The City Politics Podcast: Recent Episodes
The City Politics Podcast
The official podcast of the Department of International Politics at City, University of London. A roundtable discussion on politics, international relations and current affairs
On 7 June 2020, a statute of the philanthropist Edward Colston was torn off its plinth and thrown into Bristol Harbour. This was done by protestors drawing attention to how Colston’s charitable works were built on slavery, racism, and empire. It is a vivid illustration how history resonates into contemporary politics both locally and globally.
Today we will give you the City View on Empire and the Liberal World Order.
We are joined by Priyamvada Gopal. Priya is the Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the University of Cambridge. We also have Or Rosenboim with us today. Or is a Senior Lecturer in Modern History at City, University of London.
On February 21st 2022, Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory. It was a monumental escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia which began with the Russian annexation of Crimea and the support of pro-Moscow separatists in Eastern Ukraine. As the Russo-Ukrainian War intensifies and more lives are lost or ruined, many of us have been thinking about the morality of such conflicts.
Today we will give you the City view on the ethics of war.
Our guests are Helen Frowe, Professor of Practical Philosophy and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Scholar at Stockholm University, and Jonathan Parry, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and an associated researcher at the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace.
On July 16th 1945 the world’s first nuclear detonation was conducted in Jornada del Muerto Desert in New Mexico ushering in a new age for humanity. Nuclear weapons became a touchstone in global politics and culture during the Cold War but have since receded into the background. However, with the Russo-Ukrainian War escalating tensions between Moscow and NATO powers, the spectre of nuclear war is looming larger than it has in generations.
Today we will give you the City view on nuclear deterrence and proliferation.
Our guests are James Wirtz and Rebecca Davis Gibbons. James is a professor of International Politics and was Dean of International Graduate Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School. Rebecca Davis Gibbons is an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Maine and former associate at the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard’s Kennedy School.
In the closing months of 63 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero stood before the Senate of Rome and confronting his enemy Catiline uttered perhaps one of the most famous lines of political oratory:
Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?
Thus began the first of four speeches against Catiline that turned the republic against him and saved it, at least for a generation.
Political speech is incredibly potent. In the mouths of some it elevates our best nature, in others it nourishes our darkest thoughts.
Today we will give you the City view on political oratory and rhetoric.
Our guest is Dennis Glover - an academic, newspaper columnist, policy adviser and speechwriter to Australia’s most senior political, business and community leaders. An often outspoken political commentator, his books include An Economy is not a Society, The Art of Great Speeches and Orwell’s Australia. He is also the author of two novels: Factory 19 and the Last Man in Europe.
On 25 December 1991 the red flag of the Soviet Union was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin. More even than the fall of the Berlin Wall this marked the end of the Cold War and the ascendency of the West. Yet, in the three decades since then the West has moved from triumph to decline in the face of internal and external threats.
Today we will give you the City view on the crisis of the West!
Our guests are Tim Luecke, CEO and Co-founder of Transatlantika, formerly of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at the Ohio State University, and Srdjan Vucetic, Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
On the 31st of October, world leaders converged on Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference, colloquially known as COP26. Here it is hoped that an agreement can be reached to help avert the worst effects of the climate crisis. However, given the history of soft targets and inaction on climate change there is air of scepticism that COP26 will live up to the moment.
As awareness of the climate emergency grows more people seem to be willing to take actions that push the boundaries of political protest in liberal democracies. In the UK groups like Extinction Rebellion and Insulate UK have taken to disrupting roads, public transport, and business.
Today we will give you the City view on the climate emergency and civil disobedience.
Our guests are Bill Scheuerman, The Rudy Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Indiana University, and Guy Aitchison, Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at the University of Loughborough.
In April 1914 while witnessing the Paint Creek Mine War in West Virginia, Ralph Chaplin penned the song ‘Solidarity Forever’, inspired by the collective efforts of striking workers. From these beginnings the song spread as an anthem for organised labour across the world. Solidarity is a central concept in politics animating resistance to Communism in Poland, the struggle for women’s rights, and the fight against apartheid. To say nothing of the day-to-day practice of supporting our friends and neighbours in our communities. But what does solidarity actually mean?
