UPDATE This piece below (“Short, pithy, packed with more wisdom than you find in bloviations ten times the length”) has been picked up by the Browser Here is my latest piece over at Commentator, looking at the startlingly poor performance by a clueless State Department spokeswoman when asked to […]
This is to let everyone know that ADRg Ambassadors LLP is now renamed The Ambassador Partnership LLP with a completely new (and simpler) website. Basically, after I left the FCO and qualified as a professional mediator, the idea emerged of setting up a new and unique distinguished panel of ambassador-mediators. […]
Here I am again, this time quoted in the Daily Telegraph on the always interesting subject of Balkan apologies: Charles Crawford, a former British ambassador to Belgrade, said the language used by Mr Nikolic represented a drastic change from his previous questioning of the scope of the atrocity. Coming a […]
Over at PunditWire my latest piece, this time on how to use subtle framing and reframing skills of the sort used by mediators to create a subtle bad smell around people and policies you don’t like, all the while pretending you’re being reasonable and objective: Framing is all around us […]
Here’s my Commentator piece on that important Serbia/Kosovo/EU deal. Thus: Kosovo did better on symbolism than substance. It won agreement that Serbian officials in the municipalities concerned would henceforth be paid by Pristina, not Belgrade, and come under Pristina’s overall legal and political authority. And by the very fact of […]
Have a look at this magnificent AJ interview from late 2011 with Jin Liqun, head of China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. The whole thing is impressive for Jin Liqun’s steely logic and sense of effortless authority. But it moves into overdrive at 11.40 or so when he starts to talk about […]
Many years ago when I was at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy I had an American friend call Jim Wasserstrom, a lively quirky character. And he is continuing to be lively and quirky, to the point taking on the United Nations and its policies on people who reveal […]
You have to hand it to George Soros. When he goes for it, he hits the target big. Look at this speech arguing that the introduction of Eurobonds is by far the best way to solve the Eurozone’s (and EU’s existential crisis). I myself have no idea what a Eurobond […]
I find myself taking a fleeting interest in the goings-on at UNESCO as the time comes round to choose a new Director-General. Never a dull moment there – it is an especially ‘politicised’ UN body. Try this punchy piece about the way the Obama Administration may be manoeuvring to get […]
The FT has an interesting but perhaps rather mischievous piece (££) by Kishore Mahbubani (distinguished dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore) that argues for President Obama learning from centuries of wise diplomatic practice by ‘picking up the phone’ to talk […]
