University of St Andrews

And that was Antonia Langford, Daily Telegraph reporter, speaking from Kiev.

So how do these events in Oleshki fit into the broader context of the Russian-Ukraine conflict? Phillips O'Brien is Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Does this Oleshki ceasefire and evacuation have any strategic significance?

Not at all.

and received her education mostly in England and in Scotland.

She has a BS in biology from the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland, and an MSC in marine science policy and law from the University of Southampton, England, and a graduate diploma in law from BPP in London.

So with all that background, how did you get into data centers?

Well, yeah, as you say, I have a very unique blend of education, I guess.

This has led some commentators to argue that the US is now a revisionist power, seeking to undermine the liberal international order in favour of the ideals of America First.

To understand this shift in America's foreign policy and its consequences, in October 2026, I spoke with Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, to discuss what America's revisionism means to the rest of the world and how permanent its changes are for the global order.

I began by asking Professor O'Brien to outline his research and current work.

My name is Professor Phillips O'Brien, and I'm the Chair of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews.

My subjects of study are somewhat depressing subjects.

I look at war and grand strategy and economic production and logistics, and that takes up a lot of my research time.

Just remains for me to say, Professor Phillips O'Brien, thank you so much for speaking to The Ballpark today.

Thank you.

Following the death of his wife Leslie from cancer in 1981, Dunn published Elegies, a collection of poems reflecting on grief and loss, which became one of his most celebrated works.

He returned to Scotland in the 1980s, taking up as a writer-in-residence position at the University of Dundee before moving to the University of St. Andrews.

At St. Andrews, He became a professor of English and a head of the University Scottish Studies Institute, where he worked alongside writers including John Burnside, A.L. Kennedy, and Don Patterson.

He retired from the university in 2008.

But all of that was at University of Toronto.

Except, this is for our British audience particularly, she did, I think, a year, at least several months at St. Andrews University in Scotland in the middle of her graduate programme.

And there's really a kind of, I think, very surprising but revealing story here because she went to work with KJ Dover there.

Kenneth Dover.

Like I said, I had a Wikipedia.

I started with Wikipedia and mostly I used a biography from the MacTutor History of Mathematics, which was from like the standrews.ac.uk, whatever.

And then there was a paper called Maria Gaetana Agnesi by C. Truesdale.

It was in the Archive for History of Exact Sciences.

He was speaking with Ian McMillan on Radio 4's The Verb.

Joining me now is Dunn's fellow poet and a former colleague at St Andrew's University, Don Paterson.

Don, welcome to Front Row.

Nice to see you.