UCL Political Science Events

The British media tend to report on Brexit only from the British point of view. In this seminar we redress the balance by inviting four foreign correspondents based in London to talk about how Brexit has been viewed from France, Germany, Italy and Poland. What conclusions have leading European countries drawn from the whole Brexit process; and where do they see the future, for the EU and the UK?

Deirdre Hutton has experienced all those spheres of regulation, and more, having just stepped down from ten years as chair of the Civil Aviation Authority. In this seminar she is joined by Professor Cary Coglianese, director of the Penn Program on Regulation, and Walter Merricks, former Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service. Together they will discuss what makes for successful regulat...

In this seminar he is joined by Ciaran Martin, Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre 2016-2020, to discuss spycraft, how raw intelligence is analysed, and how intelligence officers then use that information – often contradictory or incomplete – to build the most accurate possible image of the world. The ways of thinking used in intelligence can also help ordinary citizens sort fact...

China regards the island of Taiwan as a breakaway province; Taiwan’s leaders say it is an independent state. As China rises to superpower status, it has shown greater interest in reclaiming territory long regarded as its own, in the South China Sea, along the Himalayan border – and in Taiwan. The growing tensions could drag the US into the fray. To discuss the implications for security, peace and...

John Micklethwait is editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, and Adrian Wooldridge is political editor of the Economist, and author of their Bagehot column. In their latest book they analyse the disastrous failure of many western countries to control the Coronavirus, and what it exposes about the weaknesses of their systems of government. It is a wake up call to learn from the more successful responses...

Government interventions in response to Covid-19 make clear that the state can act as an extremely powerful guarantor of economic and health security. But has the crisis, and the subsequent governmental response, shifted voters' attitudes about the role that the government should play in society more generally? In a recent study, Tim Hicks, Tom O’Grady, and Jack Blumenau (UCL) examine whether the...

Jack Straw was Foreign Secretary in the Blair government from 2001 to 2006. His five years at the Foreign Office saw him grappling with every conflict zone from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the accession of ten new states to the EU, the failed accession bid from Turkey, the bombing of the Twin Towers on 9/11, and the Allied invasion of Iraq, led by the United States. At this seminar he will reflect on...

To discuss these worldwide trends, how to counter them, and how worried we should be about a populist rise in the UK, we are joined by three international experts: Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends Rory Stewart, former Cabinet Minister and 2019 candidate for the Conservative Party leadership, now Senior Fellow at Yale University Pro...

Last summer, we saw a statue of Bristol slave trader, Edward Colston, thrown in the harbour by Black Lives Matters protesters. Other statues of racist, colonial or controversial figures have also been taken down or been the sites of protests and University and other buildings have been renamed. A conversation has started to take place about how we reckon with the past, how we deal with the inherit...

Speakers: Lorriann Robinson is the founder and Director of The Advocacy Team, a consultancy practice providing policy, advocacy & campaigning services to international organisations. She is the co-founding partner of and advocacy lead for The Equity Index. Alex Martins is an independent researcher, facilitator and advocate passionate about creating a more equitable international development sector...

With the dust finally settling on one of the highest stakes US elections in recent memory, pollsters, pundits, academics, and policymakers are looking to make sense of what happened. What are the key take-aways from the 2020 US elections? Why did the results turn out as they did? What are the main policy implications of the elections, and how will they shape US governance in the coming years? In t...

The words the future of conflict triggers shiny images of technology overtaking the battlefield and an extreme revolution in military affairs. But how real is the hype about the disruption to defence and what will this mean for the soldier on the ground? In this panel we bring together three experts to consider the real face of the future of conflict. Flt. Lt. Dr James Kuht, RAF Doctor and Founder...

Speakers: Brian Klaas  is a political scientist at UCL and a weekly columnist for the Washington Post. He has written three books: The Despot's Accomplice (Oxford University Press), The Despot's Apprentice (Hurst & Co), and How to Rig an Election (Yale University Press). His research focuses on democracy, authoritarianism, Trumpism, the nature of power, political violence, and US foreign policy. B...

To discuss this we have four experts who have all been involved in writing and thinking about this: Prof Jonathan Boston from New Zealand had a Fulbright Fellowship to do comparative research on Governing for the Future; Jaakko Kuosmanen (Finnish Academy) is an expert on the human rights of future generations, and member of the Finnish Government’s Foresight Group; Jill Rutter is an experienced fo...

Vernon Bogdanor  Research Professor at King's College, London, Gresham Professor of Law, and Fellow of the British Academy Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska , Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform Baroness (Julie) Smith,  Reader in European Politics at Cambridge University Chair:  Professor Robert Hazell

In July the Intelligence and Security Committee published its long awaited Russia report. To introduce the report, and explain the difficulties which delayed its publication, our first speaker is Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General and chair of the committee when the report was compiled. Then to discuss the threat posed by Russia, and how the West should respond, we have two further experts: D...

Brexit has shaken British politics and raised important questions about how our democracy functions. Philip Rycroft, who was the lead civil servant on constitutional issues within the UK Government from 2012 to 2019, will examine how much Brexit has stressed the democratic process. He will look at trust in the institutions of the state and the state of democratic representation across the UK. He w...

If victors write history, and Bashar al-Assad is consolidating his grip on Syria after nearly a decade of civil war, is there any hope of justice for victims of state-sponsored abuse in Syria? Russia and China have blocked efforts to set up an international tribunal for Syria, so Syrians in exile have been searching for ways to use national laws, and the principle of universal jurisidiction to pur...

Conservative experts Lord Dunlop and Chris White speak at The Constitution Unit's first seminar of 2020. The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto commits the new government ‘to look at the broader aspects of our constitution: the relationship between the government, parliament and the courts; the functioning of the Royal Prerogative; the role of the House of Lords; and access to justice for ordinary peop...