Back in October in reviewing Craig Murray’s book I discussed the problem of the insecure communications he had: Basically (as I understand it), he did not have a Confidential email system. He did have an Unclassified FCO email system (which in Tashkent’s circumstances could not have been regarded as secure) […]
Assorted Crawfs are having a few days away from it all in the Algarve: The Algarve. Think of the Algarve and you think of sunshine breaks and relaxing holidays. You imagine golden beaches on the coast of calm sea waters, sun-kissed tourists relaxing and sampling the delights that this wonderful […]
The United States’ policy towards Cuba has failed. So says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And she should be in a good position to know, as her husband presided over this failing policy for eight years. Meanwhile equally ailing and failing Fidel Castro wants the USA to go even […]
Here is another heavy and pessimistic analysis of Russia’s gloomy demographics: A specter is haunting Russia today. It is not the specter of Communism—that ghost has been chained in the attic of the past—but rather of depopulation—a relentless, unremitting, and perhaps unstoppable depopulation. The mass deaths associated with the Communist era […]
President Obama has called for a world free of nuclear weapons. But he accepts that it might not happen in his lifetime. Why it is so difficult to scale back these systems once they are there? Basically, nuclear weapons are ghastly because they can not be used on any scale […]
Yesterday I was at Trent College near Nottingham to give a talk to pupils on Great Negotiations of Our Time, namely: The Individual v The Collective Knowledge v Belief Today v Tomorrow By way of elucidation for their educational edification I managed to squeeze in Mr Incredible, the Joker, Clint […]
Anne Applebaum says that the Obama/Clinton reset button for US/Russia relations is not working: Anyone who doubts the truth of this need only look at remarks Lavrov himself made last weekend in Brussels … The transcript of his remarks, and those of other Russians attending the same conference, do not capture […]
In the second half of 2011 Poland holds the EU Presidency for the first time. To get you in the swing of Poland and the EU, here is a new blog by my friend the excellent Polish Gazeta journalist Dominika Pszczólkowska: Poland in the EU. The point about reading Blogs […]
Here is a reasonable-sounding assessment by Jonathan Freedland of the early days of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy: That same official explained it to me like this yesterday: "The Bush administration hindered its own efforts by tying one hand behind its back. Diplomacy is a tool, but they viewed it […]
My former boss Sir Emyr Jones Parry was put forward to be the new High Representative in Bosnia. But there seems to be a problem. The Russians are unhappy with him, plus the Americans are unhappy with another EU candidate Valentin Inzko from Austria. Poor Bosnia. And Herzegovina. And indeed poor […]
