Events
The Foreign Policy Centre holds events to engage the public in debates around key international affairs issues. These include seminars, conferences, keynote speeches and expert roundtables. The majority of events will take place in London but the FPC will work with partners to hold events in other UK Cities and internationally. To listen to recordings of previous events visit our YouTube page or click on past events. For general enquiries about our events, please email: events@fpc.org.uk.
Strategic Partners or Drifting Apart? British-Turkish Relations in the Age of Brexit
As Britain prepares to leave the European Union, London is looking to develop bilateral relations with non-EU countries. Turkey has been identified as an important trade and strategic partner. British-Turkish relations are worth $16 billion and there are 3,000 British companies, which operate in Turkey. Both are NATO members and are part of the Global Coalition against ISIS, while the UK has traditionally been an advocate for closer collaboration with Turkey. However, ...
More infoDr Simon Waldman, Mercator-IPC Fellow, Istanbul Policy Center
Dr Ayla Göl, Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Dr Natalie Martin, Senior Lecturer in Politics and IR, Nottingham Trent University
Chair: Catherine West MP
Listen to the audio recording of the event here.
Committee Room 11, House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA
Hungary and Poland: Democracy and rule of law under pressure
The Foreign Policy Centre hosted a Westminster seminar to explore the current political situation in Hungary and Poland. This event comprised an expert panel discussion and the first UK presentation of a 35 min documentary film, ‘State Capture: The story of Hungary 1988-2018’. The event examined the growing concerns about rule-of-law (including judicial freedom), media freedom, protection of minorities, commitment to democratic pluralism and the rise of oligarchic elites, with both ...
More infoDr Gabor Scheiring, Research Fellow University of Cambridge
Dr Marcin Matczak, Associate Professor, Institute of State and Law Studies, University of Warsaw
Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President, The Open Dialogue Foundation
Chair: Alex Sobel MP
Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London, SW1A 2LW
Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East
The Foreign Policy Centre and the Richardson Institute at Lancaster University are holding this Westminster seminar to launch and debate the findings of a new publication entitled Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East, part of the Sectarianism, Proxies and De-Sectarianisation (SEPAD) project. The event and publication will look at how since the Arab Uprisings in late 2010 and the fragmentation of regime-society relations that followed, relationships ...
More infoFabian Hamilton MP, Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament
Dr Simon Mabon, Director of the Richardson Institute and SEPAD Project Leader, Lancaster University
Dr May Darwich, Assistant Professor, Durham University
Dr Edward Wastnidge, Lecturer, The Open University
Chair: Rt Hon Baroness Northover, Liberal Democrats Lead Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs- House of Lords
Listen to an audio recording of the event here.
Committee Room 6, House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA
Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East Conference
On 11 September the Foreign Policy Centre and the Richardson Institute at the University of Lancaster hosted a conference entitled Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East, part of the Sectarianism, Proxies & De-sectarianisation (SEPAD) project. Since the Arab Uprisings in late 2010 and the fragmentation of regime-society relations that followed, relationships between communities have continued to degenerate across the Middle East. The existence of difference ...
More infoDr Simon Mabon, Lancaster University
Professor Toby Dodge, LSE
Professor Madawi Al Rasheed, LSE
Dr Bassel Salloukh, Lebanese American University
Dr May Darwich, Durham University
Dr Chris Phillips, QMUL
Dr Rahaf Al Doughli, Lancaster University
Dr Eddie Wastnidge, The Open University
Dr Hannes Baumann, University of Liverpool
Dr Lucia Ardovini, Swedish Institute of International Affairs
Geneive Abdo, the Arabia Foundation
Work Foundation, 21 Palmer St, Westminster, London SW1H 0AD
The rise of illiberal civil society in the former Soviet Union
This seminar launched and discussed a new Foreign Policy Centre publication looking the growing influence of illiberal, anti-Western and socially conservative civil society groups, popular movements and political forces in five post-Soviet states (Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova), looking at who these groups are, what they are doing and why. The event looked at the local social, cultural, historic and economic roots of such groups, some of whom have ...
