An ODI and FPC event

Speakers:

Baroness Margaret Jay, Co-chair, Iraq Commission

Simon Maxwell, Director, ODI (Chair)

Date:

Thurs 22nd November 2007, 1pm-2.15pm

Venue:

Overseas Development Institute, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD

About the Event:

The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), in partnership with Channel 4, facilitated a UK Iraq Commission – the British equivalent of the US Iraq Study Group. The Iraq Commission was an independent, cross-party Commission that produced a report containing recommendations for the future of Britain's role in Iraq.

At this ODI and Foreign Policy Centre event, Baroness Margaret Jay will outline the process of evidence gathering employed by the Commission and the major findings of the report.

You can register online for the event at http://apps.odi.org.uk/events

You are warmly invited to the latest POLIS event, in partnership with Channel 4 and the Foreign Policy Centre:

This is an opportunity to discuss and debate the findings of The Iraq Commission. More details and a copy of the final report can be found here: http://fpc.org.uk/topics/iraqcommission/

Date: Tuesday 24 July, 6.30 - 8.00pm

Venue: Old Theatre, London School of Economics

Speakers: Professor Mary Kaldor (LSE), Baroness Margaret Jay (The Iraq Commission), Patrick Cockburn (Independent), Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (Guardian), Tim Finch (Refugee Council)

Chair: Krishnan Guru-Murthy (Channel 4)

Following a series of hearings, Channel 4 aired the findings of the Channel 4/ Foreign Policy Centre Iraq Commission in a special programme presented by Jon Snow on Saturday 14 July 2007. The Commission, the equivalent of the US Iraq Study Group, is an independent, cross-party Commission which has produced recommendations on the future of Britain's role in Iraq.

The POLIS event will be the first public debate on the findings of the Iraq Commission. Through incorporative panel debate, it will gauge the response of the press and the public, many of whom will have already viewed the Channel 4 programme or read the report.

It will ask what role the public and press have in carrying out the Commission's findings, and what impact implementing the Commission's findings will have on community cohesion, the terror threat and Muslim/ media relations in the UK.

This will be the backdrop for a wider debate about how the conflict in Iraq has been reported and will continue to be reported, whether the media has facilitated sufficient and healthy public debate, whether the government has listened, and, ultimately, what the story of Iraq will be in the long run.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception in the Senior Common Room.

For maps and directions please refer to:

http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.htm

Please note you do not need to RSVP for this event

For more on POLIS please visit http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/polis/.

Date: Wednesday 20 June

Time: 10am to 11am

Title: "What are the challenges and opportunities for a new Gordon Brown government with regard to Israel, Palestinians and the Near Middle East?"

Venue: Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster, London SW1P 3NZ

RSVP: khevynl@bicom.org.uk, or +44 (0)207 467 8949.

The Foreign Policy Centre and BICOM are jointly hosting a debate on Weds 20th June 2007 at Church House from 10am - 11am.

The subject of the debate is "What are the challenges and opportunities for a new Gordon Brown government with regard to Israel, Palestinians and the Near Middle East?"

Stephen Twigg, the Director of the Foreign Policy Centre will chair the debate. Lorna Fitzsimons, the Chief Executive of BICOM, Hussein Agha, from St Anthony's College Oxford, and Mike Gapes MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee will all speak.

I do hope that you can attend, please RSVP direct to Khevyn Limbarjee at khevynl@bicom.org.uk or call +44 (0)207 467 8949.

Spaces are limited at this seminar, places will be allocated first come, first served.

Date: Monday 18 June

Time: 6pm

Venue: Grand Committee Room, House of Commons, SW1

RSVP: tim.gore@fabian-society.org.uk or 0207 227 4914

The Foreign Policy Centre, the Fabian Society and the Young Fabians are jointly holding a debate on the prospects for Middle East peace in the House of Commons.

Hilary Benn MP, International Development Secretary, will be among the speakers, alongside expert voices on the conflict and how to end it.

The event will launch the new Fabian freethinking paper How Peace Broke Out in the Middle East: A short history of the future by Tony Klug. The paper is generating an extraordinary and positive response from a wide range of commentators, academics and government and civil society voices:

"A brilliant idea and a dream that is not beyond reach. The conditions are ripe - what is lacking is the political will and leadership" - Professor Shlomo Ben-Ami, Former Israeli Foreign Minister.

"Tony Klug offers us a tantalizing vision of what could be. It may not happen but, if it does, this is how it will unfold" - Dr Ahmad Samih Khalidi, Former Palestinian negotiator and Senior Associate Member, St Antonys College, Oxford.

You can download a copy of the paper from:

http://fabians.org.uk/publications/freethinking/klug-middleeast-07/

The event will be held in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons on Monday 18th June at 6.00pm.

As space is limited, please RSVP to tim.gore@fabian-society.org.uk or 0207 227 4914.