Abstract

Tom Fletcher CMG and former British Ambassador to Lebanon talks to Professor David Runciman (Head of Department of Politics and International Studies) about his new book – Naked Diplomacy.

Drinks reception afterwards.

Overview

Who will be in power in the 21st century?

Governments? Big business? Internet titans? And how do we influence the future?

In the next 100 years, the world will need to deal with the same amount of social development witnessed in the last 43 centuries – from the rebirth of the city state, the battle for new energy, disappearing borders, the desire of the world’s people to move to developed nations.

Tom Fletcher, a former British ambassador – and the youngest appointed for 200 years – explores the core principles of a progressive 21st century foreign policy: how to balance interventionism and national interest, use global governance to achieve national objectives and set out an agenda for representative international systems. Alongside wisdom from history’s most influential global leaders and diplomats – Talleyrand, Kissinger, Mandela and the Kennedys included – he analyses the rise of smart power, soft power and the new interventionism.

Offering real-world examples of how diplomacy continues to have a significant impact on people’s lives, and why it will continue to do so, Fletcher asks leaders: Who do you represent? And how can you do it better?

Naked Diplomacy provides the answers for our digital age.

BIO - Tom Fletcher CMG was British Ambassador to Lebanon, 2011-15, and the Downing Street foreign policy adviser to three Prime Ministers. He is an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University and Visiting Professor of International Relations at New York University. He blogs as the Naked Diplomat. He is currently leading a review of British diplomacy for the Foreign Office, and a report on the future of the United Nations for the next UN Secretary General.

Tom has also recently led a review on the future of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/521916/Future_FCO_Report.pdf

Twitter: @TFletcher

www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008127572/naked-diplomacy

tomfletcher.global/