The many trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied according to ecological, social, and technological factors. This talk will describe the interactions between major global forces - from ecological breakdown to social inequality - and what they mean for the next pandemic. Emma Glennon, University of Cambridge Emma works to help understand and prevent infectious...
The talk will describe the challenges when delivering humanitarian aid to people in need across the world. Drawing on personal experience, Simon will talk through how Médecins Sans Frontières operates in the field and share a few of the dilemma's experienced. Simon Tyler, Médecins Sans Frontières Simon has spent the last 20 years working in...
In this talk, Professor Higate will challenge the myth of the British military as an apolitical actor. In so doing he will analyse the troubling political culture of its personnel together with the ways in which it usurps the power of the Executive. Professor Paul Higate, University of Bath Image: CC0 - www.pexels.com/photo/red-arm-tradition-uniform-56850/
Live & Virtual: Bytes not Waves - Global Terrorism & Communications Technologies Using jihadism as a case study, this talk provides a new typology for understanding how advances in information communication technologies have shaped global terrorism since the 1990s. Dr Patrick Bury, University of Bath To buy tickets for this event please click on View...
This is a Premiere Digital Event His Royal Highness The Ambassador will cover the most critical aspects of ‘world affairs’ from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's unique perspective and will focus on key current and future policies. Important interactions with other states, communities, governments and NGOs will be discussed, as well as internal matters. The talk...
This event can be watched live at Queen Square OR online - please select the appropriate tickets when booking. "Brad Evans is the George Clooney of Philosophy" (Russell Brand) "One of our leading political philosophers" (Srecko Horvat) "A profoundly important & original scholar whose courageous work will stand the test of time " (Henry A....
Please note: this event is online only. Discussing her work: ‘Innovation – the Word that would be King’, Professor Louise Brown introduces us to the concept of social innovation and the way in which innovation is used to improve health and social care services. Innovation has traditionally played a very important role in the private...
This event is online only Covid-19 has caused enormous death and suffering; chronic diseases are increasing; inequalities are widening; and environmental catastrophe is looming. Conceptualising these complex health, equity and environmental challenges in ways that truly take account of their complexity is essential for generating relevant evidence, constructing more meaningful practical and policy responses, and...
This talk is ONLINE only. David Dollar will present results from a collaborative effort among economists at Peking University and the Brookings Institution. Key questions addressed include: does China have enough talent and the right institutional setting to transition from an input-driven economy to an innovation-driven one? What does an aging population mean for the...
This event is online only. Ukraine & Russia: from “civilised divorce” to uncivil war When Ukraine and Russia signed a new treaty disbanding the Soviet Union in 1991, some referred to it as a “Civilized Divorce.” However, Russia never fully accepted Ukraine’s independence, and has spent the time since 1991 trying to reverse or limit...
You can watch this talk online or at Queen Square Friend or Foe? Artificial Intelligence represents one of the most discussed phenomenon of our time, covering all aspects of modern life. AI is seen by some as a panacea for the world’s problems, by others as a chimera, heralding in the end of the era...
Two eminent authors who contributed to the latest IPCC Report on climate change share their insights into its very real and present risks and impacts, to which we will all need adapt. Climate change is not for the future, impacts are here now in all regions and becoming increasingly complex. Our current 1.1ºC warmer world...
Spin Dictators uncovers the new brand of authoritarianism, and explains the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond. It traces how authoritarian world leaders pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of...
The latest political farce has severely damaged Britain’s credibility in the world, placing personal political ambition above the country and its international relationships. However, the crisis is much deeper than political brinkmanship and has seeped into the social and economic fabric of households, an increasing number of which have seen their way of life and...
Political ideas and practices are not created in a vacuum; they are the products of their times. If we have now entered the Anthropocene, a new era characterised to an unprecedented degree by human activity, then what kind of politics is more appropriate? In this talk, Sophia Hatzisavvidou will consider what ecopolitics looks like today, arguing...
Twelve months on from the invasion of the Ukraine, Professors Paul D’Anieri and Rajan Menon will join us live from California and New York once more to discuss in two talks what has happened over the past year and what the future may hold for the Ukraine, Europe and the World at large. Ukraine at...
Introduced by Colin Webb, Alistair Cooke’s Literary Executor It is the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed BBC television series Alistair Cooke’s America. To acknowledge this achievement BRLSI will host a screening of the rarely seen documentary produced by BBC Bristol, The Unseen Alistair Cooke, which includes footage from 150 reels of film shot by Cooke from the...
Professor Larry M. Bartels will join us live online and virtually via the large screen at Queen Square from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee to discuss Democracy erodes from the Top - leaders, citizens & the challenge of populism in Europe. A seeming explosion of support for right-wing populist parties has triggered widespread fears that liberal democracy...
We have built a form of artificial intelligence, and we depend on it in many ways, but we do not yet know how to trust it. The key to addressing our social anxieties about intelligent machines is to understand how they “think”, what we can expect of them, and what can be the consequences of...
