Graduation address: Professor Phillips O’Brien, School of International Relations
Tuesday 1 July 2025 – afternoon ceremony
I am sure that many of you have heard the expression, ‘may you live in interesting times’. Part wish, part curse, it is based on a Chinese aphorism that is more pungent and descriptive than the version adopted in the English language.
The actual Chinese phrase is:
‘Better to be a dog in times of tranquillity than a human in times of chaos.’
Graduates, you are certainly living in interesting times. You have had to endure more ‘chaos’ in the last few years than any other generation in my lifetime. You have lived through, and are living through, pandemics, a changing climate, a breakdown in the international system, wars and political instability. Any one of these events could have made a moment ‘interesting’ in the past. But through it all, you have demonstrated remarkable resilience and compassion.
You are also living through the introduction of the first functional Artificial Intelligence systems, which could change the whole process of human knowledge creation, human interaction and even, in the end, what it means to be human.
Unlike previous generations, including my own, you will not have the luxury of assuming things will somehow work out. You are humans living in a time of chaos, and for all we know this chaos is set to get more intense.
This is your challenge and your opportunity as you venture out into the world with your St Andrews degrees in hand. While it will not be easy, you have a chance, perhaps more than any generation for centuries before you, to live a life of vigour and meaning. With the foundation you have received from your families, your communities, and your St Andrews faculty and friends, you are well prepared to make a difference during these ‘interesting times’.
And you can make that difference in so many areas. As the climate continues to change, you will have the opportunity to change people’s minds, and to ameliorate as best as possible the potentially catastrophic effects. So far, earlier generations, such as my own, have to a large degree failed this challenge. You will need to harness new technologies, while navigating international and domestic politics wisely, to keep the global economy functioning.
As you are doing this, you will have to deal with technologies that earlier generations could not have imagined. As Artificial Intelligence continues to grow in power and sophistication, you will be the ones to develop policies in areas that have never been explored. What we are seeing now in autonomous systems is just scratching the surface of what we will see in the coming years and decades. Employment patterns will change as job requirements atrophy in one area and explode in others. The entire mental frameworks of how we understand what is ‘human’ and ‘independent’ will be challenged, and whether humans will have control over their own systems, in war and peace, will be decided.
Finally, as the international system comes under increasing strain and more possible wars loom, you must find a way for peoples and states to interact more peacefully. Decades of assumptions about how states behave, how conflicts can be avoided, and how wars are to be fought are crumbling before our eyes. We will need entirely new organisations, from universities to governmental agencies, to try and face the reality of a world where war, between even the largest powers, is more likely than we would have liked to believe.
While all this may seem, and is, pretty daunting, I am heartened to know that from this rather idyllic spot on the east coast of Scotland, you will now go out into the world and make vital contributions to your local communities, to national governments, and to the largest International Governmental Organisations. The questions you face be larger, the answers more challenging, and the consequences even more important than ever before.
The best way for me to end this might be to refer to another Chinese aphorism, which provides a different perspective on the moment in which you are living. This proverb is:
‘A crisis is an opportunity riding a dangerous wind.’
I encourage you to harness the wind of your time and place for the greater good, to make the brightest future you can for yourselves, and for humankind. Turn living in a crisis/opportunity into something more profound than being a dog relaxing in a time of tranquillity.
Congratulations on achieving your St Andrews degrees. I wish you and your families and friends a wonderful day.