David Miliband delivers 2024 Henry Grattan lecture in London
Posted on: 09 May 2024
Irish Ambassador Martin Fraser and Mrs Deirdre Fraser welcomed Trinity alumni and members of the London Irish community, as well as diplomats, politicians, and journalists, to the Embassy in London for the event.
“Britain and the EU need a new relationship on foreign policy. It doesn’t have to be a romance. It should be a reboot.”
Former UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs David Miliband last night delivered the 2024 Henry Grattan Lecture at the Embassy of Ireland in London, ‘In It Together: Europe (including the UK) in a Multi-Aligned World’.
Irish Ambassador Martin Fraser and Mrs Deirdre Fraser welcomed Trinity alumni and members of the London Irish community, as well as diplomats, politicians, and journalists, to the Embassy in London for the event.
In his address, Mr Miliband noted that our current moment feels like an inflection point in history for several key reasons, including the current technological revolution that is having a seismic impact on the global economic and the global military and political power balance. He further noted that while globalisation has tied the world more closely together, this has also led to an increase in shared risks; and that all this has happened as the global political order based on American power has fragmented.
In his view, this all leads to a “multi-aligned world” that is “more fluid, more transactional, more unstable, with a lot more players, state and non state actors, engaged in a myriad of relationships and plays for wealth, power and influence.”
He observed that “Europe’s economic security is challenged by American technological dominance, China’s leapfrogging economy, and the rise of the rest” and reflected on the UK’s foreign policy, noting “Britain and the EU need a new relationship on foreign policy. It doesn’t have to be a romance. It should be a reboot.”
He also spoke about Brexit – “Brexit is not going to be reversed in the near term, but its illusion that there is a world where our destiny depends only on our own decisions needs to be addressed” – and touched on international security: “Security and prosperity in Europe depends in part on the ability of all European countries, in and out of the EU, in and out of Nato, to pool their weight, their brains and their assets to advance interests and values that will otherwise be in retreat.”
Following the talk on the evening of 8 May 2024, Mr Miliband sat down with Professor Gail McElroy (below), Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at Trinity, to further discuss the vast upheavals in the geopolitical landscape in recent decades, particularly the impact on economic and security factors throughout the western nations.
An initiative of the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, the Henry Grattan lecture series has been running in London since 2013, featuring speakers including former British Prime Minister Sir John Major, former Taoiseach John Bruton, EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, former President of Ireland Mary McAleese and Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank.
Previous lectures have addressed topics such as ‘The Peace Process and Beyond’, ‘The Political Consequences of Brexit’, ‘The Challenges of EU Migration’ and ‘EU-US Relations in a Changing World’.
ENDS