David Miliband to debate G8 future with Ian Bremmer, Martin Wolf and Gideon Rachman

In his first public debate since resigning as MP for South Shields, David Miliband will appear at the Tate Modern to argue his vision for a reformed G8.

By New Statesman

Tomorrow evening David Miliband – former Foreign Secretary and Labour MP, now current co-chair of the Global Ocean Commission and incoming CEO of the International Rescue Committee – will join Ian Bremmer, the author of this week’s New Statesman cover story, to debate the future of the G8.

Bremmer wrote in the magazine that modern bargaining forums such as the G20 have “not produced much of value” and suffer “a lack of global leadership”, arising from a “growing numbers of transnational problems”. Our most pressing challenge now is how to reconcile a group of world powers “that does not share a common set of assumptions about the proper role of the state in an economy, or about the value of the rule of law, transparency and freedoms of speech, press and assembly. Competing values create competing interests.”

Miliband and Bremmer will be joined by the Financial Times’ chief economics and chief foreign affairs commentators Martin Wolf and Gideon Rachman. The debate, entitled After the G8: Is it going to be G-Zero or a positive number?, will ask whether the G8 is an anachronism, if the G20 provides a sufficiently inclusive alternative and who, or what, determines whether nations have a voice in global governance.

“After the G8” is the penultimate event of the Zamyn Cultural Forum: Global Citizenship, a major series of free public lectures and debates taking place at Tate Modern, London, ahead of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

This debate will be followed on 12 June by the Cultural Forum’s concluding event: “Lessons for the G8 Members”; which sees former Irish president Mary Robinson – alongside Paul Collier, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Jamie Drummond and Strive Masiyiwa – giving candid opinions on how the summit can foster wider global cooperation, and what should be on the member nations’ agenda moving forward.

“After the G8” [18:00 – 20:00, 11 June] and “Lessons for the G8 Members” [19:00 – 21:00, 12 June] will take place in the Starr Auditorium at Tate Modern, London. For more information and to book free tickets visit: www.zamynforum.org/events