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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.

Past Events

PR & Communication Agencies and Kleptocracy

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 ...

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Speakers

Opening remarks from Alastair McCapra, CEO of The Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Tom Mayne, Research Fellow, University of Oxford and author of the new report ‘PR & Communication Agencies and Kleptocracy’

Farzana Baduel, CEO of Curzon PR

Franz Wild, Editor of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Chair: Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP

Please email events@fpc.org.uk if interested in attending the event.

When
March 4, 2024
6:30pm-8:00pm UK time
Where

Houses of Parliament, London, SW1A 0AA

SLAPPs: an ongoing threat to freedom of expression

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 ...

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Speakers

Caroline Kean, Wiggin

Nina Cresswell, Writer

Peter Apps, Inside Housing

Simon Dowson-Collins, HarperCollins UK

Chair: Mary Fitzgerald, OSF

Please register for this event here.

When
July 18, 2023
7:00PM - 8:30PM
Where

The Human Rights Action Centre, Amnesty International UK 25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA

3rd UK Anti-SLAPP Conference: Tracking Implementation

  The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), the Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ) and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) are delighted to announce the third edition of the UK Anti-SLAPP Conference to be held on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 November 2023, both online and in-person in London.   We are pleased that we will also be joined this year by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as a supporting ...

More info
Speakers

See the full list of speakers here.

When
November 27, 2023
November 28, 2023
Where

London & Online

One Year On: Global Action on Freedom of Religion or Belief

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 ...

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Speakers

John Kinahan, Assistant Editor at Forum 18

Dr Anne Jenichen, Senior Lecturer at the Aston Centre for Europe, Aston University

Dr Balazs Szent-Ivanyi, Reader at the Aston Centre for Europe, Aston University

Chair: Susan Coughtrie, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre

When
July 4, 2023
6:00pm-7:30pm (UK time)
Where

Online discussion, please register for the Zoom details here.

The impact of the war in Ukraine on connectivity in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus

This webinar, hosted by the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) and the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the University of Birmingham, in cooperation with the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions, will explore one of the ‘under-appreciated’ impacts of the war in Ukraine: the disruption of overland connectivity through the Northern Corridor and the potential opportunities this has created for other routes, particularly the so-called ...

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Speakers

Chair: Craig Oliphant, FPC Senior Advisor

Professor Rilka Dragneva-Lewers, International Legal Studies, University of Birmingham

Professor Giray Sadik, European Studies Research Center, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University

Iulian Groza, Executive Director of the Institute for European Policies and Reform

Dr Leila Alieva, Affiliate of Russian and East European Studies, Oxford University School for Global and Area Studies

With a short intervention from Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security and Head of the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham.

When
May 23, 2023
10am-11:30am UK Time
Where

This event will be taking place on Zoom.

Please register for this event here.

SLAPPs—a threat to liberal democracy?

The issue of SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) has exploded into the political and news agenda over the past couple of years. SLAPPS may be a relatively new term in the UK, but it encapsulates for many a far longer-standing problem for British journalism. That is that the UK’s libel (as well as privacy and data protection) laws are regularly misused to shut down public interest reporting, stifling public ...

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Speakers

Carole Cadwalladr is a British author and investigative journalist.

Gavin Millar KC is a media law specialist, representing media outlets, journalists and politicians.

Alan Rusbridger (Chair), is editor of Prospect and former editor-in-chief of The Guardian.

When
May 16, 2023
7:00 - 8:00 pm BST
Where

Watch the livestream of this event on Zoom.

Please register here.

The impact of the war in Ukraine on the BRICS

Co-hosted by the Foreign Policy Centre and the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the University of Birmingham, in cooperation with the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions, this webinar will examine one of the under-appreciated aspects of the Russian war against Ukraine–its impact on the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) individually and as an organisation.    Our expert speakers will explore ...

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Speakers

Chair: Stewart McDonald MP, SNP MP for Glasgow South and Vice-Chair of the Ukraine APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group)

Dr Aijan Sharshenova, Research Fellow at the FPC and Bishkek-based Political Analyst

Dr Yi Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham 

Dr Anuradha Chenoy, Adjunct Professor, Jindal School of Global Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University, New Delhi

Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Chief Executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs

When
May 2, 2023
10:00-11:30 am UK Time
Where

This event will be taking place on Zoom.

Please register for this event here.

Ukraine: Media freedom, disinformation and the effectiveness of calls for redress

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 – ...

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Speakers

Chair: Sir John Whittingdale OBE MP, Chair of the APPG on Media Freedom  

Sergiy Tomilenko, President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine

Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary, European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) 

Victoria Vdovychenko, Policy Advisor and Associate Professor at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, current ‘Scholar at Risk’ at Aston University

Yevheniia Virlych, Editor-in-Chief of online media Kavun.city

When
March 1, 2023
15:00-16:00 London (16:00-17:00 Brussels; 17:00-18:00 Kyiv)
Where

This event will be taking place on Zoom.

Please register for this event here.

Can Britain be a ‘force for good’ in Central Asia?

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 ...

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Speakers

Prof. Kristian Lasslett, Professor at Ulster University and Co-Director Uz Investigations

Dr Khalida Azhigulova, Associate Professor at Eurasian Technological University

Dr Aijan Sharshenova, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek

Chair: Adam Hug, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre

When
December 15, 2022
11:00am-12:00pm UK time
Where

This event will be taking place on Zoom.

How to keep Europe safe: Co-operation between the UK, Germany and beyond

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 ...

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Speakers

Rt Hon John Healey MP

Baroness Catherine Ashton GCMG, PC

Nils Schmid MdB

Moderated by Dr. Ed Turner

When
December 7, 2022
6:00pm-7:30pm (UK time)
Where

Portcullis House, London, SW1A 2JR

 

 

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