Our Lower Sixth Form students recently participated in their first of five themed panel sessions, as part of our ‘This Will Be Your World’ Sixth Form programme. The session was on Geopolitics, chaired by Will Swift, Teacher of History & Politics. Followed by some discussion and student Q&A led by Boris T-S.

We heard fascinating contributions, from our expert panelists:

Catherine Philp (Da 1986-1988) is one of Britain’s most experienced foreign correspondents, having covered five continents in nearly 25 years at The Times. She is currently World Affairs Editor at The Times. She has been based in overseas bureaus (Baghdad, Jerusalem, Beirut, Delhi, Washington, Jakarta, Phnom Penh) and reported on conflicts from Afghanistan to Colombia, winning several international press awards. Most recently she has been on the ground covering the wars in Ukraine and Israel-Gaza as well as the impact of geopolitical shifts from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean. Catherine studied at King's College London

Alex Parsons (Ki 1986-1991) provides advice to government relations specialists and family offices.  Alex graduated in Hispanic Studies from the University of Edinburgh. He worked for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office beginning with senior diplomatic postings in Santiago, Nicosia and Abu Dhabi.  He has now lived and worked in the UAE and Latin America for nearly 25 years.  Alex has deep knowledge and understanding of the respective subtleties of ruling family politics in the UAE and Latin American internal politics for business. 

The This Will Be Your World sessions are designed to provide sixth form students with an insightful, thought provoking snapshot of the world that they will be a part of when they leave school.

2024 one could argue the world is on the edge and unpredictable.

Catherine Philp provided her thoughts on the Geopolitical situation today:

When she left school in 1988 it was the end of cold war and the end of apartheid. The world felt positive. She provided thoughts on the journey over the last 35 years to the new world order moving from a bi-polar world to a multi polar world.   Russia has not been as important in world order since the end of the Cold War. America instead has been dominant through ‘pax americana’. The UN has acted almost as a global government and China has risen as a global super power.

We are currently seeing the world come apart into different groupings that may become mutually exclusive.   More recently, economically powerful countries like India, Brazil and South Africa increasingly are increasingly seeking freedom to make their own global relationships and decisions, despite the potential to be punished in world order for this. 

There are signs that Chinese offers of economic investment aren’t always welcome.  Take TikTok for instance, there is governmental suspicion as to what that app is doing on your phone or what the motivations are for Huwawei’s willingness to invest in supporting the telecommunications infrastructure in a country or in the building of infrastructure to connect the Arctic Circle. 

The Middle East looms large in world headlines and we are seeing new alliances and networks of countries emerge. How can the UN Security Council respond to this and how effective is the power of veto when the ruled and principles that the UN Security Council stand for should be applied blind to any country.

Alex Parsons gave us serious points for consideration on world population, immigration, religion and integration and how this affects the harmonious balance of society.

The world population has an impact on global politics and the clash of civilisations.  Exploding population causes mass migration and competition for resources. For you as young people, it is particularly interesting to note where nations are in terms of youth and where the old powers are or were. 

The birth rate needs to be an average of 2.1 children per woman to stabilise the global population.  The West is suffering from good health, longer lives and declining birth rate, creating pressure on economic productivity.

Europe have used policy to address population, welcoming economically active migrants with particular skills to particular locations. This is not without issue, cultural integration and welcome are key to success of these policies.  And, the brightest and best do leave some of their home countries for the West, creating tensions at ‘home and abroad’.

Recently, electoral systems have highlighted perceptions of immigration in the West, particularly in the UK, in France and in Germany.  The distribution of immigrants are not even in a population.  In the UK elections in July constituents views on integration and religion were polarising points.  Interestingly UK constituencies with a higher migrant population were far more pluralistic than those without.  Countries need to question how migrants feel when they arrive.  Do they wish to adopt the habits cultures and norms of their new country or stick to their own cultures and dress. Respect, understanding and tolerance needs to be created so that all members of a population can live along side each other, this supports economic growth and reduces conflict. What can we do to ensure that migrants feel welcome and that we are tolerant and pluralistic in our views?  Migrants should not feel the need to protect and with draw into themselves because they feel threatened by their new society. 

By way of an example the Middle East conflict is growing in media volume just now.  We should Ask ourselves the question.  How much of a role is religion playing in the current conflict?  Ask whether the vast bulk of Muslim opinion who are calm and moderate will be able to manage the minority who have extremeist ideas?

After each of the panelists had spoken, we moved on to some interesting questions from the students. 

Answers to the below questions can be heard here.

• How is China’s growing investment in Africa changing world order?
• Do you think the UN will continue to have a role in global politics?
• How do either of you think the Ukraine / Russia war will end?
• How do you view the rise of support of far right wing political parties in Europe?

This Geopolitics themed panel session formed part of our Sixth Form programme -  ‘This Will Be Your World’. An insightful global programme for the first generation living with a deadline. Providing Sixth Form students with crucial global perspectives. 

• To generate an understanding of key global issues.
• To inform students on how these problems have come about.
• To provoke thought on why this matters.

Key themes:

1. Inequality and justice
2. Population
3. Climate Change
4. Resources
5. Geopolitical Transformation of the World