Peace Direct
Since 2004, Carolyn Hayman has been Chief Executive of Peace Direct which ‘supports and promotes the work of people seeking to use non-violent methods to resolve conflict’. Hayman has worked in the civil service (DfID and the Cabinet Office).
Peace Direct, directors include Ben Cuthbertson who has worked RAND Europe and Paul Wilkinson’s somewhat notorious Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University.[1] [2] [3]
Their trustees have Lieutenant Colonel Howard Pritchard MBE, Commissioned into the Army in 1988 with operational tours of Derry (or 'Londonderry' as Peace Direct calls it[4]), Balkans and Iraq, and part of the Army Staff Course at Camberley with an MA in Military Studies 1996. On return from Iraq he was posted to the MOD Strategic Analysis Programme, shaping policy on Defence and security.
Peace Direct was established in February 2004, when the Woodstock Research Trust adopted a new look. Unconnected with the University, it is an initiative of the Oxford Research Group (ORG) — of which Hayman is also an associate — founded by Dr Scilla Elworthy to initiate dialogue with ‘nuclear decision makers.’ [5] [6]
Elworthy is also a member of several ‘liberal’ elite organisation, including Women for Peace [7] set up by the wife of the president of Egypt, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, and the UK Defence Forum. [8]
The ORG is so laden with government and military personel that it was described by Commodore Tim Hare, Director of Nuclear Policy, UK Ministry of Defence as a:
- “warm benign and trusting atmosphere where one feels safe in the knowledge that the views expressed will be treated with respect and the uttmost discretion.”
ORG has jointly hosted meetings with the RUSI, Chatham House and St. Antony’s College and is funded by the Ford Foundation. They say “we have worked both behind the scenes with officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office and Cabinet Advisors and publically through seminars and research reports.” [9]
Project Syndicate
Hayman is also part of Project Syndicate. [10] Somewhat reminiscant of Encounter and the CCF operation — funded by Soros’ Open Society Institute — this syndicates commentaries by a narrow range of ‘prominent figures’ to mainstream newspapers (the Guardian & Scotsman in the UK). They would hardly seem to need assistance: and include Richard Haass President of The Council on Foreign Relations, Kofi Annan, former NATO Secretary General George Robertson, Zbigniew Brzezinski former US National Security Advisor, James D. Wolfensohn former President of the World Bank Group, George Soros, Lord Ralph Dahrendorf and so on.
Project Syndicate is run by Anders Åslund (Director of the Russian and European Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and Hans Bergström (formerly Editor-in-chief of "Dagens Nyheter," Sweden’s leading newspaper) and Christoph Bertram (formerly director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin).
Development
Hayman was also appointed by the FCO to the board of the Commonwealth Development Corporation from 1994 to 1999 with Pendarell Kent and Sir William Ryrie, He worked in the Colonial Office and then the Treasury, including four years on the Boards of the World Bank and the IMF. For two years he managed the British aid programme, as Permanent Secretary of the Overseas Development Administration. Then from 1984 to 1993 he was Head of the International Finance Corporation, a part of the World Bank Group. also a member of the International Centre for Economic Growth. [11]
CDC provided assistance to commercial enterprises in some 54 developing countries around the world, and in the early 90s announced a programme for its own privatizations. Its sale was managed by Baroness Amos]. Gone is the rhetoric of aid and development now: “CDC is one of the world’s leading equity investors in emerging markets.” [12]
Transformed from a statutory corporation by the “positive power of capital” in colonial investments — this is a return to the past not a vision for the future. [13]
CDC owns a great deal of assets, such as copper mines in Zambia, a senior policy advisor at Oxfam, Tricia Feeny, has stated:
- "A lot of (CDCs) African investments are in things like shopping malls stuffed with imported luxury goods, which cater to the wealthy elite or expatriate community. These have a neutral or even negative impact for the poor." [14]
The previous link documents a Westminster Hall debate on CDC, Wednesday, 10 April 2002.
People
Staff
- Francesca Cerletti, Head of UK Programmes
- Ben Cuthbertson, Communications and Administration Assistant
- Carolyn Hayman OBE, Chief Executive
- Chris Jameson, Head of Communications
- Cressida Langlands, Financial Administrator
- Babette May, Project Manager, Insight on Conflict
- Mohamed Osman, Head of International Liaison
Affiliations
PR/Lobbying firms
UK government funding and the CSSF
A 2016 FCO expression-of-interest document for a CSSF "MENA Strategic Comms: Countering DAESH Propaganda" call-off lists Peace Direct among the suppliers on the CSSF Lot 2 framework. The document was published online in 2020 among files that the hacker group Anonymous said came from the FCO. (On the later 2023–27 framework, the names of Lot 2 suppliers were redacted on national-security grounds.)[1] Peace Direct's 2017 annual report lists among that year's highlights "securing some major grants from the EU, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, German Federal Foreign Office, the Canadian Government and the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs".[2] FCO spending data record payments to Peace Direct from October 2014, when it received £34,889 under the FCO "Programme Spend" account,[3] to 2018. The total is about £737,500 (all FCO programmes).[4] Companies House records Peace Direct (06458464) as incorporated on 20 December 2007, with registered office at 1st Floor 6-8 Sycamore Street, London, England, EC1Y 0SW.[5]
FCO/FCDO payments
| Year | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 34,889 |
| 2015 | 188,407 |
| 2016 | 409,745 |
| 2017 | 73,994 |
| 2018 | 30,493 |
| Total | 737,529 |
Notes
- ↑ Foreign and Commonwealth Office (document published by the hacker group Anonymous), CPG/1044/2016 – Expressions of Interest: MENA Strategic Comms: Countering DAESH Propaganda (CSSF Lot 2 Call-Off), Annex A: List of suppliers on CSSF Lot 2 framework avalonlibrary.net, 2016.
- ↑ Peace Direct (via DocsLib), Annual Report 2017 DocsLib, 2018.
- ↑ Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Foreign Office spend over £25,000 for October 2014 GOV.UK, 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FCO departmental spending over £25,000 GOV.UK, 2010–2020; Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO: departmental spending over £25,000 GOV.UK, 2020–2026.
- ↑ Companies House, Peace Direct (06458464) Companies House, accessed 16 October 2026.
- ^ See also Robin Ramsay, ‘Friends of the British Secret State’, Lobster 16 June 1988 and The 'Terrorism' Industry, Edward S. Herman and Gerry O’ Sullivan, Random House 1990 page 176. Wilkinson was chair of the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism, an institution closely linked to the British Conservative Party and industry and openly designed to serve their security and ideological needs.