Professor Michael Cox LSE IDEAS

Michael Cox with Centenary mug

 

On 4 December 2018, the Department welcomed Professor Michael Cox as the next in our Centenary Speakers Series. Professor Cox is the Director of LSE IDEAS, a world-renowned university think-tank, and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. E. H.  Michael Cox was a Professor in the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth between 1995 and 2001. His Carr Memorial Lecture was very pertinent given current events. His talk was titled ‘E. H. Carr: Nationalism and the Nation State in an Age of Crisis’.

The lecture began with a brief yet comprehensive biography of Carr. Carr, of course, held the Woodrow Wilson Chair at the Department from 1936 to 1947. During his tenure he wrote several acclaimed books, such as The Twenty Years Crisis. He conducted pioneering research into the complex phenomenon of nationalism, and a discussion of this work took up the bulk of Professor Cox’s talk. Professor Cox showed how and why Carr was solidly against nationalist tendencies, seeing these as destructive and counter-productive to the ultimate goal of international peace through ever greater political and economic unions.

 

To watch a recording of this lecture, please follow this link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjHs3am4ED0