Of all the decisions of the Coalition, the agreement on a fixed-term Parliament has perhaps been one of the most consequential, even as it is one of the least remarked upon, certainly outside of academic circles. In previous Parliaments, we would have had a general election already – probably in 2014, but maybe already in […]
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Away from the continuing convolutions of David Cameron over immigration policy, there is the more mundane world of day-to-day euroscepticism in the UK. This often passes unremarked,for it is low-level stuff: a conversation here, an online comment there, an allusion somewhere else. Nothing much when taken as individual actions, but a substantial thing when pulled […]
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My former organisation, Save the Children[i], is in hot water for bestowing a “Global Legacy Award” on former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for his contribution to relieving global poverty. According to The Guardian over 200 Save the Children staff have signed a letter questioning the charity’s decision, saying it is “morally reprehensible” and endangers […]
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It’s that time of year when people apparently decide they need to talk about ‘Europe’: this week we’ve seen two good examples of why this might not be such a good idea. The first, made by former British agriculture minister, Owen Paterson, to the eurosceptic lobby Business for Britain, came on Monday. At one level, […]
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In this short blog post I attempt to sketch out what I mean by the term ‘foreign policy as culturally embedded discourse‘, as well as what this conceptualisation might mean for the study of International Relations. Unfortunately, discourse and culture are two of the most complicated words in the social sciences and, perhaps, the English language. […]
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People live hopefully. They dream of how their lives can be, and work towards realising those dreams. It’s one of the reasons that so many religions talk about how things will be: thus the Bible talks of turning ‘swords into ploughshares’, as ‘national shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war […]
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