Tag Archives: Bush

Obama, 1 year in: flaws aren’t failure – but there are new risks in policy towards Iran

Posted on February 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

President Barack Obama has handed himself his sharpest challenge yet: a year of showing his unclenched fist to Iran has produced nothing and now he is toughening up his stance with a missile shield for the US naval forces in the Gulf. What will this do to his presidency? There was so much hope and much of that energy remains, even if it is not being so effectively tapped, but in confronting Iran, might Obama seriously lose his way?

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conflict & peace, Power

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

Obama in power (13): is the war in Afghanistan a Just War?

Posted on December 15, 2009 | 2 Comments

President Obama used the occasion of his Nobel lecture as he accepted the 2009 Peace Prize in Oslo on 10 December to defend the idea that war can be a legitimate means of upholding the larger peace, and specifically to argue that the US and allied war effort in Afghanistan is a just war.  Did he convince? Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace

Tagged , , , , , ,

Copenhagen: time to re-think? Or just keep thinking!

Posted on December 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

As thousands of negotiators, activists, diplomats, scientists, politicians and journalists start pouring into Copenhagen for the climate summit – formally said, the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – the question has been raised whether we should want them to succeed or fail. Which, of course, begs the next question: what is success at Copenhagen?

So is Copenhagen not the time to seal a new climate deal after all? Is it time for a re-think? My own view is that it’s best never to stop thinking, then you don’t have to make the effort to start up again. Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Climate change, Conflict & peace, International development

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Adapting to failure in Copenhagen

Posted on November 6, 2009 | 3 Comments

It’s official. A new treaty on mitigating and adapting to climate change will not be agreed at the Copenhagen conference in December. So now we have to mitigate the impact of that failure and at the same time adapt to it. Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Climate change

Tagged , , , , ,

Obama in power (10): Cairo – brilliant speech but that awkward question persists

Posted on June 6, 2009 | 2 Comments

President Obama’s speech in Cairo on 4 June offers further evidence of his unrivalled communication skills and of his will and capacity to address thorny issues by reframing and reshaping them in a way that offers new openings for change and improvement. As an opening to the Muslim world, is it possible to imagine an American president doing better given the realities in which he works? For many of the issues he raised, the question is if interlocutors and counterparts will step forward able to use the opportunities he is creating. And over Israel and Palestine, that is a familiar and awkward question. Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace, Power

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Obama in power (9): To strengthen peace in the Middle East, the first big step is in the US

Posted on June 1, 2009 | Leave a comment

It’s a big week for US policy and the Middle East, a defining moment for the Obama administration’s impact. What happens this week will not alone be enough to achieve regional cooperation with the US on peace and security but, if it goes wrong, that will be enough to make that cooperation next to impossible for several years again.  Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conflict & peace, Power

Tagged , , , , ,

Britain’s international standing

Posted on May 23, 2009 | 2 Comments

 Ever since the end of the British empire, some of us British have been pondering and picking over the question of what is our place in the world. For the British, it is so much part of the condition of being British that for the most part we don’t realise we’re doing it and, when it’s pointed out to us, we assume that it’s simply part and parcel of having a national identity. But it’s not. And our obsession with it says something about us. As our Parliament merrily implodes before our eyes, the question is coming back again but in the end the answer may be surprisingly banal. Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Power

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

Obama in power (6):policies clarifying, pattern still hazy

Posted on April 16, 2009 | 3 Comments

By the time Obama was inaugurated, he had promised so much, there was a risk that he could only disappoint. Let’s not get too carried away in these tough times, but there is some much needed good news: perfect his administration is not, but the first signs in foreign policy are far from negative. This extended post surveys the key issues. Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Climate change, Conflict & peace, Power, The economic crunch

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

G-20 summit: Brown revives Blair’s old Euro-Atlantic dream

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

So Gordon Brown went to Strasbourg and told the European Parliament that the EU is uniquely placed to provide world leadership in the economic crisis. Is this the Gordon Brown who deliberately avoided EU ministerial meetings and designed impassable tests the UK economy had to pass if he was to let it join the Euro? Why the change? Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in G-20 London summit, Power, The economic crunch

Tagged , , , , ,

Climate change, conflict and development – under discussion

Posted on March 13, 2009 | 2 Comments

This is a key year for climate change  policy, leading up to the summit in Copenhagen in December, which has the task of coming up with the ”post-Kyoto” climate agreement. With the obscurantism of Bush replaced by the energy and commitment of the still new Obama administration, hopes are high though obstacles are many. As part of its preparations for the year ahead, on Thursday 12th the UK Foreign Office held a workshop at London School of Economics on climate security. Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Climate change, Conflict & peace, International development, Power

Tagged , , , , ,