The Right Honourable Tony Blair, a Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture

07/15/2016

Tony Blair served as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2007, the only Labour leader in the party’s 100 year history to win three consecutive elections. During his time in office, the UK economy enjoyed record growth, and his Government made major improvements in Britain’s public services, particularly healthcare and education, through a program of investment and reform. Mr. Blair was a staunch advocate of an interventionist foreign policy, in particular in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq, and he trebled the UK’s aid program for Africa and introduced the first environmental program in the UK to combat climate change.

Since leaving office, Tony Blair has spent most of his time on work in the Middle East, in Africa, and on the fight against religiously based extremism. He established the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which tracks extremism across the world and provides education about the extremism in over 20 countries. He also founded a Sports Foundation dedicated to boosting grassroots sport for young people in the North East of England. Mr. Blair is the chair of The Climate Group International Leadership council.