Launch of DECLASSIFIED

  I am about to publish on this site hundreds of UK declassified documents and articles on British foreign policy towards various countries. This will be the first time such a collection has been brought together online. The declassified documents, mainly from the UK’s National Archives, reveal British policy-makers actual concerns and priorities from the […]

Corbyn’s Labour party should promote more moderation, less extremism in UK foreign policy

by Mark Curtis Labour’s manifesto pledges several clear breaks from current UK foreign policy which could be seen as radical given the present extremism. I recently outlined seven such policies which the UK establishment will fight bitterly.[1] But if the manifesto is implemented in its current form, it is likely to still promote extremism in […]

The Manchester Bombing as Blowback: The latest evidence

A Briefing by Mark Curtis[1] and Nafeez Ahmed[2] 3 June 2017 (This briefing will be updated as more evidence emerges. Sources are overwhelmingly from mainstream media, except where clearly stated). A PDF version of this briefing is available here ** Introduction The evidence suggests that the barbaric Manchester bombing, which killed 22 innocent people on […]

The British establishment is putting our lives at risk: Our state’s key ally is a major public threat

by Mark Curtis   The country is in shock after the worst terrorist attack in 12 years. The deranged extremist who detonated the bomb bears sole responsibility for the outrage and is not a soldier – for Islam or whoever – but a murderer. The Manchester suicide bombing is an act of barbarism inflicted on […]

UK General Election: What are the foreign policy implications?

by Mark Curtis Published in New Internationalist, 18 May 2017 The upcoming election has two key features. One is that voters have a genuine choice for the first time in a generation. But the other is that media disinformation backing current foreign policy and attacking Jeremy Corbyn is so great that the election cannot possibly […]

40 UK foreign policies to remember in the UK election

Our special relationship with Saudi Arabia Our war in Yemen Our seven covert wars (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia) Our role as a massive arms exporter, to anyone who wants them Our increased military training programme to repressive states Our two new aircraft carriers, built while a million food parcels are distributed […]

A dangerous new era in British foreign policy: Talk at Stop the War annual conference

by Mark Curtis What an extraordinary time this is: Surely the most dangerous era since the new cold war of the early 1980s when the US elected a neocon madman as President. How times change. I’ve been studying British foreign policy for 30 odd years but it’s hard to capture in words what is going […]

Why protests against Trump should be widened to change current UK foreign policy

by Mark Curtis I completely support the protests and opposition to Trump. At the same time, the British government in its foreign policy is now operating outside of any serious democratic control, and is: promoting covert wars in seven countries violating international law in several areas regularly lying to parliament on its actions deepening alliances […]

DFID’s dangerous new Economic Development Strategy

DFID yesterday published its Economic Development Strategy.[1] There’s a lot of fine-sounding rhetoric in the document and, on paper, it contains some progressive policies in the area of traditional foreign aid. But these are completely overshadowed by the UK’s global economic priorities which remain (in fact, are increasingly) neo-liberal and which are completely at odds […]

Burying the Myth of New Labour’s “Ethical Foreign Policy”

By Mark Curtis An edited extract from Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World The “ethical dimension” to foreign policy announced by new Labour in 1997 was played up by the media, who dubbed it the “ethical foreign policy”, a term which the government never used. As a construct of new Labour’s propagandists […]