Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP

September 2010

Download Responsibility to the poor: A new agenda for changed times (790 kilobyte PDF)

In a publication launched by the Foreign Policy Centre entitled 'Responsibility to the poor: A new agenda for changed times', the former UK Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, outlines why justice not charity needs to underpin the fight against global inequality and poverty. FPC Co-President Baroness Jay provides the foreword.

• The Guardian Poverty Matters blog article about this report

Dr David Tickner, Josephine Osikena (Ed.)

May 2010 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Tackling the world water crisis (790 kilobyte PDF)

This new FPC publication is being launched to mark World Environment Day (5 June). The report aims to stimulate discussion and debate amongst a wide ranging audience in an effort to promote the centrality of water on today's foreign policy agenda, particularly in light of the increasing environmental shocks and stresses presented by climate change and global population growth. In an increasingly interconnected world, where cooperation is no longer an option but an imperative, how can foreign policy inform and provide a more effective response to improving the management of freshwater while ensuring reliable and sustainable access?

Contributors to the pamphlet include: Rt Hon William Hague MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; Baroness Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; Professor J.A. Tony Allan, King's College, London and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); Richard Black, BBC News; Belinda Calaguas, Director of Policy & Campaigns, ActionAid; Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, The Financial Times, Dr Bruce Lankford, University of East Anglia; Bernice Lee, Research Director, Energy, Environment and Resource Governance, Chatham House; David Nussbaum, Chief Executive, WWF-UK; Dr Letitia A. Obeng, Chair, Global Water Partnership (GWP); Dan Smith, General Secretary, International Alert; Dr Martin R. Stuchtey, McKinsey & Company Inc.; Dr Camilla Toulmin, Director, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); and Stephen Twigg MP, former Director, Foreign Policy Centre.

The report is being launched at the House of Lords on 3 June at 4.30pm. For more information, or to register, please email: events@fpc.org.uk

• Tackling the world water crisis London event

in 'US Strategy in Africa' Ed. D.Francis

Josephine Osikena

Download 'Geopolitics beyond Washington?' by Josephine Osikena (310 kilobyte PDF)

The US Government launched Africa Command (AFRICOM) on 1 October 2008. But how relevant is AFRICOM for Africans and Africa? To what extent is Africa's response to AFRICOM and broader US strategic interests, influenced and challenged by Africa's alliances with new global centres of power beyond Washington, who have competing motives and approaches to development and security? What are the implications of all this for US policy-makers?

This new article by FPC Democracy and Development director Josephine Osikena, published in 'US Strategy in Africa: Africom, Terrorism and Security Challenges' edited by Prof David J Francis of Bradford University, explores the challenges associated with AFRICOM's predominant focus on the militarisation of African security, by surveying examples of African partnerships with non-OECD actors, including: Brazil in the sphere of social development; India in terms of self-determination, sovereignty and global governance; China with regard to economic growth, particularly in the areas of commodities and infrastructural development; and finally, the emerging role that Africa has begun to play regarding food security in the Middle East.

In conclusion, the article raises a number of questions for US policymakers to consider, including: how, in a changing world with the rise of new centres of power, might US-Africa policy better connect with African people and African governments? How might a more informed and coherent US approach better serve Africa's own development and security agendas, as well as secure strategic US interests on the continent? And, indeed, it asks if this is even possible.

• Purchase 'US Strategy in Africa' by Prof David J Francis
• More from the Routledge Global Security Studies series
• University of Bradford - Department of Peace Studies

2007

Download The Democratiya Interviews (1.36 megabyte PDF)

Price: £9.95 + £2 p&p (UK orders) / US$45 (overseas orders)

This book brings together a series of conversations about the dilemmas of progressive foreign policy after 9/11. Democratiya editor Alan Johnson talks to Jean Bethke Elshtain, Martin Shaw, Kanan Makiya, Paul Berman, David Held, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Ladan Boroumand, Anne-Marie Slaughter (now Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department), Joshua Muravchik and Mary Kaldor.

To order:

Send a cheque for £11.95 (for UK orders) made payable to The Foreign Policy Centre or an international money order for US$45 (for overseas orders) to: The Foreign Policy Centre (Book Orders), Suite 14, 2nd Floor, 23-28 Penn Street, London N1 5DL, UK. Make clear you are ordering 'Global Politics After 9/11' and include your full postal address.

