By the end of 2024, significant elections will have taken place in the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and at the European Parliament. Meanwhile, Irish citizens will go to the polls no later than March 2025 for a general election. The collective outcomes of these elections will undoubtedly have an impact on an already fraught global landscape and the extent to which these countries individually, or collectively, ...

Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) have proliferated globally, often deployed by those trying to shut down investigations into corruption. These abusive legal actions can stop stories in their tracks, punish journalists/activists and delay or prevent wrongdoing from coming to light. This workshop will highlight SLAPP cases, as well as profile the work of UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition and the Coalition against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE), which has already resulted in ...

The results of the June 2024 European Parliament elections may have far-reaching impacts upon the EU, its neighbourhood and globally, as the Parliament will shape EU policies on topics from the economy and climate to defence. They are also an important barometer of public opinion, with the performance of right-wing, populist parties in particular being closely watched.   This webinar, co-organised by the Foreign Policy Centre and Aston University, provided ...

  The ‘special relationship’ between the United States and United Kingdom has often been lauded by successive Presidents and Prime Ministers, keen to underscore a closely fostered partnership. The two countries have shared significant ties, militarily, economically and culturally, and have often acted in lock-step on the international stage.   Yet in recent years, the special relationship has been tested by numerous global crises and diverging domestic political landscapes. Upcoming ...

Six months out from the United States Presidential Elections, with Parliamentary elections also imminent in the United Kingdom, join us for an evening of discussion as to what the transatlantic partnership between these two countries means today.   What will be the likely impact of the potential outcomes of the US/UK elections, and how are relations already shifting in a time of conflict and changing world order? Will the ‘special ...

The PR business in the UK has grown significantly over the last several decades, becoming an industry generating billions annually. But what are the dangers and dilemmas that face PR firms and communication agencies when their clients are from kleptocratic jurisdictions?   PR can be used constructively, encompassing, in the words of the Chartered Institute for Public Relations, the “planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual ...

SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are a powerful weapon against freedom of expression. These types of abusive lawsuits – or the threat of them – are used by a private party with the purpose of silencing critical speech, in an effort to evade scrutiny of an issue in the public interest.   It’s not just journalists who are at risk; anybody, including those publicly reporting cases of sexual assault ...

One year on from the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), hosted in London, this timely discussion outlines the lessons UK foreign policy can learn from global approaches to the promotion of religious freedom and the protection of religious minorities.  This event, organised by the Foreign Policy Centre and Aston Centre for Europe, will look at the outcomes from other international approaches, following on from the ...

February 2023 marks a bleak anniversary, a year since the Russian invasion into Ukraine. With no end in sight for the ongoing war, many are reflecting on the past 12 months and what further support is needed for Ukrainians as they continue their fight for freedom.    This webinar, organised by the Justice for Journalists Foundation and the Foreign Policy Centre, focuses on a crucial part of any crisis – ...

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a webinar to explore how the UK can be a ‘force for good’ in Central Asia. After a year of political turbulence, in both Central Asia and the UK, the discussion will be an opportunity to take stock of some of the key challenges and opportunities facing Britain’s role in the region. Particularly, in relation to what it can do to support good governance, human ...

This timely event, organised jointly by the Foreign Policy Centre and the Aston Centre for Europe, will bring together three key speakers to consider the security challenges facing the UK and Europe in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the potential opportunities for, and obstacles to, co-operation between the UK, Germany and more widely to address them. Speakers: – Rt Hon John Healey MP: John Healey is Shadow ...

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a webinar to explore what measures the UK can undertake in relation to the crisis in Myanmar.   The Foreign Policy Centre’s (FPC) programme on ‘Finding Britain’s role in a changing world’ examines Britain’s foreign policy with a focus on its aim to be a ‘force for good’ in the world. The 2021 Integrated Review signalled an important geopolitical shift – the ‘Indo-Pacific tilt’ ...

The current reforms proposed by the UK Government to address SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) have been widely seen as a part of their response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. While interest in SLAPPs had already been growing, the Ministry of Justice launched their call for evidence on SLAPPs in March 2022, just two weeks after the Russian invasion started.   Speakers will discuss what, if anything, has ...

Join us for a discussion on media freedom and democracy through the lens of reporting on the Azerbaijani Laundromat.   SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) are frequently part of a much bigger picture – one about censorship and corruption, not just abroad, but increasingly in the UK too. This event will highlight the impact that the UK’s facilitation of corrupt wealth stolen by elites in autocratic regimes has on ...

