What is the nature of Sino-Russian alignment, its main drivers, and its evolution since 1949? Which factors have influenced the relationship most? How does the nature of this alignment affect peace, stability, and the liberal international order? Existing alliance literature does not fully explain why two great powers, China and Russia, with a history of ideological differences, asymmetric capabilities, and shifting threat perceptions have periodically deepened, downgraded, and reoriented their military cooperation since 1949.

Join Baroness Thangam Debbonaire in conversation with Oriel College Provost and former UK government Culture Commissioner Lord Mendoza.

Debbonaire is a Labour peer and was a Labour MP for Bristol West from 2015-2024. During her time as an opposition MP, she held a number of shadow cabinet positions over a period of four years. Most recently she was the Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

How do solidaristic worker's movements emerge and what makes them sustainable? Maya will examine this question through a comparison of trade union politics in the US and UK at the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, both movements rejected government aid in favour of an exclusive set of trade union benefits. By the early twentieth century, the movements had diverged: whereas the British Trades Union Congress came to embrace universal state benefits, the American Federation of Labor clung to its exclusive benefits system and campaigned against state aid.

Labor Market Transitions: Measurement and Scalable Interventions
This talk considers several questions relating to labor market transitions. What workers face challenges with labor market transitions, and what interventions help? What are the mechanisms through which different types of workers can improve their outcomes? How can methods from machine learning and generative artificial intelligence be used to better understand the sources of disparities in labor market transitions?

What comes after American hegemony? In this book, Acharya and Pardesi compare the interplay of power and ideas in the ancient Mediterranean and Indian Ocean to explain why the two regions took divergent paths to peace and stability. They also discuss its lessons for international order today. While the ancient Mediterranean order was shaped by the hegemony of Rome, the Indian Ocean developed an open and inclusive international order without the dominance of any single power.

The global order is under assault from major powers. Normative and geopolitical revisionism have become widespread. This picture calls for a new partnership to reform and remake the international multilateral system, as well as to uphold rules, norms, and values. It is the middle powers that can take on this role. As both a middle power and a leading European actor, France is well-positioned to assume such a role.

Newton Niu is an award-winning documentary filmmaker from China, with nearly two decades of
experience working across state broadcast and independent production. His collaborative and independent
projects have received major international and Chinese awards, including recognition at IDFA and the
Sundance Film Festival.
Based on extensive fieldwork across almost all provinces in China, his work engages with contemporary
Chinese society, politics, and everyday governance, offering a distinctive ground-level perspective shaped