'Peer review' is seen as the guarantor of quality in scholarship. But all the great science was done before its arrival, says Prof James Alexander. Too often it's a way for mediocre academics to scotch pioneering work.
Great Powers are currently engaged in dangerous brinkmanship to test the balance of their power. It would be better, argues Professor James Alexander, if they rediscovered the value of restraint.
Is 'International law' just a rhetorical phrase signalling our disapproval of a military adventure or does it refer to a set of inviolable rules that all states have agreed to? Neither, says Prof James Alexander.
The system that emerged from the ruins of the Second World War is coming to an end, laments Elif Shafak in the Guardian. Good, says Prof James Alexander. About bloody time.
Prof James Alexander pays tribute to Bridget Bardot, the embodiment of Goethe's eternal feminine who coped with her fame and fading beauty better than most 20th Century female icons.
Prof James Alexander was somewhat alarmed to find his work cited in an academic article linking climate scepticism with the far-Right. Why can't they just admit there's a scientific disagreement?
Everyone assumes that words have straightforward meanings. Philosophers because they want them to and politicians because they need them to. But the first law of politics is that words are ambiguous, says James Alexander.
Brexit was a disaster, the climate is in crisis, populism is bad – The Rest is Politics's Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart agree on all the big centrist issues. And they're utterly wrong, says Prof James Alexander.
Donald Trump has issued a national security warning to Europe, saying America wants "Europe to remain European" so it can stay an ally. The Left has wilfully misunderstood this, says Professor James Alexander.
Professor James Alexander pays tribute to Tom Stoppard, hailing the playwright as a genuine free spirit of the second half of the 20th century who defied his Left-wing peers by expressing admiration for Margaret Thatcher.
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