Far from accepting the defeatist idea of different and inevitably rival ‘spheres of influence’ in Europe, the EU should use its one true serious advantage vis-a-vis Russia, namely far greater wealth and a far better example. Andrew Wilson captures it well: The most effective way of dealing with a newly-assertive […]
This posting on Russia/Kosovo/Georgia prompted a pointed comment from reader Will: Your article seems to be another in a series of lame attempts to minimize Russia’s responsibility for her actions in GA with a critique of the West’s Kosovo policies. Am I wrong on this? One point in which you […]
The Oxford Webware maestros are helping me liven things up a bit round here. So (within the frugal limits of my ability to recall how to do it) there could be easier YouTube links and more pictures now and again. Some people ask me, "Did you really have a Mini […]
Jaded as you must be by my extensive offerings on the Kosovo/Georgia/Russia saga, you might care to look at the related (and vigorous) thoughts of three other former FCO Ambassadorial colleagues: Sir Ivor Roberts: How can the West talk of the need to maintain an independent state’s territorial integrity and to refuse […]
Analysis/comment on Georgia/Russia gushes out. EU leaders meet tomorrow. Hence we have the latest UK positions as described by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and (today) Prime Minister Gordon Brown. These senior British statements are both alas inelegantly drafted. Who is preparing these texts for our leaders – and are they themselves […]
Welcome Instapundit readers. David Miliband puts forward the best available case for why the Kosovo precedent has no bearing on the Georgia case: Some argue that Russia has done nothing not previously done by Nato in Kosovo in 1999. But this comparison does not bear serious examination. Leave to one […]
I have opined about the Rules purporting to lay down what diplomats can and can’t say once they leave the FCO. See eg here. Now my former colleage Sir Edward Clay has reiterated his concerns about the FCO Rules: The rule requires former diplomats to consult about any proposed public […]
Russia has responded ingeniously to the argument that its forces should leave Georgia – by redefining Georgia! Having announced that Russia recognises the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, Moscow now can say that its troops on the ground in these territories are no longer in Georgia. Howzat? As and when needed […]
Prompted by Karadzic’s transfer to ICTY, here in the new issue of Total Politics is a piece from me on my encounters with two other Bosnian Serb leaders convicted by ICTY for crimes against humanity. What are these people like? Are they obvious monsters? If not that, at least patently weird? […]
This reads well: Imagine what modern Europe would look like now if Poland had the political status of Georgia, lying in some sort of political-moral twilight zone with former Soviet interests linked to the KGB having a far freer time to penetrate into that society and play games with Polish assets. As […]
