A re-examination of the state and diplomacy. The UK’s relationship with trade and Commonwealth countries.
How do bureaucracies matter to public policy? China's Health Services and the UK NHS.
The Art of Diplomacy in an era of open diplomacy. Public and Secret Diplomacy Negotiations. Has Diplomacy lost its resonance in a more open diplomatic world?
Since then, I have been researching and publishing on topics that cover diplomacy, history of colonialism, political theory and international relations theory, British Politics and international relations, as well as constitutionalism, and ideas about the British constitution. I use statistical and quantitative methods. I am bilingual in Spanish and benefited from an education in the UK from childhood. Including three universities, of Southampton, Warwick and SOAS, University of London; and hold a Bachelor of Social Science in Politics and International Relations, and two Masters Degrees, one in International Political Economy and another in Global Diplomacy.
Supervisors: Ashley Cox, Paul Stott, Simona Vittorini, Vishnu K, Timothy Sinclair, Chris Brown, and David Owen and Peter Clavert
Phone: +447540531991
Global Diplomacy: Brexit the United Kingdom’s position in the global economy. A re-examination of the state and diplomacy. The UK’s relationship with trade and Commonwealth countries.
How do bureaucracies matter to public policy? China's Health Services and the UK NHS.
The Art of Diplomacy in an era of open diplomacy. Public and Secret Diplomacy Negotiations. Has Diplomacy lost its resonance in a more open diplomatic world?
Since then, I have been researching and publishing on topics that cover diplomacy, history of colonialism, political theory and international relations theory, British Politics and international relations, as well as constitutionalism, and ideas about the British constitution. I use statistical and quantitative methods. I am bilingual in Spanish and benefited from an education in the UK from childhood. Including three universities, of Southampton, Warwick and SOAS, University of London; and hold a Bachelor of Social Science in Politics and International Relations, and two Masters Degrees, one in International Political Economy and another in Global Diplomacy.
Supervisors: Ashley Cox, Paul Stott, Simona Vittorini, Vishnu K, Timothy Sinclair, Chris Brown, and David Owen and Peter Clavert
Phone: +447540531991
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Thesis Chapters by Rocio Ferro-Adams (please cite if using this work at Research Capacity)
Also, a Coronation of King Charles III, which is likely to happen some months after the death of Her Majesty the Queen, Queen Elizabeth II. These are constitutional changes and new relationships which the new Prime Minister will have to manage in her first term of office and manage also the impact of changing relationships with the Heads of State of Commonwealth Countries, who more recently have begun to re-evaluate their role in supporting Britain’s Head of State. Outpouring of support on 8 September on the BBC, newspapers and international press and Heads of States upon her death, demonstrates continued support for a connect between Heads of Commonwealth States and Britain. The legacy inherited by Liz Truss has passed on to Rishi Sunak after just 49 days as PM and it will be for him to shape the agenda, leading with integrity and a better relationship with Parliament and the civil service.
Historically, the Republic of Ireland was a neutral state during the Cold War, Ireland which is not a member of NATO. This physical threat is, however, an attempt to exercise Russian power against NATO at its backdoor. This begins to look like an attempt to initiate war or to induce countries in Europe to react, knowing that Russia is not the only country able to use nuclear missiles and to expect mutual destruction. This process of thinking seems humanly irrational and would be undesirable for the survival of the human-race. So, there must be strategic military options, otherwise this becomes a game of calculated battleships and horrible destruction which must not happen.
This Review discusses three main themes since 15 May 2020. The creation of pandemic strategies. The stark social inequalities that have become so evident during this pandemic, and last, the increasing fracturing of politics which has provided evidence for greater deglobalisation and the need for solidarity amongst the international community, to deliver medicines, food and some economic security, in the form of crisis loans, increasing state social security. This paper focuses upon how Covid-19 impacts upon people worldwide, resources and how data and statistics are collected. How data is used and how social scientists explain the impact of the disease. Whilst mathematical modelling helps to inform and guide and inform control measures.
For the WHO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The World Bank and the UN, the European Commission and Africa and Latin America solidarity entails many different things, but international organisations within an international governance structure, wish to see arrangements for funding are fair and given to the most vulnerable in the global community.
