Date: Monday 18 June

Time: 6pm

Venue: Grand Committee Room, House of Commons, SW1

The Foreign Policy Centre, the Fabian Society and the Young Fabians jointly held a debate on the prospects for Middle East peace in the House of Commons.

Hilary Benn MP, International Development Secretary,was among the speakers, alongside expert voices on the conflict and how to end it.

The event launched the new Fabian freethinking paper How Peace Broke Out in the Middle East: A short history of the future by Tony Klug. The paper is generating an extraordinary and positive response from a wide range of commentators, academics and government and civil society voices.

Download Hilary Benn Speech (40 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Alex Bigham. Source: The Guardian Comment is Free

A new order is taking shape in the Middle East with Iran and Syria at its centre, but will human rights and democracy be the losers?

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By Chris Forster. Source: The Foreign Policy Centre

Can democracy stop terrorism? In George Bush's State of the Union address he reiterated his Administration's policy that Americans had to support democratic efforts in the Middle East as the best means to securing peace and defeating organisations such as al-Qaeda. Yet questions are already arising as to whether this is proving to be the most appropriate course of action.

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Download Democracy, Terrorism and the Middle East (20 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Rouzbeh Pirouz. Source: Financial Times, 16 February 2005

The heartening spectacle of millions of Iraqis defying violence to go to the ballot box recalls similar scenes in Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.

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By Richard Youngs. Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 December 2004

Please click on the PDF version to read this article in German.

Interim Prime Minister Allawi's attack on "spectator" nations during his recent visit to Brussels is a measure of the frustration felt over Europe's stance on Iraq. Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, European opponents of the war have chosen to remain on the sidelines of reconstruction. Despite the formal handover of power to an interim government this summer, a comprehensive EU plan for assistance has still not been formulated.

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By Rouzbeh Pirouz. Source: Open Democracy, 12 October 2004

The dark heart of Abu Ghraib reveals the contradiction between America's fine words and degrading deeds in Iraq, says Rouzbeh Pirouz.

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By Richard Youngs. Source: Carnegie Endowment , June 2004

Deliberation of democracy promotion in the Middle East intensified after the attacks of 9/11, and has been further energized by the transatlantic debates that were progeny of the Iraqi conflict. More intense debate over support for political change in the Middle East has forced the U.S. and Europe into a closer exploration of each other's actual and intended approaches to democracy promotion in the region.

http://www.ceip.org/files/pdf/CP45.YOUNGS.final.PDF

By Rouzbeh Pirouz and Rob Blackhurst.

Away from CNN dispatches from Gaza and Najaf, there are underreported signs that the Middle East - frozen politically and economically for decades - is thawing.

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By Rouzbeh Pirouz.

Perhaps it was fitting that I was in America when Ronald Reagan died. As is their habit, sometimes endearing and sometimes unnerving, Americans quickly moved to the gear they know best: overkill.

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By Jack Straw.

The Foreign Policy Centre's Civility Programme held its inaugural conference on 1 March, and was launched by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. A full text of his speach is available below.

In addition, a PDF can be downloaded which includes highlights from the other speakers at the conference. This includes the EU's Marc Otte, Emma Bonino, and Fred Halliday from the LSE.

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Download the article (20 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Mark Leonard. Source: Financial Times, 27 M arch 2003

Following the launch of their British Council-commissioned report 'Public Diplomay and the Middle East'- and against a background of conflict in Iraq- Leonard and Smewing argue that radical policy reform is needed to change Britain's standing in the Arab World.

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