In the autumn of 1995 at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton, Ohio, the then presidents of the Yugoslav federal states, Slobodan Milošević, Alija Izetbegović and Franjo Tuđman, came together to negotiate an agreement that would see the end of the most violent conflict in Europe since World War II.
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, stopped the fighting – but 20 years on have the divisions been bridged? Have the wounds healed?
We will be joined by a panel of those who were involved in the negotiations along with those who covered the war to reflect on the events of 20 years ago, the process of peace and reconciliation that followed, and whether the country today is reconciled.
Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Allan Little. In a career spanning over three decades at the BBC he has served as correspondent in Johannesburg, Moscow, Paris and the former Yugoslavia among others.
The panel:
Paddy Ashdown was the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from May 2002 until January 2006.
Anthony Loyd is a senior foreign correspondent for The Times. His career began in 1993 when he started reporting from the war in Bosnia. He is author of My War Gone By I Miss It So and Another Bloody Love Letter.
Kemal Pervanic was born in Prijedor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the regions most severely affected during the Bosnian War. A survivor of the Omarska concentration camp, he has since dedicated his work to education, reconciliation and peace-building.
Zrinka Bralo was a radio journalist in Sarajevo and ended up working with leading international war correspondents during the siege of Sarajevo in the 90’s. Since she came to London in 1993 she has become one of the leading campaigners for social justice and rights of migrants and refugees.
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL BE FILMED AND STREAMED LIVE ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
]]>This screening will be followed by a panel discussion with co-director Frederick Paxton and others.
One year on from the Islamic State’s (IS) seizure of Mosul, the coalition’s chances of recapturing the city seem further away than ever. The Pentagon’s optimistic hopes of a spring 2015 assault on the city have been dashed by the failure of the Iraqi Army further south in Anbar province. The Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who have almost surrounded the city in a 1000km long front line will now have to defend their trench positions against IS counterattacks until the Iraqi Army is finally fit for battle, at some unknown future date.
With rare access to the Peshmerga on the front lines of the war against the IS, The Road to Mosul unveils the reality of the Kurds’ war against the group, providing a portrait of ordinary volunteers, poorly trained and equipped, locked in stalemate against a powerful enemy. The film also captures the impact of the war on the civilians caught in between.
Chaired by Kevin Sutcliffe, the head of news programming for VICE EU.
The panel:
Frederick Paxton is a filmmaker and photographer for VICE News. He has worked in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and other locations.
Professor Toby Dodge is director of the Middle East Centre at LSE and author of Iraq: From War to a New authoritarianism.
Anthony Loyd is roving foreign correspondent for The Times and author of My War Gone By I Miss It So and Another Bloody Love Letter.
Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times and, since 1991, The Independent.
Directed by Aris Roussinos and Frederick Paxton
Duration: 45′
Year: 2015
This event is organised in partnership with BBC World Service.
As Afghanistan gears up for a pivotal presidential election we will be bringing together a panel of experts to take an in-depth look at the candidates and what they are offering.
The election is the third presidential poll since the fall of the Taliban and it anticipates the country’s first peaceful democratic transfer of power. With Hamid Karzai barred from running again, the departure of foreign troops imminently approaching and a long-term security deal with the US not yet agreed, the stakes are high.
We will be looking at the candidates and the challenge that awaits them of managing the country and relations with the international community.
Chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC 4’s Broadcasting House.
The panel:
Horia Mosadiq is an Afghan human rights activist and journalist with around 20 years of work experience in Afghanistan and the region, in the fields of media, human rights, transitional justice and women rights. Since September 2008 she has worked at Amnesty International, International Secretariat as an Afghanistan Researcher.
Michael Semple is a visiting professor at the Centre for Conflict Transformation, Queen’s University, Belfast, and affiliated to the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. He conducts research on the Afghan Taliban Movement, conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan and approaches to reconciliation.
Emal Pasarly is the multimedia editor for the BBC Pashto-Persian service. He was born in Northern Province of Kunduz, Afghanistan and as a result of the Russian invasion, his family migrated to neighbouring Pakistan. He moved to London in 1993 and began working with the BBC World Service in 1996. He also writes fiction in Pashto and has published two novels and four collections of short stories.
Francesc Vendrellhas had a long career in the UN and, later in the EU, in the settlement of internal and international conflicts, including Central America, Haiti, Nagorno-Karabakh, Cambodia, Myanmar, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. From 2000 to 2002 he was the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Afghanistan and from mid-2002 to September 2008 the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan. As Chair of the Board of AAN, he regularly visits Afghanistan.
As the build-up of Russian forces in Crimea continues, tensions are mounting in Ukraine. With the country in a period of great uncertainty, its fate part of a wider strategic battle between the West and Russia, we will be looking at what the future holds for 45 million Ukrainians.
As some in the country look east and others look west, how will the new Ukraine accommodate these differing alliances?
Chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House.
The panel:
Anne Applebaum is a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate. She is author of Gulag: A History and Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56. She also directs the Transitions Forum at the Legatum Institute in London.
Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and commentator. He is professor of European Studies at University of Oxford and has written extensively about the recent history and politics of Europe.
Olexiy Solohubenko is news and deployments editor at BBC Global News. From 1996 to 2003, he was head of the Ukrainian Service which, as the first recruit from Ukraine, he helped to set up when he joined BBC World Service in 1992.
Richard Sakwa is professor of Russian and European Politics and head of the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. He is author of Putin and the Oligarch: The Khodorkovsky-Yukos Affair, The Crisis of Russian Democracy and Putin: Russia’s Choice amongst others.
