Connor O'Brien

"Making aid work in the new geopolitical era will an uphill battle." My piece, a foreword to Atlantic Council's Freedom and Prosperity Atlas 2026. (and 11 May at OECD conference on Future of Development Co-operation) atlanticcouncil.org/content-series…

🚨New online: "Teaching Australian Foreign Policy in the Indo-Pacific in an era of power diffusion: an introduction to a special collection", by Jack Butcher. The special collection is also edited by Jack Butcher. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… ⬇️

On recent debates about global trade imbalances - OECD states actually used to consider these imbalances as the object of their own structural adjustment, including by increasing their savings rates to supply capital globally (P11, OECD Submission to 1992 UNCTAD VIII)

@Jan_Eijking Congrats!!

My book is now published online, and will be in print 5 May! 🤓 Online version: academic.oup.com/book/62632 Pre-order your copy (or ask your university library to do so) here: global.oup.com/academic/produ… For review copies, see here for more info: global.oup.com/academic/press…

We are delighted to announce that the University of Cambridge has received a commitment of £190 million – the biggest individual donation to a British university in modern times – to establish the Rokos School of Government. This incredibly generous donation comes from investor and entrepreneur Chris Rokos. The mission of the new School is to equip future leaders to navigate increasingly complex domestic and global political environments in a challenging and rapidly-changing world. The Rokos School will build upon Cambridge’s world-leading expertise across the fields of public policy, politics and leadership, helping position us at the forefront of research and teaching in government and public leadership. Fundamental to the School’s operation will be its direct access to Cambridge’s renowned expertise in technology and the sciences, together with disciplines more usually associated with the social sciences, arts and humanities. The School will be built in the Cambridge West Innovation District – a vibrant community where outstanding researchers from many academic disciplines sit side by side with global businesses and innovative startups. Explore more about the Rokos School of Government and this exciting new step for Cambridge: cam.ac.uk/stories/rokos-… #UniversityOfCambridge #CambridgeUniversity #RokosSchoolOfGovernment #ChrisRokos

Melbourne has been officially crowned the world's best city. It is the first time an Australian city has taken top spot as we outrank the likes of Shanghai, London, New York and Sydney. @tyra_stowers

🚨 The 2025 Joseph Fletcher Prize Forum on the "Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations" is now out in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Have a look at the introduction, individual reviews, & editors' response below 👇 tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

'The thorny question remains what lines are not worth crossing, and when normative and institutional guardrails may prove strategically beneficial over the long term, especially for small and middle powers' 9dashline.com/article/carney… | by @quahsayjye and @Connor_P_OBrien

🚨New online: Andrew Carr deploys the idea of "archipelagic metageography" as a tool to give policymakers "a conceptually powerful way of explaining, justifying and directing the national defence strategy". #OpenAccess ⬇️ tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Another pair of articles on this topic which I highly recommend, in this case both from the @LowyInstitute Interpreter (key points below): lowyinstitute.org/the-interprete… @Connor_P_OBrien @quahsayjye lowyinstitute.org/the-interprete…

@karayiannides @quahsayjye Thanks!

@Connor_P_OBrien @quahsayjye Great piece!

Great to publish this piece with @quahsayjye on Mark Carney’s landmark Davos speech “There is thus a danger that Carney’s vision could encourage similar delusions to those he critiques”

It's the international disorder before it is the Trump disorder. In conversation with John Guida for the @nytimes: nytimes.com/2026/01/27/opi… (Paywall).

Middle powers can’t run the world | Connor O’Brien, Quah Say Jye ift.tt/coMyWXJ

Middle powers can’t run the world | Lowy Institute lowyinstitute.org/the-interprete…

@davidcapie Thanks for the share!

Out next summer with Allen Lane in the UK and Little, Brown in the US and available for pre-order now: penguin.co.uk/books/451280/t…

New Kickback: @LizDavidBarrett with Devi Pillay on how consulting firms enabled state capture in South Africa - McKinsey, SOEs, the Zondo record, accountability. Listen: bit.ly/SoundcloudKBep… #StateCapture #SouthAfrica #AntiCorruption

The world is tilting towards competition over the southern western hemisphere because that is where there is scope for growth of all of oil production, energy-transition metal extraction, and rare earth mining. ft.com/content/9e2585…