About us
Staff
- Stephen Twigg — Director
- Adam Hug — Policy Director
- Josephine Osikena — Programme Director, Democracy and Development
- Anna Owen — Events & Projects Director
- Feng Zhang — Programme Manager, China
The Foreign Policy Centre is the UK's most prominent independent progressive foreign affairs think tank. Launched in 1998 and founded by the then Foreign Secretary, the late Rt Hon Robin Cook, with the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as patron, the mission of the Centre is to develop a vision of a fair and rule-based world order. Through research, publications and events, the Centre aims to develop innovative policy ideas which promote:
- Effective multilateral solutions to global problems
- Democratic and well-governed states as the foundation of order and development
- Partnerships with the private and voluntary sectors to deliver public goods
- Support for progressive policy through effective public diplomacy
- Inclusive definitions of citizenship to underpin internationalist policies.
The Centre has produced a range of influential publications by key thinkers, on subjects ranging from the future of Europe and international security to identity and the role of non-state actors in policymaking. They include Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews by Alan Johnson, After Multiculturalism by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Post-Modern State and the World Order by Robert Cooper, Network Europe and Public Diplomacy by Mark Leonard and The Beijing Consensus by Joshua Cooper Ramo.
The Centre also runs a rich and varied public Events programme, which regularly features high profile speakers including UK and international government representatives, diplomats, representatives from academia, and from NGOs, the private sector and the media. Political speakers have included: Tony Blair, David Cameron, David Miliband, Lord Mandelson, Ken Clarke, Douglas Alexander, Jack Straw, Andrew Mitchell, Hillary Benn, Liam Fox and Paddy Ashdown.
How we work
The Foreign Policy Centre's mission of creating an inclusive and effective foreign policy requires a new way of working which differs from traditional approaches to foreign policy.
Joined-up thinking
Because today's problems have exploded across the boundaries of nations and departments of state, The Foreign Policy Centre seeks to organise our thinking around the major cross-cutting global issues, so that we can create joined-up solutions.
"The Foreign Policy Centre is desperately needed because no one is thinking about foreign policy in a 'joined-up' way…" - The Independent
New ways of judging policy
The old definition of "the national interest" is too narrow a guide to foreign policy in a globalised world, but we do not yet have the new rules which should replace it. Instead of a media caricature of an "ethical foreign policy" as an arms-sales litmus test, the Foreign Policy Centre believes that new, comprehensive and rigorous tests for policy are necessary, so that outcomes which do justice to the complexity of the interests involved can be assured.
"The Foreign Policy Centre brings new thinking to British diplomacy…" - Michael Binyon, The Times
Lasting solutions for the long-term
Traditionally, the foreign policy community has been happy to see policy driven by events rather than ideas, meaning that policy often has a very short timescale. In economic policy, a strategy is defined and sought to be maintained, even as it is inevitably buffeted by global economic events. The Foreign Policy Centre believes that foreign policy should be planned in the same way, and that thinking about foreign policy should be done using longer time frames.
Engaging with new audiences
The Foreign Policy Centre talks in a language people understand, rather than shrouding debates in academic jargon. We seek to engage with people through television, radio and the internet. Rather than seeking only to influence civil servants in the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, we aim our work at all those who can influence foreign policy: government departments including DECC, BIS and DEFRA to the Home Office, policy-makers across Europe including MEPs and Commission Officials, academic communities, voluntary organisations and multi-national companies. We also aim - above and beyond these groups - to change what the public thinks is right, wrong or possible with regard to foreign policy.
"The Foreign Policy Centre will make foreign policy feel less like the preserve of an elite and more the topic of national conversation…" - The Guardian
The Foreign Policy Centre is a partner of ISN - the International Relations and Security Network, a Swiss-based global library of public policy information. www.isn.ethz.ch