̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Dominic Lieven

̽��ֱ��8th Cambridge Festival of Ideas launches

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 10:13:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��packed two-week programme brings together many of the world’s leading thinkers and experts to tackle a series of critical issues, from privacy and the impact of technology to immigration and censorship, inspired by the theme of power and resistance.

Headline speakers include Professors Lord Martin Rees, Dominic Lieven, David Runciman, John Macnicol and Rae Langton. They are joined by BBC’s Alan Yentob, author Peter Hitchens, photographers Toby Smith and Judith Aronson, journalists Ian Dunt and Emily Dugan, CEO of Index on Censorship Jodie Ginsberg, and musical innovators Asian Dub Foundation.

Social media and technology come under the spotlight, with events examining how revolutionary movements interact with technologies such as Facebook and Twitter; issues of privacy in today’s technology-dependent society – particularly relevant in view of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s recent revelations that security services can gain total access to user’s devices; and the advantages and disadvantages of computers that predict our personalities and interact with us intelligently, and the many ethical questions these topics raise.

Political issues including the future of Europe and immigration are also at the heart this year’s Festival. On the theme of the future of Europe is the debate Can Europe Keep the Peace? ̽��ֱ��speakers include historian Professor Robert Tombs; Montserrat Guibernau, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London and author of the forthcoming book Solidarity and Division in the EU; and Dr Chris Bickerton, a politics lecturer at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and author of the award-winning book European Integration: From Nation-States to Member States.

Further political-themed events include Can Writers and Artists Ever Be Terrorists? a debate with Professor Anthony Glees, Director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Buckingham; Turkish artist and anti-censorship campaigner Pelin Basaran; Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship; and Dr Sara Silvestri who specialises in radicalisation. ̽��ֱ��question of whether national broadcasters can be truly independent at a time of war is considered in the debate War, Censorship and Propaganda, with Professor Christopher Andrew, Official Historian of MI5; Professor David Welch, director of the Centre for the Study of Propaganda and War at the ̽��ֱ�� of Kent; Dr Peter Busch from King’s College London on the use of social media for propaganda purposes; and Caroline Wyatt, former defence correspondent at the BBC.

A key Festival highlight is the 24-hour event, Arena: night and day. For one day and one night Arena infiltrates Cambridge in a series of pop-up locations showing the likes of Bob Dylan, Francis Bacon, Sister Wendy, Harold Pinter, Bob Marley, T.S. Eliot and Luis Bunuel to name just a few. Following the filmic inundation of Cambridge, members of the team will discuss the secrets of the programme’s success and the future of public service broadcasting with Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� film experts and the BBC’s Alan Yentob. ̽��ֱ��talk will consider new broadcasting formats and platforms, for instance online, and critical partnerships with universities and communities, seeking core interaction between the best research and best creatives.

Gender issues continue to be contentious and the Festival debates some of the current issues in a number of events including a panel discussion that explores the implications of trans identities for religious faith, with speaker Reverend Christina Beardsley. In addition, Dr Julia Long will take a look at the nature and prevalence of mainstream pornography, considering its impact and effects, and raising critical questions regarding feminist resistance within an increasingly pornified society.

Talks on several new books are a key highlight of this year’s Festival:

Author Bidisha and award-winning journalist Emily Dugan will be in conversation about their new books on the lives of refugees and immigrants who have made it to the UK, the books go behind the headlines to reveal the personal dramas of ordinary men and women trying to make a new life in the UK.
Professor John Macnicol will be discussing his new book (due out this week), which examines the effect of neoliberalism on the recent ageing and social policy agenda in the UK and the USA. ̽��ֱ��book outlines past theories of old age and examines pensions reform, the debate on life expectancy gains, the causes of retirement, the idea of intergenerational equity, the current debate on ageism/age discrimination and the likely human consequences of raising state pension ages.
Paul Wallace, a leading commentator on the economics of the European Union, will also be talking about his new book, ̽��ֱ��Euro Experiment, which explains how and why the euro crisis happened, and the implications for the economic and political future of Europe.
Professor Ulinka Rublack's new book, ̽��ֱ��Astronomer and the Witch: Johannes Kepler’s Defence of his Mother (due out this month), tells the shocking story of how the mother of the famous scientist Kepler was accused of witchcraft. In conversation with Juliet Mitchell, the author explores historical resistance to women as well as ways in which families have been implicated in mechanisms of power.

Established in 2008, Cambridge Festival of Ideas aims to fuel the public’s interest in arts, humanities and social sciences. ̽��ֱ��events, ranging from talks, debates and film screenings to exhibitions and comedy nights, are held in lecture halls, theatres, museums and galleries around Cambridge. Of the over 250 events at the Festival, most are free.

̽��ֱ��Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, St John’s College, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, RAND Europe, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Cambridge Live, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction, British Science Association, Heritage Lottery Fund, Heffers, WOW Festival, Southbank Centre, Collusion, TTP Group, Goethe Institut, Index on Censorship and BBC Cambridgeshire.

