Tomorrow, Wednesday 18 March at 11.30am, the
House of Lords International
Relations and Defence Committee will hold a public evidence
session which will focus on the war in Iran and the implications
of Operation Epic Fury for UK-US relations.
The session will be available to watch live or on demand
at Parliament
TV or attend in person in Committee Room 4, Palace
of Westminster.
Giving evidence will be:
-
Professor Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus
Professor of War Studies at King's College London;
-
of Salford,
Former Permanent Secretary to the Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Office; and
-
Laurel Rapp, Director of the US and North
America Programme at Chatham House.
Questions will include:
- How much can Operation Epic Fury be considered an extension
of the Trump administration's existing foreign policy? How can we
square this approach with the US National Security Strategy,
which stated that “the days in which the Middle East dominated
American foreign policy…are thankfully over”?
- It has been reported that the US did not meaningfully consult
with the UK before beginning airstrikes against Iran. What do you
believe this tells us about the state of UK-US relations?
- To what extent do spats at the top of the political
leadership matter, and are they likely to substantially affect
the UK-US relationship in the long term?
- How historically significant is the UK's decision not to
participate in offensive operations in Iran? And how tenable is
an increasingly independent UK foreign policy, given our military
reliance on the US?
- There has been much commentary about the slow pace of the HMS
Dragon deployment to Cyprus. What does this reveal about the
Navy's operational readiness?
