Our main website is at http://www.naspir.net: please also register there to use our forum there and its other members-only facilities.

The purpose of the Network is to promote politics and international relations scholarship which supports non-violent action against oppression. The oppression may be domestic or international, and may take many forms, including physical violence or denial of economic, social, cultural or political rights. Those carrying out the oppression may be states, corporations or other non-state actors.

The Network is based in the UK and also has an increasing number of members around the world. We welcome non-academic activists, research students and taught course students as well as established scholars. An important objective of the Network is to ensure that those in academia come through their professional training with their activist values intact and are able to protect and promote those values in their professional lives.

As what we choose to study and how we choose to study it are unavoidably political, the traditional academic pretence of neutrality is unsustainable. Scholarly standards are enhanced by explicit acknowledgement of that situation and by accounting for how one deals with it. Scholarship is a form of activism, but there is more to activism than scholarship. The Network is developing mutually supportive links with, and welcomes as members, others who share its perspective. These links extend across the disciplinary boundaries within academia, outside of academia and internationally.

If you wish to join the mailing list please say a few words about yourself as we now operate an approval system to reduce spam.

Posting guidelines:

List members should not personally insult other list members or question their personal motivation or character, and should focus in a calm, rational, non-abusive manner on the issue and not the person.