The Frontline Club

Randa Habib will be at the Frontline Club to discuss her new book Hussein and Abdullah: Inside the Jordanian Royal Family with Hosam El Sokkari, head of BBC Arabic.

With unprecedented access to the Royal Family, it was the Amman-based journalist who broke the story that King Hussein had chosen his son, Abdullah, to succeed him to the throne and not his brother Hassan, the designated Crown Prince.

Randa Habib will discuss the insight she gained into the late King Hussein’s rule during twenty-five years of unprecedented access as well as the new King’s campaign to position himself as peace broker in the Middle East.

With: Hosam El Sokkari, head of BBC Arabic

Mark Sedwill, Ambassador to Afghanistan since April 2009, will be at the Frontline Club for a special event ahead of the London Conference on Afghanistan which begins on 28 January.

A unique opportunity to hear the British Ambassador in Kabul discuss the future of Afghanistan and what can be achieved at the international conference.

Tipped to be the Nato Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill has been reported saying that the conference would aim to set tentative timetable to switch security duties from foreign troops to local forces and that it is likely to pledge funding for a program aimed at encouraging Taliban fighters to renounce violence and promoting reconciliation with the government.

Mark Sedwill will be in conversation with Nick Fielding, journalist and author of two books: Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terrorism and Masterminds of Terror.

Mark Sedwill, Ambassador to Afghanistan since April 2009, will be at the Frontline Club for a special event ahead of the London Conference on Afghanistan which begins on 28 January.

A unique opportunity to hear the British Ambassador in Kabul discuss the future of Afghanistan and what can be achieved at the international conference.

Tipped to be the Nato Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill has been reported saying that the conference would aim to set tentative timetable to switch security duties from foreign troops to local forces and that it is likely to pledge funding for a program aimed at encouraging Taliban fighters to renounce violence and promoting reconciliation with the government.

Mark Sedwill will be in conversation with Nick Fielding, journalist and author of two books: Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terrorism and Masterminds of Terror.

In the second of our events to mark the first year of Barack Obama‘s presidency we will be examining his foreign policy.

Barack Obama was elected on a ticket of change but to what extent has the international agenda altered since the 44th President of the United States replaced George Bush in the White House?

His address to the Muslim world at Cairo University in June last year was lauded as a masterpiece of oratory and cultural sensitivity but what in practice has Barack Obama delivered when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran as well as the War on Terror declared by his predecessor?

Discussion with Jim Sciutto, author of Against US, a book that chronicles the rise of anti-Americanism and Islamic extremism in the Arab world. Rest of panel to be announced. Enayat Fani, senior editor and presenter, BBC Persian Television; Zaki Chehab, author and journalist and editor of arabstoday.net; Davis Lewin, head of programmes at the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank based in London

Moderator: Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News correspondent

In the second of our events to mark the first year of Barack Obama‘s presidency we will be examining his foreign policy.

Barack Obama was elected on a ticket of change but to what extent has the international agenda altered since the 44th President of the United States replaced George Bush in the White House?

His address to the Muslim world at Cairo University in June last year was lauded as a masterpiece of oratory and cultural sensitivity but what in practice has Barack Obama delivered when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran as well as the War on Terror declared by his predecessor?

Discussion with Jim Sciutto, author of Against US, a book that chronicles the rise of anti-Americanism and Islamic extremism in the Arab world. Rest of panel to be announced. Enayat Fani, senior editor and presenter, BBC Persian Television; Zaki Chehab, author and journalist and editor of arabstoday.net; Davis Lewin, head of programmes at the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank based in London

Moderator: Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News correspondent

Shortly after his inauguartion Barack Obama signed orders to shut the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay by January 2010.

That deadline will not be met partly as a result of resistance White House officials encountered from members of Congress opposed to moving prisoners to US soil and from other countries they had hoped would accept detainees.

One year after his inauguration how much has been achieved? Clive Stafford Smith, founder and director of Reprieve, will be at the Frontline Club to examine President Barack Obama’s record of Guantanamo Bay as well as the detention facilities at Bagram and Abu Ghraib. To what extent has President Barack Obama succeeded in propelling the United States away from the Bush administration’s use of torture and extraordinary rendition?

