Introducing the Changing Character of Conflict Platform Project: New approach to quantitative analysis of protracted conflicts

The interdisciplinary project aims to create a knowledge-based platform for academics, practitioners, policy-makers and the wider public to understand the changing character of conflicts across different epistemologies and methodologies. While we might not be able to stop some conflicts, we may well be able to prevent a drastic increase in casualties or erosion of social fabric if we understand the main patterns of organized violence.

Why Quantum Computing Will Not Destabilize International Security: The Political Logic of Cryptology

The implications of quantum information technology for cybersecurity and strategic stability seem worrisome. In theory, an adversary with a quantum computer could defeat the asymmetric encryption protocols that underwrite internet security, while an adversary using quantum communications guaranteed secure by the laws of physics could deny intelligence warning of surprise attack.

Workshop “Does the future of the European Union depend on differentiation? The sources and effects of the logic of differentiation”

Programme

8.15 | Welcome of participants

8.30-45 | Introduction

8.45-12 | I. SOURCES OF DIFFERENTIATION [at the Maison française d’Oxford]
Chair: Petar MARKOVIC, Free University of Brussels & LUISS
Discussant: Prof. Florence DELMOTTE, University of Saint-Louis, Brussels

8.45-10.15 | Panel 1. Sources of differentiation and (im)migration policies

Dr Cristina BLANCO SIO-LOPEZ, University of Oxford (St Antony’s College)

Greek Diaspora Conference: Homeland‒diaspora relations in flux

Greece's long drawn out economic crisis is by now an indisputably pivotal event in the country's history and as such, it cannot but redefine the nature and role of Greece's diaspora. The modern Greek state was constructed by and for a trans-territorial national community and since its establishment the proclaimed aim of its diaspora policy has been the strengthening of ties between the Greek national centre and Greeks abroad.

Why We Fight

The Changing Character of War's Conflict Platform team is delighted to host Mike Martin for a seminar on ‘Why We Fight’, drawing on his recently published book of the same name.

When we go to war, morality, religion and ideology often take the blame. Mike argues that the opposite is true: rather than driving violence, these things help to reduce it. While we resort to ideas and values to justify or interpret warfare, something else is really propelling us towards conflict: our subconscious desires, shaped by millions of years of evolution.

Publishers, papers and peer review

Join us for a series of short talks and discussion around open access and changing pathways to publication. Speakers include representatives from academia, publishing, repositories and our support teams for open access, data and the REF. Topics include publication strategies, avoiding ‘predatory’ journals, the role of social science preprint platforms, managing data, the new culture of responsible research metrics in impact assessment, and OA policies.

Burma Studies amidst the Rohingya Crisis

The field of Burma Studies has expanded rapidly in the past decade. Part of this growth has been fuelled by changes in Myanmar’s political conditions, as research opportunities have opened up on topics and in regions where the military government previously restricted access. Additionally, the historical divide between scholars and activists is gradually fading, with much innovative academic work being informed by scholars’ experience with rights groups or civil society organisations.

International Organizations and the Expansion of the International System

The present version of the international system – organized around the sovereign state – emerged after waves of decolonization in the latter half of the twentieth century. But how did this transition from a world of empire to a global international system organized around the sovereign state play out? This talk traces this transition through an examination of membership debates in two prominent intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). IGOs are sites of contestation over what the international system is and should become.
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