British Foreign Policy in a Fragmenting World

This seminar brings together leading practitioners and thinkers on British Foreign Policy to consider how the UK will fare in a post-Brexit world.

Attendees will hear from senior experts and opinion formers, get an understanding of British foreign policy from a number of different angles and be able to discuss the themes over lunch afterwards.

The panel is designed to interrogate what bilateral relations the UK should cultivate after Brexit. With a Sino-Russian axis emerging in Asia, a Franco-German axis sharing the UNSC Presidency and driving further EU integration, and the ‘Special Relationship’ under threat, the UK will need to consider what alliances and friendships to foster to ensure its global interests are protected.

Questions it will ask include: 

• What will be the UK’s key relationships in two decades time?
• Which partnerships should be up or downgraded?
• To what extent do bilateral relationships between other states threaten UK interests?
• How can we ameliorate or cope with these effects?
• How do bilateral partnerships fit within the wider patterns of global security?

Speakers

• Dr Jamie Gaskarth (University of Birmingham)
• Sir Mark Lyall Grant (Former National Security Advisor)
• Alex Evans (Foreign Office Director of Cyber Security and former Acting High Commissioner to India)
• Prof John Bew (author of Citizen Clem and winner of the Orwell Prize 2017)
• Dr Jess Gifkins (Lecturer, University of Manchester)