On the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Suez War…

Martin Woollacott, distinguished correspondent and former foreign news editor at the Guardian speaks to Professor Avi Shlaim about the Suez and Iraq wars and the striking parallels between them.

Tony Blair and George Bush’s authority is increasingly threatened by the blowback from their venture in the Arab world. In this context, the relevance of the Suez crisis is particularly evident.

Join us as we discuss the painful lessons of the past and prospects for the future.

Martin Woollacott is a Foreign Affairs commentator for the Guardian, having previously been their Foreign News editor for six years. In over forty years experience as a journalist he has won six awards, including the James Cameron Award for his coverage of Kurdistan in 1991, and was nominated International Reporter of the Year for his coverage of the Vietnam war in 1975. He is the author of After Suez: Adrift in the American Century.

Avi Shlaim is Professorial Fellow and Professor of International Relations at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He is a recognised authority on the international politics of the Middle East and a winner of the WJM Mackenzie Book Prize and the David Watt Memorial Prize. His publications include War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History and The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World.