This event is co-hosted by Bond.

The UK is a significant actor on today’s global stage, making its mark both individually and via membership bodies such as the EU, NATO, UN Security Council, G7 and the G20.

The UK also wields huge influence as the world’s second largest development donor, having reached the 0.7% aid target and enshrined it in law. It has been an outspoken advocate of international collaboration to tackle international challenges, including global corruption most recently.

Its membership of the EU has always been complicated, with parts of both the UK’s political leadership and the public seeing it as an expensive hindrance to Britain’s sovereignty. On 23 June, the nation goes to the polls to give its verdict.

What effect would leaving the EU have on UK’s ability to achieve its foreign policy, development and security objectives? How might leaving the EU affect the UK’s response to humanitarian crises, the ways in which it engages with conflict situations such as Syria and how it tackles issues such as climate change? And what new global challenges and opportunities may arise as a result of leaving the EU?

Co-hosted by ODI and Bond, this event convenes opinion leaders from all sides of the debate to explore whether the UK can maintain its global leadership position if it forged its way forward independently from the EU.