Political Experts To Debate G8 Schedule

Some of the world's leading experts on international politics are to meet to debate the issues and challenges facing the world leaders at next week's G8 summit.

The group will meet at a pre-summit conference at Queen's University Belfast today.

The experts will discuss key issues of trade, transparency, tax and security – all of which are expected to feature heavily on the agenda for the G8 summit which is being held at Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh.

The group today will feature leading academics, former summit sherpas and public policy experts from around the world. The conference is an annual event preceding each G8 Summit and it takes place each year at an academic institution in the summit's host country. This year, it is being hosted by Queen's in partnership with the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto and is supported by the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland.

Queen's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Peter Gregson, said: "The arrival of G8 is another chapter in the development of a confident, outward-looking Northern Ireland in which Queen's plays a crucial role.

"The G8 pre-summit conference is a prestigious event which provides a unique opportunity for delegates to engage in discussions on the global issues to be debated at Lough Erne, and to do so in the surroundings of a University dedicated to addressing the challenges facing society around the world."

It has been organised by leading G8 experts Dr Andrew Baker from Queen's School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy and Professor John Kirton, Director of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto.

"The modern G8 summit is a gathering point for a whole range of political perspectives to debate global affairs," Dr Baker explained.

"The discussions and disagreements that occur in events surrounding the formal summit - like the pre-summit conference at Queen's - have become an important part of modern world politics in their own right."

Queen's academics taking part will provide expertise of post-carbon sustainable development, developments in Africa and Islamic Jihadism.

They will be joined by international experts including Professor Paul Collier from the University of Oxford, who has been advising David Cameron on resource extraction in Africa and tax avoidance, and Professor Prem Sikka from the University of Essex, whose work on tax avoidance has brought the issue to the public forum.

(JP/CD)