Few could describe the strategic performance of the Western alliance over the last couple of decades as satisfactory. Iraq is just one example of our efforts falling, in the words of the Chilcot Report, ‘far short of strategic success’. Much of the rich and growing literature analysing this failure blames some mixture of setting the wrong ends, choosing the wrong ways, and allocating insufficient or inappropriate means.

A growing body of evidence suggests a strong association between perceptions of threat and conservatism, yet little work specifies the precise psychological mechanisms connecting the two. Integrating perspectives from across the psychological sciences, we argue that conservative responses emerge from intuitive processes geared towards solving evolutionary problems associated with particular kinds of threats and, hence, vary systematically from one threat to another. We label this learned threat management.

The mainstream position is that a combination of technology and strategy is pushing us to a world where crises in maritime Asia will be more stable, taking the form of a defensive standoff. We believe that view is overly optimistic, for it overlooks how operational culture, bureaucratic incentives, and the temptation to strike first are creating the circumstances for a perfect storm. In our talk, we will outline what the dangers are and why we need to pay more attention to them.

Why do states exist in their present territorial form? Although there has been substantial research on sovereignty and state formation, scholars have tended to focus on the European experience or the international system as a whole. As a result, the making of non-European states, many of which are different from their European counterparts in their experience of colonial rule, have been understudied, and factors particularly relevant to them have been overlooked.

On the 8th September 2020, Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesvos burned down. It is a humanitarian catastrophe in a camp designed to host around 3,000 people, but was hosting 13,000 people when the fire broke out. The immediate priorities for the Greek government are to find housing, water and food for the homeless migrants and refugees. The local community is reacting to reconstruction efforts. This catastrophe highlights the need for a coordinated and long-term plan from the EU to effectively manage the migration governance system.

The following seminars will take place at 1pm unless otherwise stated. All welcome to join via Zoom, but registration required: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/calendar.

Since the tragic events of 9/11, Western armies and security forces, alongside numerous allies, have been conducting sustained efforts, including interventions into more localised and regional conflicts, in the name of overseas counter-terrorism.  Starting against Al-Qaeda and then to include the newer Islamic State, such international efforts against these two trans-national groups have enjoyed mixed results.  This talk will consider the balance sheet as it stands today – including a view on current strengths and weaknesses of AQ and IS, the merits of Western strategy and operations

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the absence of a vaccine, governments around the globe have resorted to non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as physical distancing, quarantining and lockdowns. While these measures have sound epidemiological foundations, they have brought generational tensions to the fore. COVID-19 poses a significantly higher risk to the elderly, yet non-pharmaceutical interventions and associated economic ramifications place a heavier burden on younger generations.

Local news is dying – and publishers are struggling financially – because many consumers, given other options, have stopped paying attention to it. Accordingly, any long-term solution to the industry’s financial crisis must include reinvigorating Americans’ demand for local public affairs content. We suggest a demand-side approach that capitalizes on the fact that many Americans actually have favorable attitudes toward local news and local politics – at least in the abstract.