The Frontline Club

Pulitzer winning photographer Liu Heung Shing is a renowned Chinese photographer and a former foreign correspondent. In a career spanning over 20 years he covered China, India, Korea, the US and former USSR for all the major publications.

China: Portrait of a Country is the new photography volume edited by Liu and brings together a vast selection of images by Chinese photographers since 1949, giving readers a visual journey across the great People’s Republic.

Via work by 88 Chinese photographers, this collection of images including some never seen before, shows how the Chinese people have blossomed in spite of enduring previous decades of extraordinary hardship.

China: Portrait of a Country is published by Taschen and will be on sale after the event for the special price of £25

After the recent conflict in the Caucasus and Russia’s recognition of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, Russia continues to defy the West and the pledges made in the ceasefire agreement, by planning to keep about 8000 troops in the region.

Is the West being hypocritical in refusing to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, after its recent support and recognition of Kosovo’s independence? Should Georgia be encouraged to join NATO? And how concerned should we be over the frosty relationship that’s developing between Russia and the West?

Pavel Andreev is a Deputy UK Bureau Chief and a commentator for the Russian News Agency RIA Novosti, which he joined in 2006. His writes about Russo-British relations, International Relations and British Politics. Before returning to Journalism, which he practiced extensively earlier in life, he was in the Diplomatic Service, serving in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow and its Embassy in London.

Oksana Antonenko is a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Ms. Antonenko co-edited the book Russia and the European Union: Prospects for a New Relationship and in 2005 she facilitated two meetings between Georgian and South Ossetian senior officials and experts with the aim of promoting conflict resolution in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

Damien McElroy has been Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph since 2006. Prior to that he was on the Sunday Telegraph and has been posted in Istanbul and Beijing in his ten years working with the Telegraph. He covered the recent conflict in Georgia.

Roy Allison is Reader in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before he joined the LSE he was Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), 1993-2005. His most recent co-authored book is Putin’s Russia and the Enlarged Europe. He has visited Georgia frequently since 1987.

Kim Sengupta is the defence and diplomatic correspondent at The Independent

After the recent conflict in the Caucasus and Russia’s recognition of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, Russia continues to defy the West and the pledges made in the ceasefire agreement, by planning to keep about 8000 troops in the region.

Is the West being hypocritical in refusing to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, after its recent support and recognition of Kosovo’s independence? Should Georgia be encouraged to join NATO? And how concerned should we be over the frosty relationship that’s developing between Russia and the West?

Pavel Andreev is a Deputy UK Bureau Chief and a commentator for the Russian News Agency RIA Novosti, which he joined in 2006. His writes about Russo-British relations, International Relations and British Politics. Before returning to Journalism, which he practiced extensively earlier in life, he was in the Diplomatic Service, serving in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow and its Embassy in London.

Oksana Antonenko is a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Ms. Antonenko co-edited the book Russia and the European Union: Prospects for a New Relationship and in 2005 she facilitated two meetings between Georgian and South Ossetian senior officials and experts with the aim of promoting conflict resolution in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

Damien McElroy has been Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph since 2006. Prior to that he was on the Sunday Telegraph and has been posted in Istanbul and Beijing in his ten years working with the Telegraph. He covered the recent conflict in Georgia.

Roy Allison is Reader in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before he joined the LSE he was Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), 1993-2005. His most recent co-authored book is Putin’s Russia and the Enlarged Europe. He has visited Georgia frequently since 1987.

Kim Sengupta is the defence and diplomatic correspondent at The Independent

Philippe Sands investigates in his new book Torture Team – how the Rumsfeld Memo – a Memo signed by Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 that listed eighteen techniques of interrogation which defied international definitions of torture – set the stage for a divergence from the Geneva Convention and the Torture Convention.

The Rumsfeld Memo authorised the controversial interrogation practices that went on to be used in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, as part of the policy of extraordinary rendition. From his behind-the-scenes vantage point, Phillipe Sands investigates and is able to hold the individual gatekeepers in the Bush administration to account, for their failure to safeguard international law.

