Another row between Moscow and Kiev over energy prices and supplies: Crippled by the financial crisis, Ukraine is struggling to pay off hundreds of millions of pounds in debt for Russian gas it bought earlier in the year. At the same time, Ukraine – which carries 80 per cent of […]
The UN Security Council has supported a plan for the deployment of the EULEX mission in Kosovo. Belgrade is happy, since the planned deployment is ‘status neutral’, ie it does not give in principle (and practice?) any encouragement to the idea that Kosovo is now independent. Which is why various […]
A reader asks: Do you approve of the current US and UK policy to appease nationalist Albanian threats of violence? There may be people out there who do not follow the Kosovo problem with close attention. Just to remind them that the long-running attempt to the EU’s bright young Laura […]
The Pedant General makes an observation on my posting about the Four Attributes of Economic Success: I think you have still missed one thing. Whilst the rule of law is the essential underpinning without which none of the four political aspirations can take root, the rule of law will not […]
As world leaders grapple with rival ideas for tackling the global financial crisis, keep an aghast eye on what the EU under France is up to in redefining European security. President Sarkozy and President Medvedev have come up with a proposal to hold a major OSCE summit in mid-2009 aimed at […]
Russia, says the Guardian, is opting for a charm offensive to try to see off the deployment of sophisticated US missile defence systems in Poland and Czech Republic. It did not take long for the Obama team to encounter the complexities of Poland and points East: President-elect Obama has spoken […]
The subject of the massive KAP aluminium works in Montenegro is always fascinating. It is a huge plant by the standards of tiny Montenegro, hence its fortunes (or otherwise) weigh heavily on the local political mind. And because aluminium production requires colossal amounts of electricity, the problems of pushing that […]
And here is Edward Lucas castigating the latest EU signs of ‘moving on’ following the Russian dismemberment of Georgia, not least the UK position: Britain’s decision to allow France to lead the European Union back into normal relations with Vladimir Putin’s ex-KGB regime in Russia is one of the most […]
Insofar as anyone thinks about it all these days, the UN just sort of ’emerged’ after WW2, at that conference in San Francisco, didn’t it? Dan Plesch at SOAS has been looking deep into the history of those times and is pulling together a goodly bunch of fascinating material showing […]
Foreign policy is – at root – simple. Identify a clear and fair-minded position. Then use all available sticks and carrots to pursue it. And don’t give up quickly, lest you lose impetus and credibility. Thus one might think that Russia’s August power-play to slice off parts of a fellow […]
