Alas Canon Timothy Russ has died. Here is a fine obituary telling us about his fascinating life and deep historical interests: The question remained, however: who was the painter? The more Russ looked at the canvas, the more he became sure he knew the answer. It was not the “Lady” […]
Here I am again, this time quoted in the Daily Telegraph on the always interesting subject of Balkan apologies: Charles Crawford, a former British ambassador to Belgrade, said the language used by Mr Nikolic represented a drastic change from his previous questioning of the scope of the atrocity. Coming a […]
Here’s my Commentator piece on that important Serbia/Kosovo/EU deal. Thus: Kosovo did better on symbolism than substance. It won agreement that Serbian officials in the municipalities concerned would henceforth be paid by Pristina, not Belgrade, and come under Pristina’s overall legal and political authority. And by the very fact of […]
Back in Belgrade in communist Yugoslavia in 1984 or thereabouts, the then Ambassador and an unusually smart Ist Sec Econ pored over a diplomatic despatch that sought to draw attention to the dismal state of the state’s finances. The basic problem was that Yugoslavia did not have Honest Money. Yes, […]
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Here is the piece I wrote on the 8th anniversary. It mentions the proliferation of insane Serbian conspiracy theories somehow hinting that I was linked to the assassination and/or lobbied for the then Deputy Prime […]
Back in 1998/99 I was one of the first people to point out that Bosnia’s new post-war Constitution as promulgated by the Dayton Accords had a unique feature. The Constitution was unconstitutional! It included obviously discriminatory clauses working against the interests of many citizens who were denied the chance to […]
Back from the crazy dynamism of Hanoi to the somewhat less than crazy dynamism of rural Oxfordshire. While pulling together some pictures for a presentation next week on Moral Dilemmas in Diplomacy, I rummaged around in the Internet for images of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. I was the British […]
Here’s even more from me at TransConflict on the Metaphysics of Bosnia: Izetbegovic’s problem was real enough. If the Serbs, Croats and Muslims/Bosniacs retained their equal status as ‘constitutive peoples’ of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that allowed the Serb and Croat leaders an effective veto against the Muslims/Bosniacs, worked up in […]
Anyone reading this blog regularly will know my views on the Bosnia story and the underlying struggles it epitomizes. But as there is never enough of a good thing, here is a new longer piece from me over at TransConflict: Basically, Yugoslavia was a set of sui generis contradictory and […]
My piece over at Transconflict about Bosnia has attracted all sorts of the usual lively comments. Including the magnificent Owen: The stale odour of complacent Majorite neo-realism, sexed up with an intro of pure, ineffable Foreign Office superiority and disdain for lesser breeds Excellent! Then there’s several from bosniak-Radislav, which get […]
