Most readers of this website are interested in one way or another in ‘foreign affairs’. As I have described on different occasions here, the heart of international diplomacy is the state. That idea in its modern form emerged from the Peace of Westphalia. Here are some passages from my 2009 […]
Wearing my ADRg Ambassadors hat I was in London on Tuesday to give a workshop to a prominent law firm on The Psychology of Negotiation. The people who attended spend much of their time drafting the legal clauses needed to give effect to deals already done or in prospect. They nonetheless […]
In 1969, in her seminal work On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross eloquently detailed the five stages of dying – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance. It remains one of the most important contributions to our understanding of the final phase of life and will do much to explain […]
A few years back I joined a seminar organised in the margins of a FCO Leadership Conference in London. The discussion focused on global trends. A striking observation was made: “in the past ten years or so we have seen one of the greatest changes in human history–a billion people […]
Update Apologies for the earlier version – struggling with new voice recognition software… The chaotic rule of Col Gaddafi looks to have ended in predictable, chaotic circumstances. Contradictory reports are flooding in about what exactly has happened to Gaddafi, but it looks pretty safe to bet that something Pretty Bad […]
Foreign Secretary William Hague is trying to sort out the FCO after years of studied neglect by Labour. Here is his recent speech which describes the problems quite well (albeit in general terms) and sets out a plan for putting things right. Especially encouraging is his emphasis on basic technique. […]
Articles pour out about the mounting problems in Greece. Homelessness, drugs, shops shutting, psychological despair, political alienation, emigration, suicide, and the rest. Such as this one in the Guardian: A new underclass has appeared: in the homeless and hungry who roam the streets; in the spiralling number of drug addicts; in […]
A former FCO colleague gets in touch: I’ve always enjoyed your telegrams when you were in the FCO and your blog since. Best compliment I ever got from a boss in the FCO was that I was the second best on paper he had encountered, after you! The legend lives on.
I am entranced not only by the sound of my voice, but also by the sight of it. Here once again is my contribution to the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, describing my long and ever-fascinating diplomatic career. Many points of interest here, including on South Africa’s not-so-peaceful transition away from […]
One of the interesting things about the parts of Europe East of Berlin is the way ‘Western’ ideologies are there but still have only shallow roots. Sexism rears its ugly head! Male politicians on all parts of the political spectrum just can’t resist making remarks which (they think) show them […]