Photograph: Getty Images
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Fighting continues as delegations from South Sudan’s warring factions meet for talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The country, which gained its independence in July 2011, has seen at least 1,000 killed and 180,000 displaced since mid-December.
We will be joined by a panel of experts, journalists and aid workers to give you an up-to-date picture of what is happening on the ground and an insight into the divisions and tensions that have caused the conflict.
As fighting between supporters of President Salva Kiir and sacked deputy Riek Machar continue, we ask what the future holds for the world’s youngest country.
Chaired by Lindsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4 News and author of Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution.
The panel:
Heather Pagano joined Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in 2008 and is currently the Regional Information Officer for East and Central Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a special interest in South Sudan and recently returned from Juba.
James Copnall was the BBC correspondent for Sudan and South Sudan from 2009-12.. He is author of A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan’s Bitter and Incomplete Divorce which will be published in March 2014. He has just returned from Juba.
Mukesh Kapila, CBE is professor of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester. Previously he was Under Secretary General at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan.
Thomas Mawan Muortat, is a South Sudan political analyst, with an interest in development, democracy and peace issues. He has lived in the UK since 1984, and has travelled back and forth to South Sudan since 2008.
]]>The latest revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden have further exposed the extent of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance. Amidst this new release of files are allegations that the NSA spied on its allies in Europe and engaged in widespread tapping of phone calls made by prominent European politicians.
European countries summoned US ambassadors and an EU delegation met with officials in Washington to convey their concerns. Will diplomatic tensions lead to any change in US surveillance practice and should we be surprised by these latest revelations?
As pressure mounts on Washington and the release of information continues, join us to explore what the files reveal and the consequences of this diplomatic storm. We will be examining the actions of the intelligence services and asking whether they are aligned with protecting national security or as US Secretary of State John Kerry has said, that in some cases their “actions have reached too far”.
Chaired by Owen Bennett-Jones, freelance journalist and a host of Newshour on the BBC World Service. As a correspondent with the BBC he has reported from over 60 countries, he is author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm and his first novel Target Britain. He has also written for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New Republic and the London Review of Books.
The panel:
Nigel Inkster is director of transnational threats and political risk at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He served in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from 1975 to 2006, and spent seven years on the Board of SIS, the last two as assistant chief and director for operations and intelligence.
Steven Erlanger 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.
James Rubin is a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute, a contributing editor of The New Republic and a commentator, lecturer and analyst on world affairs and US foreign policy. He served under President Clinton as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief spokesman for the State Department from 1997 – 2000.
Christoph Scheuermann is London bureau chief for German weekly Der Spiegel. He was previously a reporter at the magazine’s national desk in Hamburg, covering terrorism, extremism and current affairs.
Julian Borger is The Guardian‘s diplomatic editor. He was previously a correspondent in the US, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
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On 18 June Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to the Afghan government. At the same time in Doha, Qatar, the Taliban opened an office, establishing a political face to the movement.
The newly announced peace negotiations with the Taliban have been met by division. Attacks on security targets have not abated, a suicide bombing near the presidential palace killed seven on 25 June. The Karzai government pulled out of the first arranged meeting stating: “As long as the peace process is not Afghan-led, the High Peace Council will not participate in the talks in Qatar.”
Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House will be hosting a panel of experts to take an in-depth look at what negotiations with the Taliban mean for Afghanistan. If talks are to go ahead how should they be conducted?
The panel:
Frank Ledwidge is a former Naval reserve military intelligence officer, he served on front-line operations in the Balkan wars and in Iraq. In civilian life he practised as a criminal barrister for eight years before specialising in international development and human rights law. He has since worked as a civilian advisor all over the world, including in Afghanistan and Libya. He is author of Losing Small Wars British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan and Investment in Blood The True Cost of Britain’s Afghan War.
Lucy Morgan Edwards is author of The Afghan Solution and a researcher at the CAIS, Exeter University. She first worked in Afghanistan during the Taliban period. After 9/11 she experienced the ‘transition’ as an election monitor, a researcher on transitional justice for the ICG, correspondent for the Economist, Political Advisor to the EU Ambassador and ‘Country Expert’ to the Chief Observer of the 2005 Parliamentary elections. She is also co-author of A Better Path to Peace – submitted earlier this year to the Select Committee on Defence. The paper argues that talking to the hardliners of the Taliban will not achieve lasting peace in Afghanistan.
John D McHugh is a multimedia photojournalist and filmmaker. Since 2006 he has worked extensively in Afghanistan, covering the war against the Taliban. He has embedded with US, Canadian, British, Danish and Afghan troops. His work has been published in Newsweek, Time magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian and many others. His latest film Afghanistan: Drawdown was shot in Kandahar in April/ May 2013 and has recently aired on Al Jazeera English.
Dawood Azami is an award winning broadcast journalist working for the BBC World Service in London. From 2010-2011 he was BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is also a visiting scholar and taught at the University of Westminster, London, and the Ohio State University, USA.
In association with BBC Services for Afghanistan.
March 2013 will mark two years since the conflict in Syria began. The UN has said it believes the fighting has now cost the lives of at least 60,000 people.
We will be bringing together an expert panel to update you on the situation in the country, and to look ahead at the prospects for 2013. We will be examining the refugee situation, the possibility of foreign intervention and whether the conflict shows any signs of coming to an end.
Chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House.
The panel:
Melissa Fleming is the chief communications and spokesperson at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Ausama Monajed is the executive director of London-based Strategic Research and Communication Centre.
Patrick Seale is a journalist and author who specialises in Middle East affairs. He is author of a number of books including Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East and The Struggle for Syria.
Jon Lee Anderson is foreign correspondent for The New Yorker, and is the author of many books including The Fall of Baghdad and Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World.
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