Today we will give you the City view on solidarity.
Our guests are Patrick Diamond, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary, University of London, and Lise Butler, Lecturer in Modern History at City, University of London.
On May 26, 2021 Uber, one of the most prominent representatives of platform capitalism and engine of the gig economy, recognised the GMB union as representing its drivers after the UK Supreme Court ruled that they were workers and not independent contractors. This was a win for organised labour. But as COVID reshapes the workplace and platforms become an increasingly prominent part of the economy, what will work look like in the future?
Today we will give you the City view on the future of Work.
Our guests are Melanie Simms, Professor of Work and Employment at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, and Jamie Woodcock, Senior Lecturer in Management in the Faculty of Business and Law at the Open University.
On June 28, 1969 The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, was raided by the NYPD. A crowd gathered outside the bar and tensions escalated. There are differing account of what happened next, but before long a riot broke out. For three nights members of the community fought the police in the streets of New York City. It was a watershed moment for LGBT rights in the United States.
A year later the riot was commemorated by the first gay pride marches in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. From there they spread across the world.
In honour of Pride Month we’ll give you the City view on LGBT politics, rights and history.
Our guests are Koen Slootmaeckers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London, and Chris Parkes, Lecturer in International and Global History at King’s College London.
On 20 January 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden placed his hand on his family’s Bible and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. He assumed office in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th insurrection, in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that has hit America harder than many other nations, facing a polarised senate, and indeed a polarised country. What has he done so far? And what does it mean for America and the world?
Today we will give you the City view on Biden’s first 100 days.
Our guest is Lora Anne Viola, Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin.
(Just a little note: We cover domestic issues up to 42:49. We then move to international affairs.)
On 28 October 2017, a user known as “Q Clearance Patriot” posted on the /pol/ board of 4Chan claiming that then President Trump was preparing for the mass arrest of a cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles that secretly run the American government. The Q-Anon conspiracy theory then metastasised across social media and the world, culminating in the January Insurrection which was replete with QAnon iconography.
The spread of conspiracy theories into mainstream politics has raised concerns about the resilience of liberal democracy in the post-truth era.
Today we will give you the City View on conspiracy theories and democracy.
Our guests are Annemarie Walter, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Nottingham, Hugo Drochon, Assistant Professor in Political Theory at the University of Nottingham, and Alfred Moore, Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of York.
0n 21 February , 1954, American President Ike Eisenhower signed the Graeda Treaty following three rounds of negotiations with the extra-terrestrial species known as ‘the Greys’. Was the price of the Treat worth it? Or should the President have allied with the ‘Tall Whites’ in exchange for nuclear disarmament?
Today we will give you the City View on extra-terrestrial politics.
Our guest are Valiant Thor and Stanton Friedman’s ghost.
On 4 January 2011, Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in the Tunisian city of Ben Arous, died from injuries he incurred by setting himself on fire in protest against the confiscation of his wares by the police. His death set in motion the Arab Spring across North Africa and the Middle East. Ten years later the politics of protest have not disappeared. In Belarus protestors took to the streets of Minsk following disputed presidential elections; in Hong Kong protestors hotly contested the Fugitive Offenders Bill; in the United States the killing of George Floyd prompted protests against racial injustice across the country. Across the world ordinary people are taking politics to the streets.
Today we will give you the City View on the politics of protest.
Our guests are Amnon Aran, Senior Lecturer in International Politics and our Head of Department, and Jeppe Mulich, Lecturer in Modern History.
On September 2nd, 2015 Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy fleeing the carnage of the Syrian Civil War, drowned while making the crossing between Bodrum in Western Turkey and the Greek Island of Kos. Images of the body have come to symbolise everything people are willing to risk for a better life in the face of the strict policing of borders.
Although Europe’s migrant crisis has abated, the politics and ethics of human migration remain one of the most contested issues today.
Today we will give you the City View on the politics of migration.
