“It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This maxim, frequently attributed to Frederic Jameson, seems to reflect much of the content of our daily news, fueling a growing preoccupation, both political and artistic, with dystopias and decline. But there are also counter efforts – Post capitalist literature, for one. A unique experiment took place in Israel in the years 2020-2023: a think tank was established, dedicated to envisioning a new social and economic reality in the Middle East.

Medical experimentation on humans was criminalized under international law following the Nuremberg Trials, where Nazi physicians were prosecuted. However, similar practices continued thereafter in several Western countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, Sweden and Canada. This talk will present the first criminological investigation into this phenomenon, aiming to identify criminal clusters of varying degrees of harm and involving differing medical procedures: (1) experiments based on racial ideology, (2) military-related experiments, and (3) general medical experiments.

Black Sea regional security is an integral part of European security. At a time when the US is leaning towards withdrawing from Ukraine and the Black Sea, Europe, the UK, and Turkey need to do more and cooperate closely to ensure Ukraine’s statehood and thwart Russian domination of the Black Sea, thereby directly challenging European security. The discussion will focus on how key Western actors' policies towards the Black Sea are changing and whether their policies are likely to further converge or diverge from one another.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CHATHAM HOUSE AND GERMAN MARSHALL FUND

Join us for the second annual Social Sciences Division Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Lecture, featuring award-winning journalist, bestselling author, filmmaker and Oxford alumna Afua Hirsch.

Regional economic conditions affect livelihoods and the geography of political resentment. Yet, individuals do not equally partake in their region’s economic fortunes, and their perceptions of relative deprivation need not be the same. Grievances are likely to be shaped not only by income disparities but also by how personal prospects are tied to regional conditions. We argue that the interaction between subjective individual and regional relative deprivation crucially affects perceptions of shared experience and systemic unfairness.

Defying normative expectations, incentives inherent to democratic politics can allow violence to persist within contested and participatory regimes. Extending the criminal governance rationale, we investigate how democratic politics and institutions shape violence by organized criminal groups (OCGs). We outline eight hypotheses linking electoral competition, participation, mayoral alternation, budgetary allocation, local council size, and mayoral re-election to variations in criminal violence.

As conflicts grow more complex, can AI become a game-changer in peacemaking? This panel explores how AI-powered tools can assist

in de-escalation, track early warning signs and enhance mediation efforts. From predictive analytics to digital diplomacy, the Panellists

will discuss AI’s role in shaping more effective, data-driven peace processes. What are the ethical, practical and strategic implications

of integrating AI into conflict resolution, and how can we ensure it serves as a force for stability rather than division?

In recent years, Japan has won World Heritage status for four industrial sites: the Iwami silver mine, the Tomioka silk filature, the cluster of Meiji Era Industrial Revolution sites of coal mining, ship building, and iron and steel production, and the Sado Island gold mines. In this talk Professor Gordon will examine a portion of Japan’s modern industrial heritage that has not been officially recognized: the monuments memorializing wartime foreign laborers brought to Japan under varying degrees of coercion between 1939 and 1945. These monuments are “dark” in three ways.

The mainstream narrative in the West posits that Donald Trump has upended the 'rules-based international order'. However, a transition in the international order was already in full swing long before Trump came to office, driven by an increasingly multi-polar balance of power and a series of actions that revealed the hypocrisy of Western foreign policy — both developments that called into question the legitimacy of Western leadership in the world.

OCPSG is organizing a workshop 'Synthetic Agents for Social Science' with Emma Madden from the Department of Politics and International Relations. This two-hour workshop will examine the role of the social science research applications of AI‑driven generative agents: virtual “participants” that can mimic survey respondents, simulate how opinions spread, and preview policy messages. The workshop will surface the core assumptions behind these tools and explore methods for checking their outputs against real data.