Foreign Secretary David Miliband spells out the UK position on Georgia: The Georgian crisis is about more than vital issues of humanitarian need and rule of law over rule of force. It raises a fundamental issue of whether, and if so how, Russia can play a full and legitimate part […]
The commentaries on Georgia pour out. This one by John Bolton is sharp and good. Try this: The European Union took the lead in diplomacy, with results approaching Neville Chamberlain’s moment in the spotlight at Munich: a ceasefire that failed to mention Georgia’s territorial integrity, and that all but gave […]
Michael Binyon deploys chess metaphors to describe Russia’ s military push into Georgia: Vladimir Putin lost several pawns on the chessboard – Kosovo, Iraq, Nato membership for the Baltic states, US renunciation of the ABM treaty, US missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. But he waited. The trap was set in […]
Welcome Instapundit readers. While we Crawfs have been travelling the Georgia story has moved on, to the point where French President Sarkozy has been helping broker some sort of truce and possible peace plan. No end of commentaries too, of course, many dwelling on what this episode tells us […]
Richard Beeston and Edward Lucas both know what they’re talking about on Georgia. Both wonder if Georgian impulsiveness is not going to backfire. Lucas: It seems Russia is ready to hit back hard, in the hope of squashing the West’s pestilential protégé. In short, it looks more and more as […]
President Medvedev said Russia’s military aim was to force the Georgians to stop fighting: "Our peacekeepers and the units attached to them are currently carrying out an operation to force the Georgian side to [agree to] peace".
I swung by the FCO the other day to have a chat about Bosnia. The snappy desk officer dealing with this problem now is 24 or thereabouts. Let’s say she is 24. She was born in the year I was British Olympic Attache at the Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. She was […]
More on the feisty Report by the HoC Public Affairs Select Committee report which came down heavily on FCO rules purporting to limit what diplomats might say after they leave the Service. Craig Murray calls these regulations ‘near-fascistic’: The idea, of course, is that only the ministers’ version of truth will […]
The House of Commons Public Affairs Select Committee has now given its thoughts on the FCO/Cabinet Office rules – tightened after the Craig Murray and Sir Christopher Meyer books – on what diplomats can (or not) say after they leave the Service. Their view: … the results do indeed appear […]
The role (if any) played by former diplomats in public life depends to quite a degree on how – and how far – they draw on their extensive and unique experiences in the Diplomatic Service. So, questions. What are the limits if any on what they can say publicly about […]
