Foreign Policy Centre

🔎Key insights from the webinar:
▪️ Gulf states are taking on greater diplomatic roles
▪️ #Sectarianism giving way to broader crises of power & legitimacy
▪️ #Accountability must include global actors

🎥🔎 Webinar Takeaways | Forging New Futures in the #MENA Region

As #violence escalates & alliances shift, experts unpacked key challenges for #governance, #justice & #accountability across the region.

📖 fpc.org.uk/webinar-take...
🎥 youtu.be/HMyBx10vaog

UK Media Freedom Forum - The Foreign Policy Centre

Key themes:
🧾SLAPPs & legal harassment
🌍Transnational repression
🛰️Disinformation & media literacy
🤝Role of states, MFC, UN, OSCE, CoE

The Forum brings together journalists, civil society, policymakers & researchers to defend press freedom.

📧 for more info: fpc.org.uk/events/uk-me...

🗓️UK Media Freedom Forum 2026
📍London + Online | 5–6 March

We’re co-hosting the second #UKMFF2026 with JFJ & IBAHRI, in partnership with City St George's, University of London..

We’ll examine global threats to #MediaFreedom & shape concrete policy responses.

Register📝 forms.gle/Sh6FxLkjNmuu...

📌 Key takeaways:
-Repression of NGOs, journalists & protestors
-Dismantling of democratic institutions
-Deepening Russian political & financial ties
- #Sanctions work, but need to be sustained & targeted
-UK & EU must bolster support for #CivilSociety

🔎🇬🇪 New Expert Briefing | Georgia’s Political Landscape in Focus: A critical point for #democracy
On 11 Nov, FPC convened a parliamentary roundtable chaired by @joepowell.bsky.social MP featuring:
Eka Gigauri
Nino Evgenidze
Prof @stefwolff.bsky.social

📖 Read key insights: fpc.org.uk/wp-content/u...

🗳️🇰🇬 This Sunday, #Kyrgyzstan holds snap parliamentary #elections.

In a new article, FPC Senior Fellow Dr @aijanco.bsky.social unpacks the shift to a majoritarian system, declining party politics & the consolidation of presidential power.

📖 fpc.org.uk/kyrgyz-parli...

🟣 Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

In this context of rising militarisation and gender inequality, we revisit, FPC Senior Fellow, Anna Chernova’s op-ed marking 25 years of #UNSCR1325 on #WPS.

📖 (Re)visit the piece:
fpc.org.uk/op-ed-britis...

💬 “These tactics suggest that Trump does not actually need to win his court cases for them to damage media organisations and have a chilling effect on media freedom.”

Read the article: fpc.org.uk/op-ed-what-t...

🇺🇸📰🇬🇧 New Op-Ed by Dr Andrew Gawthorpe, FPC Research Fellow

President Trump is threatening to sue the #BBC for up to $5bn for how the Panorama programme edited his January 6 speech. But as Gawthorpe explains, it is not only about winning, it is about intimidating media critics.

Top lawyer’s prosecution for ‘blackmail threat’ against journalist… TBIJ and others challenged the decision to hold the disciplinary case in private as an affront to open justice

👇 Good write up of our #openjustice challenge, alongside @fpcthinktank.bsky.social, @goodlawproject.bsky.social & @tbij.bsky.social, in the #SecretSLAPP case – aptly summarised as "a secret case in which lawyers argue behind closed doors about the conduct of other lawyers”.

Rising geopolitical tensions, incl. US refusal to attend, are testing the limits of cooperation.

💡 “...how member states secure the G20 platform as a forum for dialogue and coordination on common challenges, will contribute to the future trajectory of multilateralism.”

🌍🇿🇦 New Op-ed by Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, SAIIA

As #SouthAfrica prepares to host the #G20 Summit this weekend, it is using its presidency to prioritise global equity, #DebtSustainability & #development

📖:https://fpc.org.uk/op-ed-africas-moment-south-africas-g20-fight-to-centre-development/

💬 “...the UK has an opportunity to strengthen its soft power by championing equitable, evidence-driven science in genuine partnership with Southern-based institutions.”

Read the op-ed: fpc.org.uk/op-ed-scienc...