The failures and successes of containment of the disease within states, is often perceived by fatality rates amongst 100K of population. It has become an emotive and human response to assess a pandemic which has resulted in over 25.12 Million reported cases and in the deaths of over 844,312 people . Larger countries like the USA, Brazil, and Mexico and India, predictably produce the greatest fatalities, and cases, as population densities and urban areas create some of the right conditions for the virus to transmit more easily. The USA has had 181,689 fatalities, amongst a population of 328.2M, and 5,899,540 confirmed cases . Brazil has had 120,462 fatalities, amongst a population of 209.5M, and 3,846,153 confirmed cases . Whilst India with the largest and densely populated state of 1.353Bn has had 64,469 fatalities and 3,621,245 confirmed cases. But the United Kingdom with a smaller population of 66.7 M, has lost 41,499 people and has 334,471 confirmed cases . The picture is therefore complicated, and each state has demonstrated a divergence in policies and outcomes. For instance, small countries such as Costa Rica, have done very well to suppress the illness, with very low death rates reported (418 deaths amongst 39,699 cases) . States which have done remarkably well include Sweden (5,821 deaths amongst 83,958 reported cases) , Denmark (621 deaths, amongst 16,700 cases) , Australia (611 deaths, amongst 25,670 confirmed cases) and Austria (733 deaths, amongst 27,218).
Antonio Guterres (UN Secretary General) faces a huge humanitarian challenge in relation to delivering sustainable development goals and irradiating poverty and bringing peace to conflict areas like Iraq and Syria. The agenda and commitments are clear in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals which were agreed in 2015.
The United Nations (UN) is not a bureaucracy nor is it benign in relation to Third World countries and the challenges that it faces in enabling sustainable development; in human terms and in dealing with the environmental challenges which blight development. This statement is both a dismissive and pessimistic response to Third World countries and the UN, and it is only a partial story about the Organisation. It is concerned with human rights and protecting the most vulnerable, which includes women and children who are exposed to most violence in the world and are often its victims. It provides administrative assistance to problems and delivers through its many agencies, and partnerships with associated charities, corporations, governments, and non-governmental organisations (NGO’s).
It is concerned with education, in several areas like disarmament, sexual violence, and the eradication of illnesses. It is committed to UN Development Projects and promoting ‘sustainable development’ through education. Sustainable development concerns the need to balance the sustainable use of resources and economic growth and requires us to think holistically and to have people centred view of the world (Jeffrey Sachs 2015).
There is, as Richard Jolly, Louis Emmerij and Thomas G Weiss suggest, a ‘Third UN’ (2009), a UN closely associated with NGO, experts, and consultants. It is this concept of a ‘Third UN’ in which ‘sustainable development’ has in the last two decades become more real to nation states outside of the Big Five powerful permanent member states of the Security Council and its people, who often live in remote and agricultural areas of the world. How much influence the UN bureaucracy has on the agenda, is for the most part irrelevant to people, unless the mechanisms for development become over burdensome. There are mechanisms for control in the system to prevent abuse of power. It is member countries and its people who accept, agree, and embrace their own sustainable development goals.
It is through the implementation of sustainable development policies, programmes, and projects, that we begin to understand the issues and problems more widely. With this I also hope to address the pessimism of the statement - that the UN is somehow not as significant or as vital as NGO’s in the sustainable development equation; in achieving economic success and human happiness. It is an equation that also involves global economic growth and global environmental equity. This unifying concept of the UN displays aspects of diplomacy and this approach has embraced corporate diplomacy through its network of supporters, who work with African countries and larger nations in Latin America, China, and India (Giles Scott-Smith 2016).
The feature of both the NGO’s and UN sector are that they display a form of ‘sustainable’ diplomacy, which is distinct from cultural diplomacy. Sustainable diplomacy is all that which involves the administration, communications, exchange, finance, and activity that supports sustainable development in developing countries in the ASEAN Region. This is evident in the bilateral aid provided to countries such as Cambodia by the UK Government to improve STEM (Maths, Science, and Engineering) education and communication (2016).
