CSTPV

[[James]]

Right, I've heard of students doing work for the University's Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) but that's all I know - their own website is a bit on the useless side. So, has anyone worked for them in the past, and if so, can you answer these?

- Which year were you in?
- How did you get involved?
- Was it dependent upon your module grades?
- What kind of work is involved?
- Was it paid?
- Hours?
- Termtime/summer?

I feel as though I should, at some point over the next 3 years, do some kind of work experience at least vaguely related to my International Relations course, but I'm at a loss as to what I could do. The CSTPV is the only thing that springs to mind.

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[pew]

- Which year were you in? Second, Thrid and Fourth

- How did you get involved? I went along to the info session at the beginning of the year, signed up and had an interview. Subsequent years I didn't have an interview (still needed to fill out the application though)

- Was it dependent upon your module grades? No

- What kind of work is involved? I was an analyst so I had to monitor politically violent or terrorist activity or related info (i.e- policy, court cases) in my countries ( everyone has 1-3), you then have to fill out an excel report to email to your Desk Officer (one for every region of the world) every friday. You also have to attend a fortneightly briefing where one or two students make a presentation. Presentations are voluntary but encouraged.
There are also profiler and database entry roles.

- Was it paid? Hell No

- Hours? About 30 minutes a day - depending on your country i.e. - more to report in Iraq than Canada.

- Termtime/summer? You can do both - but the summer is reports only.

I think it was worth it and have been asked a lot about it in my interviews. It is a good thing to demonstrate skills i.e. time-keeping, analysis, condensing information, presetations etc

[[James]]

Wow, thanks a lot for that. I'd still like to hear about anyone else's experiences of it though, just to make sure it's the kind of thing I'd want to go for.

The info session you mentioned - I take it that it's fairly well advertised to IR students through email, etc?

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[Irish Frank]

Hi, I'm doing a CSTPV summer internship right now.

- Which year were you in? 2nd
- How did you get involved? They sent out an email to all IR students, that you replied to if you wanted an internship. It was first come first served, and they had room for 30 people.
- Was it dependent upon your module grades? No.
- What kind of work is involved? Analysis - looking at local newspapers (in my case India, Pakistan, Kashmir) for terrorist activity, writing an entry and analysis into an excel sheet, and mailing two excel sheets (one for each week) off every fortnight.
- Was it paid? No
- Hours? usually at least an hour per day, but thats because i got landed with India, Pakistan and Kashmir. It depends on what countries you get on how much you have to do.
- Termtime/summer? Summer.

[joug]

I really enjoyed my CSTPV internship but felt that I didn't see many benefits from all my work which was disaapointing. However now is a great time to get involved with CSTPV as it is undergoing big changes, new director (ex-UN bod, cant remember his name), and hopefully getting the database fully online.
The presentations are the best bit in my opinion, most are excellent, informative and well-delivered. It highlights conflicts that you might not hear about very much in the news.
One warning, it is a fairly large time commitment, especially if you have 'active' countries, but if you are willing to put the work in, I'd recommend it as an interesting and rewarding activity to get involved with!

Oh and answers - 3rd year, interview, no, internet research daily and weekly reports on excel spreadsheet, no, 4hrs/week, I only did term time.

Hope this helps!

[pew]

One thing I have always noticed about CSTPV is that the info/sign-up meeting is not very well advertised - I nearly always missed it so make sure u keep your eyes out for it - usually a poster in the library.

[Cain]

Quoting pew from 21:00, 11th Jul 2006
One thing I have always noticed about CSTPV is that the info/sign-up meeting is not very well advertised - I nearly always missed it so make sure u keep your eyes out for it - usually a poster in the library.

Isn't this because it's always oversubscribed and this makes narrowing the applicants down a bit easier?

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[[James]]

Thanks to everyone who responded! It seems like there's some variation in the workload from person to person, but I'm sure I can spare an hour a day doing something fairly interesting. It'll certainly do a vast amount of good in terms of my overall knowledge and the quality of my CV. I'll keep a look out for it in September... maybe an email to CSTPV nearer the time wouldn't go amiss.

(And by the way, the new director is Alex P. Schmid.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_P._Schmid
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/intrel/rese ... es/APS.htm

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[David Bean]

Yeah, it's pretty good, is the ol' CSTPV. I did it for three and a half years - got in through the back door in my first year thanks to a family contact. At one stage I had about ten countries to my name, but the CSTPV was smaller back then, and anyway only about three of them were regularly active. In the end I settled down with the Solomons and Fiji, having passed on my other major country, Papua New Guinea, to someone else. Vanuatu also had a few things going on, and Nauru, well, the entire population of that country (about five people) is applying for asylum in Australia, because when the phosphate mines collapsed they woke up the next day and discovered they had no industry.

It would have been good if the research I'd conducted had ever actually been used, but I guess it's still there for the future. Damn' good times!

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Psalm 91:7

[[James]]

Sounds good. One more question - what did the interview involve?

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[fran]

Something completely different about CSTPV: I sometimes hate it. I hate when you open a news website and you see mutilated children, or the blown off head of a suicide bomber. To be honest I think anyone who considers getting involved should keep in mind that aspect: Do you really need the trauma?!

[Guest]

Hi, I'm wondering if CSTPV internships ae only open to IR students? My degree is Anthropology.

[Harry Giles]

In the end I settled down with the Solomons and Fiji, having passed on my other major country, Papua New Guinea, to someone else. Vanuatu also had a few things going on . . .

Bean! Didn't you know that's, like, my adoptive home? You must tell me about what you studied!

Were you looking after Vanuatu when that "terrorist" smashed up the telecommunications equipment on Ambrym? That was awful fun -- it knocked out all communications and banking in the country for a week