Global Politics
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“The Chinese Dream” – Discourses of Opportunity and the Realities of Racism in Modern China
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This year’s G20 summit had no shortage of tense and exciting moments. Discussions pertaining to the global climate crisis, the US-China trade war, and Putin’s fatalistic remarks on the modern liberal project dominated headlines globally. Amidst this diplomatic flurry, one leader’s voice went relatively unnoticed. Bearing the heat of Osaka’s summer sun, surrounded by a…
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The Reluctantly Liberated: Reassessing Russia sympathisers in Ukraine
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In Donbass, Pro-Russian sentiments run deeper than the conventional narrative of a Russian propaganda campaign In July I travelled to the Luhansk region of Ukraine and visited the only crossing point to the so called ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’. I was given an excursion by a guide and a Ukrainian army officer who gave me the…
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Posturing for Symmetry
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This time last month, protestors had demonstrated outside the Indian High Commission in London, where a large crowd turned up to resist the impact of Indian aggression in Kashmir. Pakistan critiqued Modi’s cabinet revoking Kashmir’s special status on the 5th of August as a violation of international law – while New Delhi struggled with maintaining…
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Israeli Elections 2019, Part II. What’s Next?
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Israel headed to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in 2019. The contest was widely seen as a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. After a fraught election, neither Netanyahu nor his main challenger, former IDF commander Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, have an easy path to form a coalition government. The…
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A Universal Basic Income for Indigenous Australians
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Imagine a debit card without the ability to withdraw cash. The card cannot be used to buy gambling products, alcohol, cigarettes or other drugs. At the same time, every purchase is tracked and collected by the government, to be stored and monitored at a later date. It sounds like a science fiction dystopian novel but…
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How Australia Became a Conservative Nation
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The year is 2014 and Tony Abbott, the Australian Prime Minister, announces a series of cuts to public spending across healthcare, education and unemployment benefits. Modeled off of the austerity programs sweeping Europe at the time, the cuts aimed to balance the federal budget and privatize public services. The UK, Greece, Spain and Portugal have…
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The Levellers’ Agreement: A Preview from the Author of “The Levelling: What’s Next After Globalization”
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It is likely that many Oxford students have not heard of The Levellers. More may have heard of the Putney Debates. The Debates have recently been acknowledged as one of the most important moments in English history and as the crucible of modern constitutional democracy. More than a year earlier, King Charles I had lost…
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The Importance of European Citizens in the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union
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1. Introduction The history of the European Union has frequently been punctuated by spats over sovereignty between Brussels and member states. It is also apparent that these have become more serious as the union has evolved towards a quasi-federal super state and is currently reaching what is described by several of its leaders as “an…
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The Catalan dispute underlines the EU’s limited understanding of democracy
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The world’s eyes have turned away from Madrid. Nobody expected that international interest would be maintained throughout the trial of the Catalan independence campaigners, especially now the procedurally complex case is approaching its fiftieth day. But that should not make believers in the European project forget what is at stake there, in what is perhaps…
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Australia’s Revolving Door Prime Ministership
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Since 2010, Australia has changed its leader on five separate occasions: in 2010, twice in 2013, in 2015, and in 2018. Only one of these was at a general election, the rest were the handiwork of MPs and Senators. As a result, Canberra has earned the nickname ‘the coup capital of the western world’. While…