On Thursday 17th November, Professor John Bew delivered a keynote lecture at the University of Oxford on ‘Realpolitik and the British’ in advance of a joint symposium on ethics in foreign policy organised by Policy Exchange’s Britain in the World project and Oxford’s McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics & Public Life. The symposium, titled How can Realpolitik be Ethical?, discussed Syria, intervention and non-intervention, alliance politics, and the arms trade — and was attended by a mixture of scholars, commentators, and senior government officials — past and present — from the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
This was the first of two events in a collaboration between the two centres. In early 2017, Policy Exchange will host Reverend Professor Nigel Biggar, Director of the McDonald Centre and Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, who will deliver a keynote address and release a paper on Britain and Just War after the Chilcot Report in collaboration with the Britain in the World Project.