Moderated by BBC correspondent Jon Manel who has reported on Guantanamo and this month presented the programme “Closing Guantanamo”

Last year he recorded exclusive first broadcast interviews with former detainee, Binyam Mohamed and the U.S. Guantanamo Closure Special Envoy, Daniel Fried.

Photo courtesy of Scorpions and Centaurs through a Creative Commons license

Shortly after his inauguartion Barack Obama signed orders to shut the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay by January 2010.

That deadline will not be met partly as a result of resistance White House officials encountered from members of Congress opposed to moving prisoners to US soil and from other countries they had hoped would accept detainees.

One year after his inauguration how much has been achieved? Clive Stafford Smith, founder and director of Reprieve, will be at the Frontline Club to examine President Barack Obama’s record of Guantanamo Bay as well as the detention facilities at Bagram and Abu Ghraib. To what extent has President Barack Obama succeeded in propelling the United States away from the Bush administration’s use of torture and extraordinary rendition?

Moderated by BBC correspondent Jon Manel who has reported on Guantanamo and this month presented the programme “Closing Guantanamo”

Last year he recorded exclusive first broadcast interviews with former detainee, Binyam Mohamed and the U.S. Guantanamo Closure Special Envoy, Daniel Fried.

Photo courtesy of Scorpions and Centaurs through a Creative Commons license

The leaking of the notorious ‘Climategate’ emails just before the Copenhagen global warming summit, the resignation of Professor David Nutt as chairman of the government’s drugs advisory panel: two events that demonstrate how politicised science has become.

With so much confusion about such important and complex issues as the environment, Swine flu, and vaccinations can journalists be looked to to provide objective analysis? Are science and environment journalists equipped to set out the parameters of the debate on global warming and other important issues to allow the public to make up their own minds?

Or are they contributing to the distortion of debate, playing into the hands of the powerful lobbies and misrepresenting complex evidence for the sake of a good headline?

What impact are English libel laws having on critical discussion of medical practice and scientific evidence as the courts are used more and more to silence critics?

With: Michael Hanlon, science editor for the Daily Mail; Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia; Beth Taylor, director of communications, Institute of Physics

Photo by Danielle Delaney through a Creative Commons license

The leaking of the notorious ‘Climategate’ emails just before the Copenhagen global warming summit, the resignation of Professor David Nutt as chairman of the government’s drugs advisory panel: two events that demonstrate how politicised science has become.

With so much confusion about such important and complex issues as the environment, Swine flu, and vaccinations can journalists be looked to to provide objective analysis? Are science and environment journalists equipped to set out the parameters of the debate on global warming and other important issues to allow the public to make up their own minds?

Or are they contributing to the distortion of debate, playing into the hands of the powerful lobbies and misrepresenting complex evidence for the sake of a good headline?

What impact are English libel laws having on critical discussion of medical practice and scientific evidence as the courts are used more and more to silence critics?

With: Michael Hanlon, science editor for the Daily Mail; Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia; Beth Taylor, director of communications, Institute of Physics

Photo by Danielle Delaney through a Creative Commons license

The coming year will be a pivotal one in the history of Sudan, with the country’s first multi-party elections for 24 years looming and the expiry date of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement just one year away.

Amid claims that the voter registration system is flawed, the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement and other opposition parties are already warning that they may boycott the poll in April.

There is also concern that the CPA may be on the brink of collapse, with seven of Sudan’s churches issuing stressing that it must be adhered to if Sudan is to avoid going to war again. The joint statement also called on Western governments to intervene to prevent a return to conflict.

To mark the fifth anniversary of the CPA Frontline Club to discuss what lies ahead for Sudan, looking at the prospect for free and fair elections and the possibilities of return to war or for restoration and transformation.

Panel: The Most Rev. Daniel Deng, Archbishop of Sudan; Paul Molong Akaro, deputy head of mission for the government of Southern Sudan Liaison office to the UK; Osman Hummaida, human rights activist and executive director of the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies; Sara Pantuliano, programme leader, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development instituteWith Richard Cockett, Africa editor of The Economist