🔬✍️The UK’s contributions to #globalhealth have shaped lives, driven progress and led on innovation around the world. However, this form of soft power is under threat. Cuts to funding and shifting global priorities risk undermining “one of Britain’s greatest diplomatic assets.”

💡 Key themes included:
– Georgia’s state capture
– Political imprisonment, media shutdowns, and civic intimidation
– Grassroots resistance
– #Sanctions
– EU hesitation vs. UK potential for leadership

📄 A takeaway report will be out soon: fpc.org.uk/join

🇬🇪⚖️Thanks to all who joined us in Parliament on Tuesday for a vital discussion on Georgia’s democratic crisis, from state capture and Russian influence to how the UK can support civil society.

With Eka Gigauri, Nino Evgenidze, Stefan Wolff & Joe Powell MP.

This new piece brings together views from across the FPC network:
🔹Andrew Gawthorpe
🔹 Susan Coughtrie
🔹 Simon Lunn
🔹Nicholas Williams
🔹Poppy Ogier
🔹Nina Kuryata
🔹Christopher Langton

They ask: Do the Government’s defence ambitions match delivery, coherence & capability?

🛡️🇬🇧 New Expert Look: UK defence & security under scrutiny

From the 2025 Strategic Defence Review to the Soft Power Council, major shifts are underway — but big questions remain:

🔹 Defence vs aid cuts
🔹 What “NATO first” means
🔹 Building true resilience

📖 fpc.org.uk/expert-look-...

🌍 COP30 opened yesterday with urgent calls to honour climate promises and scale up finance for those most affected.

In her article, Sophie Powell of Christian Aid warns UK leadership will ring hollow without a credible finance plan.

📖 Read: fpc.org.uk/at-cop30-uk-...

The findings are stark:
• Avg. foreign aid to media: just 0.16%
• 21 of 30 countries offer no protections for exiled journalists
• G7 states ranked among the lowest

💬 “This matters because a decline in media freedom can contribute to a deeper collapse in the systems that support democracy.”

📰 Who is standing up for #MediaFreedom — and who is not?

A new FPC article by Martin Scott & Mel Bunce introduces the first global Index assessing how 30 states support media freedom via foreign policy, diplomacy, aid & journalist safety.

📖📊 Read: fpc.org.uk/who-is-stand...

With #COP30 days away, Powell warns UK climate leadership will ring hollow without a credible plan on finance, especially for the most vulnerable.

🌍✍️ New FPC article: At COP30, UK Leadership Requires Paying Up on #ClimateFinance By Sophie Powell, Chief of UK Advocacy at Christian Aid

📖 fpc.org.uk/op-ed-at-cop...

Donald Trump wants South Africa out of the G20 as it gears up for world summit The US leader has repeatedly accused South Africa of persecuting its white minority - which Pretoria denies.

📣 FPC Research Fellow Dr Andrew Gawthorpe spoke to the BBC on Trump’s push to remove South Africa from the #G20.

📰Read the article via BBC News: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Patrick Stevens explores how the #SoftPower Council can help the UK deploy its assets to support growth, security & global leadership.

💬 “the challenge is to now use all those things that make us great in a strategic, impact-driven, and focused way.”

🇬🇧✍️ New Op-Ed by Patrick Stevens, Rule of Law Director at International Justice Development & UK Soft Power Council member

How can the UK more strategically harness its #softpower – from cultural reach and education to diplomacy and legal expertise?

📖 Read: fpc.org.uk/op-ed-uk-sof...

In his op-ed, Alex Folkes explores what’s at stake, from #trade and rare earth resources to strategic leverage with #China and messaging to #Russia.

But with #Democracy and #HumanRights off the agenda, what kind of engagement is the US offering Central Asia?

🧭✍️ Trump’s Central Asia Gambit by FPC Fellow Alex Folkes

As President Trump prepares to meet leaders of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan & Tajikistan on 6 Nov, what are the aims and implications of this move?

📖 Read the full piece: fpc.org.uk/op-ed-trumps...

⚖️ “this is not a story about journalists at all: it is a story about our right, as citizens and human beings, to know more of the world around us… there can be no stronger proof of journalism’s power than the targeting of journalists by those who do not want their wrongdoings exposed.”