Department of Politics & International Studies, Uni of Cambridge

Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use This article analyzes how American and British policy shifted, from rejecting to accepting the applicability of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) to nuclear use. Through a study of primary and secon...

New article by Giovanni Mantilla @giofabman.bsky.social titled "Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use" analysing the shift of UK and US nuclear policy.

You can read it here: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Super excited to host @karsohini.bsky.social this Thursday as part of the Centre of Development Studies Seminar Series @campolis.bsky.social.

All welcome!

YouTube video by The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder China Wins Big at Davos | Jostein Hauge | TMR

🎧Listen to Jostein Hauge @haugejostein.bsky.social discuss the aftermath of the World Economic Forum in Davos particularly as it pertains to China on the The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder. @majorityreport.bsky.social

youtu.be/ailbh3i9WzE?...

BASAS Book Prize 2026 – Shortlist Announced - British Association for South Asian Studies BASAS is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2026 BASAS Book Prize. From a very strong field, the following

📘🎉Congratulations to the authors shortlisted for the 2026 BASAS Book Prize, including our own Farhana Afrin Rahman nominated for her highly acclaimed book, 'After the Exodus: Gender and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Rohingya Refugee Camps'. @cambridgegender.bsky.social

www.basas.org.uk/news-events/...

When Heteropatriarchy Turns You On A tenacious heteropatriarchal logic of gender normativity continues to script the behaviour of Chinese gay men. It was a decade ago when Tiantian Zheng (2015) made the anthropological observation that...

Fascinating paper by PhD student in Gender Studies Bingchang Sun published in Made in China Journal titled 'When Heteropatriarchy Turns You On: Masculinity, Masochism, and the Erotics of Normativity'

madeinchinajournal.com/2026/01/22/w...

Whence and Whither Intersectional Theory? Part of the Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminar Series.

Looking forward to presenting on the continuing utility of intersectionality for @cambridgegender.bsky.social in March, please do come along - www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whence-and...

(my face will be a regular size and not alarmingly large on the day)

Strategic repoliticisation: inflation, blame, and the fracturing of democratic accountability in the United States When inflation returned to the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic after decades of price stability, it created a critical test for the accountability mechanisms underpinning the system of d...

Did Congress forget the Fed controls inflation, or was forgetting the point?

My paper in New Political Economy shows Congress engaged in strategic repoliticisation, where political conflict serves electoral interests and preserves the Fed's technocratic autonomy www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New paper on "Representative Democracy Against Oligarchy" in New Political Science by @lawrencehamilton.bsky.social

Read it here: read.dukeupress.edu/nps/article/...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

The first of a two-part conversation in which David talks to Helen Thompson about how to understand the extraordinary and unlikely power of the United States, from its origins to its current incarnation.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

YouTube video by BBC World Service How Donald Trump fits into decades of US-Iran rivalry - BBC World Service

Today on #BBCWorldService Dr Evaleila Pesaran (POLIS) explains the history of change in #Iran and how #DonaldTrump fits in to the current situation.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y79N...

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW!

Today’s bonus episode is part 2 of David’s conversation with Glen Rangwala about the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. What has been the long-term impact of the Iraq War and its failures on contemporary global politics?

Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

YouTube video by Humanities & Social Sciences Cambridge University Humanities, Social Sciences and AI

What might be at stake when it comes to #AI?

In a new video, an interdisciplinary group of scholars come together to understand the impact of AI tools on societal transformation and the resistance to this new technology.

Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAu...

Trump says U.K. ‘stupidity’ on Chagos Islands justifies Greenland demands A year ago, President Donald Trump said he was okay with the United Kingdom ceding ownership of the archipelago that includes Diego Garcia. Now, he calls it “GREAT STUPIDITY.”

Professor Marc Weller is quoted in @washingtonpost.com
story about US President Donald Trump’s latest outburst.