Cambridge Festival of Ideas 2015 launches today with over 250 events exploring arts, society and culture.

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Politics debates at the heart of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 10:49:58 +0000

Speakers include the writer Bidisha, Alan Sked, founder and now fiercest critic of UKIP, journalist Peter Hitchens, Professor David Runciman, Professor Paul Cartledge, John Macnicol, one of Europe’s leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, and Russian historian Professor Dominic Lieven.

Bidisha and award-winning journalist Emily Dugan will be in conversation about their new books which focus on the experiences of immigrants and refugees in the UK. Bidisha’s book, Asylum and Exile: the Hidden Voices of London, is the result of a writing residency with refugees and asylum seekers in London. Through their own words and writing, it tells the stories of people who have fled war, violent persecution, poverty or civil unrest in a range of countries, from Syria to the Congo and their experiences in the UK. It shows that though many used to be accountants, teachers, criminologists and composers in their own countries, they are often forced to work illegally in the UK in underpaid, unstable jobs, surviving on a few pounds a day.

Emily Dugan’s book, Finding Home: Real Stories of Migrant Britain, is described as “an honest, unflinching portrait of ordinary people, all immigrants to the United Kingdom, struggling with extraordinary obstacles to find somewhere called home”.

̽��ֱ��Festival will also feature a debate on the rise of the extreme right in Europe. A screening of Andres Veiel’s award-winning film Der Kick [ ̽��ֱ��Kick, 2006] on the murder of a teenager by three neo-Nazi teenagers in East Germany will be followed by a panel discussion on the rise of right-wing violence in Europe. Taking part are Dr Emmanuel Karagiannis, Senior Lecturer of the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, who specialises in the area of radicalisation and terrorism in Europe and ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia; and from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Dr Helen Roche, who specialises in Germany history and Dr Katharina Karcher, whose research interests include protest movements in the former West Germany, political violence and European women’s movements.

Also on the theme of immigration and the future of Europe is the debate Can Europe Keep the Peace? ̽��ֱ��speakers will be Alan Sked, MEP Mary Honeyball, historian Professor Robert Tombs and Montserrat Guibernau, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London and author of the forthcoming book 'Solidarity and Division in the EU'. In another event on Europe, leading commentator Paul Wallace will analyse why the Euro went wrong and if reforms have been sufficient to make it perform better in the future.

Other politics events at the Festival include:

John Macnicol on the effects of neoliberalism on old age and retirement.

A special Festival edition of the respected politics podcast, Election Live! led by Professor David Runciman. It will cover the new Labour leadership, Europe and other issues of the day, reflecting on how much has changed since June and how quickly, and looking at the US elections and what the parallels might be between maverick candidates there and here. ̽��ֱ��podcast will also be taking predictions on the US elections from the panel and the audience.

Can Writers and Artists Ever Be Terrorists? - debate with Professor Anthony Glees, Turkish artist and anti-censorship campaigner Pelin Basaran, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, and Dr Sara Silvestri who specialises in radicalisation.

Professor Dominic Lieven will be discussing his new book, Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, which deals with Russia’s disastrous involvement in the First World War and the implications for Europe today.

War, Censorship and Propaganda - a debate with Professor Christopher Andrew, Official Historian of MI5, Professor David Welch, director of the Centre for the Study of Propaganda and War at the ̽��ֱ�� of Kent, Dr Peter Busch from King’s College London on the use of social media for propaganda purposes, and Caroline Wyatt, former defence correspondent at the BBC.

̽��ֱ��Lords Spiritual: Power and Resistance? - a discussion of the role of bishops in the House of Lords with the Rt Reverend Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely.

Flamenco and the Politics of Resistance: Flashmobs and Immigration in Spain - Matthew Machin-Autenrieth will explore how flamenco has been used as a catalyst for social change, including in 'flash mobs' where dancers and singers have engaged in acts of spontaneous performance in banks and political institutions as a form of anti-capitalist protest and to celebrate issues surrounding immigration and racism.

Greek democracy: ancient and modern – Paul Cartledge, Professor of Ancient Greek History, and political journalist Maria Margaronis will discuss ancient and modern conceptions of democracy and the myths surrounding them both.
People’s power: democracy on three continents and an island - Four drastically different places and four distinct points of view will bring to the table the force of broad cross-cultural comparison to bear on the most urgent problems which haunt democracies around the globe and at home.

Speakers include some of the world’s leading thinkers in their fields, including the astronomer Lord Martin Rees, John Macnicol, one of Europe’s leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, philosopher Professor Rae Langton, Professor Christopher Andrew, the Official Historian of Mi5, Russian historian Professor Dominic Lieven and Classics Professor Paul Cartledge. Also speaking are writer and journalist Peter Hitchens, BBC religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, and Professor Alan Sked, founder and former member of UKIP.

