What is the revised strategy in place to end the conflict? With the Taliban active in 70% of the country, has the West lost the battle for hearts and minds? What are the intentions of America and the UK in pushing a liberal agenda in the country and who is paying the price for this conflict? Our panel will discuss.
Chair
Jonathan Beale is the BBC Defence correspondent. Before joining the BBC in 1999 Beale had been an assistant to a Member of Parliament. Beale also spent two years in Brussels as the BBC’s regional Europe correspondent and Europe political correspondent, before returning to London to become one of the BBC’s political correspondents at Millbank. He’s also presented political programmes, such as The Westminster Hour on BBC Radio 4. He served in Washington DC covering the 2006 midterm elections. In 2009 he covered the Guantanamo military commissions.
Speakers
Christina Lamb is chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times and been reporting on Afghanistan for 30 years since the Soviet Occupation, with unparalleled access to all key decision makers. She has developed an extensive understanding of the country, its people and the ongoing conflict. Christina has been a foreign correspondent for more than twenty five years, living in Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa first for the Financial Times then The Sunday Times. She is the author of The Africa House, House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-torn Zimbabwe, Waiting For Allah: Pakistan’s Struggle for Democracy, The Sewing Circles of Herat, My Afghan Years. Farewell Kabul and co-author of I Am Malala.
Sahr Muhammedally is a Director for MENA and South Asia at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC). She manages research, advocacy, and trainings on civilian protection and harm mitigation and advises governments and armed actors on civilian protection during all phases of operations. Sahr has worked for over 15 years in the fields of armed conflict, human rights, and counterterrorism and undertaken field work in Afghanistan, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen. Prior to joining CIVIC, Sahr worked at Human Rights Watch covering armed conflict and counterterrorism policies and practices in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan, and at Human Rights First on US detention practices in Bagram, Guantanamo, and targeted killings. Sahr was a consultant with Human Rights in China examining the right to fair trial under Chinese laws and authored the American Civil Liberties shadow report to the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture on the United States’ second periodic review to the committee.
Kawoon Khamoosh works for the BBC World Service as a TV Journalist. He has been covering Afghanistan since 2008, including six years as a BBC Persian correspondent for Afghanistan based in Kabul.
Targeting mainly Afghan and Persian speaking audience, Kawoon has been telling stories not only about politics and conflicts but also life beyond war and battlefields. Kawoon was inspired to start work as a journalist when he finished high school, telling everyday life stories of the people suffering from suicide attacks and bombings, for a small radio station in 2008, where he found his way to work as an investigative journalist for Afghanistan’s 1tv media and some other local newspapers and TVs before joining BBC. He is currently based in London and work as a journalist for the BBC World Service.
Nick McDonnell is a novelist, journalist, and political theorist. Born in New York City in 1984, he studied at Harvard and St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His work has been published in twenty three countries and appeared on bestseller lists around the world. His new book, The Bodies In Person: An Account of Civilian Casualties in American Wars, will be published in the U.S. on September 18, 2018.
]]>As word breaks on Tuesday 12th June 2018, the two leaders have announced to the world a commitment to these aims. In many symbolic and headline-worthy pictures, the leaders are seen shaking hands and seemingly sincere announcements of ‘new US-DPRK relations’.
Photo: eNCA
Yet amid the fanfare, the accordance seems thin on the ground with the specifics of how these plans will be achieved. Our panel speculated and analysed the motives and outcomes of these talks.
Speakers: (left to right) Gideon Rachman, Dr John Nilsson-Wright, Jihyun Park, Kimberley Leonard
Opening up the discussion was chair Kimberley Leonard, World News anchor for Sky News. Asking both Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times and Dr John Nilsson-Wright, (senior research fellow for the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, senior university lecturer in Japanese Politics and International Relations at Cambridge University and an official fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge) how did they feel about this meeting taking place at all? There was consensus in the room that talking is better than inaction in order to bring about some form of security in the region. Both speakers expressed their worry was the lack of preparation from the American side. President Trump; the ‘great deal maker’ himself said there was not much need for extensive preparation for this meeting. On the other side, Kim Jong-un, widely seen as a very effective PR man, appeared to have prepared in great detail for this day.
