England’s riots: If the UK were a fragile state…

Posted on August 15, 2011 | 8 Comments

Last week, rioting and looting gripped England. At a time when many people are feeling in one way or another bad about our country, it seemed salient (and perhaps inevitable) to ask, if the UK were a fragile state, how would we approach the events of last week, their aftermath and the future? Continue reading →

→ 8 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace, Riots

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Libya: the (next) moment of decision is approaching

Posted on July 6, 2011 | 1 Comment

When intervention in Libya was being discussed in Britain a few months back, the key ethical argument was the dual claim of the urgency of doing something and impossibility of standing by and doing nothing. After the first 2-3 weeks, it became clear even to passionate advocates of intervention that the issue was more complicated than that. Continue reading →

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Conflict & peace

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

What’s conflict?

Posted on June 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

Students in the Master of Fine Arts course at Slade, University College London, have put together a collection of their work. They chose the theme of conflict and all the pieces reflect on it in one way or another. The collection ranges from internal conflict to open war, from the personal to the political and back again. They asked me to write a foreword and as a result I had (the opportunity) to think about some things from the bottom up. Here is what I wrote: Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conflict & peace

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The world is not prepared for climate-related conflict

Posted on April 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

A recent meeting at DFID brought together a number of people from different government departments, NGOs and research centres to discuss some of the under-discussed aspects of the climate/security links. Laurie Goering captured the essence of the discussion in this AlertNet article.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Climate change, Conflict & peace

Tagged ,

Libya and the fog of intervention

Posted on April 10, 2011 | 6 Comments

The three weeks of what has become NATO’s armed intervention in Libya have generated far more questions than anyone could hope to answer. The uncertainties by no means overwhelm the case for intervention but they do add immediacy to the reservations expressed by the doubters and sceptics. Continue reading →

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The work of peacebuilding

Posted on April 7, 2011 | 1 Comment

The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars was kind enough to interview me about the work of International Alert recently when I was visiting Washington. I think they edited the material very effectively to produce a quite effective summary account of some of the work and issues of peacebuilding.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Conflict & peace, International development

Tagged ,

Intervention in Libya? A case of shooting slowly from the hip

Posted on March 10, 2011 | 7 Comments

Only ten days ago, when UK Prime Minister David Cameron put up the flag for a no-fly zone over Libya, nobody saluted. Now the British and French are drafting a UN Security Council Resolution. After all, you cannot just sit and watch the dictator wield overhwelming force so he and his disgusting son can hang onto power and not think something should be done to stop him.

True enough – but you should think very, very carefully about what can and should be done. Continue reading →

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace, Power

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,