The Week at Chatham House: Brexit Turmoil, Divide and Rule in Aleppo and a Crisis in Politics?
The latest international news and analysis this week.
Brexit and Rethinking UK Foreign Policy
It has been a turbulent week for the UK government on the divisive issue of Brexit as a number of Conservative and Labour MPs criticized Prime Minister Theresa May over the inclusion of the time of the UK’s departure from the EU in the ‘Brexit bill’.
As the House of Commons begins debating the bill in detail, former permanent under-secretary to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and deputy chairman of Chatham House, Sir Simon Fraser, examined the implications of Brexit for the UK’s foreign policy priorities and why leaving the EU will be the biggest disruption in Britain’s international relations since the end of its empire. Listen to the audio from the event.
How the Syrian Regime is Dividing and Ruling Aleppo
When the Syrian regime took over Aleppo in 2016 and successfully ousted the last rebel-held town left in the country’s eastern districts, the city fell into the hands of three authorities: state security agencies, pro-regime militias and the Baath party. All three authorities are now working to extort the people of Aleppo, writes Khaled Al-Khatib, while discriminating between residents of the east and west of the city both in terms of services and treatment at the hands of security personnel. Read the article.
Why Politics Needs to Exit the ‘Echo Chamber’
Chatham House welcomed a panel of experts and students from the Cedars School in Croydon and the All Saints Catholic School in Dagenham to discuss the current ‘crisis’ facing mainstream politics.
The event considered whether more centrist opinion is being replaced by more extreme views such as brands of nativism, tribalism, nationalism and populism, particularly among poor and minority groups who are often under-represented at the top flight of politics. Do these feelings of disenfranchisement explain the increased political polarization the world is experiencing or are there more complex dynamics at work? Watch the video from the event.
International Affairs 93:6
And finally, International Affairs has published its final issue of 2017. This edition presents research on a wide range of international relations topics from maritime security to sexual violence in conflict. The ‘Editor’s Choice’ article focuses on society’s response to global health crises arguing that governments and NGOs need to stop treating such events as security threats.
November’s issue also covers non-Western visions of regionalism from China’s ‘New Silk Road’ to Russia’s ‘Eurasian Economic Union’, why the BRICS are here to stay, the role of big data in national security decision-making and the role of Indian soldiers in World War Two. Read the issue now.
