It is a common complaint about public attitudes towards fiscal policy that voters want something for nothing, or that they want "Scandinavian levels of spending and American levels of taxation". However, these results typically come from survey questions which make expressing these views entirely possible, rather than asking respondents to internalise the relevant trade-offs. Recent research has begun to move in this direction by building in trade-offs with taxes when asking about spending proposals, as well as considering the necessary tax or spending consequences of deficit reduction.

Nationalism is something that the more one reads about it, the less sure one is of what it is. This talk recounts an intellectual outsider—one working on signalling theory and crisis-management experimentation—travelling through and pondering over the landscape of nationalism research. How many types of nationalism exist? Which types are theoretically valid and which are arbitrary? How can we tell? Is nationalism forever to be a contested concept, or can social science evolve it into an “uncontested”—or “less contested”—concept?

Today there are two seemingly mutually exclusive notions of what 'the Jews' are: either a religion or a nation/ethnicity. The widespread conception is that the Jews were formerly either a religious community in exile or a nation based on Jewish ethnicity. The latter position is commonly known as 'Zionism,' and all articulations of a political theory of Zionism are taken to be variations of that view.

Niamh has 15 years' experience in the field of diplomacy, human rights and international organisations. She has worked in senior advisory roles in the European Union in Ukraine and North Macedonia and with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Vienna.

The Oxford University United Nations Association (OXUNA) and the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) offer an opportunity to hear from members of the British Association of Former UN Civil Servants (BAFUNCS) about their experiences and the prospects for careers with the United Nations.

Stephen Rudgard is with the Food and Agriculture Organisation as their Senior Expert in UN Collaboration. He plans and supports coordination meetings between the Senior Management of three UN organizations involved with agriculture and food.