The Ramsay Centre Podcast

In the age of AI and the smartphone is history a vital form of knowledge? How can the treasures of the past enrich our minds and help us to live more fully today?For our second Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Bettany Hughes OBE titled: Digging Up History: What the Treasures of the Past Can Teach Us Today. Drawing on her field research, including digs in Europe, North Africa and Central Asia, Bettany explores how archaeology in particular is a powerful tool that can make us better and wiser travellers in a modern world that is everywhere marked by the traces of the past.Please join us for this exciting presentation about why, at a time when technology seems to offer the possibility of existing solely in a permanent and therefore impoverished present, the past has absolute value and relevance, and why it is, in fact, one of our greatest treasures.

Today some 30 per cent of Australia’s population was born overseas, double the proportion in the US and the UK. How has Australia managed to add so many people so quickly and still maintain social cohesion? And how might our immigration mix change in the decades ahead?For our first Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Bernard Salt AM together with Professor James Curran titled: Welcome to Oz – Immigration 1788-2100. Leading social commentator and demographer Bernard Salt and eminent historian and journalist James Curran discuss changes to Australia’s demography and the political and cultural history of Australian immigration, from the gold-rush, to Federation, to the post-war era, to today. Bernard Salt delivers the main address with James Curran providing additional insights.Please join us for this stimulating exploration of the critical role that immigration has played in Australia’s development and how it is likely to continue to define us in the 21st century. 

Trying to make sense of a world where great power rivalry, war and competition for resources are not ghosts of history but present realities?From the Middle East to Ukraine to the South China Sea, world leaders are confronted by complex crises with no easy solution in sight. US journalist, author and foreign policy advisor Robert D. Kaplan thinks that we must learn to think tragically if we are to avoid or mitigate tragedy. Leaders should be neither optimists nor pessimists but realists, argues Kaplan. His book, The Tragic Mind, reflects hard-won wisdom and was written as the author grappled with his promotion, as an influential journalist and respected analyst, of the second Iraq War, the US-led military intervention that toppled Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein but unleashed further bloodshed and anarchy. Kaplan was also deeply affected by former US President Bill Clinton hesitating to intervene in the Balkans after reading Kaplan’s 1993 book Balkan Ghosts.In The Tragic Mind, Kaplan notes that tragedy is not merely imperfection, nor is it the fact that progress is intermittent and reversible. Humans confront tragedy when they recognise that whatever they do, including nothing, some good will be lost. For our sixth Ramsay Lecture for 2024, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Robert D. Kaplan titled: The Tragedy of 21st Century Geopolitics. After a period of deep personal reflection and exploration of the ancient Greeks and classics, Kaplan determined a tragic mindset was necessary to guide foreign policy in particular. In his talk, he explains that tragedy is not common misfortune or crime but the triumph of one good over another, and about the narrow choices we face, however vast the landscape. He discusses Ukraine, Gaza and the South China Sea as illustrations of tragedy and employs the works of ancient Greek dramatists, Shakespeare, German philosophers and the modern classics to explore the central subjects of international politics: order, disorder, rebellion, ambition, loyalty to family and state, violence and the burdens of what is always limited power.Please join us for this stimulating exploration of how a ‘tragic mindset’ could guide decision making and leadership and how the classics can help inform current conflicts.

What is the key to ‘well-tempered power’? Can the rule of law be sustained by the law alone, or does it need to be blended with distinct cultural, political, social and economic forces? The Western concept of the ‘rule of law’ has not been applied with equal success in countries globally, many of whom have all the dressings of a legal system including courts, judges and lawyers, but still experience arbitrary exercise of significant power.For our fifth Ramsay Lecture for 2024, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Professor Martin Krygier titled: Well-Tempered Power: The Rule of Law in Theory & Practice.Professor Krygier is one of the world’s leading theorists on the rule of law. His argument that the rule of law, well understood, is not merely “following the rules” but includes a culture of respect for all sorts of limitation on arbitrary power, is one of the most original and influential jurisprudential arguments of the past fifty years. In his presentation Professor Krygier explains and defends his conception of the rule of law and discusses the challenges it faces around the world today.NSW Solicitor-General Michael Sexton SC, an esteemed commentator and author of several books on Australian history and politics, then offers a response.Please join us for this stimulating discussion about the concepts of ‘well-tempered power’ and the rule of law.

What is Russian exceptionalism? How can we best understand the mindset of Russians and Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure the most effective response to the war on Ukraine? Is there a path forward to ‘getting Russia right’?For our fourth Ramsay Lecture for 2024, the Centre is pleased to present an exploration of this topic – a recorded conversation between former Centre CEO Professor Simon Haines, and one of Australia’s foremost Russia experts, the esteemed academic, diplomat and Russian interpreter Mr Kyle Wilson.In their discussion, the pair draw upon Mr Wilson’s direct dealings with President Putin as well as his research into Russian history and society to explore the mindset that led Russia to invade Ukraine. Mr Wilson posits that President Putin is bent on reaffirming age-old traditions of autocracy at home and empire abroad. Far from being threatened by NATO expansion in its so-called near abroad, Putin is intent on integrating Ukraine into greater Russia. Leading into this conclusion, Mr Wilson and Professor Haines explore the following:*Mr Wilson’s thesis that contemporary political culture in Russia is a mirror of what Genghis Khan created in the Mongol Empire, a militarised empire where all power resides with an autocrat who is above the law and where people exist to serve the state.*Russian exceptionalism and how Russians are taught to believe they are unique, ethnically and culturally superior, and owed gratitude for saving humanity on three occasions from Khan, Napoleon and Hitler.*Why Russia believes the West is mounting a war against it and wants to influence the foreign policy of its small neighbours to the West because of the times it has been invaded from the West.*Why despite past invasions it is not NATO expansion and fear of invasion that are driving the war on Ukraine but rather Putin’s military strongman mindset and the desire to restore to Russia parcels of lands that it believes it still has right to. Please join us for this compelling discussion that seeks to offer better comprehension of the events unfolding in Russia and Ukraine today. 

