How to assess the life and works of Fidel Castro? CNN has the line. Castro was a not too bad fellow who did good things for ‘social reform’ in Cuba and who was praised in some circles for standing up to the United States. Oh, and he was criticized for […]
While basking on the sunny South Carolina beaches I took time out to write a piece for National Interest on the death of Fidel Castro and how different world leaders drafted their respective statements: The Castro case is unusually tricky. There’s no denying that he was a person of international […]
In the debate last week on the foreign policy success or otherwise of President Obama, I made the point that he had offered Cuba the normalisation of diplomatic relations without pressing for anything (even rhetorically) in return. Why not use this high-profile move to make the case strongly for a […]
My latest piece for Commentator, co-authored with Pratik Chougule, describes in broad terms how we might do some good solid work to build on the Obama Administration move to start normalising US relations with Cuba, by actively but sensibly doing the spadework needed to help Cuba get ready for the day a […]
The BBC lovingly analyses Fidel Castro’s speech to the ‘National Assembly’ in Havana: … a hush descended … He smiled and waved to the crowd as he lapped up the warmth of their applause … a short but polished performance from the lively and healthy-looking Fidel Castro, his voice stronger […]
Once upon a time telephone calls went down specific lines; a ‘switchboard’ was a large, er, board at which an operator sat switching plugs to and fro into holes to connect individual people. That got automated. Calls became cheaper and cheaper. Then along came computers. Then the Internet. Based on (very cool) packet-switching […]
The United States’ policy towards Cuba has failed. So says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And she should be in a good position to know, as her husband presided over this failing policy for eight years. Meanwhile equally ailing and failing Fidel Castro wants the USA to go even […]
The BBC notes that the legacy of the Cuban socialist miracle is ‘complex’. This is just what Serbian Communist leader Draza Markovic used to say about the problems in Kosovo in the early 1980s: "the situation is still complicated, even complex!" The BBC on Cuba: Fifty years on, the legacy […]
Should the EU’s atom-sized sanctions on Cuba be lifted? Why not? They do not matter, as they are a Silly Noise unattached to a policy. The debate of course is not about whether these sanctions make a difference, symbolic or otherwise. It rather is about whether the EU should have […]
Zimbabwe as expected falls ever more steeply to total disaster. The gang of military/security leaders previously dependent on Mugabe now look to be running the shop, desperate as they are to cling on to power and privileges at the cost of ruining their own country. A text-book case. Yet the UN still […]