• Order Online using Paypal (via Democratiya)
• Global Politics after 9/11 launch event

Alex Bigham (Ed.)

July 2007 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download the report (440 kilobyte PDF)

The Foreign Policy Centre, in conjunction with Channel 4, set up an independent, cross-party Commission tasked with producing a blueprint for Britain's future involvement in Iraq.

February 2007

Download Time to Talk (390 kilobyte PDF)

Military attack on Iran would have disastrous consequences warns new report: Coalition urges new diplomatic push to avoid crisis

Military action against Iran could have disastrous global consequences according to a new report published today by a diverse group of organisations including Oxfam, the Foreign Policy Centre, faith groups and others.

The Coalition includes: Amicus, Amos Trust, British Muslim Forum, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Foreign Policy Centre, GMB, International Physicians against the Prevention of Nuclear War, Medact, Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Parliament, Ockenden International, Oxfam, Oxford Research Group, Pax Christi, PCS, People and Planet, Unison.

http://www.crisisiran.com/

Download the report (130 kilobyte PDF)

A Farsi translation of the Executive summary of Time to Talk is available for download.

Foreign Policy Centre

December 2006 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Balochis of Pakistan: On the margins of history (450 kilobyte PDF)

On 4 December 2006, the Foreign Policy Centre held a seminar on Balochistan, a volatile region of Pakistan. This was part of a series of events the Foreign Policy Centre is organising in Parliament on conflicts that receive little attention in the media or elsewhere.

The meeting launched the FPC report, Balochis of Pakistan: On the margins of history.

STEPHEN TWIGG, the FPC's Director said:

"This pamphlet sets out a powerful and well argued case that the Balochi people have been let down - by the British Empire, by the founders of modern India and by successive Governments in Pakistan. It is a fascinating analysis which we hope will contribute to constructive discussion about Balochistan's future."

Tony Blair

APCO Worldwide

September 2006 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download A Global Alliance for Global Values (590 kilobyte PDF)

The pamphlet was inspired by a set of 3 landmark speeches made by then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006.

The pamphlet was supported by APCO Worldwide.

Thiago de Aragao

March 2006

Download the report (50 kilobyte PDF)

Latin America is a region characterised by a consistently high potential for economic and social development, but faces serious difficulties in accomplishing this task. Throughout the last few decades Latin America has experienced periods of economic growth generally followed by moments of stark recession. Such economic growth cycles have always been tremendously difficult to maintain and, most of all, use in creating positive results for social development. In some ways, the economic history of South America has been a permanent alternation of these cycles - a typical stop and go – or, 'like a chicken flying', always short and low.

Further information 

Dan Plesch

March 2006

Download Future of Britain's WMD (190 kilobyte PDF)

This report discusses replacing Britain's Trident nuclear missile system. It examines British dependence on the United States and concludes that most of the discussion on the replacement is based on the false premise that the UK has an independent nuclear weapon. To support this conclusion the report reviews the history of Britain's involvement with nuclear weapons from 1940 to the present day to show a sixty-year-old pattern of British dependence on the US for WMD.

Further information 

Chris Forster, James Owen

February 2006

Download Understanding Iran: a solution to the nuclear crisis? (60 kilobyte PDF)

Western diplomats seeking to arrest the emergence of a nuclear Iran must acknowledge the motivations, grievances and insecurities that shape Iranian self-perception, its view of international relations and its nuclear ambitions.

Further information 

Andrei Piontkovsky

January 2006

Download East or West? (190 kilobyte PDF)

The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a geopolitical earthquake that redrew the map of Europe and Central Asia. In his state-of-the-nation address, in April 2005, Russia's President Vladimir Putin went so far as to describe it as the 'biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century'. His declaration caused a stir among the world's political scientists, sociologists, economists and even philosophers. Yet the full import of his words was lost on much of his foreign audience. 'For the Russian people', Putin continued, the collapse of the Soviet Union 'became a real drama'.

Further information 

Andrew Small

November 2005

Download Preventing the Next Cold War (360 kilobyte PDF)

2005 has seen the emergence of political dynamics and shifts in thinking in both Washington and Beijing that risk tipping US-China relations over into a state of open geopolitical rivalry unless there are concerted attempts at conflict prevention.

