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 […]
Back in 1984/85 I was on the FCO’s Aviation Desk for a year, working mainly on Transatlantic air services issues (who could fly when and where and for how much), and in particular on the diplomatic ramifications of Freddie Laker’s antitrust lawsuit against British Airways and other carriers. The core […]
There are three problems in Diplomacy. What you think about a problem. What you should do about it. And what you can do about it. So what the British Government think about the continuing Russian official pressure on the British Council is clear enough. But some commentators are saying that […]
Diplomats and the media like to talk a lot about Stability. Stability is good, instability is not. They maybe have a point. Not much good usually comes out of heavy political instability. Unless it is the overthrow of a bad regime or dictator, in which case it is not instability […]
