A reader writes about FCO blogs: FCO bloggers try to keep to policy areas they have responsiblity for. Diverging from this has caused the odd frantic call from London to the offending blogger. There is nothing to say that staff cannot advance national interest behind closed doors AND engage in […]
There’s a lot of it about now. The FCO has a goodly bunch, albeit with tone of unrelenting ‘corporate’ cheeriness, eschewing anything controversial/awkward in policy or philosphical terms. When I was in Warsaw the FCO timidly experimented with some blogs for internal FCO consumption only, allowing some of us a […]
The new Obama administration has made a fine old mess of this one: When the vice president, the secretary of state and the national security adviser all say you have been tapped to be the next United States ambassador to Iraq, odds are it’s a done deal, right? Apparently not […]
Now and again you see something that lifts the standard for us all. Here is a superb analysis by Jason Lee Steorts at NRO of the foreign policy process and Iraq – looked at through the eyes of a poker player – which gives us numerous insights into how things work […]
I have mentioned Dick Holbrooke several times. See eg this early posting about his sheer physical presence. And this later one when Radovan Karadzic was arrested. Now he has been appointed by President Obama to lead US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan. That lot should keep him busy. I attended […]
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband is having a thin time of it. His visit to India featured several apparent misjudgements (wrong tone on terrorism, ill-judged observations on Kashmir and an inappropriately Nu Labour matey conversational style with senior Indian interlocutors). See this vivid demolition job. Plus there is a claim […]
A sturdy piece by Harry Phibbs who got to the point about David Miliband’s misplaced informality and linked it to Blairish ‘anti-stuffiness’ before I did: In a triumph of style over substance, Blair declared a moral crusade against stuffiness in our domestic affairs. Not being addressed as Prime Minister was […]
The UK and other Western powers are talking about helping stop arms being smuggled into Gaza, to support a ceasefire. Core Question: when they see likely Hamas arms smugglers heading towards Gaza and ask/order them to stop and they do not stop, are they prepared to use lethal force to […]
Former UK Ambassador at the UN Sir Jeremy Greenstock has caused a stir with his various observations on the BBC about Hamas – summary here by Paul Waugh. In the vast noise the Israel/Palestine/Gaza/Hamas generates it is next to impossible to keep any discussion coherent. See any Comments thread after any […]
I was reminded today of the famous, nay unique occasion back in August 2003 when a sizeable group of Newcastle United suporters were hosted at the British Ambassador’s residence in Belgrade. What happened was this. Newcastle United FC were in town to play a Champions League qualifying match against Partizan Belgrade. […]