The UN has a permanent role in Global Diplomacy, within international organisation (IO). It is part of a complex world order framed within multilateralism, which reflect our complex interconnectedness as people and our interdependencies through IO within a global context. Critically it acts within a wider realist international relations framework framed by the English School of International Relations (Joseph Nye 1989, 2004), (Simon Rofe and Alison Holm 2016).
The purpose of a historical narrative is to document and record the events which led to Brexit, and its subsequent diplomatic events and negotiations. Political Theory enables us to understand the neoliberal processes of the economics of Brexit and the political decisions which were subsequently made by the British Government. Themes which arise include a crisis of identity in the state, the capacity of the UK government and the civil service to manage the transition, and the diplomatic processes of Brexit. Other themes include complex international relations in the global economy, which reflect ongoing relationships between the UK and non-EU countries - trade with members of the Commonwealth.
Brexit implies a cultural change, and a realignment away from EU regulation, but the UK will receive guidance from the European Union (EU) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). A move from the EU has cultural and social policy implications as well as economic consequences on any future trade agreements between the UK-EU. Moving forward into a post-Brexit existence for the state demands an analytical framework in which to examine the role of institutions; their economic, social welfare and public policy decisions. Public choice theory and neoliberal economic models designed to promote growth in the economy are the most appropriate tools for assessing impact on constitutional bureaucracy and public policy outcomes. But public policy models are also organic and must account for human behaviour, culture, and the psychology of negotiation and social political change. These models are often criticised and require assessment.
The hypothesis of this dissertation is that new trade agreements between the United Kingdom and countries of the Commonwealth are unlikely to create pressures on existing constitutional institutions within the UK, such as the UK Supreme Court or the UK Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), as a means of dispute resolution and ultimate sanction. Instead European institutions will manage the transition with the British Government, to ensure future prosperity for the UK and create a position of least damage to the economy. This hypothesis is being tested daily. The different type and number of cases that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council manages, is a good indicator of changes amongst smaller countries in the Commonwealth. Any trade dispute the UK-EU and individual countries on tariffs would under normal circumstances, be heard by the WTO. Trade and regulatory regimes and legal issues would be aligned with the European Union.
This analytical framework draws on systems of historiography, economic analysis (from standard economic modelling), published data and critical views of the state. Policy analysis has provided information about the impact of Brexit upon employment; immigration, particularly on the NHS and agriculture. Public access to government documents, academic economic analysis, and data from international organisation, provided by UK businesses and UK financial networks, has created the possibility to examine the diplomatic processes of Brexit. The process of pre-negotiation agenda setting by the European Union and the United Kingdom, and the leadership and constitutional role which the Prime Minister has provided in relation to establishing hard and soft diplomatic relations, provides enough information to make an assessment of the diplomatic processes involved in Brexit. Seeking political and historical precedence is a good beginning for a narrative.
Papers by Rocio Ferro-Adams (please cite if using this work at Research Capacity)
Economists ‘leading the way’
Sue Konzelmann (et al) produced an account of modern contemporary Austerity in 2014, identifying it largely as a reaction to the sub-prime mortgage debacle in the USA, where poor quality debt had been sold and repackaged and rebranded in global financial markets, as high yielding products at low risk. When the debts went ‘bad’, the repercussions were felt as ripples throughout the banking systems. The story she argues was rewritten so that these behaviours, which resulted in poor standards of debt handling and banking, were described as a public sovereign debt crisis, and were then blamed on profligate government spending. Countries identified as at risk were those described as ‘peripheral European countries who borrowed too much, but these countries were not in debt before the crisis, with the exception of Greece which has hidden its’ financial difficulties since before joining the European Union (EU) in 1981. The private debt crisis then became a public debt crisis.