Philippe Sands is an international lawyer and a professor of law at University College London. He is the author of Lawless World and is frequently a commentator on news and current affairs programmes including CNN, MSNBC, and BBC World Service. He has been involved in many leading international cases, including those involving the treatment of British detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Olenka Frenkiel is a reporter, writer and documentary film-maker specialising in international investigations for BBC Television and Radio. Her recent films in North Korea, Israel and Pakistan have won the Peabody, RTS and CINE Golden Eagle awards among others.

Philippe Sands investigates in his new book Torture Team – how the Rumsfeld Memo – a Memo signed by Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 that listed eighteen techniques of interrogation which defied international definitions of torture – set the stage for a divergence from the Geneva Convention and the Torture Convention.

The Rumsfeld Memo authorised the controversial interrogation practices that went on to be used in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, as part of the policy of extraordinary rendition. From his behind-the-scenes vantage point, Phillipe Sands investigates and is able to hold the individual gatekeepers in the Bush administration to account, for their failure to safeguard international law.

Philippe Sands is an international lawyer and a professor of law at University College London. He is the author of Lawless World and is frequently a commentator on news and current affairs programmes including CNN, MSNBC, and BBC World Service. He has been involved in many leading international cases, including those involving the treatment of British detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Olenka Frenkiel is a reporter, writer and documentary film-maker specialising in international investigations for BBC Television and Radio. Her recent films in North Korea, Israel and Pakistan have won the Peabody, RTS and CINE Golden Eagle awards among others.

Since 1991, Somalia has been a dangerous, violent and lawless place, home to numerous conflicts and civil war, as well as increasingly a third theatre of operations for the US in its global war on terror. From localised inter-tribal and clan warfare, to regional tensions and international disputes, Somalia remains a highly complex battleground. Will the recent Djibouti peace agreements between the Transitional Federal Government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia result in anything concrete? And is Somalia really the next front in the War on Terror?

Ahmed Abdisalam is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information, Youth & Sports for the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Abdirahman Warsame is the deputy head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and was chief negotiator in the recent UN-brokered peace talks in Djibouti.

Mary Harper is an African specialist for the BBC.

Sally Healy OBE is an Associate Fellow of the Africa Programe at Chatham House. She was formerly an East Africa specialist at the Foreign Office. She led a collaborative study of conflict in the Horn of Africa, the findings of which were published by Chatham House in June 2008: Lost Opportunities in the Horn of Africa: how Conflicts Connect and Peace agreements unravel.

Patrick Smith is editor of Africa Confidential

Since 1991, Somalia has been a dangerous, violent and lawless place, home to numerous conflicts and civil war, as well as increasingly a third theatre of operations for the US in its global war on terror. From localised inter-tribal and clan warfare, to regional tensions and international disputes, Somalia remains a highly complex battleground. Will the recent Djibouti peace agreements between the Transitional Federal Government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia result in anything concrete? And is Somalia really the next front in the War on Terror?

Ahmed Abdisalam is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information, Youth & Sports for the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Abdirahman Warsame is the deputy head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and was chief negotiator in the recent UN-brokered peace talks in Djibouti.

Mary Harper is an African specialist for the BBC.

Sally Healy OBE is an Associate Fellow of the Africa Programe at Chatham House. She was formerly an East Africa specialist at the Foreign Office. She led a collaborative study of conflict in the Horn of Africa, the findings of which were published by Chatham House in June 2008: Lost Opportunities in the Horn of Africa: how Conflicts Connect and Peace agreements unravel.

Patrick Smith is editor of Africa Confidential

In May 1991 Somaliland declared independence from the rest of Somalia and over the past 17 years the government there has restored law and order to make it one of the most democratic and functioning societies in the Horn of Africa. In stark contrast to its neighbour Somalia, Somaliland has become an oasis of peace, stability and progress and a haven for thousands of Somalis fleeing from their war-torn country.

