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.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered what German leaders call a Zeitenwende, a historic turning point in European security and politics. Yet beyond rhetoric, what does this transformation mean for Europe’s long-term survival as a geopolitical actor? In this talk, Johannes Volkmann, a Member of the German Bundestag (CDU) and former chief of staff in the European Parliament, examines the implications of the Zeitenwende.