A specialist consultancy providing bespoke advice and creative solutions for complex cultural, ethical, and religious issues in contemporary geopolitics.
Oxford House Research publishes weekly briefing papers on topical and global issues authored by associates and a range of external contributors. Members receive these by email each week.
Nearly thirty years ago, I wrote an essay – long since lost in our attic or garage – for a competition run by the Economist, on the importance of smallholder farming for food security, economic growth and jobs. Needless to say, my essay didn’t win a prize (!), but writing it helped instil in me […]
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It is very hard to talk about some things. Pain, complexity, tragedy, and mystery often leave us lost for words – or should do. Words walk heavily on new graves and traumatized souls. I still remember with gratitude and respect the words of a senior Cambridge colleague on hearing my grandmother had died, ‘If there […]
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On 1 June 2021, The Times correspondent Tom Parfitt reported on a portrait of President Vladimir Putin (b. 1952; Pres. 1999-2000, 2000-2008, 2012-present) by the Russian artist Yevgeniya Khaybullina. The portrait is striking. It is constructed out of five hundred teeth (some false!) the artist had collected from a dentist in her hometown of Ufa, […]
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When it was released in 1990, critics panned Brian de Palma’s (b. 1940) film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987). The public agreed. Despite its best-selling literary source, satirical humour, and star-studded cast (including Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Kim Cattrall and Morgan Freeman), the film was a commercial […]
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It causes me no embarrassment to admit, I love sport! – I always have, and hope to God, I always will. At school, university, and throughout my 20+ years with IMG (the US-based sports, events, and talent management company) sport was central. Sport has helped shape who I am, what I do, and, increasingly, how […]
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On 28 October 2021, media magnate, internet entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark Zuckerberg (b. 1984), CEO and Co-Founder of Facebook, Inc. (founded 2004), announced the birth of Meta – a new parent company for Facebook and its sister platforms Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Few commentators doubt that the timing of Meta’s launch was intended to distract […]
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It’s hard for people of my age to believe Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1930; General Secretary 1985-1991, Pres. 1990-1991) resigned 30 years ago this Christmas. His resignation signaled the end of the Soviet era and of its hegemony in Eastern Europe. As Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (25 May 1989 to 15 March 1990) […]
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Renaissance German artist Adam Elsheimer’s (1578-1610) painting of the ‘Holy Family’s’ flight to Egypt (Matthew 2.13-15) is important at many levels. The story is well-known to churchgoers at Christmas. Hearing reports from spiritual advisors of a baby who Eastern astrologers and others believed to be the long-awaited ‘King of the Jews’, the vassal king Herod […]
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‘Animal rights’ activists at COP26 protested with environmentalists at inter-governmental inaction. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Viva! and OneKind hit the streets with banners that declared ‘Meat=Heat’, and ‘Fight Climate Change with Diet Change. Go Vegan.’ Glasgow’s blue buses agreed: ‘You can’t be a meat-eating environmentalist’. To support their cause, activists cited […]
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On Thursday 10 November 2021, in a closed-door meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), 370 senior officials re-appointed President Xi Jinping (b. 1953; Pres. 2014-present) for an historic third term and enshrined him formally as an era-defining figure of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) alongside Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the nation’s founder, and Deng […]
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