International Relations and Defence Committee

LordsSelectest. 25 May 2016Email ↗● Actively Monitored
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Sessions analysed35
Commitments9
Positions167
Recommendations80

Latest Signals

16 Sept 2026Shared AI risks outpace trusted information and crisis planningConcern
“[Speaker: Isabella Wilkinson] The first type of governance challenge is dealing with shared risks. As we have seen over the past few weeks, few days and even few hours, risks generated and triggered by AI are cross-border. They are inevitably globally shared. They are cross-domain; they might jump from one part of the economy to the other, from one domain to another. These include malicious risks—we have seen concerns about cybercriminals developing a bioweapon—and loss of control risks.”
16 Sept 2026Some AI governance issues offer more scope for agreementPosition
16 Sept 2026Avoid fatalistic AI arms-race narrativesPosition
16 Sept 2026AI governance remains fragmented and weak on implementationConcern
16 Sept 2026Strengthen existing AI governance forums before creating a new bodyPosition
02 Sept 2026Global South is too vague a framework for policyPosition
02 Sept 2026China needs long-term, allied, detailed containment of riskPosition
02 Sept 2026Values still matter, but hard security now dominates decisionsPosition

Recent Sessions

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16 Sept 2026UK strategy for multilateral AI governance
3 pos2 concern6 rec
02 Sept 2026UK multilateral strategy, China and US retrenchment
7 pos1 concern2 rec
22 Jul 2026Multilateralism: UK coalitions, reform and strategy
8 pos3 concern2 rec1 disag
15 Jul 2026UK multilateral strategy, reform and priorities
4 pos2 concern8 rec
08 Jul 2026Multilateralism, NATO and US power: Bolton evidence
7 pos1 concern2 rec
01 Jul 2026Multilateral reform and UK influence in the South
7 pos2 concern3 rec

Recent Commitments

View all (9)

Recent Recommendations

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Frequent Witnesses

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office4× · 45 insights
Chatham House3× · 9 insights
King’s College London3× · 7 insights
Atlantic Council2× · 16 insights
RAND Europe2× · 15 insights
University of Oxford2× · 13 insights

About this committee

The International Relations and Defence Committee of the House of Lords scrutinises UK defence and foreign policy, with particular focus on international agreements and strategic partnerships. Operating as a select committee, it regularly takes oral evidence from government officials, policy experts, and international witnesses to examine current challenges. The committee investigates defence capability, intelligence relationships, and the conduct of UK external relations across multiple regions and domains. Recent inquiries have examined US-UK defence ties in the context of Iranian nuclear policy and sanctions, explored implications of US policy towards Venezuela for UK interests, and analysed space cooperation frameworks between the two nations. The committee has also heard from Hudson Institute and German Marshall Fund analysts on the intersection of US national security strategy with British defence priorities, and conducted a dedicated panel inquiry into UK-US intelligence relationship governance. Most recent sessions in mid-2026 continued this examination through further oral evidence gathering on evolving transatlantic security concerns.