Dr Nilsson-Wright raised the question, what counts as a win on both sides? For Kim Jong-un simply showing up, meeting the most powerful man in the world was indeed a win. The stakes were higher on the US side, as there was public pressure for Trump to bring about something substantial, and deliver something no other President has achieved ahead of the US mid-terms.
Yet there was some disagreement between the audience and the panel. Leonard asked is the meeting itself the message? Rachman argued there is a lot more on the table to discuss than a simple PR stunt. Comparisons were made to the meeting in Beijing 1972 between Chairman Mao and President Nixon. China-US relations had been frosty for many decades, so the visuals from this event were enough to mark it a success. However, objections in the audience may well have been right. If we view the realities of the agreement today, the most important message to people all over the world is the handshake in front of the two countries’ flags. The agreement is stubbornly vague.
Critics might say however the outcome today was always going to be the case. Real peace will have a longer gestation period, after trust between the two countries has been built.
We’ve heard from foreign commentators for weeks now, in the run up to this summit. But rarely do we get to hear from North Koreans themselves. Jihyun Park is a North Korean refugee who has resettled in the UK. She is the North Korean Outreach and Project Officer at the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea. She gave the panel invaluable insight into the realities of the regime. When Park first saw the meeting between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un in April 2018, her first reaction was anger. She was angry that Kim Jong-un could step so easily across the border, when for millions of North Koreans this is an impossible dream.
While Park was hopeful for this meeting, perhaps her expectations did not reach up to reality. She stressed her hope that these talks could lift more of the sanctions imposed on North Korea. Trump, she stressed, is the only world leader that talks of the North Korean people and not just their weapons program and that gives them hope. Yet Trump did not raise the issue of human rights in the summit today. The message she wanted the audience to take home is that we should not forget who the real casualties in these political cat-and-mouse games are. Having survived a North Korean labour camp and escaping from the country twice; Park knows the real dangers of the totalitarian regime. We should not be deceived by Kim’s PR stunts.
Members of the audience widened the scope of the talk. Questions around Russia were raised, what would Putin like to see happen from these talks? Rachman pondered Putin would like to see at least acknowledgment from either side of their involvement in the region. This falls in line with Russia’s determination to be seen as a global power by the West rather than a regional one. Dr Nilsson-Wright brought up in fact China is the nation that should be more concerned by these talks, being the neighbour of North Korea, it had high stakes for these two leaders to be left in a room alone together.
The panel discussed the potential for world leaders, when left in a room alone together, to overcommit and over-promise to deals of peace in the heat of the moment. That has not been the case in Singapore. Commitments remain vague, and more negotiations are needed to clarify what the real meaning of denuclearisation means for both nations.
Watch the full talk here.
]]>In a strange turn of events, now it seems the meeting is back on track for June 12th. Trump left a channel of diplomatic communication between the two nations following his open letter. A US delegation arrived in North Korea on Sunday 27th May for preparatory talks. The US has stated preparations for the talks continue to go well.
The world is poised to see how talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un play out, if at all. There are some who believe Trump has badly misunderstood his counter-part, as North Korea has made plain there will be no attempts to denuclearise at all, unless there is a unilateral agreement. The Trump administration is thin on foreign policy experts, leaving planning to Mike Pompeo and the hawkish John Bolton, who has repeatedly advocated for regime change in Pyongyang. In such an unpredictable climate, what can realistically be achieved from this summit? What can we say about this huge world story if the talks are cancelled again? And further, how much can we really know what’s going on in the minds of these two world leaders?
Chair
Kimberley Leonard
Kimberley Leonard is the World News anchor on Sky News. Based in London, she has over 15 years of international experience, working as an anchor, reporter and producer for some of the world’s leading news channels. In the last two years, Kimberley has covered the ongoing tension on the Korean Peninsula, most recently leading Sky’s live coverage of the historic summit between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-In in the DMZ. A native Kenyan, Kimberley spent nearly a decade working in the Gulf before moving to the UK in 2015.
