In the margins of an FCO Leadership Conference (gathering of Ambassadors and top brass) a couple of years back a presentation on world economic trends was made. In it a Big Point was made by a passing expert. That a colossal new process was unfolding with great speed, namely the […]
Once upon a time telephone calls went down specific lines; a ‘switchboard’ was a large, er, board at which an operator sat switching plugs to and fro into holes to connect individual people. That got automated. Calls became cheaper and cheaper. Then along came computers. Then the Internet. Based on (very cool) packet-switching […]
Talking of education, President Obama’s idea of exhorting America’s children to work hard via a nationwide address to schools is (of course) encountering resistance as did a similar initiative by President Bush in 1991: … Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson […]
As many senior international dignitaries gather in Gdansk today to commemorate the start of WW2, Russian Prime Minister Putin (one of the guests) has written an open letter to Poland to give a clear and (as of now) definitive Russian view on the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. Here is the Russian official […]
A youthful Crawf asks me what I make of the sending to Libya of the ‘Lockerbie bomber’. Very difficult to say, because it’s a fiendishly long and complicated story about which I know next to nothing on the inner detail. My only professional diplomatic encounter with Libya came on the […]
Most of the noise generated by Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s observations on a BBC Great Lives radio programme has been linked to his words on terrorism: Asked by presenter Matthew Parris whether there were any circumstances in which terrorism was justified, Mr Miliband said: ‘Yes, there are circumstances in which […]
There have been strong reactions in ‘Western’ capitals to the latest punishment handed out to Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, the key effect of which is to stop her running in the next round of national elections. Malaysia too is dismayed. President Sarkozy and the British government are talking […]
A well-turned piece by Carne Ross (Independent Diplomat) taking up the release by North Korea of the two American journalists on the problems facing diplomats as and when hostages are grabbed: Even Bill Clinton’s harshest critic should celebrate this rescue as triumphant and humane. But as the women’s families breathe […]
It has come to this. I am transformed from a hoplessly progressive Guardian reader into hopelessly progressive Guardian writer. My Response to Timothy Garton Ash’s recent article about Michal Kaminski has appeared. The article as I drafted it for the paper has been tweaked by Guardian HQ in certain respects for unclear […]
I have been struggling with my paper on military/civilian cooperation in ‘fragile states’. It is easy to think that the whole business is hopeless. It is just not possible in the short time-scales we all can cope with these days to work out how best to achieve Stability while maintaining Legitimacy. Not […]
