Democracy of the last man: The politics of demographic imagination

In the wake of the Cold war Francis Fukuyama portrayed the “last man” as free but devoid of ambitions, polite but unheroic, somebody castrated by the satisfaction of his desires but a very agreeable fellow. He is married to democracy, but we suspect no more in love with it. The “last man” of this lecture is a different one. He has arrived when history has returned. He is anxious and mistrustful. He is overtaken by demographic anxiety. He thinks he lives in the dregs of time. He tends to believe that the next elections should be the last elections.

A Region-centric Approach to International Relations and Order in East Asia

This lecture reflects upon the broader implications of the speaker’s recent research on developing region-centric approaches to investigate and understand the evolution of international relations and order in East Asia. Such approaches take seriously complex regional contexts, privilege regional perceptions and concerns, and favour research questions that arise from regional empirical patterns and experiences.

Restoring the rule of law in Poland: a particular or a universal challenge?

A new Polish government is trying to restore the rule of law, after eight years in which the EU identified major threats to it under governments of the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The rule of law crisis in Poland has posed a challenge for the entire European Union, undermining its fundamental principles and values. Can the EU effectively defend itself against such threats? Which path should be chosen to restore the rule of law: revolution or evolution?

The Idea of 'System' in International Thought

This paper investigates the idea of ‘system’ in international thought.  It focuses specifically on early modern mechanical notions of a system as a complex whole composed of interacting parts.  The paper makes two key claims: (1) this understanding of system discloses particular ontological and epistemological commitments that are rooted in a theo-scientific account of reality; and (2) the idea of system, so conceived, is properly conceived as a particular legitimation of modernity, which paradoxically, conceals its intellectual origins.  This understanding of sys

Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade

How and why did China ‒ the world’s largest communist nation ‒ converge with global capitalism? And when did this occur? In this new book, LSE historian Elizabeth Ingleson tells the surprising story of how the United States and China went from Cold War foes to finding common cause by transforming China’s economy into a source of cheap labour, creating the economic interdependence that characterizes our world today.
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