Unravelling the life, character and motivations of the last known Cold War double agent, George Blake, The Happy Traitor paints a chilling portrait of a thoughtful and idealistic man, responsible for passing on key intelligence, including the identities of hundreds of British agents, to the Soviets. George Blake was the last remaining Cold War spy. As a Senior Officer in the British Intelligence Service who was double agent for the Soviet Union, his actions had devastating consequences for Britain.

Populism is often defined as an ideology that opposes two homogeneous and antagonistic camps, ‘the common people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’. Populists are seen as a negative image of what liberal democracy is supposed to be: intolerant and refusing pluralism. Other definitions insist on the mobilization and empowerment of the people that populist politics makes possible. The well-known scholar Chantal Mouffe, the leading theoretician of left-wing populism, will debate with Federico Taragoni, who has recently published a book on the issue (L'esprit démocratique du populisme, 2019).

The panel will focus on the shrinking role of the Parliament and Judiciary vis-à-vis the executive power in the context of Turkey’s ‘new constitution’. Panellists will be treating the following questions: What is Turkey’s current constitutional system? What has been the impact of the ‘new constitution’ upon parliamentary politics in Turkey? Do the courts, and especially the Constitutional Court, play any role in checking and balancing the use of power by the President?

In this talk, James Mahoney discusses a conjuctural theory of revolutions. Political revolutions are defined as rapid transformations of a sovereign territory’s political order, including its national government, political regime, and state institutions.

The replacement of Apartheid-style government with multi-racial democracy in South Africa constituted one of the most profound, challenging and celebrated regime changes of the late 20th century. Unfortunately, a majority of citizens and most local commentators now characterize the past quarter century of democratic government as highly disappointing. When seen in the context of a global retreat of democracy, such views may contribute to growing skepticism about the viability of democratic government, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

This talk will be based on a book project, in which I theoretically and empirically investigate the link between state-implemented Internet controls and state-sanctioned violent repression. I identify two main forms of control, which are the restriction (or disruption) of the Internet on the one hand, and digital surveillance on the other hand. Governments face a trade-off: they can either restrict access to the Internet and with it diminish opposition groups’ capabilities, or they can permit the digital exchange of information and monitor it to their own advantage.

Decentralization is thought to facilitate poverty reduction by giving power over resource distribution to officials with local knowledge about where resources are most needed. However, decentralization also implies less oversight and greater opportunities for local officials to divert resources for political or personal ends. We investigate this tradeoff by exploring the degree to which Kenya’s premier decentralized development program—the Constituency Development Fund—targets the poor.

In the heady days after 1945, the authority of the United States was unrivalled and, with the founding of the UN, a new era of international co-operation seemed to have begun. But seventy-five years later, its influence has already diminished. The world has now entered a post-American era, argues Michael Pembroke (in 'America in Retreat: The Decline of US Leadership from WW2 to Covid-19', Oneworld, 2021), defined by a flourishing Asia and the ascendancy of China, as much as by the decline of the United States.

In How China Loses: The Pushback against Chinese Global Ambitions (Oxford University Press, 2021), Luke Patey argues that China’s predatory economic agenda, headstrong diplomacy, and military expansion undermine its ambitions to dominate the global economy and world affairs. He shows that countries around the world —rich and poor, big and small—are pushing back and recognizing that engaging China produces new strategic vulnerabilities to their independence and competitiveness.