The Why? Curve

The End of International Law?

The US attacked Iran without even trying to get the UN onside. It’s made it pretty clear it doesn’t feel the need to work within the UN charter, or any other rules it doesn’t like. So when the world’s biggest power ignores international law and does what it wants, has the whole system broken down? Are we now in a world where nations are unconstrained? Or has that always been the case, and the rules were just a fig-leaf to conceal the realities of power politics? Phil and Roger ask Dr Ben Murphy, Deputy Director of the International Law and Human Rights Research Unit at the University of Liverpool. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gunboat Diplomacy?

The US aircraft carrier groups were in place to threaten Iran as talks were still happening - and they helped launch the war when Donald Trump felt the negotiations were not going as he hoped. Iran’s foreign minister said Trump ‘bombed the negotiating table’. So is this the new pattern in big power geopolitics? Talk, but have a big stick waiting to ensure concessions. Or is it a return to a nineteenth century imperial style of big-power domination and intimidation? Andrew Latham, Professor of Political Science at Macalester College, and Senior Washington Fellow at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, talks to Phil and Roger about the return of gunboat diplomacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Britain Ungovernable?

A government with a thumping majority that can't seem to run the country. U-turns every week and a permanent sense of crisis. And none of this is new - Johnson, Truss, Sunak, May. The country doesn't seem to be able to find a set of politicians who are able to get on with running things. Or is it just that we won't let them, because every problem becomes a social-media-fuelled crisis? Is the Starmer administration just a symptom of a system that doesn't work? Tom Skinner, a former special adviser to five Conservative prime ministers, tells Phil and Roger what it feels like inside a Number Ten under siege, and what needs to change to make the UK governable again. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome To The Splinternet

The internet transformed the world with free information on everything for everyone, but is that era ending? The Chinese and Iranians can control what their people can see and read, and in the West there's a growing push to stop the young and vulnerable from getting access to violent, disturbing or pornographic material. Tech firms are being threatened with regulation unless they impose safeguards. Does all this signal the internet turning gradually into the 'splinternet', with the loss of a valuable freedom, or is it an overdue reassertion of sovereign power over Silicon Valley? Scott Malcomson is a fellow of the German council on Foreign Relations, and back in 2016 wrote the book "Splinternet: How Geopolitics and Commerce Are Fragmenting the World Wide Web". He tells Phil and Roger how things have changed since then. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Epstein’s Hidden World

Champagne on the beach of a private island in return for cosy deals and confidential memos - has the Epstein saga lifted the lid on a world of elite partying and low morals at the heart of political and business decision-making? Could the conspiracy theories about global control by hidden cabals have a kernel of truth? Ronen Palan, Professor of International Politics at City St George’s University, tells Phil and Roger it’s not a new phenomenon in the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.