Date: Thursday 6 November, 6.00-7.30pm

Venue: Thatcher Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

Conor Foley, author, journalist & humanitarian aid worker

Rt Hon Dr Denis MacShane MP, former Minister for Europe

Oliver Kamm, Leader Writer, The Times

Chair: James Darcy, Director of Programmes, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute

At this Foreign Policy Centre and Verso event, humanitarian aid worker Conor Foley outlined the thesis of his new book, 'The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War', and Rt Hon Dr Denis MacShane MP and Oliver Kamm of The Times presented their responses to it.

The idea that we should 'do something' to help those suffering in far-off places is the main impulse driving those who care about human rights. Yet from Kosovo to Iraq, military interventions have gone disastrously wrong.

In his ground-breaking new book, Conor Foley explores how the doctrine of humanitarian intervention has been used to allow states to invade other nations in the name of human rights. Drawing on his own experience of working in over a dozen conflict and post-conflict zones, Foley shows how the growing influence of international law has been used to over-ride the sovereignty of the poorest countries in the world.

Download 'The Thin Blue Line' - Conor Foley book launch & discussion (110 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)