In the fiscal year 2016 (March-March), he continued to deepen his understanding of the UN Peace and Security architecture, familiarizing himself with the key review processes underway and recently completed. In particular, he focused on the review processes completed in the lead-up to the selection of the new Secretary General, especially those related to UN conflict prevention.<BR>He authored an occasional paper on negotiations with Non-State-Armed groups, which served as a background document for an academic conference at Ditchley, UK. This paper will also be included in a CPR-wide program of work on the changing nature of violent conflict. This program of work will underpin his final year of work. In support of this paper, he travelled to Geneva to conduct interviews with relevant individuals in the private and government sectors. He also did extensive document analysis on mediation theory and practice.<BR>Lee also authored an analysis piece on the Middle East Peace Process that focused on the Trump administration. This piece received broad attention, and a follow-up piece is planned. On this topic, he edited two chapters of his thesis that are being shaped as academic journal articles. These pieces will be submitted for publication in the next financial year, and will hopefully be published before the conclusion of the postdoc.Progress during this period was partly dependent on factors outside of his control at the Centre for Policy Research. Some programs of research were designed to coincide with other larger projects that ultimately fell through. Others relied on particular personnel who departed. Thus he adapted his research to focus it more keenly on the issue of Non-State Armed groups, and the ways in which the UN and other actors have approached negotiations with these groups. This program fitted into the broader research goals he set himself, and relied less on external involvement.<BR>As with the last financial period, his placement at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research has offered him opportunities to work on various projects that have broadened his understanding of both UN policy-making and the limits of the UN Peace and Security apparatus. This included working on papers related to the TPP, new technologies in warfare, preventative diplomacy, and UN sanctions.<BR>Because his research topic is broad in scope, all of these side projects were highly beneficial to his central program. While ultimately this year produced less research outputs than expected, the professional and educational opportunities throughout this period exceeded his expectations.In continuing his study, he aims to substantially increase his publications output in the coming financial year through the completion of processes set in motion in the previous financial year. Specifically, he is a primary researcher on a project that examines the linkages between UN sanctions and mediations processes. This project will require travel to Geneva to attend an inception meeting, and will result in authorship of a scoping study, and a thematic paper. He will also contribute a case study to the larger project on the changing nature of violent conflict, which may also include the need for travel. He will submit and publish these papers through UN channels. As the postdoc comes to an end, the central challenge will be how to transition into continued work within the Australian context. He will prioritise projects that have an Australian element or angle, and will potentially present findings from one or more completed projects at the ANU in Canberra. As in the previous financial year, there is a possibility that some projects will be altered to suit emerging funding circumstances, especially those involving the UN Secretariat. In this case, his work program will revert to more predictable projects, including publishing thesis chapters as journal articles

Comparative studies of higher education systems reveal three striking features: mass participation is a universal feature across developed economies, great variance both in the mix of public/private contribution to student costs and, thirdly, in the mix of public/private provision. A fourth dimension of variance, independent of whether public or private institutions predominate, is their degree of operational and ‘entrepreneurial’ autonomy from state control.&nbsp; Through a multi-method comparative case study approach this ongoing research project aims to explore the political determinants of this variance. The first dimension has been recently emphasized by higher education specialists such as Baker (2014) and Marginson (2016), while the political determinants of the second dimension (public/private funding mix) has recently been explored ably by scholars such as Jungblut (2014), Vukasovic (2013), and Garritzman (2015, 2016) with whom I am interacting in conferences such as ECPR &amp; CHER. My own efforts center upon the third and fourth dimensions; namely the politics of the mix of public/private provision and the degree of institutional operational autonomy and at ECPR 2016 presented a study of the Japanese case. I am also working on a related project on the ‘campus as catalyst’, recently on an Israeli case.&nbsp;

This ongoing research looks at how higher education systems, and particular institutions, respond to a diminished operating environment. Higher education institutions in a number of countries have faced severe financial pressures from one or more of the following: diminished public capacity to fund universities at a given scale of student enrolments, diminished private capacity to pay for a university education owing to economic downturn, and/or a declining domestic cohort of potential students owing to demographic change.&nbsp;The research analyses public policy responses to these diminished means, and examines how higher education institutions (and universities in particular) seek to influence policy in accordance with their financial interests and self-concepts.The project explores whether and how higher education institutions, and entire systems, escape pressures to ‘de-scale’ - downsize - through broadening the ‘market’ they serve, through either being less selective in domestic recruitment, marketing to fee-paying international students, or both.&nbsp;The first research stage has focused on the Australian case, culminating in presentation of a substantial paper titled ‘The Political Enterprise of Australian Higher Education Funding’ at the European Consortium for Political Science Research (ECPR), held in Montreal on 26-29 August 2015.