Is Brussels strangling European competitiveness with red tape, or quietly building the foundations of a new industrial strategy? At a time of global subsidy races, Chinese competition, and mounting geopolitical pressure, the European Commission is under scrutiny for how it shapes the Single Market, regulates industry, and supports innovation.

Week Seven (6 March, Lecture Room VII) Primary: Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, Chapters 17-18 Supplementary: Frances M. Beal, ‘Double Jeopardy: To be Black and Female’ in Black Women’s Manifesto (1969)

This talk explains the impunity gap for the crime of aggression in the current international legal order. It recasts the genealogy of the crimes against peace to the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals through their liberal imperial context. It argues that international criminal law in the postwar order has been premised on the pursuit of liberal imperial peace. Revisiting Judge Pal’s dissent at the Tokyo Tribunal, it brings this genealogy to bear with the current questions of Ukraine and Palestine.

Scholarship on contemporary Pakistan remains fragmented across theoretical and methodological approaches structured by disciplinary traditions (Political Sociology, Anthropology, Comparative Politics, South Asian Studies), journals, and academic institutions in which scholars of Pakistan are dispersed. While this fragmentation has enabled prolific research embracing a plurality of approaches and objects, it has also deprived scholars of shared intellectual platforms in which to engage collectively in a reflection on contemporary Pakistan. This workshop seeks to provide such a space.

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OxPeace invites applications for this year’s (2026) intensive two-day training workshop, Thurs 23 - Fri 24 April 2026 (0th Week, Trinity Term) in international and local negotiation, mediation, and diplomacy, covering core concepts, lessons learned from the field and hands-on exercises. The course will in particular focus on how to mediate conflict and negotiate with difficult actors, who resist agreements for mutual gain and disregard established international norms and principles. Participants gain an overview of the practice — and theory — of peace and conflict negotiation and mediation.

The 2026 Reuters Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Carlos Dada under the title 'Journalism as Resistance'. Dada is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Salvadoran digital news outlet El Faro, the first digital-only news site launched in Latin America.

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Applications are now open for Oxford Spring School in Advanced Research Methods 2026! Apply now: https://cvent.me/0EaK99 This renowned social science methods course will take place from Monday 23 March to Friday 27 March 2026, in both in-person and online formats. Our week-long programme offers graduate students and researchers a unique opportunity to learn cutting-edge methods in social science. Oxford Spring School 2026 consists of eight courses, which will be taught over five days.

Postgraduate students, fellows, staff and faculty from any discipline are welcome. This group aims to foster frequent interdisciplinary critical dialogue across Oxford and beyond about the political impacts of emerging technologies. Please contact Callum Harvey (callum.harvey@oii.ox.ac.uk) in advance to participate or with any questions. Attendance is online only. You do not currently have to be affiliated with the University of Oxford to attend and participate in discussions.