Intervention in Burma: Enough Idle Words
My search for truth in Burma began in a sleepy embassy in Vientiane, Laos, where I sat sweating on a patent leather sofa in a crumpled silk shirt and tie, pulling phony business cards from my wallet and lying through my teeth. It was two months after the monk-led anti-government uprisings of last September, and I had already been rejected a tourist visa twice in Hong Kong and Bangkok. I decided to hit the diplomatic backwaters with a different tack.
Britain in Europe: A Response to Anand Menon
I have a point of view about government and regulation which is shared by the majority of my fellow countrymen and women. There is too much government, it is too expensive and too prescriptive, and too much regulation which often achieves the opposite of what it sets out to achieve. The EU is guilty of imposing unnecessary and cumbersome rules and regulations on the UK.
India-Pakistan Relations: The Prospects for Peace
Will the twenty first century see a positive transformation of India-Pakistan relations? Over the past nine years, the question has elicited several optimistic answers. Alas, all but one of them are based on assumptions that are not only defective but downright dangerous.
Assessing the Legality of Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence
On February 17, 2008, the parliament of Kosovo declared Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. This essay considers whether the declaration of independence and the recognition by various states of that declaration can be justified under existing international law.
Will Power? Neoconservative Commentary of the Iraq Crisis
“The neoconservative way . . . is to put an enormous emphasis on the importance of will in confronting and changing the world. America is currently in as unfavorable a position as it is because, more than anything, of a failure of will . . . [I]t can overcome adverse circumstances and prevail again by the mobilization and determined exercise of will.” –Owen Harries
The UK Intelligence Community: Ineffective, Unethical and Unaccountable
The UK intelligence community continues to operate outside meaningful democratic control. Their cultures are self-perpetuating oligarchies, where mistakes are glossed over and repeated, and where questions and independent thought are discouraged. We deserve better.
The Civilian Surge: Liberal Foreign Policy, Intervention and the Internet
British foreign policy under the stewardship of David Miliband has maintained its universalist outlook but shifted its agenda from a distinctly top-down approach to a grassroots drive for what Miliband has called a ‘Civilian Surge’. This subtle shift is in part brought about by Miliband’s progressive liberal ideology but also by his interest in and support for new technology. But for all his enthusiastic rhetoric, is Miliband’s drive for a bottom-up approach to foreign policy the right one?
Shell, Nigeria and the Record Price of Oil
Although all oil companies operating in Nigeria have faced the same basic problems, Shell has acquired far and away the worst reputation, particular in the Niger Delta with minority ethnic groups. This stems from alleged exploitation of oil and gas resources and environmental pollution resulting partly from long term gas flaring. Indeed, the company’s activities have not only become central to the dysfunctional politics of the Niger Delta, but may be fuelling rising global oil prices.
Smile For the Camera: Prince Harry in Afghanistan
I have to wonder why it was so incredibly important that Prince Harry be sent to a war zone in the first place. I have nothing but respect for soldiers who face combat in the front lines of Afghanistan, Harry included. His desire to serve his country and make a difference in the world by putting himself in physical danger is admirably brave, just as it is for any other man or woman who signs up to do the job. However, Harry is not just any other man, no matter how desperately he wants to be considered this way.
The International Politics of Peak Oil
During the past decade a growing chorus of energy analysts has warned of the approach of “Peak Oil,” the time when the global rate of extraction of petroleum will reach a maximum and begin its inevitable decline. While there is some dispute as to when it will occur, there is none as to whether. The global peak is merely the cumulative result of production peaks in individual oilfields and in whole oil-producing nations.
