With Ecuador set to make an announcement later today about Julian Assange and his bid for asylum (he currently is skulking in their Embassy in London) the BBC World Service have just interviewed me for some background on the way bids for ‘asylum’ in Embassies work in practice. I drew on my […]
Here is my latest piece at Telegraph Blogs: Our Ambassador to the United Nations Sir Mark Lyall-Grant has come out strongly against this further Russia/Chinese veto: “Russia and China are failing in their responsibilities as permanent members, they are failing the people of Syria … The effect of their actions […]
The Browser points us to an interesting interview with Sophie Ratcliffe on PG Wodehouse: It’s the quality of his style and his jokes. For instance, “She came leaping towards me like Lady Macbeth coming to get first hand news from the guest room.” Or, “[He] clasped her to his bosom, […]
DIPLOMAT magazine has had a snazzy website upgrade. One result appears to be that for the time being you can’t find work by contributor (eg me) now. You have to scroll through each issue to see what has been posted on the site. Action is in hand to change that, I […]
I have not been writing much here or anywhere else. Too busy trying to survive and attending the latest Oxford Programme on Negotiation event. Last night BBC reporter and troubleshooter Lyse Doucet gave a spirited talk to the Programme about international mediation. I of course disagreed with quite a lot […]
Over in the USA an extraordinary and horrible trial has ended with a cascade of Guilty verdicts for Penn State University’s former football coach Jerry Sandusky on 45 separate accounts of abusing young boys. As Sandusky trudges off to what may not be a happy rest of his life in […]
Back in distant 2008 I wrote about the vile N-word: What is the precise mechanism which makes people start to talk in arch post-modern jargon? Like this: Labour needs to provide a convincing new narrative if left-of-centre politics are to remain the driving force in Britain. Or this: Mr Brown […]
I have linked here before to various wonderful stories and insights by Ray Bradbury who died this week after a long life of writing genius. The appreciations pour forth. Here is a nice one. Here is a rare example on the Internet of a full short story by him: ‘No […]
DIPLOMAT magazine’s website now has my recent article on this subject. It starts with a story: Back in 1997 Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Bosnia. I accompanied him on the plane from Banja Luka to Sarajevo. During the journey the Prime Minister asked what had happened to his idea that […]
As you know, this blog takes the view that in a globalised world a terrorist threat to the networks that support modern life are a threat to us all. And that international law doctrines of self-defence and ‘national sovereignty’ need to be redefined accordingly: if a state wants the benefit of modern […]