Further information 

Douglas Alexander MP

October 2005

Download Europe in a Global Age (200 kilobyte PDF)

Europe is coming of age. The European Union has focussed its energies inwards for the past fifty years – developing the Common Market and harmonising laws and practices across the continent. Now, however, it faces new challenges: a global market that is ever more crowded; competition ever more intense and innovative; pressures on society ever more divisive; and new forms of threats and dangers which are no longer contained largely within our border. To survive and prosper in the twenty-first century, Europe must now address its own problems from this global perspective.

Further information 

Dr. Greg Austin

October 2005 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Next Attack (330 kilobyte PDF)

The UK is not doing enough to defeat Al Qaeda and other jihadist terrorists who threaten the country and its citizens with mass murder. The UK is not alone in the dock, but it is in the dock. Osama bin Laden remains at large and Saudi Arabia remains an important point of origin for the export of terrorism, especially extremist sentiment and money. Saudi money is also feeding the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq. Not enough new money is going to MI6. Notwithstanding the attention paid to young male British Muslims after the attacks of 7 July, the bigger threat probably remains foreign members or followers of Al Qaeda.

Further information 

Stephen Twigg, Dan Plesch, Greg Austin, Fiona Grant

2005

Download the report (250 kilobyte PDF)

The UK Government has made the case for a rapid shift to renewable energy from a number of perspectives: national security, economic prosperity and protection of the global environment. Yet its targets in this area are among the lowest in Europe.

The UK clearly needs to change the way it thinks about its energy future. This pamphlet firstly sets the global scene by highlighting new global risks involved in continuing a 'business as usual' approach. It then looks more closely at how we on the 'home front' must respond to new security risks associated with energy policy.

Dr Mark Imber

September 2005 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download Un Security Council Reform (30 kilobyte PDF)

Following the Iraq war of 2003 Kofi Annan identified a stark choice for the UN: effectiveness or irrelevance. Dr Imber argues that the High Level Panel Report of 2004 and the follow-up In Larger Freedom provide useful reference points for the future of the UN: an expanded view of human security, expansion of Security Council membership, and recognition of US priorities on terrorism and self-defence. However, Dr Imber also identifies obstacles to reform, including confusion over the understanding of 'UN reform' itself, the lack of resilience of the UN Charter, the expansion of 'competing' multilateral organisations (such as the G8 or the European Union), and diverse reform agendas.

Further information 

Dick Leonard

June 2005

Download Counter-terrorism and human rights - is the EU on course? (20 kilobyte PDF)

The EU responded with commendable – if unusual – alacrity to the worldwide terrorist threat unleashed on 11 September 2001.

Now, nearly four years later, Amnesty International has produced a disturbing report questioning how far this objective has been met.

Dick Leonard examines the EU's approach to counter-terrorism in an article published in The European Voice.

Greg Austin, Ken Berry

February 2005 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download the report (280 kilobyte PDF)

The United Nations does not just need reform, it is in need of a 'Reformation'. The composition of the Security Council is just one structural question among many other deeper issues. The scope of change needed can only be understood with reference to the massive changes in international power relationships of the past sixty years.

Further information 

Correlli Barnett

2005

Download the report (200 kilobyte PDF)

Correlli Barnett, the distinguished military historian, contrasts the success of the Allied military government in Germany in 1945-6 with the relative failure of the Coalition in Iraq in 2003-4.

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An interpretative report by Rouzbeh Pirouz, Zoe Nautre

2005

Download the report (250 kilobyte PDF)

In October 2004, the Civility Programme at the Foreign Policy Centre held a three day retreat at Ditchley Park to elucidate the views of selected Iraqi civil society representatives on the re-establishment of security, the rule of law and institutional reform.

Further information 

Espen Barth Eide (Ed.)

December 2004

Download the report (310 kilobyte PDF)

In the wake of the report of the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, the contributors call on European leaders to promote regional solutions to international security threats such as terrorism, genocide or proliferation. They should also set up "a NATO for Africa" to work with the African Union on crises such as Darfur without the charge of colonialism.

This pamphlet is part of the Global Europe project launched by the Foreign Policy Centre and British Council Brussels, and supported by the European Commission.

The collection of essays is edited by Espen Barth Eide of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) argues that Europe's regional leadership is key to strengthening global security.

Further information