After returning from Zagreb I hit the Eurostar to Brussels to join for the first time as a trainer a good CPDS training course aimed at improving the quality of political reporting and analysis produced by EU officials. In one exercise the participants had to draft an urgent short report about the implications of […]
One of the great words of our time is the Balkan/Turkish word ‘inat’. Most ‘Western’ diplomats and politicians dealing with the Balkans of course have never heard of it, even though those who know the region well regularly remind us of the force of inat Serb-style. Thus here. And here. […]
Boris Tadic has won Serbia’s Presidential elections, defeating the populist Radical Tomislav Nikolic by a close but clear margin on a high turn-out. Nikolic has conceded defeat in a dignified way. Tadic is making suitably polite noises about his opponent and his supporters. This is a powerful vote by Serbia […]
In Warsaw in 2006 I found my way to a Kraftwerk concert, complete with their hit The Man-Machine. When growing up I somehow missed out completely on the elusive Kraftwerk’s musical impact. The show was both artistically and philosophically fascinating. One highlight was observing one of the robotic (behold that […]
The rise and further rise of the so-called ‘Precautionary Principle’ (PP) – particularly when it comes to trying to assess the environmental impact of past and future human activity – is, some say, a defining moment in intellectual history: "the most radical idea for rethinking humanity’s relationship to the natural world […]
Climate Change. Is it happening? If it is happening is it because of humans? If so, is it all bad? And if it is all bad (or mainly bad), how to work out what we do can and wisely should do about it? What timescale counts? In my Civil Service […]
The success of Tomislav Nikolic in the Serbia Presidential elections first round vote ahead of current President Boris Tadic is no surprise. Points worth bearing in mind: Serbia is not that big a place (some 10 million people including the Kosovo population). Some four million people voted. Nikolic came in […]
The FCO like all British government departments these days emits profusely all manner of Targets, Strategies, Strategic Priorities, Objectives, Road-maps, Performance Indicators and the rest. Yet amidst all this feverish management-babble designed allegedly to measure and assess Outputs and Outcomes there is very little about one vital and time-consuming job […]