What will the world look like in 2050? Thirty years ago, Hamish McRae wrote The World in 2020, a book which anticipated Brexit, a populist revolution in America, and the dangers of a global pandemic. Revisiting his book for the keynote lecture of our new series on The World in 2050, McRae analyses the forces...
Ready to take your power back? It’s no secret our phones are constantly monitoring what we do in order to better serve us targeted advertising, but how much do we really know about the world of apptracking and ad-tech? An upcoming talk explores how the data you generate on your smartphone can be put back...
Where do language & war intersect? Join BRLSI for our upcoming livestream from Ukraine exploring the roots of the Ukrainian language, and how best to protect at a time when it is at its most vulnerable. With all proceeds going to a Ukrainian charity, this is a talk we know you will want to support!...
Which of the global economies will be movers and shakers by 2050? With the balance of power shifting from West to East, 32 of the largest economies in the world may well account for around 85% of world GDP by 2050. In a talk appearing as part of our World in 2050 series Barret Kupelian,...
How do we mitigate the consequences of extreme weather on human health? Climate change is widely regarded as the biggest health threat facing humanity, and yet are there still things we can do in relation to the health consequences of climate change, like lessening carbon emissions, to empower ourselves? As part of our World in...
Two hundred years ago the first Industrial Revolution transformed Society. Now, the incremental digitization of day to day lives has left many believing a second revolution delivering fundamental systemic transformation to complex, global problems is overdue. In 2021, the Deep Transitions Project was born out of a rare, unique year-long collaboration between academics and global...
How do we cope strategically with a world in flux? The challenges of today's VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world have never been greater. Geopolitical developments – from Russia's war in Ukraine to souring relations between the United States and China – are a major contributor to making our world “more VUCA” and are...
The role of the Independent Monitoring Boards in UK prisons. Every prison, Young Offender Institution (YOI) and Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) in the UK has an Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) whose statutory role is to independently monitor whether prisoners are treated fairly and humanely. Each IMB is staffed by volunteers who are appointed by the...
How do we balance the need for economic growth against our rightful environmental concerns? In this talk, part of our World in 2050 series, Elisa Lanzi, Senior Economist, OECD, Environment Directorate joins us virtually via live stream and provides an overview of how projected socio-economic trends to 2050 link to changes in the state of...
Do we have a lot less to fear than we think? Technology and innovation have always been key drivers of economic growth and prosperity, but also lead to fears of being left behind or losing jobs. The pace of development and diffusion of new technologies has accelerated over time – with the growing power of...
What will 2050 hold for you, your friends, your family, and for society at large? Will technology change what it means to be human? You don’t have to be a computer scientist to understand the importance of the discussion about where artificial intelligence and technology are going. In the final talk of our World in 2050 series,...
If the lifeblood of organised crime is the weak and the vulnerable, what does that say of those newly recruited to the ranks? Organised crime is understood to be a “male only” world, yet a new book Graphic Narratives of Organised Crime, Gender and Power in Europe (Routledge 2022) analyses the first-hand accounts of girls...
How are we to account for the violence of a human disappearance, and what does the violence of a political disappearance tell us about both the organisation of power within an individual regime, and the fears we internalise as citizens? A discussion between Professor Brad Evans, and Mexican abstract painter Chantal Meza, takes the notion...
When flights all over the country suddenly get cancelled, what’s the first question we ask ourselves? From the NHS to the Electoral Commission, many key British institutions have by now been victims of sophisticated cyber-attacks. Some of them perpetrated by criminals for profit, while others have been undertaken by or on behalf of states. Cyber...
A discussion exploring the subject of grief, past and present. Dr Molly Conisbee has a PhD on the social history of dying and is author of the upcoming Wellcome book No Ordinary Deaths: a people's history of Mortality. She has devised and guided over fifty history walks all over the UK, including Bath, exploring themes...
Why are autocracies under pressure? Increasingly democratic states are being challenged by a resurgence in the number of autocracies. This presentation analyses a key aspect of this resurgence and the increased chances of autocratic survival in authoritarian learning. In analysing autocratic regimes in the post-Soviet space, Dr Stephen G. F. Hall, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in...
Another twelve months of war in the Ukraine have passed. Though news coverage has diminished, the suffering continues. Professors Paul D’Anieri and Rajan Menon join us once more to discuss in two talks what has happened over the past year, and whether a possible path to peace exists. The War in Ukraine at Year 2:...
Drawing on his sequence of books, The Secrets of Life: From Big Bang to Trump, Sean O’Connor explores the role of cooperation in driving the immutable current of life. Covering the nature of social dilemmas, the social contract and the background to ‘Das Adam Smith Problem’. He explores how Game Theory and The Prisoner’s Dilemma...
Latin America has been one of the main hubs of the global mining industry since at least the early 1990s. Today, with the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels, it is rapidly becoming the epicentre for a whole new wave of extraction. Key metals like lithium and copper, used widely in green technologies...