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.
I was sent these words by Pope Francis (b. 1936; r. 2013 -) as a Christmas message from a friend in Beijing. Both the source and the sentiment may seem surprising to some: Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and […]
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In the history of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Xi Jinping (b. 1953) is the first paramount leader on record to give prominence to religion in word and policy. In a watershed speech given in May 2016, President Xi called for the ‘sinicization’ of religion in China led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) […]
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We live in a violent world. On a cold November night five years ago (Friday, 15 November 2015), three simultaneous attacks in Paris claimed the lives of one hundred and thirty French citizens. The perpetrators invoked the name of ‘Allah’ and boasted their spurious Islamic credentials. Ninety died and a hundred were injured while enjoying […]
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The clamor around narrative building can be deafening – and seductive. ‘What do the majority say?’ has a healthy democratic ring to it. But care is needed. We can believe what is wrong. I am reminded of a poignant tale by the Lebanese American author Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931): Once there ruled in the distant city […]
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In the self-help book Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair (2013), Californian author Anne Lamott, writes: ‘Maturity is the ability to live with unresolved problems.’ Faced by the devastation of broken promises, failure, pain, and cultural angst, advice on how to live with the ‘unresolved’ sells well. To the tidy-minded, over-confident and despairing […]
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There has been a visceral sense of relief here in Ireland at a Biden victory in the recent US presidential election. Ireland has always held America and American Presidents in high esteem. This was eroded during the presidency of George W. Bush (b. 1946; Pres. 2001-09) and has been damaged further during President Trump’s time […]
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This is the first of three ‘Weekly Briefings’ on my experiences teaching and advising in China on the ‘rule of law’ and ‘civil society’. In this first ‘Briefing’, I reflect on my first five years of visiting China, from 2008-12. On 15 May 2008, the Great Earthquake of Sichuan Province hit Southwest China. At almost […]
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In 1997, I was living and working in Tanzania. The General Election held in the UK on May 1 of that year saw the scandal-ridden Conservative party (led by John Major) blown out of office by the fresh winds of Tony Blair and the ‘New Labour’ party, who promised change, devolution, fiscal responsibility and more […]
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By late February 2020 it was clear COVID–19 was going to be disruptive, and not just to our international travels. Broadcasts reported graphically of death and destruction in Italy, a far more familiar and immediate place to most Americans than the three-city megapolis of Wuhan, China, whose struggles gripped us in January. Even the optimistic […]
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Scholars – and not a few wits – have debated for decades the definition (and importance) of a literary ‘classic’. In a 1900 lecture, ‘Disappearance of Literature’, the American author Mark Twain (1835-1900), who was always ready with an incisive quip, quoted a contemporary academic’s view that a classic is ‘something that everybody wants to […]
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