The Daphne Festival marks the fifth anniversary since the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. When Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in October 2017, she had 47 open libel cases against her, highlighting the pressure of legal threats against investigative journalists. In the five years since, movements have sprung up across Europe to tackle SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) leading to the creation of an EU Anti-SLAPP Directive and a ...

This SEPAD project and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) event and publication launch, Dividing Lines: Reimagining Social Division in ‘Divided Societies’, will bring together a range of experts to examine the similarities and differences across ‘divided societies’, using the concept of sectarianism to better understand efforts to address division across the world. It will explore the concept of sectarianism in peacebuilding and the resulting effects that have emerged from this process in ...

This event will examine how best to strengthen health systems in developing countries and the role the UK can play in supporting such initiatives.   The Government’s 2021 Integrated Review identified Global Health as one of its 12 strategic framework areas that will see a new British approach. Under the heading ‘Global Health’ it states that ‘we will work to strengthen global health security, including through the Prime Minister’s five-point plan to bolster ...

UK launch of the Safety of Journalists Platform 2022 Annual Report.   This event is being hosted by the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Safety of Journalists Platform, the mechanism which reports on serious threats to the safety of journalists and media freedom in Europe, and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC). The event is the UK launch for the Safety of Journalists Platform’s 2022 Annual Report. The report examines the key ...

Last month, the UK Government launched a consultation to address SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation), highlighting the extent to which legal threats have become a key issue for media freedom in 2022. SLAPPs are brought by the powerful and wealthy, eager to avoid scrutiny, to intimidate journalists into either not publishing or removing information from the public domain and penalize them for critical reporting. The use of this tactic ...

In June 2021, the UK hosted the expanded G7 summit, including India, South Korea and Australia. There is speculation that this was a prelude to the creation of a ‘D10’, a new alignment of major democracies to uphold liberal values and a rules-based multilateralism and international order. India is undoubtedly a democracy but the quality of its liberal democratic credentials has been seriously questioned, most notably by the V-Dem Democracy ...

This event, co-organised by the Aston Centre for Europe (ACE) and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) will explore the practice and scope of Britain’s new ‘paradiplomacy’ towards the EU in the wake of Brexit. It seeks to develop a stronger understanding of an effective multi-level engagement with the EU and European partners post-Brexit, and offers opportunities to compare and learn from best practices.   Across the world regions, cities and ...

This event, organised by the FPC and the SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation) project at the Richardson Institute for Peace at Lancaster University, aims to examine how ten years after the Arab Uprisings, the struggle between rulers and ruled continues to shape the contours of political life across the MENA region. Central to these struggles are questions about citizenship and its capacity to order political and social life through drawing ...

This webinar, held on International Anti-Corruption Day, will explore what can be done by the US, UK and other governments to push back against kleptocracy as well examine the ongoing challenges for journalists working to expose corruption facilitated through Western financial and legal systems.   Background Successive global journalistic investigations, including the recent Pandora Papers, have increasingly uncovered the extent of global ‘kleptocracy’. Political and business elites from countries with limited democratic ...

This virtual event will discuss the findings of an upcoming Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) and the Peaceful Change Initiative (PCi) publication. The event and publication seek to re-examine the UK’s presence in fragile and conflict affected countries (FCACs) around the world at a time of continuing global geopolitical competition and added fragilities generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of climate change. The publication will address the questions of ...

Fostering inclusive growth in order to ‘level up’ prosperity across the UK and reduce regional inequality has become an important policy agenda for the UK Government. There remain many questions, however, regarding how exactly this can be achieved. This Aston Centre for Europe and Foreign Policy Centre event seeks to extract lessons from the Basque Country, a region in northern Spain renowned for its inclusive economic transformation, and to share ...

This event, organised by the FPC and the SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation) project at the Richardson Institute for Peace at Lancaster University, aims to discuss the situation in both Lebanon and Yemen to analyse what is happening, what can be done to improve matters and what can be learned from these crises to help in other conflict and post-conflict situations. The event will examine what the situation in Lebanon ...

Over the four years since the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017, her family and friends have carried out a courageous campaign for justice. Their tenacity has resulted in bringing those accused in her murder to trial and created a wider anti-corruption movement in Maltese politics and society. Despite Caruana Galizia’s murder shining an international spotlight on the island, independent journalists have continued to face ...

