Back in 2009 I wrote two hefty pieces here about ICTY and its role in bringing to justice Balkans war crimes suspects. This one, on the occasion of the viewing of a film Storm: I said that in this sense the film had done a good job, bringing out a […]
The arrest of Radovan Karadžić back in 2008 prompted me to write at some length about him and his life and times. See here. Two pieces read nicely now. This one: Karadžić looks to have been a second-rate romantic who became improbably entangled in Bosnian nationalist politics and then was […]
The news crashes in of the latest terrorist attacks in Europe, this time in Brussels. Earlier this morning I read this piece by George Friedman about ‘illiberal democracy’ in Poland and Hungary: The point is that liberal democracy as a principle of government has a vast array of possible configurations. […]
Remember my adventures in 2014 with the NHS? And before that in 2011? I am back in the mysteries of the NHS again, this time visiting an elderly close relative. Hence not much blogging of late. Back in 2014: The information management problems for hospitals are formidable. At each stage […]
Here’s a link to the original documents comprising the UK/EU ‘settlement’ that are the basis for PM David Cameron now campaigning for a Yes vote. So, question. Is the settlement ‘legally binding’? Yes! says Mr Cameron. No! says the Brexit tendency. A highly simplified analysis of this question is given by the BBC: The Vienna Convention on the Law of […]
Battle is joined. In the coming weeks the bemused UK public will mull over the pros and cons of the UK’s EU membership, and then give their view in a fateful referendum in June. As US ambassador-poet James Russell Lowell put it in the C19: Once to every man and […]
Here’s my latest piece for DIPLOMAT magazine, on global security or not. It starts with a quote immediately familiar to diligent readers here: WHO SAID THIS (the answer is at the end of this piece)? “Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos … Oh, and you […]
Here is my piece over at Commentator about the emerging ‘settlement’ on the UK’s relationship with the European Union: Even under benign conditions it is next to impossible within the EU to have a limited and controlled treaty renegotiation. Different member states queue up to press their respective cases for […]
The Hillary Clinton Ship of Destiny sails on, despite gaping Emailgate holes appearing above and below the waterline. Back in August last year I wrote about her already ghastly email problems: So for me the very fact that Hillary Clinton set up a parallel substantive private email arrangement for much […]
Remember my football negotiation thoughts on the sundry attempts by Tottenham Hotspur FC to buy Saido Berahino last year? That possibility rumbles on in the 2016 UK winter ‘transfer window’, a month when clubs can buy or sell players mid-season to try to improve their chances in the coming race […]
