Video Event | Connecting Development with Diplomacy: Ambassador Karen Pierce on the U.K.'s New Approach to Aid

**This event will now premiere on this page at 9:00 a.m. EDT, Monday, July 20.**

Join Hudson Institute for a conversation with United Kingdom Ambassador to the United States Dame Karen Pierce DCMG on how the global pandemic is shaping a new approach to the country's development assistance and the opportunities it could create for cooperation with the United States.

As U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently told parliament: "One cardinal lesson of the pandemic is that distinctions between diplomacy and overseas development are artificial and outdated." Merging the British diplomatic arm with its development arm into a single organization better reflects the transition to a new geopolitical reality from "a relatively benign era when China’s economy was still much smaller than Italy’s and the west was buoyed by victory in the cold war."

Ambassador Pierce will explain the significance of this merger and how it can be leveraged to boost the U.S.-U.K. relationship while countering problematic and deceptive practices like China's Belt and Road Initiative. Hudson Fellow Blaise Misztal will moderate the conversation.