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Foreign Policy & Security Blogs
What you didn’t know about the Irish Border – how technology can resolve the issue of the North/South frontier post-Brexit
David Trimble’s former Special Adviser – and Chief Economic Adviser to Policy Exchange – sets out how technology can ensure a low-profile border between North and South.
Britain’s industry-led space policy “model” has been a resounding success. But can it survive the fierce competition of the new space race?
The UK has made significant progress developing its approach to space, including the passage of the recent Space Bill and announcement of the Space Strategy, argues Policy Exchange’s Senior Research Fellow for Defence Gabriel Elefteriu. Discussing the event held at Policy Exchange to explore these issues, Gabriel argues that more will be required if the UK is to fully take advantage of the opportunities offered by this new frontier.
In appreciation of Professor Richard Pipes
Professor Richard Pipes was credited by many as having achieved distinction in both scholarship and public policy in the area of Russian affairs.
Don’t listen to the doom-mongers – why the UK (including Northern Ireland) can leave the Customs Union, avoid a hard border and preserve the Good Friday Agreement
Graham Gudgin, Chief Economic Adviser to Policy Exchange and a former special adviser to the Northern Ireland First Minister, and Ray Bassett, Senior Fellow for EU Affairs and a former Irish Ambassador to Canada, demonstrate that the UK can leave the Customs Union, avoid a ‘hard’ Irish Border and preserve the Good Friday Agreement.
North Koreans should beware their leader using their traditional negotiating playbook – President Trump is playing a different game
With hopes rising of détente between North Korea and the rest of the world, Lieutenant General (Ret.) I.-B. Chun, Former Commander, South Korea Special Warfare Command warns that if the North Koreans are simply stalling for stalling for time, the Trump administration’s response may be very different from that of his predecessors.
Ignore the straw men, the Commonwealth can still be a big part of our post-Brexit settlement
Ignore the naysayers – the Commonwealth can be a big part of the UK’s future. This is the message from Policy Exchange’s Ralph Buckle, also Director and Co-Founder of Commonwealth Exchange (CX), who argues that numerous straw men have been raised during CHOGM. On trade and co-operation, the UK has many friends outside the EU who will be eager to reinvigorate old ties.
The Good Friday Agreement is in relatively good health
20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, Lord Bew – Emeritus Professor of Irish Politics, Queen’s University Belfast – finds the accord in relatively good health. Despite concerns generated by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, cross-party support for the Agreement has increased and there are signs that the DUP & Sinn Fein are gearing up to try to restore power sharing.
The collective action to Russia was in part a result of the UK’s firm unilateral response
Policy Exchange’s Professor John Bew, whose essay on the Skripal affair was discussed on the Today programme, argues that the UK’s initial response to Russian aggression paved the way to wider, collective action.
Time for political game-playing over the Irish border to stop
Policy Exchange’s Senior Fellow on EU Affairs Ray Bassett – himself a former senior Irish diplomat – argues that ‘any hard border in the Irish Sea and North/South would hurt Ireland a lot more than it would Britain’ and that Ireland’s interests are more aligned with the UK than EU. Consequently, he says Dublin should drop its efforts to keep Northern Ireland in the Customs Union.
The EU’s own report confirms that the Irish Border issue can be resolved with technology – does this expose other motivations in Dublin and Brussels?
Dr Graham Gudgin – himself a former special adviser to the First Minister of Northern Ireland – finds that the EU’s own research group has identified technological solutions to avoid a ‘hard border’, raising questions about Dublin and Brussels’ intransigence on this issue.
