The Observer Book Club: Braver New World
John Kampfner discusses his blueprint for global cooperation with former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Observer Editor James Harding at RSA House.
Why we picked this
Miliband has spent years running the International Rescue Committee while Kampfner has been writing about the failure of liberal internationalism — the gap between their positions is where the interesting conversation will happen.
John Kampfner’s “Braver New World” attempts something that feels both necessary and difficult: a serious, constructive argument for how liberal democracies might rebuild international institutions and cooperative frameworks at a moment when the multilateral order appears to be fracturing. The book is not nostalgic for the post-1945 settlement, but it insists that the alternative to reformed cooperation is not managed national self-interest but escalating disorder.
David Miliband served as UK Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 — one of the key architects of British foreign policy during a period of significant international turbulence — and has since led the International Rescue Committee, working at the front lines of the humanitarian consequences of failed international coordination. James Harding, as editor of The Observer, brings an editorial perspective on how these arguments are being received and contested in public discourse.
The event is at RSA House in London and will also be livestreamed on YouTube, making it accessible beyond the room. Free registration through Eventbrite.