Trump says U.K. ‘stupidity’ on Chagos Islands justifies Greenland demands.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

The script of that Carney speech is going to end up on a lot of IR readings lists...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

For the final episode in this series David talks to historian & political scientist Glen Rangwala about the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006. What plans did the Americans have for Saddam before the Iraq war began? Was justice served?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Extending the vote to children | Guest talk from David Runciman

Thursday 29 January, 6pm
Lecture Theatre, Trinity Hall

David Runciman returns to Cambridge to discuss his research on giving children the vote.

Free and open to all. No registration required. Refreshments served before the talk.

David Runciman · Calling Dr Jekyll: What Kamala Harris got wrong Normally, being revealed as a hypocrite is kryptonite for a politician running for office. But Harris doesn’t know...

‘Harris claims she was bubbling with ideas to improve the lives of ordinary Americans. Yet most of the specific proposals she mentions relate to government positions and the people who might occupy them.’

David Runciman reads Kamala Harris’s campaign memoir.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Louise Hulland on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - 15/01/2026 - BBC Sounds Louise is here with the latest news, stories, guests and great music.

Listen to Dr Evaleila Pesaran (POLIS) on this episode of Louise Hulland on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire discussing developments in #Iran.

Listen to Dr Pesaran at 3:09:12: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

@bbcnews.bsky.social @meccambridge.bsky.social

Britain must prove to Trump that we believe Greenland is worth dying for UK should lead a new military effort to protect the North Atlantic because Nato can no longer guarantee its security

Professor Brendan Simms writes an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph on the current threats of US military action in Greenland, suggesting the UK should lead a new military effort to protect the North Atlantic as NATO can no longer guarantee its security.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...,

University of Cambridge - Centre of Latin American Studies

Book Launch 'Mexico: A History'

Paul Gillingham (Northwestern University)
Chair: Benjamin Smith (University of Warwick)

📆 Wednesday 21 January
🕓 5:00pm
📍 Room S2, Second Floor, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, CB3 9DT

Where a Hundred Analogies Bloom - The Ideas Letter Routine analogies between Donald Trump and Mao Zedong are not only historically inaccurate but intellectually disabling, contends Sorace, because they replace structural analysis with a moral fable th...

Read this new essay from Christian Sorace in The Ideas Letter: "On the Perils of Comparing Trump to Mao".

www.theideasletter.org/essay/when-a...

Why do #Venezuela and #Greenland matter to U.S. power? Professor Helen Thompson shares her analysis.

Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at @campolis.bsky.social and a Fellow at Clare College.

Is the U.S. action in Venezuela lawful, unlawful or legally grey? Professor Marc Weller shares his analysis.

Watch the full interview on YouTube 👉 https://bit.ly/4szTRMA

Marc Weller is Professor of International Law @campolis.bsky.social

Pinochet’s prisoners were tormented with music but still found solace in it, a new book reveals Under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, prisoners were tormented with music but still found solace in it, a new book reveals

Reporting on Chile’s recent election of far-right President, José Antonio Kast, The Guardian interviewed Dr Katia Chornik (CLAS). Her book, 'Music and Political Imprisonment in Pinochet’s Chile', exposes the realities of political imprisonment under Pinochet.

www.cam.ac.uk/stories/musi...

Today - 05/01/2026 - BBC Sounds News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Professor Helen Thompson (POLIS) talks to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme about the situation in Venezuela, arguing that it is becoming clear that the western hemisphere is now central to resource conflict in the world (starts 50:02).

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

Today is the 1st in our series of live eps recorded at the Regent St Cinema in London: David talks to crime writers Nicci Gerrard & Sean French (aka @niccifrench.bsky.social) about Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), based on Patrick Hamilton’s play.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Duncan Bell, "John Stuart Mill on Federation, Civilization and Empire," History of Political Thought (2024)

go.shr.lc/4mTZyBp

Why America’s innovation ecosystem will survive Trump’s cuts to R&D | USAPP America’s “polycentric innovation state” remains and will continue to adapt to economic challenges.

America’s innovation ecosystem will survive Trump’s cuts to R&D writes @thinkwoodist.bsky.social @campolis.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk c.uk

blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

My book on American innovation policy is out!

'States of Innovation' shows how state and federal governments are active catalysts driving innovation-led growth, challenging the idea that US capitalism is uniquely market-driven.

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...