More infoMihaela Ajder, Moldovan human rights activist and journalist
Adam Hug, Director, Foreign Policy Centre
Mariam Uberi, Research Fellow ( covering Georgia), Foreign Policy Centre
Chair: Stephen Gethins MP, Foreign Affairs Select Committee and Scottish National Party International Affairs and Europe Spokesperson
Committee Room 12, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Free speech on trial: journalists, writers and academics under attack in Turkey
The Foreign Policy Centre, Article 19 and Reporters Without Borders are organising an important seminar to shine a spotlight on the challenges against free speech in Turkey. Since the 2016 failed coup attempt, human rights activists argue the State of Emergency measures imposed by the government have been used to silence dissent and restrict any political opposition in Turkey. While issues of censorship and media oppression predate the failed coup, numbers of ...
More infoFigen Çalıkuşu, Mehmet Altan’s lawyer
Erol Önderoğlu, journalist and Reporters Without Borders’s representative in Turkey
Nurcan Baysal, Kurdish human rights defender and writer
Martin Whitfield MP, UK Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Georgia Nash, Programme Officer, Article 19
Chair: Stephen Twigg MP, Chair of the International Development Select Committee
Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London, SW1A 2LW
The Future UK-EU Internal Security Cooperation: will the UK go from a security leader to a norm-taker?
The Aston Centre for Europe and the Foreign Policy Centre are pleased to invite you to their forthcoming policy and outreach seminar on UK-EU internal security cooperation on 19 April. As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union, it is now faced with having to develop new forms of cooperation with its European neighbours to fight ever more transnational security threats. As a country with a key role ...
More infoDr Anita Lavorgna, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Southampton
Dr Camino Mortera-Martinez, Research Fellow, Centre for European Reform
Prof Christian Kaunert, Professor of Policing and Security, University of South Wales
Prof Elaine Fahey, Professor of Law, City University London
Chair: Lord Jay of Ewelme
Lecture Hall, British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, St. James, London, SW1Y 5AH
Bad idea: the rise of illiberal values and the exporting of repression across the former Soviet Union
The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) and the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI) are delighted to host a lunchtime seminar on 12 April to conclude the initial work of the FPC’s Exporting Repression project. This event will explore the FPC’s recent research into the way in which authoritarian values are promoted and developed both within and from the countries of the former Soviet Union. It will look at how these ‘new ...
More infoDr David Lewis, Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
Dr Rebecca Harms, Member of the European Parliament, Chair of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly
Jacqueline Hale, Research Fellow, Foreign Policy Centre
Adam Hug, Director, Foreign Policy Centre
Iskra Kirova (moderator), Senior Analyst, OSEPI
Open Society European Policy Institute, Rue du Trône 130, Brussels, B-1050 Belgium
Spotlight on Chechnya: Kadyrov’s crackdown on human rights
The Foreign Policy Centre and Civil Rights Defenders are organising an important seminar to shine a spotlight on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Russian Republic of Chechnya. Since coming to power in 2007 the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has imposed order in the wake of two bloody wars with Russia through a mix of lavish spending and the establishment of a brutal local dictatorship. Chechnya has long been ...
More infoLana Estemirova, daughter of murdered human rights activist Natalia Estemirova
Oleg Orlov, Head of the ‘Hot Spots’ program, Memorial
Olga Sadovskaja, Deputy Head, Committee Against Torture
Chair: Stephen Doughty MP, Member for Cardiff South and Penarth
Committee Room 11, House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA
Opening up Russia: Access to information and the fight for transparency
The Foreign Policy Centre and ARTICLE 19 are delighted to host a Westminster seminar exploring the ways in which citizens and journalists in Russia can hold their local and national government to account. On paper Russia’s 2010 Law ‘on Providing Access to Information on the Activities of State Bodies and Bodies of Local Self-Government’ has provided citizens with the right to request and receive information, setting out a clear procedure ...
More infoIvan Pavlov, Human Rights Lawyer and Head of Team 29
Tatiana Tolsteneva, Project Coordinator, Team 29
Gregory Shvedov, Editor in Chief of Caucasian Knot
David Banisar, Senior Legal Counsel, ARTICLE 19
Chair: Stephen Gethins MP, Foreign Affairs Select Committee and Scottish National Party International Affairs and Europe Spokesperson
Committee Room 8, House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA