I reappear after weeks of running around the planet from one place to the next. We are putting together a bid for Media Skills training for senior international officials. An interesting issue in all media training is how best to understand/practise the many different sorts of interview that you can […]
Russia has decided once again to line itself up with absurd and offensive positions by vetoing the Srebrenica resolution in the UN Security Council. Here is what looks to be the final text. Most of it is the usual rather convoluted language of UN-speak recalling and noting earlier positions. I […]
My latest piece for DIPLOMAT magazine, this time on diplomatic training. What exactly do up-and-coming diplomats need to know? In May, I joined international experts pondering such questions at the seventeenth Dubrovnik Diplomatic Forum. Professor Joseph Mifsud of the London Academy of Diplomacy wisely reminded us all of The Ambassadors, […]
The 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacres during the Bosnia conflict is prompting renewed interest in what happened and why. To mark the occasion the UK government has tabled a draft UN Security Council resolution on the issue. The current UK Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edward Ferguson, explains the […]
Thoughts by me from 2010 that are no longer up on the Internet. They read quite well now. Are ‘capitalism’ and free choices inherently moral or immoral? That debate drones on. We now are forced to distinguish between ‘justice’ and ‘social justice’, where the latter is said to trump the […]
Over at Kurir in Serbia a few days they kindly ran an interview with me about current ex-Yugoslav goings-on. Here’s the original (Serbian). And Here’s the full transcript in English as I sent it to them. Note that the opening questions are getting to the assertion that the UK-sponsored UNSC resolution on […]
The Greece referendum is generating all sorts of fascinating writing about Life and Diplomacy. The issues are deliciously complicated. Where to direct most derision? So many fat targets to choose from. Feckless Greek socialists? Mean German technocrats? Clueless top EU bullies? The bloated pretensions of More Europe? Technical blunders in […]
Back again. Here’s my latest Commentator piece, on the Greek referendum: Greece has long been seen as a disaster waiting to happen, and that disaster is now happening. Greece for far too long (a) has spent beyond its means, but worse (b) has not invested borrowed money wisely, and worst […]
In case you have been missing me, I have been on the road. First at this year’s Dubrovnik Diplomatic Forum in Croatia. Then back at IAEA (in Vienna) on Leadership Skills. Dubrovnik is of course splendid, if not quite as affordable as it used to be. As for the Forum, the event […]
Here is a piece I have written for the Gatestone Institute on the basic message that we need to be sending Islamist extremists in general and ISIS/ISIL (or whatever their latest acronym is) in particular: Anything can be analysed indefinitely. Policy papers, strategy documents, roadmaps, risk management assessments, spreadsheets of […]
