This month, Turkish voters are making a decision that will determine the country’s fate for the next 5 years and potentially affect the balance of power in the region and around the world. With their best chance in a generation, the opposition, led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, hopes to dismantle President Erdoğan’s legacy in a divided country on the frontlines of democracy.

Emotion lies at the heart of all national movements, and Zionism is no exception. For those who identify as Zionist, the word connotes liberation and redemption, uniqueness and vulnerability. Yet for many, Zionism is a source of distaste if not disgust, and those who reject it are no less passionate than those who embrace it. The power of such emotions helps explain why a word originally associated with territorial aspiration has survived so many years after the establishment of the Israeli state.

According to the Tax Justice Network, up to $32 trillion in hidden assets are held in offshore tax havens.

The increasing outflow of money into the offshore world starves developing countries of government revenues, enables kleptocrats to hide their illicitly acquired wealth, and allows global multinational companies to lawfully avoid paying hundreds of billions in taxes. Until recently, we lacked comprehensive and detailed academic studies for understanding the scope and inner workings of the offshore system.

This is a small, cohesive, and welcoming reading group interested in foregrounding a serious and sophisticated critique of war by revisiting twentieth-century responses to the increasing civilianization of military conflict from the ‘global south’ and aimed at facilitating interdisciplinary conversations within the humanities.

Please join us for a book launch:

Tahriib – Journeys into the Unknown: An Ethnography of Uncertainty in Migration
By Anja Simonsen

Discussant: Ruben Andersson
Chair: Peter William Walsh

Criss-crossing the disparate realms of healthcare and global finance, war and national security, climate and personal safety, the language and logic of risk have become pervasive in the twenty-first century.

Bobbie leads Vodafone Group's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) functions globally, with responsibility for managing the ESG strategies and overseeing their delivery. She also leads Vodafone's ESG advocacy, working closely with Policy and Public Affairs colleagues on events, partnerships, and political engagement.

Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, China has dramatically expanded its overseas presence, becoming a major financier across the Global South, including Africa. But ten years after its launch, the BRI appears to be in decline. Overseas lending from China’s policy banks has now largely dried up. Meanwhile, many of the recipients of China’s financial largesse are struggling to repay BRI-related debts. But in spite of a less enabling context, the systemic drivers of China’s overseas activity are still present.

The talk will focus on the evolution of Rory’s thinking from someone beginning to work on state building and intervention in the late 1990s, then establishing a charity in Afghanistan in 2005, then becoming a Minister for International Development in the British government and finally embracing the cash revolution as President of GiveDirectly