This talk opens with a look at the background to the New Cold War. The conjunction between a big political change – the shift from the Western world order to deep pluralism – plus the deepening of the Anthropocene crisis, make for a complex, volatile, and unlucky background of world politics. The second part looks at the concept of cold war, and at the two cases of it, the first running from 1947-1989, and the second beginning in 2014. The third part looks at the impact of Trump 2.0 on the Second Cold War. While there are significant continuities, there are also some big changes.

Angus MacIntyre is a serving military officer in the RAF and has recently returned from a year working in NATO HQ in Brussels as part of the team delivering support to Ukraine. The key aspect of Angus’ work was cohering UK, UKR, US and NATO efforts to ensure unity of thought and direction of travel, during delicate start-up negotiations. In exploring NATO’s current role in deterring Russian aggression and supporting Ukraine there are questions that arise that go to the very core of NATO’s existence.

Four authors will introduce core arguments and findings from their recently-published book, United Nations Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism (Oxford University Press, 2025). The book asks: Why do countries hosting United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations tend to consolidate authoritarian forms of governance, despite the UN’s own stated aim of promoting democratization?

Where loyalty drives political survival, why do women praise autocrats more than men? Extensive research demonstrates the centrality of loyalty for women's political advancement, yet how women rhetorically signal this loyalty remains underexplored. I argue that sycophantic appeals offer a gendered pathway to power in conservative authoritarian contexts. Excessive praise enables women to exhibit loyalty while conforming to feminine ideals of social warmth and deference, mitigating backlash where their political presence challenges prevailing gender expectations.