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 […]
With Ecuador set to make an announcement later today about Julian Assange and his bid for asylum (he currently is skulking in their Embassy in London) the BBC World Service have just interviewed me for some background on the way bids for ‘asylum’ in Embassies work in practice. I drew on my […]
Back from a week working in Vienna. Here is my piece for Telegraph Blogs on the London 2012 Olympics: … maybe I am following the wrong people but there was also a torrent of British abuse aimed at the Closing Ceremony on numerous counts. The songs were wrong: howls of […]
Off to Vienna for another Negotiation Skills masterclass for international officials involved in highly sensitive weapns inspections processes. Away all next week, so do not expect too much here. For something unusual to read in the meantime, look at this excellent piece by Mike D’Angelo about the famous jury drama movie 12 […]
Normal service may or not be resumed after the Olympic Games – I am hooked on all sorts of sports I never knew existed. Anyway, I previously have analysed Russian negotiating techniques: Russian negotiators aim to neutralise that approach by conveying a very different proposition: “It doesn’t matter how much […]
Here is a good interview with ex-Python and maestro traveller Michael Palin: "These days John Cleese seems increasingly unnerving, at least when viewed from a distance. Was he always like that?" "Something about John was always very unsettled, I felt. There was always something else he wanted to do. He […]
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 […]
I stir well clear of this one as I don’t know anything significant about it from first-hand experience. Here is a well-turned piece by Tom Phillips, my old colleague from the FCO and its handling of Balkan problems in 1999-2001 and then UK Ambassador to both Israel and Saudi Arabia. […]
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 […]
Fed up? Need a smile on your face and a new swing in your step? Sorted:
