Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Scholars’ Circle – Horn of Africa Famine Explained and UK Politics of the New Prime Minister – August 9, 2026

August 9, 2026 host

The Greater Horn of Africa, in Northeastern Africa, faces severe food insecurity. In Sudan 19 million-plus people are facing acute hunger, including 825,000 children under five who are expected to suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition in 2026. In addition, 12-14 million people are experiencing severe food insecurity in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. What are the root causes and immediate effects of this famine? How can the world help address food insecurity in the region? [ dur: 27mins. ]

Merry Fitzpatrick is Research Assistant Professor at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University. She has more than 20 years of field experience in humanitarian response. She has worked with multiple humanitarian agencies, including the International Rescue Committee, GOAL Ireland, Food for the Hungry and World Concern. She is co-author of “Five levels of famine prevention: towards a framework for the twenty‐first century and beyond” and her latest, published in the Conversation, is “Conflict, climate, and disease form convergent crises in the Greater Horn of Africa”.

The United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister. He is the 7th Prime Minister in the last decade, a remarkable instability for the nation. Who is Andy Burnham? Why did he replace Kier Starmer? Why has the UK had such instability? Does Brexit play a role? Lastly, we explore Burnham’s leadership and its potential impacts on the future of the UK. [ dur: 31mins. ]

Patrick Diamond is Professor in Pubic Policy in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London. He is Chair of the think-tank Policy Network. He is the co-author of Warring Factions: Labour’s Civil Wars: How infighting has kept the Left from power (and what can be done about it) and author of The British Labour Party in Opposition and in Power 1979-2019: Forward March Halted?

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Sudd Dongre and Anna Lapin.

Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Governance / Law, War, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Famine

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Brexit Explained – August 18, 2019

August 17, 2019 host

We spend the hour examining Brexit, what the election of Boris Johnson means for Brexit and a bitterly polarized British public and politics. What is the future of British economy? What the UK will likely look like in 2024? Doug Becker hosts.[ dur: 58mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Russell Foster is Lecturer in Britain and European Integration at King’s College London. His publications include Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George. Europe and the Limits of Integrating Identity, The Limits of Europe, and These Are Those That Faustus Most Desires: Identity, Iconography and Europe.
Paul P. Craig is currently Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St John’s College. His many publications include Brexit and the UK Constitution, The EU, Democracy and Institutional Structure: Past, Present and Future, and Brexit and Relations between the UK and the EU.
Simon Radford is an independent scholar based in the UK. He is the author of Can donations buy you a British peerage: a study in the link between party, political funding and peerage nominations, 2005 – 2014.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Promoting GMO to Mexico by US State Department Diplomats -/- Effects of UK and France Elections – June 18, 2017

June 17, 2017 host

Is the US State Department using its diplomatic efforts to push genetically modified foods into other countries? Our guest says yes. She traced US multi-pronged effort to persuade Mexico to allow genetically modified foods.[ dur: 23 mins. ]

Yadira Ixchel Martínez Pantoja, PhD candidate in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland. Her recent paper is titled, United States promotion of GM foods: the use of public diplomacy strategies and instruments to target government agencies in Mexico.

Then, what will the elections in UK and France mean for the geopolitics with the US and the world? We’ll explore what may be in the global political forecast. [ dur: 35 mins. ]

Jeroen Dewulf is Associate Professor in the Department of German, Director of the Institute of European Studies, and Director of the Dutch Studies Program at University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of America’s Dutch-Owned Slaves and Spirit of Resistance: Dutch Clandestine Literature during the Nazi Occupation.
Patrick Chamorel is Senior Resident Scholar at the Stanford University Center in Washington DC. He is the author of article Now it’s France’s Turn, Aspirations and Reality: French foreign policy and the 2012 elections, and the book chapter Anti-Europeanism and Euroskeptisicm in the United States
Mark Amsler is Director of the Europe Institute at the University of Auckland and Professor of Languages. He is the author of Affective Literacies: Writing and Multilingualism in the Later Middle Ages.

Find book authored by our guest scholars on this Book Shelf .

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Scholars’ Circle – Horn of Africa Famine Explained and UK Politics of the New Prime Minister – August 9, 2026

Scholars’ Circle – Brexit Explained – August 18, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Promoting GMO to Mexico by US State Department Diplomats -/- Effects of UK and France Elections – June 18, 2017

By Maria Armoudian