The G20 Summit in Australia ends. The assembled leaders start the long flights home. The results are in the communique, a classic example of a dull, badly written, important text: We have agreed on a set of voluntary leading practices to promote and prioritise quality investment, particularly in infrastructure. To […]
This week I have been rummaging around in my memory to find examples of where I did some good media interviews, and where things went awry for some reason or another. As if by magic, one high-profile but short-lived mess returned to my life today. I find South African journalist Peter […]
My latest piece for DIPLOMAT wonders what happens when international borders start to melt: … some people think that borders are less and less important. This in turn seems to signify politically (or even morally) that within the European Union so-called nation states are less and less important. As perhaps […]
Here’s my latest piece at PunditWire, looking at President Obama’s UN speech (both substance and technique) and what it says about negotiating: Even the President of the United States drifts into the tritest clichés on such occasions: We come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and […]
Mulling over my latest piece for PunditWire I started to look at one of President Obama’s rhetorical tics: his use of the word ‘clear’. Take, for example, his 10 September statement on US policy towards ISIL/ISIS. Three hits! Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not “Islamic.” Our objective is […]
A reader has sent me this fascinating email with many points of historical interest (reproduced with his permission) on the general subject of ‘diplomatic asylum’ (and the Assange case): Dear Charles I’m a retired DS officer, who follows your website with interest. I enjoy what you say and how you […]
This ever-interesting subject is featured in my e-book, Speechwriting for Leaders. Coming to your tablets soon, I hope. Here’s part of what I say: How do you achieve that strong start? For a speechwriter it’s mainly about words. But a speaker engages an audience on many different levels simultaneously: eyes, […]
It’s always good when a Pope picks up one’s ideas and gives them mass appeal. Here is Pope Francis warning that a ‘piecemeal World War Three‘ may have already begun: “Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, […]
As regular readers know, for several years now I have been writing regular articles for London’s DIPLOMAT magazine. The general idea is to talk about diplomacy in a light-touch but accessible way, with ideas and themes of interest to both professional DIPLOMAT readers and anyone else who comes along. Here is […]
My latest Telegraph piece on Ukraine is up on the DT website: Russia’s “principled demands” are unchanged: that Ukraine stay independent of all “blocs”; that eastern areas of Ukraine get radical autonomy allowing them to have special economic relations with Russia; and that Ukraine kisses goodbye to Crimea. A settlement […]
