Foreign Policy & Security
Latest Foreign Policy & Security Publications
Foreign Policy and National Security in the New Parliament
In a new report published last week, Policy Exchange stresses the vital role of Parliament in shaping debates about Britain’s place in the world, and urges the building of greater cross-party consensus on foreign policy. It stresses the role of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the context of a hung Parliament. The report was published alongside a new database of MPs’ voting records on key issues of national security since 2010, as well as their constituency positions on Brexit — the most detailed resource of its kind ever created. In a Foreword to the report, Tom Tugendhat MP, the new Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said, ‘Policy Exchange is at the forefront of new thinking about national security and the UK’s place in the world’. The report was covered in The Daily Mail.
The UK and the Western alliance: NATO in the new era of realpolitik
A new paper from Policy Exchange’s Britain in the World project, examining the future of NATO. The paper argues that current events, from Russian aggression to the EU’s internal politics, mean that NATO is weakening at a time when security challenges are growing
The Cost of Doing Nothing: The Price of Inaction in the Face of Mass Atrocities
This report is based on work begun by Jo Cox MP (1974-2016) and Tom Tugendhat MP. It was completed by Alison McGovern MP and Tom Tugendhat MP
“There are few more complex questions than when to intervene overseas. Jo Cox was an inspirational humanitarian who cared deeply about preventing violence and protecting people around the world. It is a fitting part of Jo’s legacy that this paper will challenge politicians of all parties to consider how we can put such considerations at the heart of the decisions we take.” (Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Prime Minister.
Latest Foreign Policy & Security Blogs
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.
Democracy and Brexit
Reflecting on the Foreign Secretary’s speech at Policy Exchange last week, Director of Research and Strategy Rupert Oldham-Reid summarises the speech.
Latest Foreign Policy & Security News
Policy Exchange’s Gabriel Elefteriu discusses the future of UK defence on Radio 4
Policy Exchange’ Senior Research Fellow for Defence and Border Security, Gabriel Elefteriu, appeared on Radio 4’s Analysis programme to discuss the future of UK defence.
Policy Exchange report cited in HuffPost blog on atrocities
A year on from its publication and as Holocaust Memorial Day approaches, Policy Exchange’s report The Cost of Doing Nothing: The Price of Inaction in the Face of Mass Atrocities has featured in a HuffPost blog considering whether, and how, the UK should improve its record of interventions overseas.
North Korea – Is there a military option?
Leading South Korean General I-B Chun – former head of Korea’s Special Warfare Command – considered whether there is a military solution to the North Korean threat in an event at Policy Exchange. Chun warned that the North’s nuclear capability is not only directed at the United States; that we should all be worried about their cyber capability, indoctrination of children, that China would prefer a nuclear North Korea to a US-influenced state on its border. But he added: “I truly believe that my system of democracy, freedom, respect for human rights is far more powerful than any North Korean nuclear weapon.”
Latest Foreign Policy & Security Events
After Iraq: When to go to war?
Jan 31, 2017This lecture by Professor Nigel Biggar was delivered at Policy Exchange on 31 January 2017, with a Vote of Thanks by Lt Gen Mark Carleton-Smith CBE, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Strategy and Operations), on behalf of the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach GBE KCB
The Cost of Doing Nothing: The Price of Inaction in the Face of Mass Atrocities
Jan 26, 2017Former Prime Minister Rt Hon Gordon Brown launches Policy Exchange’s ‘The Cost of Doing Nothing’ report, which was started with Jo Cox, who believed ‘Britain must lead again’. Also joining us for this event, which was held at Policy Exchange on 26 January were Former Foreign Secretary Rt Hon Lord Hague (via recorded video message), Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South, Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge and Malling and Professor John Bew, head of Policy Exchange’s Britain in the World project
Future threats and their implications for U.S. Military Strategy
Jan 25, 2017This event was held at Policy Exchange on 25 January and featured Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, Director of Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, US Army Training and Doctrine Command
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Watch last week's event on what the UK might be able to learn from Switzerland's relationship with the EU (speakers: Michael Ambuhl, Ivan Rogers, @AllieRenison & @David_Goodhart) here: policyexchange.org.uk/pxevent…