The planned energy transition signed by world’s nations in the Paris agreement sets the target to phase out fossil fuels by mid-century. This “green reset” requires a build-up of fossil fuel-free energy capacities (in production, end-use, and storage) which will entail on an unprecedented demand in mineral resources. While the Earth crust hosts such resource…
Panel discussion: ‘Post-COP28 debrief: Does the agreement go far enough?’
COP28 closed with an agreement, that for the first time in three decades, includes oil and gas. But what does the agreement mean in real terms? And is keeping the global temperature limit of 1.5°C within reach. Join us as our panel of academics share their thoughts after attending COP28 and look forward to what…
If you do not change your behaviour: preventive repression in Lithuania under Soviet rule
Who is targeted by preventive repression and why? In the Soviet Union, the KGB applied a form of low-intensity preventive policing called prophylactic. Citizens found to be engaging in politically and socially disruptive misdemeanors were invited to discuss their behaviour and to receive a warning. Using novel data from Soviet-occupied Lithuania in the late 1950s…
Official launch of the special issue on “Change in Armed Conflict”
Join the Minerva Global Security Programme for the official launch of the special issue on “Change in Armed Conflict,” as featured in the International Political Science Review.This publication establishes a new agenda in the examination of change in armed conflict. It approaches the theme as a dynamic social phenomenon, employing a shared conceptual framework that…
Cyber capacity and strategic advantage: resilience, influence, and control
Julia Carver is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at the University of Oxford and Nuffield College. Her work explores cyber-foreign policymaking and strategic thinking in the current era of great power competition, particularly the relationship between digital infrastructure, capacity building, and strategic advantage. In 2021, she founded the Changing Character of War Centre’s Cyber…
Why the Russian constitution matters: the dark arts of constitutional law
Professor Partlett’s forthcoming book challenges the conventional view that Russia’s Constitution is a sham. It will show instead that this constitution is a critical foundation of Russian authoritarianism today that carries important broader lessons for the world. In the ruins of the Soviet Union, President Boris Yeltsin—with the full backing of the West—dabbled in the…
Know Your World: Climate Change & Human Health
Climate change is the biggest threat to human health. Medical issues from eco-anxiety and stress to heat exhaustion, infectious diseases and pollution related cancers and ultimately from starvation, drought, displacement and war threaten to overwhelm us as a species. A review of the top to toe medical matters arising from a host of climate change…
Controlling the Capital: Political Dominance in the Urbanizing World
Authoritarianism is on the rise globally, with more than twice as many countries experiencing democratic decline as democratic enhancement in recent years. This has been occurring simultaneously with unprecedented rates of urbanization in many parts of the world, raising questions about the role of cities – often considered the focal points of democratic deepening –…
Trustworthiness as Reputation in International Cooperation-building
Intuitively, reputation matters in daily life. Thus, it is unsurprising that scholars and statesmen have long held that reputation must also matter in international relations (IR) since Pericles. Yet, while reputation, especially reputation for resolve in (international) conflict, has enjoyed renewed attention in the past decade or so, few in-depth studies of reputation in (international)…
Cambridge Analytica, 5 years on
I think we face the usual problem of working on and implementing policy for yesterday’s issues. * We are coming out of ten years of Blockchain mess * Now we are into #AI mess, the is no intelligence in the current round, only artificial writing. Let’s look at what actually matters The original openweb had…
Upton Lecture 2023: Fake News: Learning from Spinoza
Tonight a touch of philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_James_(philosopher) I wonder what the is to learn from this, it’s my subject #openweb and the media. Upton Lecture 2023: Fake News: Learning from Spinoza Susan James is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. She has held faculty positions at the University of Connecticut and the University of…
Economics and National Security – The audience for this was the servants of power, good to understand what they are thinking
Going to this event to see what the #mainstreaming think about the upcoming political changes to economic is about.It was interesting, but the only agency was asking the servants of power to do make the needed change. This has been the same ansear for the last 5 seminars i have attended in Oxford. It is…