Political issues ranging from the future of Europe, the US elections, immigration and how to deal with Islamic extremists will be at the heart of this year’s Cambridge Festival of Ideas which runs from 19th October to 1st November.

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World War One: a Russian perspective

mjg209 — Wed, 13 May 2015 14:00:57 +0000

̽��ֱ��decision to go to war in 1914 had catastrophic consequences for Russia. ̽��ֱ��result was revolution, civil war and famine in 1917–20, followed by decades of Communist rule. A new book, Towards the Flame. Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, by research fellow Dominic Lieven explains why Russia's rulers allowed their country to be pulled into the First World War. It is a study of diplomacy and military policy, as well as of geopolitics and power. Lieven digs beneath the surface to investigate issues such as the structure of Russian government decision-making and the mentalities and values of the decision-makers: these are vital to any understanding of the forces that impelled Russia to war.

̽��ֱ��book also studies how Russia's rulers envisaged and planned for a future European conflict and does so on the basis of a mass of new and very revealing archival material. One of the book's strengths is that it is based on a vast trawl of materials from seven Russian archives, the most important of which were closed to foreign historians until the 1990s. In addition, Professor Lieven has found important new material in Russian émigré archives, and has utilised archival and published primary sources for all the other great powers.

̽��ֱ��Russo-Serbian relationship, vital to the outbreak of war in 1914, is just one area in which the mass of new archival materials Professor Lieven draws from Russian, American and private family archival holdings radically changes the received understanding of events. In this area he has read all the official correspondence between Russia's diplomatic and military representatives in Belgrade and the foreign and war ministers, as well as the unpublished memoirs and private correspondence both of the Russian number two in Belgrade and of the head of the Near Eastern (ie Balkan) department of the Foreign Ministry.

Professor Lieven says Towards the Flame provides a unique insight into the war and revolution that engulfed Russia in 1914-21, but it is about far more than just Russia. One third of the book provided international comparisons and contexts. By looking at the international crisis of the early twentieth century from an unusual Russian and east European angle one gains a radically different understanding of the war's causes, course and consequences.

For Professor Lieven the war was above all an east European war brought on by the struggle between empires and nationalisms. Though war was by no means inevitable in 1914 he says it was certainly no unforeseeable accident and, even if avoided in 1914, might well have happened in the near future. ̽��ֱ��basic issue at the root of the war - the struggle between empires and nationalisms - lay at the heart of twentieth-century world history , says Professor Lieven. At the very moment when this struggle drove Europe to war in 1914 it was - in the form of the Irish crisis - paralysing British government and threatening the United Kingdom with civil war. Professor Lieven argues that the Suez Crisis of 1956 was in many ways the "1914 moment" of the British and French empires: imperial elites, facing geopolitical decline and nationalist challenges, struck out with a combination of desperation, arrogance and miscalculation rather similar to Austrian behaviour in 1914.

This is one of the ways in which Professor Lieven draws parallels between the international crisis that led to the First World War and subsequent political developments, some of which are still highly relevant today. For example, he shows that the Ukrainian issue was far more important a source of Austro-Russian tension and Russian domestic weakness than Western historians of the First World War era allow. In those days, without Ukraine's agriculture, coal and metallurgical industry Russia would cease to be a great power.

In 1918 as a result of the Russian Revolution Ukraine became a nominally independent country and in fact a German protectorate. Had Germany been able to sustain the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk which established German domination of eastern and central Europe then it only needed a stalemate on the western front to ensure its victory in the First World War, says Professor Lieven. He argues that had the Germans not brought the United States into the war on the very eve of the Russian Revolution's destruction of Russian power then victory would have lain within their grasp. "Maybe such a victory and a Pax Germanica would have been better than the Versailles order which followed German defeat. ̽��ֱ��Versailles settlement was based on the defeat and exclusion of both Germany and Russia, which potentially were the continent's two most powerful countries. For that reason alone it was unlikely to survive," he says.

"For the Russian people the greatest tragedy of all was that the two million soldiers who died in Russia's First World War died for nothing. In large part because the Revolution meant that Russia was not one of the victors at Versailles, the first world war needed to be fought a second time at terrible cost 20 years later."

*Towards the Flame is published by Allen Lane on 28th May, price £25.00. Professor Lieven will be speaking about his book as part of the Cambridge Series at the Hay Festival at 7pm on May 30th.

Professor Dominic Lieven's new book provides a unique view of World War One gleaned from Russian archive material.

For the Russian people the greatest tragedy was that the two million soldiers who died in Russia's First World War died for nothing. In large part because the Revolution meant that Russia was not one of the victors at Versailles, the first world war needed to be fought a second time at terrible cost 20 years later.

Professor Dominic Lieven

Корсаков and Wikimedia Commons

Russian troops entering Lviv

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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