Club Lunch: Politics and Identity – The Challenge to the International Order

For almost 40 years after the Second World War, global politics was divided on ideological lines especially in Europe – capitalism versus communism, west versus east.    That is no longer true.   We have seen in the last few years the growth of identity politics, which can be very dangerous, from Europe to the Middle East to Asia.   But identity is far more complicated than those who seek to use it for political purposes always suggest.   This is one of the main themes in the speaker’s latest book “First Confession”.

Chris Patten is currently Chancellor of Oxford University. As a British MP (1979-92) he served as Minister for Overseas Development, Secretary of State for the Environment and Chairman of the Conservative Party, being described afterwards as ‘the best Tory Prime Minister we never had’ (Observer). He is well known for being the last Governor of Hong Kong (1992-7), about which he wrote in East and West (1998). He was made a Companion of Honour in 1998 and a life peer in 2005.