Israeli Democracy is Under Strain
Eitan Tzelgov, Lecturer in Politics, discusses the results of yet another Israeli election and their implications for the future of democracy in Israel. Israel held its third election within since April 2019 earlier this week, and the electoral campaign was characterised by unprecedented levels of personal, negative campaigning. Blue and…
Cities of the New Silk Roads
What forms will the new "Belt and Road Cities" take? These are cities still finding their form, and subject to the flux and flow of geopolitics. China has embarked on a grand strategy to revitalize the ancient Silk Roads for the twenty-first century. This geopolitical play, known as the Belt…
Voter fraud isn’t the problem: painting an accurate picture of a British election day
William Hogarth’s painting The Polling is the iconic depiction of an election day in Britain. Painted in the 18th century, it was one of four canvasses that formed a series called The Humours of an Election (1754-5), all inspired by an Oxfordshire election, where the Whigs took on a safe…
November 17: youth uprisings in Greece then and now
This authoritarian vision starts with education, an education promoted by the Minister of Education Niki Kerameos, based on religiosity, nationalism and hatred towards anyone different. In November 1973, thousands of Greek students occupied one of the largest universities of Athens, the National Polytechnic, demanding the end of the military dictatorship…
Shinzo Abe’s latest cabinet reshuffle could transform Japan
With just two years until he will likely step down, the time left to Shinzo Abe, Japan’s very soon-to-be longest serving postwar prime minister, is limited. But if his latest cabinet reshuffle is anything to go by, it seems Abe is bent on realising his goal of historic constitutional reform – whether as…
Mayors of 94 cities are taking the Green New Deal global, as states fail to act on climate crisis
At the seventh World Mayor’s Summit in Copenhagen, leaders of 94 cities embraced a global Green New Deal, in an attempt to make the 2020s the defining decade in the fight against climate change. The major new initiative commits to limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, halving emissions by 2030.…
Ode to PSI
In the brave new world—excuse the pun—of the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies (PPL) it can be easy sometimes to lose a sense of what Politics at UEA is all about and the great academic traditions of Political, Social and International Studies (PSI). In this posting I…
Climate Change: Crisis or Opportunity?
Protesters like Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion group have changed the debate around climate change in the last year but how much impact can they have to really change public policy? As the United Nations announces country level climate targets we hear from UEA climate scientist Professor Corinne Le…
Iceland is mourning a dead glacier – how grieving over ecological destruction can help us face the climate crisis
Death certificates and commemorative plaques aren’t something you’d normally associate with a glacier. But that is exactly how Iceland recently mourned the loss of 700-year-old Okjökull, the first of its major glaciers to die. This is just one early example of events we will encounter more and more often as the hot new…
Is the UK ready for an election? Inside a system straining at the seams
Speculation has it that an early general election is around the corner for the UK. If it does come, it won’t be the country’s first unexpected election this year. The European parliamentary elections were not supposed to happen. But happen they did. And they didn’t go to plan. There were angry scenes…