By Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, Tahirih Danesh.

FPC Senior Research Associate Tahirih Danesh and Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, Senior Fellow at European Foundation for Democracy have produced a hard hitting and challenging briefing that explores the way in which the Iran regime's revolutionary character defines the way it operates both within and beyond its borders.

Download FPC Briefing: Terroracracy (220 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The full text of a speech by Mustafa Sarigül, leader of Turkey's Change Movement, to the Foreign Policy Centre's A new politics for Turkey? Sarýgül's challenge to the Turkish political establishment event held at the UK Houses of Parliament on March 22nd 2010.

Download FPC Speech by Mustafa Sarýgül (350 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Ella Rolfe.

Recent curbs on civil liberties are attempts to grasp slipping control over population

While Pakistan may seem to be descending into a pitched battle between state and Taliban, the current power relations are much more nuanced than this. To be sure, the Pakistani authorities are engaged in a large military operation against the Taliban in the country's north-western tribal areas; but there is a power struggle within the Pakistani polity as well. And the army, not the civilian government, is firmly in charge of efforts against militancy.

Full text 

Adam Hug

Download Kazakhstan at a Crossroads: Human Rights and Democracy (390 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

2010 stands as a landmark year in the history of Kazakhstan and for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It will be the first time a Central Asian nation takes the leadership role of a major international political organisation, but also Kazakhstan will be the first non-democracy to become the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office. Kazakhstan will be under the international spotlight to an extent it has not seen since independence. Against that backdrop the Foreign Policy Centre is publishing a series of three detailed background papers assessing a number of key issues in Kazakhstan that will be followed by a pamphlet. The first paper, focusing on human rights and democracy, is now available to download.

Adam Hug (Ed.)

£4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Spotlight on Georgia pamphlet (3.71 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The FPC's Spotlight on Georgia pamphlet examines the growing human rights and governance challenges facing Georgia. It highlights increasing concerns both, internal and international, about Georgian rule of law, media freedom, policing and electoral processes. The pamphlet recommends how Georgia must reform and what the international community should do to support it.

Spotlight on Georgia was edited by Adam Hug, FPC Policy Director. It contains contributions from authors including: Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner; EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby; the Deputy Public Defender of Georgia Giorgi Chekheidze; former UK Foreign Secretary Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP; Chair of the UK's Georgian All Party Parliamentary Group Bruce George MP; former US Ambassador to the USSR Ambassador Arthur Hartman; Author and Conciliation Resources Associate Thomas de Waal; former OSCE Policing Advisor Marco Kubny; Elsa Vidal from Reporters Without Borders; Giorgi Gogia from Human Rights Watch; and Dr Hans Gutbrod from the Caucasus Research Resource Centres.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Tahirih Danesh

Download Persian (Farsi) translation of 'From Cradle to Coffin' (420 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The full text of 'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran' translated into Persian (Farsi)is now available to download here.

Monday 14 June, 6.00-7.30pm

Grand Committee Room, Houses of Parliament

Followed by a drinks reception 7.30pm-8.30pm in the Jubilee Room

Chair: Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, former Foreign Secretary

Speakers:

• Prof Bill Bowring, Professor of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London
• Anna Walker, Senior Analyst, Central Asia and South Caucasus, Control Risks
• Mukhtar Ablyazov, Founder, Democratic Choice Party & a leader of the Kazakhstan democratic opposition movement
• Further speakers to be confirmed

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a seminar that will explore some of the major governance issues that make 'doing business' in Kazakhstan a challenge, including: rule of law, corruption, security of contracts, political interference and the growing economic influence of China. The FPC is bringing together a high profile panel to debate these issues along with some of the broader political and economic challenges Kazakhstan faces.

For more information or to RSVP please email: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Doing Business in Kazakhstan, June 14th 6pm-7.30pm (140 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Monday 22 March 2010

Time: 6.30pm -8.00pm

Venue: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Room , Houses of Parliament, London SW1A 0AA (use Cromwell Green Visitors' Entrance)

Speaker:

• Mustafa Sarigül, Leader of Turkey's Movement for Change (TDH) and Mayor of Sisli Municipality

Chair

• Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The Foreign Policy Centre hosted Mustafa Sarigül, leader of Turkey's Movement for Change, that describes itself as a new progressive political force in the centre-ground of Turkish politics.

Since its breakthrough victory in 2002, the AKP party of Prime Minister Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics, leaving the old guard parties struggling to find an effective response. Despite its modest gains in last year's local elections, the main opposition party, the Kemalist CHP party, under the veteran leadership of Denis Baykal, is struggling to convince the Turkish public that it could form a plausible alternative government. It is in this environment that Mustafa Sarigül's Turkish Movement for Change is being formed and it has the potential to reach out across the political spectrum.

Sarigül started his political career as Turkey's youngest Parliamentarian in 1987 as part of the CHP. In 1999 he left Parliament to become mayor of Istanbul's central Sisli district, a post he still holds. Blocked from the CHP Presidency in a close-fought internal battle with the incumbent Baykal in 2004, this year he has founded a new party, backed by former members of both the CHP and AKP and high profile figures such as Hikmet Çetin and Faruk Logogu.

Download Speech by Mustafa Sarýgül to the Foreign Policy Centre (350 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: Tuesday 16 March

Time: 12.00-1.30PM

Venue: Committee Room 18, House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA (use Cromwell Green visitors' entrance)

Speaker: His Royal Highness Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, King of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, South Africa

Chair: Rt Hon Paul Boateng, Former British High Commissioner to South Africa

2010 represents a momentous year for the Republic of South Africa. It is marked by the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela and the ambassadorial role the country will play as it becomes the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup. Beyond the fanfare and euphoria of these important historic events, what significant legacies does this provide as a launch pad to continue to build ongoing transformation and renewal domestically and across the wider continent? What is the impact of ancient African tribes and nations whose cultures, customs and values have had a longstanding role in shaping local governance and community advocacy? How do these ancient traditions co-exist in South Africa's young democracy? In an FPC public lecture to be addressed by His Royal Highness Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, King of the Royal Bafokeng Nation in South Africa, these and many other issues will be explored.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Invitation: Governance and leadership in Africa - Tue 16 Mar (220 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)