British-American Project

Goals

Established in 1985, BAP was created to help maintain and enrich the long-standing relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. The Project was the brainchild of Nick Butler, an economist at BP, who at that time was also a prospective Labour Party parliamentary candidate. Along with others in both countries who viewed the special relationship favorably, he had become concerned about a growing tide of anti-American sentiment among his generation in the UK. Butler's response was to propose a series of conferences, developing relationships between the participants and broadening understanding.

A US BAP organiser describes the BAP network as committed to "grooming leaders" while promoting "the leading global role that [the US and Britain] continue to play".

Organisation

The British-American Project is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). BAP is a non-profit, funded by its members and donations from corporate partners.

Nick Cohen, writing in The Observer in 1999, criticised the scheme on the grounds that it encouraged the adoption in Europe of policy from the United States.

Andy Beckett, writing in The Guardian in 2004, said of the organisation "You won't have heard of the British-American Project, but its members include some of the most powerful men and women in the UK". He writes that in the work of the organisation "a process of political education can be discerned of which J Howard Pew would have approved", and that "American notions such as less regulated capitalism, a smaller 'enabling state' and a world kept safe by the Pentagon came to be regarded as sensible, inevitable". He notes that people with military experience are important in BAP.

Notable current and former members

Fellows

Politicians

• GBR Douglas Alexander, Labour MP
• GBR Rushanara Ali, Labour MP
• GBR Stephen Dorrell, former Conservative MP and Liberal Democrat
• GBR Steve Hilton, political commentator and former political adviser
• GBR David Miliband, former Labour MP
• GBR Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, former Labour MP, life peer
• GBR Mo Mowlam, former Labour MP
• GBR Geoff Mulgan, academic and former Director of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit
• GBR Jonathan Powell (Tony Blair's chief of staff)
• GBR George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, former Labour MP
• GBR Patricia Scotland, diplomat, barrister and Labour life peer
• GBR Alan Sked, founder of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)
• GBR Elizabeth Symons, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, trade unionist and Labour life peer
• GBR Matthew Taylor (political strategist), former head of the Number 10 Policy Unit, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation
• GBR David Willetts, former Conservative MP, life peer
• GBR Kate Forbes, Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Scottish National Party MSP
• GBR Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour Party Leader
• USA Diana Villiers Negroponte, trade lawyer and academic

Journalists

• GBR Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent, The London Evening Standard
• GBR George Brock, The Times
• GBR Diane Coyle, The Independent
• GBR Evan Davis, BBC
• USA Daniel Drezner, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Slate, Tech Central Station, among others{{cite web
• GBR Daniel Franklin, The Economist
• GBR Jane Hill, BBC
• GBR Isabel Hilton, The Independent, The Guardian, BBC
• USA Frederick Kempe, The Wall Street Journal
• GBR Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator
• GBR James Naughtie, BBC
• GBR Jeremy Paxman, BBC
• GBR Rowan Pelling, The Daily Telegraph{{cite news
• GBR Trevor Phillips, BBC
• GBR Caroline St John-Brooks, The Times Educational Supplement, The Sunday Times
• USA Joel Stein, LA Times{{cite news

Arts and media

• GBR Margaret Hill, BBC current affairs producer
• GBR Benjamin Zephaniah, poet

Other

• GBR Janet Bloomfield, peace and disarmament campaigner
• GBR Shami Chakrabarti, Former director, Liberty
• GBR Caroline, Lady Dalmeny, former defence policy analyst
• GBR Julia Hobsbawm, writer and public speaker
• GBR Hardeep Singh Kohli British presenter and comedian

References

References

1. (6 November 2004). "Friends in high places". The Guardian.
2. "History of the Project". British-American Project.
3. Pilger, John. (13 December 2007). "Tainted hands across the water". New Statesman.
4. [http://www.bilderberg.org/bap.htm#own Nick Cohen - ''Without Prejudice'': "Cry freedom... and order a Big Mac - BAP conference"], ''The Observer'', 31 October 1999, hosted at Bilderberg website, accessed 17 June 2013.
5. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. (17 March 2008). "This unhealthy strain of left-wing McCarthyism". [[The Independent]].
6. "British American Project - SourceWatch".
7. (16 March 2015). "Welcome to the British-American Project".
8. "Transatlantic Elite - BAP - British American Project for the successor generation - Peter Mandelson".
9. (30 April 2007). "Obituary: Janet Bloomfield". The Guardian.
10. "The Governors". Ditchley Foundation.
11. [http://www.rusi.org/about/staff/associates/ref:B520D131E40215/ Royal United Services Institute Fellows and Associates] {{webarchive. link. (March 15, 2015)
12. Rayner, Gordon. (2023-09-01). "British-American Project at war after Hardeep Singh Kohli appointment". The Telegraph.