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The 26th UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, will take place in Glasgow in November. Can it succeed? What does 'success' actually mean in the context of the climate crisis?

Eitan Hersh, author of Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change, and Assistant Professor of Civic Studies from the Department of Political Science at Tufts' Tisch College spoke on Thursday, October 15, at 11am via Zoom. The Office of Civic Engagement hosted the event and the […]

Sven Wilson portrait Photography by Alyssa Lyman/BYU How does military service affect male veterans' civic participation? BYU professor & chair of the Department of Political Science, Sven Wilson recently published a paper in the journal Armed Forces & Society showing that military service has historically predicted greater civic involvement later in life. Wilson and coauthor William Ruger […]

China regards the island of Taiwan as a breakaway province; Taiwan's leaders say it is an independent state. As China rises to superpower status, it has shown greater interest in reclaiming territory long regarded as its own, in the South China Sea, along the Himalayan border – and in Taiwan. The growing tensions could drag the US into the fray. To discuss the implications for security, peace and the people of Taiwan, we have three distinguished experts: Prof Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute; Susan Thornton, a retired senior US diplomat and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Dr Chun-Yi Lee, director of the Taiwan Studies programme at the University of Nottingham.

If victors write history, and Bashar al-Assad is consolidating his grip on Syria after nearly a decade of civil war, is there any hope of justice for victims of state-sponsored abuse in Syria?

Russia and China have blocked efforts to set up an international tribunal for Syria, so Syrians in exile have been searching for ways to use national laws, and the principle of universal jurisidiction to pursue accountability.

Last year Germany arrested two Syrian men and charged them with committing crimes against humanity. When they go on trial this year, it will be the world's first prosecution for state-backed torture in Syria.
Activists have also filed cases in Norway, Sweden and Austria, and international groups are stockpiling evidence in the hope of future court cases.

But with the top members of Assad's government safely ensconced in Damascus, how much impact can these cases have?

About the speaker:

Emma Graham-Harrison is senior international affairs correspondent for the Guardian and Observer. She has covered conflicts, political crises, energy and the environment in more than 40 countries across five continents, and was based in China, Afghanistan and Spain for over a decade, before returning to London to take up her current roving role. She graduated from Oxford with a first class degree in Chinese Studies, and speaks Mandarin and Spanish. Awards include Foreign Reporter of the Year at the 2017 British Press Awards; her investigative work on the Cambridge Analytica investigations was also recognised at the British Press Awards and by the London Press Club.

On Thursday September 12, 2019, Shannon Manning spoke to our Political Careers Lecture Series. She spoke about her 20 years' experience in grassroots advocacy and communications. Shannon Manning serves as Senior Vice President of Advocate Engagement at DDC Public Affairs, a public relations organization which handles public and private sector PR. Shannon has played a […]

Whether as the `shining city on a hill', or the world's only remaining military superpower, the United States shapes political trends and policy tools around the world. As the third largest country in the world, by population, its politics also has direct consequences for 330 million residents.

Vernon Bogdanor's latest book, Britain and Europe in a Troubled World, considers the motivations which lay behind Brexit, and asks how widespread they are in the rest of Europe. Has the elitism in the original European project become a handicap to progress? How can 'ever closer union' be achieved by popular consent amongst 27 highly diverse member states? Is it possible for the member states to consider the interests of Europe as a whole? To discuss these questions he is joined by Dr Julie Smith, Reader in European Politics at Cambridge and member of the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee, and Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform, Brussels.

Inequalities are at the forefront of today's public and policy debates. They have been linked to some of the most important political events, including the rise of populism across the developed world and the vote for Brexit, and have sparked worldwide protest movements.

Last summer, Lord Nick Herbert launched the Commission for Smart Government to tackle the systemic problems of government in the UK.

Prof Christian Schuster's Inaugural Lecture.

Good governance is essential, but governance reforms in the global south often fail. This lecture asks why. One increasingly popular view is that the strategy adopted by international development organisations – which focuses on advancing 'global best practice' laws – is fundamentally flawed and that solutions need to be home-grown. This lecture challenges that perspective.

This seminar will reflect on how policy and art can work together to better understand human mobility in the context of climate change. It will discuss recent developments in the international governance of climate change related migration, and explore the role of art in raising awareness, creating a frame for dialogue and discussion, and activating change.

We will measure and track the multiple dimensions of equity in the internal and external workings of UK development organisations to influence meaningful change in their policies, practices, and partnerships.

The Equity Index is a UK social enterprise advocating for greater equity across the international development sector. We will measure and track the multiple dimensions of equity in the internal and external workings of UK development organisations to influence meaningful change in their policies, practices, and partnerships. This includes racial and gender equity, equity in knowledge production, in funding, in collaborations and more. We are an anti-racist and feminist organisation that supports the broader decolonising development and Shift the Power movements.

Sir David Omand, former Director of GCHQ, and later Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator in the Cabinet Office, has just published How Spies Think: Ten Lessons in Intelligence.

Jack Straw was Foreign Secretary in the Blair government from 2001 to 2006. His five years at the Foreign Office saw him grappling with every conflict zone from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the accession of ten new states to the EU, the failed accession bid from Turkey, the bombing of the Twin Towers on 9/11, and the Allied invasion of Iraq, led by the United States. At this seminar he will reflect on the role of Foreign Secretary with Sir David Manning, foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair from 2001 to 2003, and at the time of the invasion of Iraq, British Ambassador to the US.