The Ramsay Centre Podcast

• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Welcome to Oz – Immigration 1788-2100 – Bernard Salt AM together with Professor James Curran

  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. 

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: The Tragedy of 21st Century Geopolitics – Robert D. Kaplan

  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.

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Well-Tempered Power: The Rule of Law in Theory & Practice – Professor Martin Krygier

  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.

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Getting Russia Right – Kyle Wilson

  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. 

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Liberal Education in the 21st Century – Andrew Kern

  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.

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