Speakers
Jihyun Park
Jihyun Park is a North Korean refugee who has settled in the UK. She is the North Koran Outreach and Project Officer at the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea. She manages the Korean-language output, builds relations with North Korean refugees, and oversees all projects for the program. She holds a Mathematics and Science degree from a university in North Korea. Prior to leaving North Korea, she was a teacher in a high school. She gave testimony of her experiences at the UN Commission of Inquiry’s London hearings. Her story has featured in a high-profile Amnesty International campaign, various magazines and newspapers, and in two short documentaries.
Gideon Rachman
Gideon Rachman is chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times. Before this, he was Asia editor at the Economist including spells as a foreign correspondent in Washington, Brussels and Bangkok. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union, and globalisation.
Dr John Nilsson-Wright
Dr John Nilsson-Wright is senior research fellow for northeast Asia with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, senior university lecturer in Japanese Politics and International Relations at Cambridge University and an official fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. He was head of the Chatham House Asia Programme from March 2014 until October 2016. He comments regularly for the global media on the international relations of East Asia, with particular reference to Japan and the Korean peninsula.
]]>A Byline Event – join us for a screening of a unique film which explores the role of Cambridge Analytica in the Brexit vote and election of Donald Trump, followed by an update on recent developments with the pioneering Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr, since her story broke two months ago. We are also joined by director Thomas Huchon and CEO of Byline Peter Jukes.
Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States by winning three key states, a victory engineered by an ultra-conservative faction that quietly mapped its way to power using fake news, lies and psychometrics.
This explosive documentary follows the money to the reclusive multi-billionaire Robert Mercer, who bought Breitbart News and funded the effort while inserting Steve Bannon into the presidential campaign as its manager. Using data of millions of Americans acquired from Facebook, Google, banks, credit companies, social security and more, Cambridge Analytica, another Mercer-owned company, used tactics honed during the UK’s Brexit campaign to identify voters deemed “most neurotic or worried,” whom they believed could swing for Trump. In the days before the election, using “dark posts,” a little-known Facebook feature, they deployed highly manipulative and personalized messages that could be seen only by the user before disappearing.
In the darkness of the web, democracy was trumped by data.
As this is a third party event, tickets available through EventBrite
Run Time: 1 hr 15 mins
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Chris Wylie is coming tonight to disclose the inner workings of Cambridge Analytica and its massive data breach of 50 million Facebook accounts to manipulate public opinion.
In 2013, 23-year old CHRIS WYLIE, a Canadian analytics guru who had worked on the Obama campaign, was recruited as head of research for SCL Ltd. Within months he met Steve Bannon and Robert Mercer to set up Cambridge Analytica – an election machine designed to win the 2016 US Presidential elections, using Brexit as its ‘petri dish’
The award-winning Observer journalist, CAROLE CADWALLADR persuaded Chris to come forward as the key whistleblower last year. In conversation with Byline’s PETER JUKES both will discuss the story behind one of the biggest political scandals of this century.
Buy your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-most-important-whistleblower-since-snowden-the-mind-behind-cambridge-analytica-tickets-44257837383
]]>Is truth stranger than fiction? Kompromat was originally conceived as a counter-factual, satirical work of fiction. However, in light of recent events, has Stanley in fact, pinpointed some of the glaring truths behind 2 of the biggest political earthquakes in recent history?
Kompromat explores, in a light-hearted way, the increasingly plausible possibility of Russian involvement in both the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States.
Link to book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kompromat-Stanley-Johnson/dp/1786074141
Stanley Johnson
Stanley Johnson is a former MEP, environmental campaigner, journalist and author of twenty-five books. Stanley won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry and has awards from Greenpeace and the RSPCA. He recently received the RSPB Medal as well as the WWF’s Leader of the Living Planet Award, both awarded for services in conservation. In the run-up to the EU Referendum 2016, he founded and co-chaired Environmentalists for Europe. Stanley Johnson recently starred in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! He was one of the first presenters of More 4’s The Last Word, and has appeared on Have I Got News For You, The One Show, Pointless and the Fake News Programme.
Rachel Johnson
Rachel Johnson is a journalist, author and television presenter. Rachel is an author of seven books as well as currently a columnist for The Mail on Sunday. Over her career she has worked for the BBC, The Financial Times, The Evening Standard and several other publications. In 2014 Rachel was a judge on the BBC Woman’s Hour Power List. She sits on the boards of Bright Blue, the modernising Tory think-tank, and Intelligence Squared.
