The Beacon Oxford International Relations Society

Podcast in which Beacon Editor, Joe Davies, talks to Dr. Lina Khatib, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, and Prof. Eugene Rogan, Director of the Middle East Centre at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, on "What can - and should - the West do to support the Syrian people?".
In 2011, the Syrian people took to the street to peacefully protest against the Assad regime, demanding democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners. The past 7 years since has seen the West fail to prevent the regime's chemical attacks on innocent civilians, fail to take sufficient steps to protect the estimated 5 million refugees that have fled Syria, and fail to help Syria shift to a path of peacebuilding and reconciliation. These are issues the West must not continue to ignore. But, what can be done to ensure a transition to a new leader, and a democratic regime in Syria? Or is an emboldened Assad an inevitable outcome of this violent conflict?
Put simply, what can - and should - the West do now to support the Syrian people?

In this episode the of the Beacon, Nicholas Chin speaks to Catarina Leao, a DPhil student in Politics at Wolfson College, studying the effect of authoritarian legacies on political positions. In the podcast they discuss the likelihood of democratic transition, and how the authoritarian histories of Portugal and Spain have influenced the rise of new populist parties in these countries.

To celebrate the arrival of The Beacon on Apple PodcastS, we're rereleasing some of the best episodes from previous years.
In this episode of The Beacon, Verity Bligh interviews Edward Lucas, senior editor at The Economist and author of “New Cold War” and “Cyberphobia”. They discuss past and present Russian power politics, the importance of cyber-security and the future of journalism in a world of “fake news”.

































 
Edward Lucas’ book recommendations:
“The Engineer of Human Souls” by Josef Skvorecky“The Captive Mind” by Czeslaw Milosz“The Great Terror” by Robert Conquest“Gulag”, “Iron Curtain” and “Red Famine” by Anne Applebaum“Bloodlands” by Timothy Snyder

In this week's special episode of The Beacon, Stephen Walt gives a guest lecture to the Oxford International Relations Society on the topic "Where is US foreign policy going?". Walt is Professor of International Relations at Harvard University and is on the editorial board of Foreign Policy and numerous other International Relations and Security Studies journals. Walt is known for proposing the balance of threat theory, in which states' alliance behaviour is determined by the threat they perceive from other states. States generally balance by allying against a perceived threat, although very weak states are more likely to bandwagon with the rising power in order to protect their own security. This worldview informs Walt's lecture as he begins by talking about US President Donald Trump. 

Archie Philipps speaks with Carne Ross, former British diplomat and founder and Executive Director of Independent Diplomat, the world’s first non profit diplomatic advisory group, which helped gain South Sudan statehood, and is currently advising the Syrian Opposition. Topics discussed in this podcast include  the changing nature – and potential disintegration -  of states, the Middle East conflict, and the failings and future of diplomacy
 

In this week's episode of The Beacon, Robert Pieters interviews Professor Rana Mitter to discuss the continued relevance of China's experiences of the Second World War for its contemporary international relations. Professor Mitter, based at the Oxford University China Centre, is a leading authority on modern China, having authored several books on the topic, including China’s War with Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival in 2013. As China becomes more and more important on the global stage, there are thus few people better placed to discuss the topics of how the wartime experience continues to colour China's relationships with its neighbours, and how narratives of the war continue to shape how China conducts itself internationally today.