The British-American Project (BAP) is a transatlantic fellowship of more than 1,200 leaders and opinion formers from a broad spectrum of occupations, backgrounds and political views. BAP operates on a not-for-profit basis, funded through its membership and support from corporate partners. It was originally named the British-American Project for the Successor Generation.

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 he US and Britaincontinue to play".

Previous conferences

Organisation

The British-American Project is affiliated with the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

(SAIS). BAP is a non-profit, funded by its members and donations from corporate partners.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. While acknowledging the connections made among journalists and the political class in the two countries, a 1999 article in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' noted critics saying it was another example of too much US influence in Britain.

Notable members

Fellows

Politicians

Stephen Dorrell Stephen James Dorrell (born 25 March 1952) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough between 1979 and 1997 and then for Charnwood from 1997 to 2015. Dorrell most recentl ...

Alan Sked Alan Sked (born 22 August 1947) is a Scottish eurosceptic academic notable for having founded the Anti-Federalist League (in order to oppose the Maastricht Treaty) and its successor the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He is Professor Emeritus of ...

, founder of the

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...

(

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...

) *

David Miliband David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of P ...

* The Baron Mandelson * The Baron Robertson of Port Ellen * The Baroness Symons * Jonathan Powell (Tony Blair's chief of staff) * The Baroness Scotland *

Douglas Alexander Douglas Garven Alexander (born 26 October 1967) is a Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, previously Paisley South, from 1997 until his defeat in 2015. During this time, he served as S ...

Geoff Mulgan Sir Geoff Mulgan CBE (born 1961) is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL). From 2011 to 2019 he was Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the ...

* Matthew Taylor *

David Willetts David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts, (born 9 March 1956) is a British politician and life peer. From 1992 to 2015, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Havant in Hampshire. He served as Minister of State for ...

Rushanara Ali Rushanara Ali ( bn, রুশনারা আলী; born 14 March 1975) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010. She served as a Shadow Minister for International D ...

(2004) * Diana Negroponte, the wife of

John Negroponte John Dimitri Negroponte (; born July 21, 1939) is an American diplomat. He is currently a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is a former J.B. and Maurice C. Sha ...

Journalists

Jeremy Paxman Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and television presenter. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate ne ...

, BBC *

Evan Davis Evan Harold Davis (born 8 April 1962) is an English economist, journalist, and presenter for the BBC. He has presented ''Dragons' Den'' since 2005. In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBC's economics editor. He left this p ...

, BBC *

James Naughtie Alexander James Naughtie FRSE (surname pronounced ; born 9 August 1951) is a British radio and news presenter for the BBC. Between 1994 and 2015, he was one of the main presenters of Radio 4's the ''Today programme''. In his 21-plus years on ...

, BBC *

Jane Hill Jane Amanda Hill (born 10 June 1969 in Eastbourne, Sussex) is an English newsreader working for the BBC. She is one of the main presenters for BBC News, and is the main presenter on the '' BBC News at One'' and the '' BBC News at Five'', as w ...

, BBC *

Trevor Phillips Sir Mark Trevor Phillips (born 31 December 1953) is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician who served as Chair of the London Assembly from 2000 to 2001 and from 2002 to 2003. He presented '' Trevor Phillips on Sunday'', a Sunday ...

, BBC *

Isabel Hilton Isabel Nancy Hilton OBE (born 25 November 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster based in London. Early life Hilton was educated at Edinburgh University, where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level. As Secretary of the entirel ...

, ''The Independent'', ''The Guardian'', BBC *

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (''née'' Damji; born 10 December 1949) is a British journalist and author, who describes herself as "a leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim...person". A regular columnist for the ''i '' newspaper and the ''Eveni ...

, ''The Independent'', ''The London Evening Standard'' * Charles Moore, ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Sunday Telegraph'', ''The Spectator'' *

Rowan Pelling Rowan Dorothy Pelling (born 17 January 1968) is a British journalist, broadcaster, writer and stand-up comedian who first achieved note as the editor (or "editrice", to use her term) of a monthly literary/erotic magazine, the ''Erotic Review''. ...

, ''The Daily Telegraph'' * Hugh Raven, ''The Sunday Telegraph'' * Christopher Cragg, ''The Financial Times'' *

Caroline St John-Brooks Dr Caroline St. John-Brooks (24 March 1947 in Oxford – 8 September 2003 in London) was an Anglo-Irish journalist and academic. Biography She gained a BA in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in Education from the Unive ...

, ''The Times Educational Supplement'', ''The Sunday Times'' * George Brock, ''The Times'' * Michael Elliott, ''The Economist'' * Daniel Franklin, ''The Economist'' *

Diane Coyle Diane Coyle (born February 1961) is an economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She was vice-chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and was a member of the UK Competition Commission fro ...

, ''The Independent'' *

Frederick Kempe Frederick Kempe (born September 5, 1954) is president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank and public policy group based in Washington, D.C. He is a journalist, author, columnist and a regular commentato ...

, ''The Wall Street Journal'' *

Daniel Drezner Daniel W. Drezner (born August 23, 1968) is an American political scientist. He is professor of international politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is known for his scholarship and commentary on International ...

, ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The New Republic'', ''Foreign Affairs'', ''Foreign Policy'', ''The New York Times'', ''Slate'', ''Tech Central Station'', among others *

Joel Stein Joel Stein (born July 23, 1971) is an American journalist who wrote for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He wrote a column and occasional articles for ''Time'' for 19 years until 2017. Early life Stein grew up in Edison, New Jersey, the son of a sale ...

, ''LA Times''

Arts and media

* Margaret Hill, BBC current affairs producer

Other

Shami Chakrabarti Sharmishta "Shami" Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes ...

, Former director, Liberty *

Caroline, Lady Dalmeny Caroline Julia Primrose, Lady Dalmeny FRGS (née Daglish; born 1969), known as Caroline, Lady Dalmeny, is a British former defence policy analyst. Lady Dalmeny was married to Harry Primrose, Lord Dalmeny. They were reported to be divorcing in 20 ...

, Royal United Services Institute * Christian May,

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...

Institute of Directors

References

External links

British-American Project
(official website)

''collection of articles from various publications''{{Dubious, date=October 2020 United Kingdom–United States relations Political organizations based in the United States Political organisations based in the United Kingdom