The ‘Asian Century’ is even bigger than you think. Far greater than just China, the new Asian system taking shape is a multi-civilizational order spanning Saudi Arabia to Japan, Russia to Australia, Turkey to Indonesia – linking five billion people through trade, finance, infrastructure, and diplomatic networks that together represent 40 percent of global GDP. China has taken a lead in building the new Silk Roads across Asia, but it will not lead it alone.

2.00 p.m., Opening address by Prof Faisal Devji (Oxford University) and Dr Young-Chan Choi (Associate member Oriental Institute)

2.10 p.m., View from Pyongyang
HE Alastair Morgan (British Ambassador to Pyongyang, DPPK, 2015-2019)

2.30 p.m., View from Seoul
HE Charles Hay (British Ambassador to Seoul, ROK, 2015-2018)

2.50 p.m., State Re-unification in Comparative Perspective
Professor Richard Caplan (Oxford University)

3.05 p.m., ICC and Transnational Justice
Professor Miles Jackson (Oxford University)

An increasing number of states have published information regarding cyber operations discovered on networks within their jurisdiction. Little research has been published analysing what might motivate and explain such behaviour. Understanding why states chose to publish sensitive details is important, as practices of strategic interaction in cybersecurity are only just emerging into public view.

Abstract:

Israel scores very high internationally in the reported happiness of its Jewish inhabitants, and government politicians make much of that survey result. On the face of it there is a paradox: the country does not score high on other quality-of-life indicators and is not an easy place to live in. I will report on the construction and record of quality-of-life indicators more generally, on what they tell us about Israel, on currently ongoing research about well-being in the country, and on how the paradox might be understood and resolved.

About the speaker:

It was the original forever war, which went on interminably, fuelled by religious and constitutional disputes, personal ambition, fear of hegemony, and communal suspicion. It dragged in all the neighbouring powers. It was punctuated by repeated failed ceasefires. It inflicted suffering beyond belief and generated waves of refugees. This description could apply to Syria today, but actually refers to the Thirty Years War (1618-48), which turned much of central Europe into a disaster zone. The Thirty Years War is often cited as a parallel in discussions of current conflict in the Middle East.

Economies represent moral and political choices that vary across time and place. We are now witnessing the fraying of the political economic framework that guided action for decades and that created bases for social cohesion. With unravelling comes contestation of the values that undergird the framework and antagonism against those perceived as violating the social compact. Periodically, it is necessary to update the political economic framework, including its embedded moral economy.