The City Politics Podcast

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.)