This virtual event will discuss the findings of an upcoming Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) and Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) publication entitled: Global Britain for an open world? Examining the importance of open societies to the UK’s ‘force for good’ ambitions. The event and publication seek to examine the UK’s approach to supporting open societies and show its importance in a changing world where authoritarian powers are gaining influence.   Following ...

This Foreign Policy Centre and Justice For Journalists Foundation (JFJ) event will examine the way in which journalists and other media workers in the post-Soviet region have been targeted by the authorities and others such as organised crime and nationalist groups. It will build on the findings of a recent JFJ report that showed 4,611 attacks on media workers were registered in 12 countries in the post-Soviet region (except the Baltic States) ...

This virtual event will discuss the findings of an upcoming Foreign Policy Centre publication entitled Retreating Rights: Examining the pressure on human rights in Kazakhstan. The event and publication seeks to comprehensively examine the present human rights situation in Kazakhstan as the country continues to navigate the post-pandemic environment and power transition between former President Nazarbayev and President Tokayev. It will look at the emerging pressures on a political settlement that ...

This seminar, organised by the FPC and British Council will present and examine the findings of the British Council’s latest soft power perceptions research with Ipsos MORI that provides evidence from 36 countries around the world around what young people think about the UK and other leading nations. It will look to what extent the UK remains a ‘soft power superpower’ (to quote the recent Integrated Review of Security, Defence, ...

Don’t SLAPP the messenger: Why abusive legal threats and actions against journalists must be stopped Journalists are public watchdogs: by bringing information that is in the public interest to light, they help to hold power to account. But what if powerful or wealthy people wanted to keep their wrongdoings a secret? Abusive legal threats and actions, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation – or SLAPPs, are increasingly being used ...

This seminar, organised by the FPC and the SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation) project at the Richardson Institute for Peace at Lancaster University, aims to look at the evolving picture across the region, looking at the key challenges on the ground, the continuing geo-strategic tensions and the impact of the Biden Administration’s policy agenda. The diplomatic dynamics are becoming increasingly complex with traditional Western allies – such as Saudi Arabia, ...

This Foreign Policy Centre, CABAR and IWPR Central Asia are hosting an online discussion that will discuss the topic of destruction of historical heritage and chaotic infill development in Central Asia. It will look at how city planning and urban development have evolved since the Soviet period, examining the similarities and differences around the region. It will look at how those in power have sought to shape the urban environment ...

In summer 2022, Birmingham will be hosting the Commonwealth Games, the UK’s first ‘sport mega event’ in this post-Brexit landscape. The 2012 Olympics presented a clear positive vision of the UK as a young, dynamic and diverse country, as well as showcasing the UK’s longer term vision of its future with sustainability and legacy being a core part of the message. The 2022 Commonwealth Games present a similar opportunity to ...

This event examining the human rights situation in Tajikistan comes after a challenging year, with COVID-19 testing the capacity and credibility of Tajikistan’s government, conflict flaring over its border with Kyrgyzstan and concern over repression of critics at home and abroad. The challenges of the last year have compounded an already difficult situation where freedoms have been increasingly restricted and human rights undermined.   This event will launch a new ...

Legal threats against journalists are far from a new phenomenon. Yet in recent years there has been a rising level of concern about the misuse of legal action to inhibit journalism, particularly by those wishing to prevent exposure of their wrong-doing as opposed to address a genuine grievance. Often described as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs), the aim of such action is to intimidate journalists into not publishing information ...

Barely into the start of 2021 and events around the world have brought the question of global corruption and the fight against it sharply into focus. Noticeable is the increasing divergence between governing authorities in the US and UK’s approach towards tackling anti-corruption and money laundering. The new Biden administration has clearly identified corruption as ‘a core national security interest’ and recent ‘historic’ legislation passed through US Congress takes aim ...

The FPC is working again with the SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation) project at the Richardson Institute for Peace at Lancaster University on a series of virtual public seminars focused on peacebuilding in Lebanon, Bosnia, Syria and Yemen. The project will address each country situation individually but it will seek to learn from the experiences of Lebanon and Bosnia (both the successes and ongoing/growing problems) in terms of power sharing and ...

This virtual event will discuss the findings of an upcoming Foreign Policy Centre publication entitled Retreating Rights: Examining the pressure on human rights in Kyrgyzstan. The speed, scope and outcome of the political upheaval following the October 2020 Parliamentary elections may have shocked the watching world, but the flaws and fragility in Kyrgyzstan political system had been clear for some time. This event and new publication will seek to provide ...