This event will be jointly organised by King’s College London and the Malta High Commission to the United Kingdom. It will feature a panel of distinguished speakers followed by an open Q&A, with a networking reception to conclude the evening.

About the event:

In the midst of renewed great power rivalry and the ongoing war in Ukraine, the concept of neutrality has returned to the forefront of international debate. Too often dismissed as passive or outdated, neutrality today can be understood as “active”: a strategic posture that enables states to exercise agency, mediate conflict, safeguard humanitarian corridors, and preserve international legal norms.

This public panel discussion will explore the contemporary significance of neutrality, drawing on the experiences of countries such as Malta, Austria, and Ireland. These states occupy pivotal geographic and political positions within Europe and beyond, and their choices clearly illuminated how neutrality is not retreat, but rather an alternative form of engagement that has enabled small states to carve out influence disproportionate to their size, while maintaining independence in turbulent times.

Bringing together leading experts from academia, government, and practice, the panel will assess the evolving role of neutrality in the 21st century: How do neutral states balance principles with pragmatism? What unique contributions can they make to global peace and humanitarian efforts? And why do neutral states matter now more than ever?

About the speaker:

Ambassador Martin Fraser is the Irish Ambassador to Great Britain. Martin joined the Civil Service aged 16 and worked in the Department of Social Welfare for 10 years. He later worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Agriculture, before joining the Department of the Taoiseach in 1999. Ambassador Fraser served as Secretary General to the Government and Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach for over 10 years. In that role, he was closely involved in the response to the global economic crisis, Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as social reforms such as the referendums on marriage equality and the repeal of the 8th amendment.

Ambassador Bernhard Wrabetz is the Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. After receiving Master Degrees in History and French from the University of Vienna, and graduating from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Ambassador Wrabetz started his diplomatic career as Junior Professional Officer for the UNDP in Mauretania.  In the course of his career he has inter alia been First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations, New York, Political Counsellor at the Austrian Embassy in London and Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Ambassador Wrabetz has also been the Foreign Policy Advisor for two federal Chancellors of Austria.

Ambassador Natasha Meli, career diplomat with 25 years of experience in bilateral and multilateral affairs is Malta’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, since 8 September 2025. Ambassador Meli takes up this position after having served as Malta’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Austria, and as the Permanent Representative of Malta to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to the United Nations and to the other International Organisations based in Vienna. In 2024, during Malta’s OSCE Chairpersonship, she served as Chair of the Permanent Council of the OSCE, and led negotiations that resulted in decisions on the Top 4 positions of the Organization and its Chairpersonship for 2027. Prior to taking up her responsibilities in Vienna, between 2016 and 2014 Ambassador Meli served as Malta’s Ambassador to Poland and non-resident Ambassador to Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Armenia. 

Dr. Alex Sceberras Trigona was a Parliamentarian and Foreign Minister of Malta [1981-1987] as well as Special Envoy of Prime Ministers Dom Mintoff, Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela. As Foreign Minister he won Malta's first ever term [1983-1984] on the United Nations Security Council. He negotiated Malta's Neutrality Agreements with Italy, France, Libya, Algeria, the U.S.S.R and the U.S.A - the core of which is now entrenched in Malta’s Constitution. He is currently Malta’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization [WTO] in Geneva since 2013. Since 1997 he has sustained his appeal for global protection of the Critical Infrastructure of the Internet by characterizing it as part of the ‘Common Heritage of Mankind’. His seminal 1973 Law Doctorate thesis on “Constitutional Change” was followed both as to form and substance in introducing Malta's 1974 Republican Constitution. As a Rhodes Scholar he graduated from Oxford University, with a multidisciplinary thesis on “The Anglo-Maltese crisis of 1971-1972”. He is the Senior Lecturer in Private International Law at the Law Faculty and Senior Visiting Lecturer in Diplomacy at the University of Malta and at the Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies [MEDAC] and Senior Fellow and Co-founder of DiploFoundation, in Geneva [www.diplomacy.edu]; Founder member of the European Foundation for Progressive Studies [FEPS] in Brussels; and an Arbiter on Malta’s International Commercial Arbitration Centre. In December 2022 the President of Malta granted him the highest Award of the Republic of Malta - the National Order of Merit’s ‘Gieh ir-Repubblika’.

Dr. Hillary Briffa is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies and the Assistant Director of the Centre for Defence Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is on the editorial board of open access, peer-reviewed journal Small States and Territories and serves as the Academic Chair for the Knowledge Hub on Climate for Circle-U, an alliance of nine research-intensive universities. Beyond the university, she sits on the board of the London Defence Conference and regularly consults on foreign policy and defence issues for the British government and international governments, ranging from Estonia to Fiji.