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Chair
Michael Goldfarb
Michael Goldfarb is an American journalist, broadcaster and author. He has written for The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post but is best known for his work in public radio. Throughout the 1990’s, as NPR’s London Correspondent and then Bureau Chief, he covered conflicts and conflict resolution from Northern Ireland to Bosnia to Iraq for NPR. He is host of the FRDH podcast that can be found here.
Speakers
Jonny Dymond
Jonny Dymond is Royal Correspondent for the BBC and a presenter of BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service News programmes. He covered the US elections of 2000 and 2012 for the BBC as Washington Correspondent
Dan Roberts
Dan Roberts is the Guardian’s Brexit policy editor. Previously he was the Washington bureau chief and covered the 2016 presidential election. He was also head of UK national news and business editor.
Andrew MacLeod
Is an Australian/British businessman, author, humanitarian lawyer and former aid worker. He is now a regular contributor for the Independent and a regular commentator on US politics.
]]>How have cuts within the industry and the turn to online readership impacted the phenomenon of ‘fake news’? And how can journalism maintain its integrity in a time when unverified information circulates on social media under the guise of fact?
Readers across the political spectrum are calling for new standards of accuracy and impartiality. In a monthly series of exclusive talks hosted by media analyst Roy Greenslade, we are bringing together today’s leading news editors to discuss the new challenges facing the online journalism industry. For the first of these talks, we will unpack the ‘fake news’ debate.
Host:
Roy Greenslade is one of Britain’s foremost media teachers. He is a leading commentator and columnist on the media, and currently blogs for The Guardian. As a journalist he rose to the highest levels of management in a career taking in The Sun, the Sunday Times, and culminating in the editorship of the Daily Mirror.
Speakers:
Ben de Pear is Editor of Channel 4 News. Previously Head of Foreign News, has led an award-winning team of foreign correspondents, including those that produced the BAFTA-winning coverage from the 2011 Japan earthquake. He also led the programme’s investigation into the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war which has prompted a UN investigation and global calls for a war crimes tribunal.
Rory Cellan-Jones has been a BBC reporter on business and economics for nearly 30 years. For the last decade he has been the BBC’s Technology Correspondent, charged with widening the Corporation’s coverage of the impact of technology on business and society. He has also presented a number of Radio 4 documentaries, including The Secret History of Social Networking and The Force of Google, an investigation into the power of Google’s search algorithm.
Madhumita Murgia is a prize-winning journalist and editor with expertise in the fields of technology and science. As the FT’s European tech correspondent, she reports on major news, trends and innovations in global technologies, and their impact on Europe. She was formerly head of the Telegraph’s technology section, where she wrote a weekly column on the business of technology, and has written features about data privacy, security and digital health for publications such as Wired, Newsweek and BBC Future.
Owen Bennett is Deputy Political Editor of The Huffington Post UK and a critically acclaimed author. His second book, ‘The Brexit Club: The Inside Story of The Leave Campaign’s Shock Victory’ was published in 2016, and was described as “a riveting inside account” of the referendum by The Observer. Bennett is a regular contributor to the BBC and Sky News and has also written for the New Statesman website and other political blogs.
]]>The panel discussion ‘What Does Trump’s Presidency Mean for the Rest of the World?’ on 25 November clearly highlighted this as it careened wildly, swerving from the global implications and election autopsies, to passionate debates over racism and fascism.
Journalist and author Laurie Penny damned the evening as a ‘normalising’ discussion about ‘a fascist’. Echoing this, Shelina Janmohamed (a commentator on Muslim social and religious trends) urged the audience to think about the framing of the stories told. ‘The way we talk about identity,’ she argued, referring to the coverage of the trial of Jo Cox’s murderer, ‘…affects real peoples’ lives’. There is a potential ‘ripple’ effect on women’s rights movements globally, she argued, legitimising misogyny as ‘locker room talk’, disregarding women’s place in society, and signalling that it’s okay to talk about your daughter in ‘repulsive’ ways.
