The extremely severe restrictions on humanitarian operations have been one of the defining features of the Syrian conflict. Humanitarian operations have been severely impeded by a range of constraints, including active hostilities, repeated attacks against those providing humanitarian and, in particular, medical assistance, shifting front lines, proliferation of parties to the conflict, and the instrumentalisation of assistance by all belligerents.

China’s re-emergence and its assertive policies in the South China Sea over the past decades have led to the belief that Southeast Asia has no choice but to become part of China’s zone of influence. However, Southeast Asia has many choices. This lecture will look at the longer history of Southeast Asia and suggest the many options that ASEAN will have in the coming decades.

First wave transitions were political battles spanning many decades, in which the institutional components of democracy were implemented one at a time. The order in which these reforms occurred – the democratizing sequence – varied significantly from case to case. In England, for example, parliament was strengthened and civil rights were guaranteed before universal male suffrage was extended.

Motherhood and professional advancements often conflict. Studies of female academics highlight gender disparities in senior ranks. One explanation for this inequality is unequal caregiving responsibilities borne by women, particularly early in their children’s lives. This project asks whether differential maternity leave provisions across 160 UK higher education institutions exacerbate differentials in the productivity, career paths and job satisfaction of female academics. Research on maternity benefits usually is confined to case studies of a few universities or is discipline specific.

Traditional approaches to territorial conflicts would suggest that the value of a disputed territory—be it strategic, economic, religious, or historical—drives conflict. Standard explanations of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute often fit this trope, pointing to the military or economic benefits possessing the islands would confer upon the claimant states. This presentation takes a different view, arguing that it is not the value of the islands that drives the conflict, but rather the role of the islands as a tangible object of conflict that generates their value.