Our guests are Sara Silvestri, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, and Andri Innes, Lecturer in International Politics and a member of the Violence and Society Centre at City, University of London.
On February 14, snow began to fall on the state of Texas in the southern United States. As the winter storm hit, the demand for electricity rose causing the state’s power grid to fail. As Texans struggled to stay warm, many blamed decades of deregulation and a lack of investment in public infrastructure. After decades of retreat, the emerging climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have led to calls across the world for a more interventionist state.
Today we will give you the City View on whether there are national solutions to global problems.
Our guests are Anastasia Nesvetailova, Professor of International Political Economy, and Stefano Pagliari, Senior Lecturer in International Politics.
On January 1st 2020, the world rang in the new year with few suspecting that it would see one of the most profound global crisis since the Second World War. As this year draws to a close, many of us find ourselves reflecting on what has passed and what is to come.
Today we will give you the City View on 2020 and the future of democracy.
Our guests are Inderjeet Parmar, Professor of International Politics, and Dr Lise Butler, Lecturer in Modern History.
The CPP crew is working on a 2020 retrospective episode and we thought why not see if our wonderful audience has any questions they want our experts to answer!
If you have a question you'd like the panel to look at drop us a line at cpp@city.ac.uk
On November 3rd, 2020 Americans went to the polls. The world held its breath. And more than 48 hours later it is waiting to exhale. With counting still continuing in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina, we do not yet know who will be the next president of the United States.
Inderjeet, Konstantin, and David reconvene to go over what we know so far and to see how well we predicted the future.
On Tuesday 3 November, 2020 the American people will go to the polls to vote in a presidential election. This in an American election that cannot be compared to any other in living memory. Occurring in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic, in the shadow of widespread protests against racial injustice and the rushed appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the election has been considered a referendum on the Trump presidency. The world is holding its breath. Will America re-elect Donald Trump?
Today we will give you the City view on Election 2020. Our guest is Inderjeet Parmar, Professor of International Politics.
On August 17th, 1917 American journalist John Reed set sail from New York City bound for Russia. His book Ten Days that Shook the World became a sensation by providing a first-hand account the Bolshevik Revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union.
During the seven decades of this experiment in state socialism, journalists play a decisive role in shaping the public’s opinion on both sides of the Cold War divide. A legacy that continues today as geopolitical tensions between Russia, Europe, and the United States persist and are shaped by political correspondents across the world.
Today we will give you the City view on East-West relations through journalism of politics and the politics of journalism.
Our guests are Dina Fainberg, Lecturer in Modern History, and James Rodgers, Reader in International Journalism.
On 26 November, 1942 the British Government released a report on “Social Insurance and Allied Services”. Known to history as the Beveridge Report, it laid the foundation for the UK’s welfare state. The Beveridge Report was no isolated phenomena. From the Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in America to the Godesberg Program in West Germany, social democracy came to define Western politics in the post-war period.
Since then social democracy has been left bruised by the neo-liberalism of Thatcher and Reagan, revived by so-called ‘third way’ politicians like Tony Blair, only to be challenged once again by 2008 Financial Crisis and the rise of populism.
Today we will give you the City view on the past, present, and future of social democracy.
Our guest is Dr Lise Butler, Lecturer in Modern History.
On May 25th, George Floyd, an African-American man, allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill while buying groceries. 20 minutes later he was killed by a white police officer. The killing of George Floyd sparked the largest protests in America since the civil rights movement.
However, these protests have met with resistance from President Trump who has deployed unmarked militarised police to, in his words, dominate the streets of large American cities. With Coronavirus raging and a presidential election rapidly approaching it feels as though we are witnessing a battle for the soul of America.
Today we will give you the City view on race and American politics. Our guests are Inderjeet Parmar, Professor of International Politics, and Leonie Fleischmann, Lecturer in International Relations.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, but some people are doing very well out of the crisis. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his wealth increase by 12 billion dollars in a single day.
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the City Politics Podcast. Today we’ll give you the City view on COVID-19 and Global Inequality. Our guests are Ronen Palan, Professor of International Politics, and Sandy Hager, Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy.