Meanwhile over at the ICJ the USA and Russia (and Spain and Finland) have been giving their views. The USA arguments are smooth, somehow rather personal and elegant (including a nice oblique reference to Sherlock Holmes – the dog which did not bark, from Silver Blaze). The Russians are more formalistic […]
Since Classic Communism (more or less) ended nearly twenty years ago, which country has done better, China or Russia? And why? Big Questions Big answers.
More on European Foreign Policy – and Physics (or maybe Maths). Take two tennis balls, A and B. A is twice the size of B. By which I mean that the diameter of A is twice the diameter length (the straight line across the widest part of the inside of the ball) of […]
The Advisory Opinion hearings at the International Court of Justice on the Serbia/Kosovo question have started. The curious thing about this one is the actual question which the ICJ is tasked by the UN General Assembly to address: Is the unilateral declaration of independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government […]
Here is a trenchant analysis of the tendency of Bosnia to split in two, written by Matthew Parish, a lawyer who has worked in the divided Bosnian city of Brcko and knows what he is talking about. His basic argument is that step by step Republika Srpska is heading towards […]
Look at it like this. In a city there’s a nice large green public park, where families and individuals stroll around happily. One day a group of leather-jacketed aggressive foul-mouthed types and some snarly dogs turn up and postion themselves prominently in one corner. This happens day after day. Gradually […]
When it comes down to it, what is a Blog? Not much more than personal musings, often with links to other websites which in one way or the other serve to reinforce the point one is trying to make. Some sites aim higher – to become places where intelligent people […]
Back from Berlin. Maybe I was in the wrong place on the night, but there seemed to be a remarkable number of road-blocks near the Brandenburg Gates to keep the public well back from the assembled global VIPs. By which I mean hundreds of yards away. A curious and depressingly […]
Former senior diplomat Sir Christopher Meyer is busy describing what he sees as a decline in the influence and technique of British diplomacy: New Labour’s obsessive reliance on the alchemy of consultants has infected much of Whitehall. The culture of targets, set by the Treasury, has acquired the madness and […]
A great diplomatic flurrying around the latest vote by the UN Human Rights Council in effect condemning Israel. The resolution passed seems to be this one. The resolution welcomed the earlier Goldstone report which condemned human rights abuses by Israel and Hamas alike. But it also contained a long list of condemnations […]