Trump’s rhetoric around climate change has some fearing the death of climate politics. He talks about ‘setting free coal,’ says Steven Erlanger, London bureau chief for the New York Times. But, this won’t go far: ‘No one’s going to invest in coal, it’s not worth their money,’ Erlanger argued. Many countries are ‘invested in a cleaner world’ for their own reasons, so ’just because the president thinks it can happen’ it doesn’t mean it will.
Having previously referred to NATO as ‘obsolete‘, will Trump oversee a shift in the global security landscape? Dan Roberts, The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, argued Europe will be ‘looking after itself’: for Trump, world security isn’t ‘an American problem’. Erlanger demurred, pointing out that the USA’s NATO membership isn’t altruistic, but in American ‘interests’. President of the British International Studies Association, Inderjeet Parmar, agreed, ‘I don’t think America’s retreating’.
Author, broadcaster, and the chair of the event, Michael Goldfarb asked if Trump caught a ‘wave’ that’s sweeping the world. There is a ‘systemic’ element, Parmar mused; the populist surge is the ‘unravelling of an order’ unable to sustain the ‘Western’ dream. But did Trump’s supporters see themselves as part of a larger wave? One audience member disagreed, arguing that many who voted for Trump sought a conservative supreme court, and didn’t consider the ‘world economy’ or ‘globalism’.
To what extent Trump fulfils his campaign promises remains to be seen. ‘The office has a moderating influence’ argued Alex Sundstrom of Republicans Overseas UK, he will ‘tack to the centre to get stuff done’. Janmohamed disagreed, arguing that his appointees are ‘proof that he’s going to make good on those statements.’ Parmar, however, saw compromise ahead. ‘The education of Donald Trump is going to be the title of a really great book,’ he quipped, ‘that education began as soon as his election was through.’
]]>Trump’s hostile campaign targeted minorities, religious groups and women while painting an uncertain image of an America turning inward; his campaign has suggested disengagement from NATO and mass deportation while leaving the international diplomats bracing themselves for the unpredictability of the Trump White House.
Trump’s presidency means radical change in America’s foreign policy. Among the many questions remaining as the world looks on are what is going to happen to trade, international relations and the country’s role in overseas conflicts. The fear among some Western diplomats is that the Trump election will encourage other populist, anti-establishment politicians across Europe and the world.
How will campaign talk compare to real world policy? We will be joined by an expert panel who will offer their initial reactions to this unprecedented election, and discuss what global impacts are expected as Donald Trump takes office.
Chaired by Michael Goldfarb, journalist, author and broadcaster who has reported for The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and Global Post.
Speakers (full panel announced soon.)
Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) is the Guardian’s Washington Bureau chief, covering politics and US national affairs. Previously, he worked as the national editor in London and was head of business.
Steven Erlanger (@StevenErlanger) is London bureau chief for The New York Times. Previously he has served as bureau chief in Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, Moscow, Bangkok and Central Europe and the Balkans. He has also been cultural news editor, chief diplomatic correspondent based in Washington, Moscow correspondent and Southeast Asia correspondent.
Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) is a journalist, feminist and author of five books including Unspeakable Things (Bloomsbury 2014), Cybersexism (Bloomsbury 2013) and Meat Market (Zer0 2011). She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a contributing Editor at New Statesman. Writes and speaks on social justice, pop culture, gender issues and digital politics for The Guardian, The New York Times, Vice, Salon, The Nation, The New Inquiry and many more.
Shelina Janmohamed (@loveinheadscarf) is an established commentator on Muslim social and religious trends, particularly around young Muslims and Muslim women, and writes for Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the National and the BBC. She is the bestselling author of Love in a Headscarf, a memoir about growing up as a British Muslim woman. Her new book, Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World, was published in August 2016.
Professor Inderjeet Parmar (@USEmpire) is President of the British International Studies Association. His doctorate, from the University of Manchester, was in the fields of political science and international relations. Prior to appointment at City University London, he taught at the University of Manchester for 21 years, mainly in its Department of Government. He is also Principal Investigator and co-ordinator of the AHRC Research Network on the Presidency of Barack Obama.
Alex Sundstrom is a member of the board of Republicans Overseas UK. He holds a BA in English from Duke University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Originally from Tennessee, he is now based in London.
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