The Threat to Democracy
Paul Cartledge, Mark Laity, Nesrine Malik, Haras Rafiq, Matt Matravers

• Saturday 10 June 2017, 11.30AM to 1.00pm
• Free admission
  Booking required
• Ron Cooke Hub, University of York (map|getting to campus)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

Our Focus Day begins with a keynote speech by Mark Laity, Chief Strategic Communications (StratCom) for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), before our expert panel considers the threats to democracy. The session is chaired by Matt Matravers, Director of the Morrell Centre for Toleration, University of York.

Supported by The Morrell Centre for Toleration which is generously funded by the C and JB Morrell Trust.

Speakers:

• Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge
• Mark Laity, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)
• Nesrine Malik, writer and commentator 
• Haras Rafiq, Quilliam
• Matt Matravers, The Morrell Centre for Toleration (Chair)

About the speakers

Professor Paul Cartledge is A G Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College and A G Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus, University of Cambridge. His research interests are in all aspects of Ancient Greek History (c. 1500 BCE on). He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour awarded by the President of the Hellenic Republic.

Paul is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of a score of books, most recently Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction, and Democracy: A Life. Earlier books include: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece; Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History c.1300-362 BC; The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others; The Spartans: An Epic History; Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past and Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World. 

Mark Laity has been involved with defence, the media, and latterly Strategic Communications for over three decades, both as a journalist and in a variety of posts as a spokesman and senior manager for NATO. His experience covers all levels, from political and strategic, to the frontlines of major conflicts and peacekeeping missions.

Since 2007, Mark has been the Chief Strategic Communications (StratCom) at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). He is the first holder of the post, created in response to the growing importance of information campaigns in military operations. His office has led in the creation of StratCom policy and now oversees its implementation and further development in NATO operations.

This followed nine months in Afghanistan in 2006-7 as NATO Spokesman in Kabul and Media Adviser to the ISAF Commander, the first of three tours covering much of the worst of the fighting in Afghanistan. For his service in Afghanistan he was awarded NATO’s Meritorious Service Medal. Nowadays he is part of the NATO effort to deal with the challenge of so-called ‘Hybrid Conflict’ which has at its heart the uses and abuses of information and the nature of ‘post-truth’ communication.

Mark joined NATO after 22 years in journalism, mostly in BBC radio and television. This included, from 1989, 11 years as the BBC's Defence Correspondent. He reported from the frontlines of most major conflicts of the ‘90s, but particularly the break-up of Yugoslavia and the first Gulf War. 

Nesrine Malik is a Sudanese writer and commentator based in London. She previously worked in the financial sector.

Haras Rafiq is Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Board Member of Quilliam, a counter-extremism organisation. He is currently a member of Prime Minister’s Community Engagement Forum (CEF) Task Force and was formerly a member of the UK Government’s task force looking at countering extremism in response to the 2005 terrorist bombings in London, as well as being a peer mentor for IDeA – advising regional government. He is also a member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda at Europol’s European Counter-terrorism Centre (ECTC).

Haras is also a trustee for the Franco British Council. In addition to this, he has worked on and delivered a number of projects relating to the analysis of radicalisation, as well as the deradicalisation of extremists, and has presented on a number of academic and political platforms, nationally and internationally.

As part of his work, Haras is committed to countering xenophobia and hatred, and has spoken at many conferences and events, including the Global Forum on combating anti-Semitism (December 2009), as well as being a Chair of a working group of the Global Experts’ Forum on anti-Semitism in Ottawa in 2010. He is regularly featured in the media as a commentator and has been a cultural ambassador through the UK Government’s “Projecting British Islam” initiative. He has also served on the North West Board of the Mosaic initiative, which was initiated by HRH Prince Charles, and aimed at mentoring youngsters to become contributing members of society. 

Matt Matravers is Director of the Morrell Centre for Toleration. Matt joined York Law School in 2015 as Professor of Law having been at the University of York since 1995 serving as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Professor in the Department of Politics. He is on the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Review College and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is also Head of York’s Goodricke College.
 
Matt works on contemporary legal and political philosophy. He is the author of two monographs, Justice and Punishment, and Responsibility and Justice, and is working on a third on the general part of the criminal law. In addition, he is the editor of six edited collections and the author of numerous papers in legal and political philosophy. york.ac.uk/law/staff/matravers/  

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