Recent developments, from Brexit to COVID-19, have serious ramifications for the UK’s live music industry, which faces a series of stark challenges. The combination of event cancellations due to COVID-19 and potential disruptions to supply chains and free movement following Brexit, risks damaging the nation’s interdependent local economies and local music ecologies. Even beyond these pressing problems, the ‘cultural pushback’ from perceptions of Britain post-Brexit could further limit future opportunities ...

This Foreign Policy Centre and Justice for Journalists Foundation event seeks to examine the crucial role played by journalists in covering the protest movement in Belarus and the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Lukashenko Government. It will seek to examine the role played by journalists, bloggers and ordinary citizens of Belarus in documenting and sharing the situation on the ground. It will highlight the role played by independent ...

This webinar, hosted by the Foreign Policy Centre in partnership with Freedom House and the University of Exeter, highlights recent trends on Transnational Repression in the age of Globalization. Drawing from the Freedom House Special Report, Perspectives on “Everyday” Transnational Repression in an Age of Globalization, the event will examine how authoritarian states exercise influence and maintain control over their populations abroad, from exceptional measures such as assassination to everyday modes ...

This webinar is being held to examine findings of a new Aston Centre for Europe and Foreign Policy Centre publication Religion and Forced Displacement in the Eastern Orthodox World. The event and publication will examine the relationship between religion-state relations, forced displacement, religious diplomacy and human security in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, with a focus on eight countries in the region, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. ...

This Foreign Policy Centre event will debate the findings of a new essay collection – ‘Spotlight on Uzbekistan’ – that examines in detail the evolution of Uzbekistan under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev since late 2016. It assesses the depth, breadth and potential longevity of the much vaunted reform programme, looking at what has worked and where there is still more to do. The event and publication will examine issues ...

This virtual seminar hosted by the Foreign Policy Centre in partnership with the SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies & De-sectarianisation) project at the Richardson Institute for Peace at the University of Lancaster will examine the future of the Middle East in 2020 and beyond. The role of the US in the region is increasingly contested and Washington’s key allies – Saudi Arabia and other GCC states – have felt increasingly pressure from ...

This Foreign Policy Centre and Oxfam event will launch our new collection of short essays that seeks to re-examine and re-imagine the UK’s foreign policy and discuss its findings about how Britain can best respond to global challenges. The collection of essays features the panellists listed, as well as Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood MP (Chair of the Defence Select Committee), Caroline Lucas MP (former Green Party Leader), Stephen Twigg (former ...

From videos of rights violations, to satellite images of environmental degradation, to eyewitness accounts disseminated on social media, human rights practitioners have access to more data today than ever before. Modern technology—and the enhanced access it provides to information about abuse—has the potential to revolutionise both human rights reporting, and documentation, as well as the pursuit of legal accountability. However, these new methods for information gathering and dissemination, have also ...

This Foreign Policy Centre seminar, in partnership with the University of Lancaster, will look at the role played by non-state actors and particularly journalists in re-establishing a shared historical record in post-conflict societies, with a particular focus on Kosovo. In a Kosovan context where state-sponsored initiatives for transitional justice may lack capacity and struggle to gain the confidence of all communities, this seminar will examine the vital role journalists and ...

We are pleased to confirm we are taking part in an all-day conference covering political reform, human rights and media freedom in the Gulf, alongside ALQST: Advocating for Human Rights, DIWAN LONDON, SALAM: For Democracy and Human Rights, Muwatin Media Network and Lancaster University. This event aims to identify some of the main challenges facing the region, from undemocratic governance to a lack of civic space and free press, highlighting ...