What is ‘liberal education’? What distinguishes it from vocational education, and even programs of study adopted in many modern liberal arts programs? Can an education focused on ‘knowledge for its own sake’ rather than for professional pursuits and industry careers, hold appeal among current and future generations of scholars? And why is there a resurgence in liberal education movements in the West, in an era where STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) reigns supreme and artificial intelligence holds promise to do our thinking for us? For our third Ramsay Lecture for 2024, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by classical education expert Andrew Kern (founder and president of the CiRCE Institute in the US, Center for Independent Research on Classical Education) titled: Liberal Education in the 21st Century.In his lecture, Andrew Kern explores the challenges and opportunities facing the liberal arts, not only in the US, but around the world. His lecture takes the audience on a compelling journey through the historical foundations of the liberal arts, stressing their enduring value in shaping well-rounded individuals capable of critical thinking and responsible citizenship. He also addresses the evolving landscape of education, considering the impact of technology, cultural shifts and intellectual and political challenges to traditional notions of learning. Please join us for this stimulating lecture about liberal education in the 21st century.

 What does it mean for Australia that it is part of the West, but geographically remote from it? Must we choose between our geography and our traditional alliances in this multipolar age? For our second Ramsay Lecture for 2024, the Ramsay Centre is delighted to present an in-person lecture by leading strategic analyst and University of Melbourne Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global, Culture and Engagement Professor Michael Wesley titled: Living with Leviathans: Australia in a Multipolar Age. As an island and former British colony in Oceania, with no territorial disputes or powerful near neighbours, Australia has always had a unique “strategic gaze”; one shaped as much by how the world looks from the capitals of the culturally congruent great powers the country has formed alliances with as by how it looks from Canberra. Now, in a multipolar age where India as well as China have joined the United States in the first rank of global powers, this strategic sensibility has been challenged, without being overthrown. In his lecture, Professor Wesley presents a blend of historical context and contemporary insights to explain our place in a world with several great but no dominant powers. He highlights the necessity for Australia to adapt diplomatically, culturally, and strategically to new realities, charting a safe course between the Leviathans of the international system. Please join us for this stimulating discussion about the future global order and Australia’s place in it.   

Australia’s complex strategic landscape is situated at the crossroads between two global giants – China and the United States. To help explore the geopolitical challenges, economic considerations, and diplomatic nuances that shape Australia’s role in the dynamic Asia-Pacific region, our expert panellists dissect the evolving dynamics, assess potential scenarios, and offer insights into how Australia might navigate this intricate balance in Asia in order to secure its interests and contribute to regional stability.To examine this vital topic, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present our first Ramsay Lecture for 2024, with accomplished foreign policy experts Dr Mike Green, United States Study Centre CEO, Dr Lavina Lee, Senior Lecturer in Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Dr Milton Osborne AM, author and consultant, and Sam Roggeveen, Lowy Institute International Security Program Director on Navigating the Crossroads: Australia’s Strategic Position Between China and the US in Asia.Please join us for this thought-provoking panel discussion.

For our ninth Ramsay Lecture for 2023, the Centre is delighted to present an exploration of the topic Is the West eccentric? in a recorded conversation between Centre CEO Professor Simon Haines and esteemed French philosopher Rémi Brague, best-selling author and Professor Emeritus of Arabic and Religious Philosophy at the University of Paris, the Sorbonne.In their discussion, the pair explore Professor Brague’s theory that the West is an outlier civilisation that uniquely acknowledges the superiority of some elements of foreign culture, in particular Classical culture.Professor Brague traces this ability back to the essential role of Rome, claiming that it was the sense of inferiority that the ancient Romans felt towards the Greeks (culturally not militarily) that saw them develop an indispensable ability to draw together and assimilate cultural traditions.This psychology of “secondarité” or inferiority never left the West, Professor Brague claims, and consequently the West with roots in Athens and Jerusalem drew heavily from both and continues to be uniquely open to other cultures and influences. The West is also more accepting than other civilisations of transmitting other influences in their whole form into its own, he argues.Please join us for this captivating lecture with Professor Rémi Brague.

Is our past being misrepresented in our schools, cultural institutions, and the broader society; leading to the history of the West being presented as one only worthy of shame, apology, and reparations?Or are the ‘history wars’ merely an invention of the paranoid, to stir up synthetic controversy and prevent belated recognition of dark sides of our past?To help explore this vital topic, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present our eighth Ramsay Lecture for 2023, eminent UK historian Professor Robert Tombs on Are the History Wars Worth Fighting?Professor Tombs outlines the forces he says are driving this campaign, ranging from intellectual and ideological forces to the professional managerial class, technology, and geopolitics. He examines the cost to society from historical half-truths, whether in the form of violence, a loss of sense of community, or a belief that violence, racism and exploitation in the past is a permanent feature of the West in the present day.Professor Tombs argues that while we must recognise difficult aspects of our past, we need to “…urge society to remember accurately, fully and honestly, and to understand the vital differences between the past and the present, crucial to understanding both our forebears and ourselves.”Please join us for this thought-provoking lecture with Professor Robert Tombs.