Rethinking Labour’s international development policy: opposition, policy process and challenges

The Open University, MK, Oak Seminar Room, Learning & OD Centre (Wilson) C Block

Speaker: Dr Will Brown (Senior Lecturer in Government and Politics - FASS)

Subject:  Rethinking Labour’s international development policy: opposition, policy process and challenges

Abstract: Labour’s record on international development while in office was remarkable both for its prominence and its ambition, though not without its problems and tensions, and has been the subject of a substantial literature. However, in opposition, and in a markedly different domestic and international climate, Labour had to rethink its approach. Yet how Labour’s policy evolved in the years of opposition has not been explored in any depth in the academic literature. Under a new leadership facing major international and domestic policy challenges, the Party is still trying to fashion a new direction in UK development policy. This paper outlines the policy process by which Labour has conducted its policy rethink, the key initiatives and policy changes it pursued between 2010 and 2017, and the significant current challenges the party faces.

Bio: William Brown has been at the OU for an unconscionable length of time and is in the Politics and International Studies discipline. He is chair of the award-winning module DD313 International Relations. He researches on Africa and International Relations from substantive, policy and theoretical angles and has a particular focus on relations with aid donors, African agency and IR theory

Please register to attend :  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rethinking-labours-international-development-policy-opposition-policy-process-and-challenges-tickets-37644374337

1200-1230: Lunch - 1230-1400: Discussion and presentation