Dr Rob Johns from the Department of Government is a key speaker at an event in Westminster this month that will discuss the relationship between UK foreign policy and public opinion.

The event, which takes place on June 15 at 6pm in Portcullis House, is being organised by the Foreign Policy Centre event in partnership with the Universities of Essex and Leeds and is the first in a series of two which will debate a wide range of questions about what factors influence public opinion and whether their opinions in turn influence foreign policy and policy makers.

It will also look at:

• The impact of headline-grabbing yes/no polls in the media about foreign policy issues
• How the UK government and other political parties measure public opinion or 'take the temperature' of foreign policy issues and how they use/respond to the results of these
• Whether public opinion on foreign policy generally more or less strongly felt than on domestic policy
• Whether the UK government and other political parties pay as much attention to public opinion on foreign policy issues as they do on domestic issues
• Whether there is much/any evidence that populism impacts upon UK foreign policy
• Whether governments pursue foreign policies that people want or those which are in their and the country's best interests

Other speakers include the Shadow Foreign Office Minister, Stephen Twigg MP, Sir Robert Worcester, Founder and Chair of Ipsos MORI and Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The Times and Dr Graeme Davies, Lecturer in International Security at the University of Leeds.

The event is co-funded by the University's Knowledge Transfer Innovation Fund.

Anyone interested in attending should email : events@fpc.org.uk