International Relations and Defence Committee — hearing of 2 September 2026: transcript & video

19:43 - 21:47

Speaker 1

We're now public and this is the ninth evidence session of our inquiry into the future of the multilateral system and the UK's role in it. So we're welcoming today Professor John Bew, who is Professor of History and Foreign Policy at the Department of War Studies at King's College London and has been the foreign policy adviser to quite a number of Prime Ministers over the last few years. So the session is being streamed live on Parliament TV and a transcript will be taken and we'll send you a copy of the transcript and allow you to make any small textual changes that might be necessary. And I have to remind members of the committee that if they have any relevant interests they should indicate them when they are speaking.

And I suppose the only interest I've got is that I was the lead reviewer of last year's strategic defense review. So, thank you very much, Professor Bew, for coming today and to listening to our our questions. And maybe when I ask the first question, you could give us a little bit of your background as well before answering it. And I would like to ask you that you have for a number of years worked for the government, managed the relationships with a variety of Prime Ministers, including the the last one who has just resigned from from the House of Commons. So, what are the what do you believe are the assumptions that underlie British government policy in relation to the multilateral system?

And are they right and are they relevant for today and for the for the future?

21:47 - 22:23

Speaker 3

Thank you very much, Lord Robertson. It's good to see you and other committee members, some of whom I've worked with in government, some of whom I've good academic connections to as well. So initially, Lord Robertson, you said just to tell you a tiny bit about myself. I am an academic by training, historian in a public policy department, the Department of War Studies at King's up the road. And in 2019, I was asked to go into government, initially in the policy unit in Number 10 as an academic external expert, not particularly party political at that time.

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