A kind reader fairly deep in the former Soviet Union writes: Would be good to discuss your blog sometime. Interesting balance between being outraged/outrageous enough to stand out from the crowd and get people to read, and being sensible enough to matter Ha ha. Story of my life. It’s just […]
The agonies continue at the LSE over the fact that it took Libyan money. Here is the sensible memo which an unhappy Fred Halliday wrote on the subject in October 2009. It reads quite well now. Here briskly defending what New Labour did by way of opening up to Libya is […]
My old classmate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Jay Pollard, is still well and truly locked up for espionage. Mention his name at Fletcher and everyone looks away, nervously. What, was he here? Surely not. He never graduated? So how can he have been here? Yet there […]
Craig’s made a big effort to change his website. Here’s the result. Definitely a cleaner, sharper ‘look’, although some might wonder about his self-description: Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist The experts in such matters always say that it’s best to brand yourself in terms of what you do now and […]
The Guardian gives us a handy reminder on Uprising Etiquette: A senior member of Benghazi’s revolutionary council told Martin: "they were carrying espionage equipment, reconnaissance equipment, multiple passports and weapons. This is no way to conduct yourself during an uprising. Gaddafi is bringing in thousands of mercenaries to kill us, most […]
A meagre Guardian article by glum Lucy Mangan pulls together some disparate material to argue the case for International Women’s Day. This tended to be quite a big deal in communist Europe, featuring men generously buying flowers and chocolates for their women, then hoping to sit down to a good […]
Max Atkinson has been inviting readers to submit draft speeches for Doomed Dictators. Here are the seven entries, with three distinguished judges having to work out who wins. Of course it all depends quite how doomed the dictator thinks he (and it is usually a ‘he’) thinks he is. If […]
Remember the resounding spanking the Serbian legal authorities received in a London court over their attempt to extradite former Bosnian leader Ejup Ganic to Belgrade on war crimes charges? Now they are trying their luck in the Austrian courts. Former Yugoslav army general Jovan Divjak has been arrested in Austria on […]
Back in January Venetia van Kuffeler and I interviewed William Hague for DIPLOMAT magazine. Here’s the result. DIPLOMAT’s publishing lead-times mean that it is not a ‘news’ magazine. So we aimed at more general questions exploring the Foreign Secretary’s philosophy and instincts in his job. The interview took place when Tunisia was […]
Here is Poland’s Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski yesterday in Washington: Events in the Middle East show that we are fast entering a new phase in the spread of democracy, or at least a new pluralism. People living under dictatorships are finding out who they are. They are realising that the […]