Yet Somaliland’s independence and sovereignty is still not recognised by most of the international community including Britain. What are the obstacles in the way of international recognition and is this really the best way forward?

How have the people of Somaliland built such a stable democracy, society and institutions in such a war-torn region and what are the lessons other de facto states can learn from it?

Richard Dowden is director of the Royal African Society. He worked for the Times until 1986 when he became Africa Editor of the Independent and in 1995 he took the post of Africa Editor at The Economist. He has also made three television documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 on Africa.

Adam Mussa Jibril has been the Somaliland representative in the UK since January 2008.

Michael Walls is a lecturer in Development Planning at UCL and has a research interest in state formation in Somaliland. He is Chair of Somaliland Focus (UK) and the Anglo-Somali Society and a coordinator of the UK international election observation team for upcoming Somaliland elections.

Edward Mason is Head of the London Office of Independent Diplomat. He joined the organisation in November 2005 and has worked on all of ID’s current projects with the governments of Kosovo, Somaliland and Western Sahara. He is ID’s expert on Somaliland.

Mike Wooldridge is a world affairs correspondent for BBC News. He joined the BBC in April 1970 and in 1982 became East Africa correspondent. In 1989 he moved to Johannesburg to become Southern Africa correspondent and started his present job in 2001. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Mike covered conflict and hunger and other humanitarian crises in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Angola and Mozambique as well as the release of Nelson Mandela. He has reported from Africa regularly since then.

In May 1991 Somaliland declared independence from the rest of Somalia and over the past 17 years the government there has restored law and order to make it one of the most democratic and functioning societies in the Horn of Africa. In stark contrast to its neighbour Somalia, Somaliland has become an oasis of peace, stability and progress and a haven for thousands of Somalis fleeing from their war-torn country.

Yet Somaliland’s independence and sovereignty is still not recognised by most of the international community including Britain. What are the obstacles in the way of international recognition and is this really the best way forward?

How have the people of Somaliland built such a stable democracy, society and institutions in such a war-torn region and what are the lessons other de facto states can learn from it?

Richard Dowden is director of the Royal African Society. He worked for the Times until 1986 when he became Africa Editor of the Independent and in 1995 he took the post of Africa Editor at The Economist. He has also made three television documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 on Africa.

Adam Mussa Jibril has been the Somaliland representative in the UK since January 2008.

Michael Walls is a lecturer in Development Planning at UCL and has a research interest in state formation in Somaliland. He is Chair of Somaliland Focus (UK) and the Anglo-Somali Society and a coordinator of the UK international election observation team for upcoming Somaliland elections.

Edward Mason is Head of the London Office of Independent Diplomat. He joined the organisation in November 2005 and has worked on all of ID’s current projects with the governments of Kosovo, Somaliland and Western Sahara. He is ID’s expert on Somaliland.

Mike Wooldridge is a world affairs correspondent for BBC News. He joined the BBC in April 1970 and in 1982 became East Africa correspondent. In 1989 he moved to Johannesburg to become Southern Africa correspondent and started his present job in 2001. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Mike covered conflict and hunger and other humanitarian crises in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Angola and Mozambique as well as the release of Nelson Mandela. He has reported from Africa regularly since then.

Jehad Nga is one of the most talented emerging photographers on the international scene and for the last three years has worked intensely in and around Mogadishu. For one night only he will present a selection of images from his portfolio and talk about operating as a photographer in one of the world’s most dangerous environments.

Nga’s photography style is unique – artistically sensitive, vibrant and thought provoking yet with the ability to shock and appall.

In addition to his work in Somalia, Nga has worked widely in Iraq on assignment for the New York Times. His image of blindfolded Iraqi prisoners arrested by US forces was used as the main publicity shot for the Oscar-winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side.

Nga’s work in Somalia is an ongoing project. The work has been shown at the M+B Gallery in Los Angeles and the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York, and funds from his art sales are going to build a school in Somalia. “It’s all one big piece of work,” he says.