Tuesday 6 March, 2007

Rt Hon Peter Hain MP

Chair: Stephen Twigg

Kindly hosted by:

Hill & Knowlton

20 Soho Square

London W1A 1PR

About the event:

Peter Hain spoke and took questions at a packed Foreign Policy Centre discussion on "The End of Foreign Policy?" kindly hosted at the offices of Hill & Knowlton.

Since the events of September 11th, the barriers between the domestic and the international have further broken down. The old definition of "the national interest" is too narrow a guide to foreign policy in a globalised world, but we are still developing the new rules which should replace it. How can we redefine a multilateral foreign policy to encompass this new dynamic? Today's foreign policy needs to be shaped by ideas, not by events.

You can download a copy of Peter Hain's speech below

Download Peter Hain's speech to the Foreign Policy Centre (50 kilobyte PDF)

Book Launch

A discussion on the future of progressive foreign policy to launch Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews (Edited by Alan Johnson, Preface by Michael Walzer and published by The Foreign Policy Centre / Democratiya)

Date: Monday 21 April, 6-8pm

Venue: Committee Room 3a, The Palace of Westminster (St. Stephen's Entrance), London SW1A 0AA

Speakers:

• Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Chair
• Alan Johnson, Democratiya.com, Editor of Global Politics After 9/11
• Denis Macshane MP, Labour Foreign Office Minister 2001-2005
• Michael Moore MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesman for International Development, tbc
• John Lloyd, Financial Times and Reuters Institute, Oxford
• Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
• Ladan Boroumand, Research Director, The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation for the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran

There will be a question and answer period. Copies of Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews will be available at a specially reduced price of 7.99.

RSVP is to Julie Utting Julie.Utting@JohnSmithTrust.org All press enquiries, and questions aside from RSVP related to the launch to Alan Johnson Alanjohnsonlfiq@aol.com. Places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a first to reply basis.

Sponsors: The Foreign Policy Centre, The John Smith Institute, Democratiya.com, The Henry Jackson Society, Progress and Engage.

Transatlantic Trends is a major new multinational poll which asks detailed questions about foreign policy to 8,000 people in the US and several European countries.

On 13th September 2004, at Senate House in the University of London, speakers, organised in conjunction with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, included Timothy Garton-Ash, Clare Short MP, Phillip Bobbitt, Menzies Campbell MP, Philip Stephens from the FT and Lord Howell, Opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesman in the Lords.

Previous German Marshall Fund worldview polls have made interesting and influential reading: The poll released in 2002 showed that the US public was as keen as Europeans on the UN route prior to the war in Iraq, and is credited in Washington as one of the influences on President Bush's decision to pursue that path. This year's poll was full of equally surprising findings.

Download the report (450 kilobyte PDF)

Read the in-depth discussion by Michael Ignatieff on 'Political Ethics in an age of Terrorism'.

Download the report (180 kilobyte PDF)