David Higgins is Head of Humanitarian Access and Civil-Military Coordination in Somalia for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), where his work focuses on the practical and political challenges of operating at the intersection of military, humanitarian, and stabilisation actors in complex conflict environments. His experience spans two decades of work…
Democracies are judged by their visible institutions. Elections, constitutions, courts, legislatures and a free press are treated as the cornerstones upon which democratic systems stand. When coming to assess democratic health, they tend to focus on voter turnout, constitutional protections, judicial independence, or the conduct of political leaders. Many of the rules that sustain democratic…
Erez Levin is an advertising technologist and former Google employee whose work focuses on the intersection of digital media systems, online advertising, and the health of public discourse. He has become a vocal critic of the incentive structures underpinning the modern attention economy, particularly the way engagement-driven platforms can amplify polarising and sensational content at…
This episode hosts Erez Levin to examine the shifting boundaries of acceptable public speech and what this reveals about the health of modern democratic societies. The conversation explores his central argument that liberal democracies depend not only on formal legal frameworks, but also on informal social guardrails, shared moral taboos that limit the public acceptability…
In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Phil Booth, coordinator of medConfidential and a long-standing campaigner on medical confidentiality, patient consent and data governance, about what Palantir’s growing role in the NHS reveals about public trust, private technology companies and the data infrastructure increasingly underpinning the modern state. The conversation examines…
The UK’s National Health Service says Palantir’s Federated Data Platform can reduce delays and improve patient care. But concerns over consent, confidentiality and digital dependency raise a deeper question about who controls Britain’s health infrastructure. Written by Edward Penrose – 08/06/26 For patients, the use of data within the NHS rests on an implicit bargain….
Phil Booth is a leading British campaigner on medical confidentiality, patient consent, digital identity and the governance of personal data. He is the coordinator of medConfidential, an independent, non-partisan organisation campaigning for confidentiality and consent in the use of health and social care information. Through medConfidential, Phil has been closely involved in many of the…
In this episode, we host Professor Meru Sheel to examine whether global health systems are prepared for the next major infectious-disease outbreak. Drawing on her work in infectious-disease epidemiology, vaccine research, emergency preparedness and global health security, Professor Sheel explores the difficult questions now facing governments, public-health agencies and international institutions: how quickly outbreaks can be detected,…
This episode with Dr Emma Salisbury explores how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz exposed the vulnerabilities of the global maritime system, revealing how a regional conflict can rapidly become a global economic and security crisis. The conversation examines why critical maritime chokepoints remain central to international trade, energy security, and geopolitical competition, and…
In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Dr Emma Salisbury, a leading expert on maritime security and naval power, about the global implications of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and what it reveals about the vulnerability of modern trade systems. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the narrowest…
