All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-proliferation

BASIC collaborates closely with the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Security and Non-Proliferation. Its clerk, Lorna Richardson, is formally a BASIC employee but is seconded wholly to work with the APPG. BASIC and the APPG worked together to organize a Parliamentary visit to Washington in September 2009 to discuss with senior Senators and Administrations officials the opportunities presented to pursue global nuclear disarmament.  The delegation included Tony Lloyd and Lord Hannay (Co-convenors of the APPG), David Lidington (now Europe Minister), Des Browne (former Secretary of State for Defence) and Chloe Dalton (Special Adviser to William Hague).

Some of the 2012 APPG Meetings:

• April 24: ‘Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation: an agenda for 2012’ with Lord Browne of Ladyton, former British Defence Secretary, Convenor of the Top Level Group, and Co-chair of the BASIC Trident Commission.

• March 22: ‘China’s Engagement with Conflict-Affected States: Risks and Opportunities for Building Peace’ with Ivan Campbell, Saferworld Senior Conflict and Security Advisor and co-author of the report; Daniel Large of the South African Institute of International Affairs’ China in Africa programme; and Dr Xiao Yuhua of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at Zhejiang Normal University.

• March 13: ‘Turkey and its role and vision for security in the Middle East’ with Ambassador Unal Cevikoz of Turkey speaking on Turkey’s views on the Middle East Peace Process inlcuding prospects for establishing a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East.

2011 APPG Meetings:

• December 13: ‘The United Nations and the Responsibility to Protect’ with-Edward Luck (Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect.

• October 20: ‘Prospects for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation in 2012 and Beyond: International Perspectives’ with Amb Wael Al Assad (Director, Disarmament and Multilateral Relations, League of Arab States), Dr. Jianqun Teng (Director, Centre for Arms Control & International Security Studies, Beijing), Dr. Randy Rydell (Senior Political Affairs Officer, UN Office for Disarmament Affairs), and Dr. Vladimir A. Orlov (President, PIR Centre, Moscow).

• September 12: ‘Al-Qaeda and the 9/11 wars’ with Jason Burke (South Asia Correspondent for The Guardian and author of “The 9/11 Wars”)

• June 23: ‘Afghanistan: negotiating peace’ with the co-Chairs of Intl Task Force on Afghanistan in its Regional and Multilateral Dimensions: Amb Thomas Pickering, former US Undersecretary of State, and Amb Lakhdar Brahimi.

• June 21: ‘The Arab Spring: an overall view’ with Amb Lakhdar Brahimi, former Foreign Minister of Algeria and member of The Elders.

• March 28: ‘Tackling the threat from biological weapons’ with Amb Paul van den Ijssel, President-designate of the Seventh Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention

• February 16: ‘Making an International Arms Trade Treaty Bullet Proof’ with Alistair Burt MP (FCO Minister for Counter-proliferation), Kate Allen, (Director of Amnesty International UK) and Brinley Salzmann (Export Group for Aerospace and Defence).

• February 10: ‘French Views on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation’ with Senator Josselin de Rohan (Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Defence and the Armed Forces

• January 19: Margot Wallström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict

• January 18: ‘The Future of Intervention’ with Rory Stewart MP, Emma Sky (former advisor to the US military) and Lord Ashdown.

• January 12: ‘Lessons of Intervention’ with Prof. Susan L. Woodward (The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York), Dr. Toby Dodge (Queen Mary, University of London. and IISS), and Dr. John Macmillan (Brunel University)