Wednesday 14 February: Understanding India’s Partition Using Game Theory (speaker: Atul Mishra, University of Plymouth)
One of the puzzles of modern Indian history is the partition of India in the form it took in 1947. Jinnah accepted a 'moth eaten Pakistan' in 1947 which he had twice rejected before. Using elementary notions from Game theory we see how this became highly likely, if not inevitable.
Wednesday 7 March: The Multidimensional Kurdish Model and Unpredictable Season of Kurdish Geopolitics in the Middle East (speaker: Dr Omer Tekdemir, University of Leicester)
The so-called Kurdish question is an outcome of the imperial and colonised history. The Kurds, as an emerging power, are at a historic crossroads and redrawing the borders of the Sykes-Picot map. However, having a possible 'independent Kurdistan' and radical democratic autonomy in the 'new' Middle East created a hegemonic articulation, power struggle, and antagonism with the region's nation(alist) states (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran) and beyond.
Wednesday 21 March: Kant's Political Theology of Perpetual Peace (speaker: Dr Sean Molloy, University of Kent)
Sean Molloy argues that Kant should not be read as a forerunner of Cosmopolitanism or Democratic Peace theorists, but as a thinker absolutely determined to square the requirements of political necessity and the commands of the moral law. Molloy stresses that the key to this process lies in Kant's articulation of a specifically theological way of conceiving political existence, one in which the "foul Stain of our species" is redeemed by the sacrifice of knowledge to faith.
Wednesday 16 May: Responding to planetary environmental change: geoengineering, Pachamama and ecopedagogy (speaker: Professor David Humphreys, Open University)
Options for responding to global environmental change range from the highly hubristic and technocentric proposal to control the Earth’s temperature through controversial and unproven geoengineering techniques, to the suggestion that a new jurisprudence be developed in which nature’s rights are central. Planetary change also raises questions about the role that should be played by educators.
June 2018: Keynote address at the Faculty of Business Doctoral Conference
Brexit Opportunities and Challenges for Researchers (Patrick Holden and Mary Farrell).
Watch the keynote address
Wednesday 24 October: Using Turning Technologies/Responseware in large groups (lectures) (speaker: Dr Lorenzo Cladi, University of Plymouth)
With its promise to keep students engaged in an interactive way, the use of Turning Technologies/Responseware is becoming an increasingly common practice in higher education. Lorenzo will discuss his experience of using Turning Technologies/Responseware during lectures to large groups of students at stage 2 of their degree at the University of Plymouth. Moreover, Lorenzo will share some of the lessons that he has learnt so far by using Turning Technologies/Responseware in large groups.
Wednesday 31 October: Space warfare and the implications for extended deterrence, capabilities and the character of war in the 21 century (speaker: Dr Simon Smith, University of Staffordshire)
US space policy signifies the resolve to contribute to the defence of allied space systems. Yet, there is little in the literature examining theoretical or policy implications in terms of applying extended deterrence theory to the domain of space and in connection to collective security organisations. This research is a first step into examining the theoretical implications of what space deterrence means at the collective security level.
Wednesday 5 December: The Politics of Healthcare (speaker: Professor Stephen Green, Sheffield Hallam University)
Some, not infrequently politicians, consider health to be of lesser importance than many other matters in the political sphere. However, health is undoubtedly important at both the individual disease level and at population/epidemic levels. A vast number of issues come into the mix, including matters of profit and social responsibility, the private-public debate, cross-border movement of healthcare staff, medical research, maintenance of standards, healthcare tourism, and international co-operation over public health issues (such as Ebola and influenza), biological and chemical warfare, pollution and climate control, and much else. Furthermore different countries do things differently. Health is in fact of great importance to politics and international relations...