Many theologians addressing these questions of politics and the common good begin their discussion with St. Augustine’s City of God. This lecture argues that there is a trap in taking this starting point, a trap that Aquinas avoided by combining his reading of Augustine, the Theologian, with a reading of the Philosopher Aristotle. It suggests a reworking of Augustine’s analysis to retain the theological benefit of his ideas for understanding politics today.

This online event features as one of several this term which focusses on 'Political economy of European climate action', and is hosted by the European Political Economy Project (EUPEP) at the European Studies Centre.

Speaker: Daniel Hardy (St Antony’s College, Oxford)
Chair: Charles Enoch (St Antony’s College, Oxford)
Discussants: Fatos Koc (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)), Martin Ellison (Nuffield College, Oxford)

This seminar is organised jointly with the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University and the UNDP Human Development Report Office. This seminar will be held online. Registration: https://gwu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAsce2vrTsqGd2q1wNkMHEAuFI3hATtFilF?utm_sq=gqidciocgc

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed the unprecedented challenge of distributing vaccines to the bulk of the world’s population. Excluded from the main deals for vaccine provision and still suffering from underfunded and under-resourced health systems, African countries have been forced into the position of recipients of Great Power health largesse. Despite accusations levelled at China and Russia for using “vaccine diplomacy” as a ploy to enhance their soft power, the US and Europe have so far offered little health support to African countries.

Even as we seek to overcome the global pandemic, humanity faces three planetary crisis that threaten our future - the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, and the pollution and waste crisis – driven by decades of relentless and unsustainable consumption and production.

Much of global health research occurs against the backdrop of severe, intersectional and structural vulnerabilities, where susceptibility to disease and early death are driven by poverty, and related factors such as political conflict and climate change. Global health research priorities over the last two decades have been shaped by a small number of high income country institutions, with political commitments informed largely by the ‘global burden of disease’ model.