Academy of Ideas

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe EUROPE'S FREE SPEECH CRISIS: HYPE OR REALITY? https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/threat-from-within-europes-free-speech-crisis/ ‘In Britain and across Europe, free speech… is in retreat’ declared US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Confe...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHO'S AFRAID OF THE POPULIST REVOLT? https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/whos-afraid-of-the-populist-revolt/ Too often, it is assumed that the spectacular rise of populist parties across the West has fueled discontent about a host of issues, from mass...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARE PATRIOTISM AND THE NATION STATE BACK? https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/the-rehabilitation-of-patriotism-and-nationalism/ ‘The populists, nationalists, stupid nationalists, they are in love with their own countries’, declared Jean-Claude Juncker,...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAN WE FIX THE DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE? https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/can-we-fix-the-dysfunctional-state/ Is the British state broken? Voters increasingly seem to think so. From seemingly out-of-control rents, taxes, mortgages and bills to a dysfunct...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WILL DEI EVER DIE? https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/will-dei-ever-die/ In his recent book, The End of Woke, writer Andrew Doyle notes that after years of an ‘intolerable, intemperate and above all illiberal’ cultural revolution, ‘woke ideology is be...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT 'GENOCIDE' https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/we-need-to-talk-about-genocide/ Reflecting on the problems of political language, George Orwell noted: ‘The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies “something...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe AN ISLAND OF STRANGERS? IMMIGRATION AND INTEGRATION https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/island-of-strangers-immigration-and-integration/ In May 2025, Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a speech unveiling Labour’s plans to curb net migration. It fram...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE After Labour’s election last year, the new defence secretary, John Healey, wrote a memo to Cabinet colleagues in relation to the scandalous Afghan data leak and the subsequent cover-up of relocations. Healey stressed the need to ‘m...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WELCOME ADDRESS 2006 http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2006/attractions The Academy of Ideas is pleased to announce that the 2nd Annual Battle of Ideas festival will be opened by Sir Christopher Frayling, rector of the Royal College of Art, George Brock,...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHEN IS IT RIGHT TO GO TO WAR? KOSOVO, IRAQ AND BEYOND http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2009/session_detail/2520 Britain’s string of wars over the past ten years has brought questions of the rights and wrongs of going to war to the forefront of political...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe A CULTURED EAR: WHY DOES LISTENING TO MUSIC MATTER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2009/session_detail/2527 Today it’s often lamented that, though music permeates society, we no longer value the act of listening. Indeed, have we lost touch with how we...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe NOVEL PURSUITS: CREATIVE WRITING AND THE DEMOCRATISATION OF LITERATURE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2009/session_detail/2574 ‘Everyone has one novel in them’ so the saying goes. Only today the saying seems to have become a reality. Creative writing...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE STATE AND RECESSION: SOLUTION OR PART OF THE PROBLEM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2009/session_detail/2493 The current crisis has been welcomed by some as heralding the end of ‘neoliberalism’: the free market, free trade agenda that supported li...

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Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe PLAYING GOD: WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN? https://archives.battleofideas.org.uk/2019/session/playing-god-when-does-life-begin/ When and how does life begin? This question has tormented philosophers and scientists alike for centuries. The discussion about life – an...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe REBIRTH OF THE AUTHOR? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5750 More than a generation ago in 1967, Roland Barthes announced ‘The Death of the Author’, arguing among other things in his famous essay that the meaning of a literary text is...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BATTLE FOR OUR BRAIN STRAND INTRO http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/overview

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE TRILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: IS THE US ECONOMY RESURGENT OR DEPENDENT? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5689 During the final two thirds of the twentieth century, the US and the dollar reigned supreme in the world. But now, as each y...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe SMART DRUGS: MAGIC BULLET OR CHEATING OURSELVES? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5728 It is estimated that around 16% of university students in the UK are taking ‘smart drugs’, medication available on prescription for conditions such...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe UNREALPOLITIK: A NEW NEW WORLD ORDER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5686 On a diplomatic tour last year, Prime Minister David Cameron tried to make friends in Turkey at the expense of Israel by calling Gaza a prison camp. He played...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe EUROZONIA: TOO BIG TO FAIL, TOO SMALL TO SUCCEED? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5687 The core European Union project of unity in diversity seems to be slowly sinking as a succession of shockwaves batter the good ship Eurozonia. Whe...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAN YOU TELL WHEN SOMEONE IS LYING TO YOU? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5730 Studies suggest most of us can detect lies at a rate only slightly better than chance. So what if technology can give us a more accurate reading? The pol...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe LIFE OFF EARTH: ARE THE ALIENS OUT THERE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5724 What is the likelihood of life existing elsewhere in the universe? More crucially, what is the likelihood of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the un...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAN CONSERVATISM SURVIVE THE 21ST CENTURY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5600 An Etonian Conservative is prime minister, and a high profile Tory is mayor of London. The conservative Tea Party is making all the running in the US, wh...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT IS EVIL? THE POLITICS OF MORALITY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5691 The hurried and secretive disposal of the body of Osama bin Laden after he was killed by US special forces in May was explained on strategic grounds, but the...