The UK's foreign policy refresh, protests in Georgia - with Arthur Snell and Natia Seskuria

Independent Thinking

This week on the podcast we discuss AUKUS and the UK’s Integrated Review Refresh. The UK and Australia will soon be building nuclear submarines together, but is the UK’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific sustainable? Likewise two years on from the last IR, has the UK finally clarified its foreign policy priorities, on Russia, China and on defence? And importantly does it have the money to do any of it?

Also, on the show this week, we discuss Georgia and the recent anti-government protests in Tbilisi. Following the Rose revolution in 2003, Georgia was seen to be on a path towards closer ties with NATO and the EU. In the last few years however, the country’s government has increasingly tilted towards Russia and Vladimir Putin. What is the state of Georgia’s democracy and where is the country going next?

Joining Bronwen Maddox on the podcast this week are Natia Seskuria, an Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute; Arthur Snell, a former diplomat and host of the podcast Doomsday Watch; Creon Butler, the Director of our Global Economy, and Finance Programme; Professor Andrew Dorman, the editor of our journal International Affairs and Alice Billon-Galland, a Research Fellow with our Europe Programme.

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Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Abdul Boudiaf and Matthew Docherty.