Economic disparity caused by structural inequalities and Imperial Legacy. One of the leading questions in 2020 which has been partly raised by the impact of the pandemic on the global economy, is whether world structures need reform, these ideas or concepts in international relations are not new, Robert Cox introduced the ideas of structural transformations and social forces in his work, Approaches to World Order in 1996. Where he describes hyper liberalism in the 1970’s and capitalism as something which is facilitated and encouraged by state. This experience of capitalism he describes as evident throughout Northern European, but this is not the same capitalism driven by social-liberal state. The first world structure is neo-liberal which shaped the views of Thatcher and Reagan that fundamentally reject state intervention, that supports instead market lead behaviour and values that fit comfortably with many Keynesian values and economic aims. Here the state is responsible for introducing the policies, that support market growth and encourage competition and there is little empathy for humanity when trying to balance the books. The state restrains public spending on moral grounds that it is unwise and unnecessary to provide social support to those who are unsuccessful at competition.
This has been evident again in aspects of Austerity policies applied in Europe since 2010-2018 and those policies implemented in liberal democracies following the 2008 Financial Crisis. Politically these have been policies developed and pursued by right wing or conservative governments, who favoured restraint over increasing debt and preferred to roll back social provision.
These ideas about the economy were challenged in the old structures of the 1970’s by social movements and international ideas about labour regulation, aid and sustainable growth. Robert Cox describes the failures of socialism, but gives some hope to the possibility for change in Social Forces and dynamics, that change the world. One example includes the transformations already occurring with the election of President Biden, who replaces a populist and autocratic figure, President Trump of the USA. Today’s world of social, economic and cultural and international interdependencies is far from the world described by Robert Cox, as the calls for solidarity, environmental and equitable solutions call for a very different structure, in the use of international organisation, which has little to do with promoting liberal and unrestricted markets. These two worlds speak a different language. Yet it was only recently that austerity policies dominated Europe and most of the developed world, in fact they seemed like rational and inevitable solutions to economists. Today the world expects more dialogue, discussions and multilateralism. There is an interdependency on issues such as the environment, terrorism and pandemics, also an agreements to provide adequate responses to alleviate poverty and to change the structures that cause them.
It is within this world order that the USA remains the hegemon, but with very different leadership, that can provide the continuation to a very different story, one which was left by President Obama in 2017. For now, Trump Politics has come to an end abruptly and un-magnanimously, with a two times impeached President, his legacy is marred. What we do know about past cycles and historical structures is that they tend to return in new forms. Adam Smith and other capitalist describe boom and bust scenarios in history from economic crisis to depressions (bust), to industrialisations (boom) and economic growth. Economic cycles relate to experiences from which governments and regulators learn to respond to, as well as international Banking institutions. Early economic expansion through trade is also a subject familiar to Adam Smith and later global economists. Although his is an entirely capitalist system, strong economic growth is also found amongst the economies which are centrally planned and relate to social theories and socialist political economy and communism, both found in China under the Chinese Communist Party, the former Soviet Union. It could be argued that these systems died, not simply because the old economic drivers had come to an end and were exhausted ideologically and politically, but because the economies themselves were limited by the state. Structural transformation was required in both worlds; needed for another stage of human growth and activity, through digitalisation, internet and more open and diverse technology markets in order to prepare for growth in more open diverse technology markets and to prepare for growth in financial services and Bitcoin, which would rapidly transform our daily lives from the late 1990’s to today.
A UK Constitutional Settlement, a written constitution would contain all the elements of constitutional law, enshrining liberal rights for citizens, elections, defence and security measures, and the protection of institutional independence for the civil service. It would also provide a framework for the functions of the state. Brexit raises for academics, the question of a written constitution, as political scientist witness what some describe as shift in the constitution. Visible more recently, in the introduction of large amounts of legislation related to a single-issue, which has ‘constitutional significance’, whilst other issues have been squeezed out of Parliamentary time, out of necessity to legislate for Brexit. This shift has an impact on devolution and the devolution settlement, as the powers which were ceded to the European Parliament are returned to Britain. It is argued by Professor Vernon Bogdanor of Kings College, London . The UK Constitutional settlement has changed and evolved too far not to consider ‘codification’, which can be translated into an accessible written framework.
Drafts by Rocio Ferro-Adams (please cite if using this work at Research Capacity)
Much has changed in the norms of diplomacy since January 2025, and historic diplomatic events are impacting international relations and the political economy of nations. The likely impact of events will likely be felt at a global level this year. I have published an opinion piece here and on Word Press at Research Capacity. Grateful for any comments.