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.
Beware. If ever left alone in your study while you answer the door, take a call, or brew us a pot of tea, I am likely to betake myself to your bookshelves, often the best loved (and surely most interesting) part of many a home. Here you express yourself, reveal your passions and longings, and, […]
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As a lawyer, I am very aware that false assumptions and terminological confusion surround the terms ‘rule of law’ and ‘civil society’. We need to be clear what they mean. I have lectured on them often, not least at conferences a decade or so ago in Milan (sponsored by the Instituto Italiano della Donazione) and […]
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Ten-years ago last December, the 26-year-old market-stall holder Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in Sidi Bouzid, a town in central Tunisia. It was an act of utter desperation and bitter frustration at the corruption which had wracked his country for more than half a century. Like a match to dry kindling, Bouazizi’s self-immolation triggered bushfires […]
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On 23 June 2016, 52% of the British electorate voted in a referendum to leave the EU. After four years of tense negotiation and heated debate, of grandstanding and brinkmanship in Westminster and Brussels (and in the Parliaments of EU member states), the terms of the UK’s withdrawal were confirmed. The land border between Northern […]
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It was late-August 1976 when I first visited Durham Cathedral, poet Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Half church of God, half castle ‘gainst the Scot’. The pillars of the Norman nave (built 1093-1133) took my breath away. As round as they are tall (6.6m), with deep cut geometrical patterns, the pillars seem to set a standard for […]
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‘Precision drill and bands playing stirring music all combine to make Changing of the Guard one of London’s most popular attractions’ epitomising ‘the pomp and military ceremony for which Britain is famous.’ So, states one enthusiastic tourist website. Buckingham Palace’s website is predictably more restrained and precise: ‘Changing of the Guard is one of the […]
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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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