A little light reading for the International Relations Committee...

I am not really a policy wonk. Yes, I take an interest in it, but I am increasingly of the view that, in an ever more fast-moving world, a coherent philosophy is possibly more useful than an ultra-detailed manifesto.

And so, this weekend, I and my fellow Federal International Relations Committee members are preparing for a meeting on Monday to consider the draft Liberal Manifesto, due to be adopted in the Liberal International Congress in Andorra in May. The manifesto has been circulated, a document designed to define how liberalism will face the world in the coming years. That looks like a big ask to me.

So, what do I think, prior to reading the document? Well, here are some of the things that I'll be looking for...

Government as enabler - as a liberal, I feel that government is there to enable people to improve themselves and to live the life of their choice, balancing the freedom of individuals against the needs of the communities they inhabit. In other words, not a free-for-all, but a means of protecting the citizen from those who would deny opportunities and freedoms.

That's a bit technical, but then liberalism is about competing complexities and finding ways to referee them.

Collaboration across state borders - it may be that we're seeing the death throes of the sovereign nation state. In truth, nations aren't sovereign in the old sense, able to define their own destiny in the way that they once could. There are too many inter-dependencies, too many ways in which the acts of one nation impinge or impact on the affairs of another. Finding ways to bring countries together to solve solutions, ways that allow for transparency, accountability and citizen involvement, should be at the forefront of a new liberal agenda.

Free and fair trade - I believe in a global economy, and as someone with links to the developing world, I want to see the benefits of a market economy spread to the world's poorest. That may mean an acknowledgement that, in relative terms, we in the West are going to be poorer or, more accurately, less rich. We may be better off than we were, but the likelihood is that poorer countries could grow faster than we do.

Those are just three of the things that, I think, matter. And yes, issues like migration will be a factor - it couldn't be otherwise - but I think that they represent three pillars that you could build a manifesto around.

We'll see what my colleagues think in less than forty-eight hours...