Reader Willie Garvin asks (via my previous post): How many of the 47 states that have recognised Kosovo as independent have done so for reasons other that the belief it was the right thing to do for the region and international relations in general? I mean, how many Croatias are […]
A long report by the ‘European Council on Foreign Relations’ describes how the EU is losing ground at the UN in terms of mobilising support from other countries for votes on human rights issues. A summary is here. See also the Guardian account. The general problem? Thus: "The EU is suffering […]
My previous piece on the ECFR Report about the EU’s growing ineffectuality at the UN quoted this: … The assembly kicked off this week in New York with the west bracing itself for another debacle. Serbia is to use the session to demand a vote on the "illegality" of the secession […]
I previously linked to Christopher Hitchens and Michael Totten analysing why the Kosovo case is quite different from the cases of either S Ossetia or Abkhazia, rendering spurious/dishonest Russia’s recognition of the latter two as new states. Here for good measure is former US Ambassador to Zagreb and Belgrade, my friend Bill […]
Sometimes being an Ambassador is excruciatingly painful. Back in 2006 the marvellous Croatian Ambassador in Warsaw Nebojsa Koharovic hosted a group of us to watch Croatia play England. I was given a front-row seat as Ambassadorial Guest of Honour. It was not going well, with Croatia a goal up. Then […]
Christopher Hitchens back in February tried to build the case that Kosovo was never ‘internationally recognised as part of Serbia’: [After WW1] legal instruments agreed between [Yugoslavia and the no-less-new state concept calling itself republican Turkey] recognized Belgrade’s sovereignty over Kosovo, but solely in the sense that they recognized Belgrade as […]
This posting on Russia/Kosovo/Georgia prompted a pointed comment from reader Will: Your article seems to be another in a series of lame attempts to minimize Russia’s responsibility for her actions in GA with a critique of the West’s Kosovo policies. Am I wrong on this? One point in which you […]
Jaded as you must be by my extensive offerings on the Kosovo/Georgia/Russia saga, you might care to look at the related (and vigorous) thoughts of three other former FCO Ambassadorial colleagues: Sir Ivor Roberts: How can the West talk of the need to maintain an independent state’s territorial integrity and to refuse […]
Prompted by Karadzic’s transfer to ICTY, here in the new issue of Total Politics is a piece from me on my encounters with two other Bosnian Serb leaders convicted by ICTY for crimes against humanity. What are these people like? Are they obvious monsters? If not that, at least patently weird? […]
Welcome Instapundit readers. While we Crawfs have been travelling the Georgia story has moved on, to the point where French President Sarkozy has been helping broker some sort of truce and possible peace plan. No end of commentaries too, of course, many dwelling on what this episode tells us […]
