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.
In my last OH Briefing (‘Sport, glorious sport’, 15 January 2022), I alluded to the close relationship between sporting achievement and character, how mindset, discipline and will are the bedrock of greatness in champions. As a friend quoted to me the other day, ‘It’s discipline that turns a nobody into a somebody.’ I want to […]
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I am delighted Duncan Smith[1] responded positively to my request to write a Guest Briefing for Oxford House. The Briefing is a taster of his treatment of an important theme. Christopher Hancock (Director) Frauds and tricksters are common in fiction. From the Wizard of Oz to The Talented Mr Ripley fictional characters have portrayed the […]
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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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