The Oxford Conservative Thought (OCT) Reading Group is a non-partisan group devoted to academic exploration of small-c conservative political thought.

We welcome, and actively encourage, viewpoint diversity and constructive engagement across ideological divides (all good-willed participants are welcome!)

Each week we read one assigned text, and we recommend more for anyone who is very keen!

You can view our reading list here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-FnMPnWCQm3urAvD38jjRQkTEGA2EuSSjZjWm41Eszw/edit?usp=sharing

When Japan’s late Prime Minister Abe Shinzō introduced the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) concept in 2016, few would have imagined the effect it will have on global geopolitics. While initially highlighting the confluence between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, the FOIP has been instrumental for the formulation of other major powers’ strategic outlooks in Europe, Asia, and across the Atlantic, providing a new overarching conceptual framework that continues to define Indo-Pacific security dynamics today.

The last few decades have seen governments in East Asia provide increasing support for startups—new, high-growth, technologically oriented firms. Initiatives like the J-Startup programme strive to create cohorts of unicorns whilst also reinforcing Japan’s comparative advantages, with industrial leaders serving as coaches and judges for the programme. As such, these initiatives do not necessarily benefit the growth of startups as challengers to large, established firms.

This two-day Workshop in conjunction with the Department of Primary Care aims to bring together leading healthcare experts (academics, practitioners, policymakers) from Japan and the UK to interrogate existing assumptions behind the delivery of healthcare. This event will be held in the Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre.

In 1824 a young newlywed samurai woman of Kōchi castle town in southwestern Japan named Mori Nao wanted to divorce her samurai husband because she did not like him. Nao's husband adamantly refused to give her a divorce and the legal system said that only a man had the right and privilege to do so. After overcoming some resistance from her own family, she was able to get them on her side, and then her husband's family on her side and finally even the government of her domain allied with her and pressured him to divorce her.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in 2025, this lecture examines the integration of feminist perspectives into international security. It explores feminist critiques of traditional security paradigms and analyzes discursive strategies in United Nations debates, highlighting the dominance of instrumentalist arguments and their limitations.

Dr Marius Palz’s talk examines the socio-ecological entanglements of humans and dugongs in the Ryukyu Archipelago in the past and present, and how the dugong’s state on the verge of regional extinction affects the discourse and practices around a military base construction in the waters of Henoko/Ōura Bay, Okinawa Main Island. Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, it aims to contribute to the fields of environmental anthropology and Japanese studies during times of increasing environmental crisis.

This talk will outline several unique insights into Heian Japan provided by Ki no Tsurayuki's Tosa nikki (Tosa Diary), which is ostensibly the record of an ex-governor's voyage back to the capital kept by an anonymous woman in his entourage. The resulting split between fictional female narrator and historical male author has usually led Tosa nikki to be viewed as either the first Heian woman's memoir or the last aesthetic manifesto of one of the Japanese poetic tradition's foremost figures.

At a time of global confrontation between China, the United States, and Europe on trade, climate change, and digital governance, Japan has emerged as a leader in defining economic security, advancing critical industries, and forging strategic partnerships. Despite a history of intra-bureaucratic rivalry, Japan now presents a united front in supporting free trade agreements like the CPTPP, shaping the G20 agenda on AI, and promoting the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative.

Millennials are meritocracy’s children. They are more educated than any previous generations and deeply believe in the promise of meritocracy. Their belief in meritocracy, however, is betrayed by the actual social condition of our times—the rise of income inequality, precarity among the young and women, and a polarisation of the middle class, to name a few.