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 […]
Greg Pytel (GP) returns, asking me to post a comment to my post below, which of course I have done. His further observations are interesting. I do not think it was fair to put up a running commentary (Especially as you well know that all I really wanted was to put […]
Derek Tonkin makes plenty more smart points in emails to me which he is pleased to see made available to a wider audience (edited and reorganised slightly by me for this format). See especially his wise concluding sentence. Thus: Sanctions In 1999 the UK Government completed a general study of […]
My mind turns to Myanmar/Burma (Burma hereinafter, as it’s shorter). A faraway country of which I know nothing. Burma is larger than Ukraine in geographical terms and (with some 50 million people) than Spain in population terms. So comfortably towards the top of global country rankings on both counts. But […]
You are probably wondering what is my finest piece of writing about diplomatic life. I ask myself that question. The answer is here. A description for DIPLOMAT magazine of the astonishing sub-culture of Diplomatic Barnacles, those primitive life-forms that cling tenaciously to the local Diplomatic Corps and can never be […]
Here is a YouTube conversation between me and Jennifer Hardie (CEO of Pinnacle Dubai) in which I discuss in general terms the Negotiation Skills course I completed with Pinnacle last week. The general idea is that you should see this magnificent training for what it is (namely magnificent) and sign […]
In a result unexpected by me at least (I am not following Serbia’s goings-on too closely these days, and the polls suggested that Tadic would win again) Tomislav Nikolic as leader of the Serbian Progressive Party has won Serbia’s Presidential Elections today by a clear nose, ousting former President Boris […]
Early tomorrow I head to Dubai, my first-ever visit there to give some workshops on Chairing, Negotiation and Cross-cultural Communication. Here’s a press release about it put out by the organisers, Pinnacle PR. If anyone out there wishes to get in touch with me while I am in Dubai next […]
Read this fascinating article about anti-semitism in Germany down the decades, and what factors have influenced it. A banquet of food for thought. But this point about the way Nazis were dealt with after WW2 by the Brits and Americans respectively caught my eye: If Germans could be influenced strongly […]
This a superb example of one form of Addictive Stupidity – people who have lulled themselves to sleep on the ambrosia of past glory, demanding that Reality apply to anyone but themselves, fine and upstanding New York Times journalists as they most certainly are. You’ll need a heart of stone not to […]
