This year's conference, from April 1-3, is hosted by Swansea University's Department of Politics and International Relations. It has broken delegate registration records as the world's second largest national association gathering of politics and international relations researchers.

Dr Petritsch, a former EU High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the EU's Chief Negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks in 1999.  His speech, on the subject of Conflict resolution and keeping the peace in Kosovo and the Balkans, will be given during a civic reception and dinner in the city's Brangwyn Hall.

This year's conference theme is 'Democracy, Governance and Conflict: Dilemmas of Theory and Practice'. The three-day event will feature 145 panel discussions, organised in 26 subject series, with papers presented by over 500 academics and experts. 

Panel sessions will feature research from most of the UK’s politics departments, as well as leading scholars from North America and Europe.

The sessions will cover a vast range of subjects including themes of citizenship; development politics; French and German politics; global justice and human rights; immigration, multiculturalism and community cohesion; Labour politics and movements; media and politics; psychoanalysis and politics; security, terrorism and intelligence; and women and politics. 

Professor Andrew Gamble, Head of the Department of Politics at Cambridge University, will give the conference's Leonard Schapiro Memorial Lecture on The Western Ideology.

And there will be a plenary panel on Iraq and After, chaired by Professor Jack Spence and featuring Professor Eric Davis of Rutgers University, Professor Anoush Ehteshami of Durham University, and Professor Gareth Stansfield of Exeter University.    

The conference's academic organiser Dr Jonathan Bradbury, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Swansea University said: "This conference is an event unprecedented in bringing together such a range of distinguished political scientists and practitioners.

"We are particularly delighted to confirm an address by one of the most high profile people in the Afghanistan reconstruction effort, Elizabeth Winter; a roundtable panel of senior think tank experts to discuss New Labour, including representatives of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Demos and the Social Market Foundation.

"The Governance of Britain roundtable will also feature Professor Jonathan Tonge of Liverpool University, who was recently appointed by the Prime Minister to chair the new Youth Citizenship Commission."

For full conference programme details visit the UK Political Studies Association website here, and for more information about the Department of Politics and International Relations at Swansea University, visit the Department's website here.