Category Archives: Conflict & peace

Stockholm – City of my dreams, City in the world

Posted on April 24, 2017 | Leave a comment

On Friday 7 April, a man stole a truck in central Stockholm and drove it into a crowd on Drottninggatan, a pedestrianised street and major shopping area. He killed four people. A suspect has been arrested. Meanwhile the life of Stockholm continues. Here I offer a few personal reflections. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Conflict & peace, Resilience

Tagged , ,

Is the US preparing to engage on two fronts?

Posted on April 12, 2017 | Leave a comment

It has been a disturbing few days. On Tuesday 4 April, Syrian aircraft allegedly used nerve gas against civilians. On Thursday 6, the US responded by attacking Syrian forces for the first time. On Friday 7, there was a truck attack in central Stockholm, the city’s  first terror incident since December 2010. On Saturday 8, a US naval task force set out for northeast Asia to  strengthen US sea power near the Korean peninsula. A small bomb was discovered in Oslo. On Sunday 9, nearly 50 people died from bomb attacks at two churches in the Nile delta.

Amid the uncertainties of the time, it’s worth asking if the US is about to get engaged in armed conflict on two fronts. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Conflict & peace, The Middle East, Trump,

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

European security in its winter of discontent

Posted on February 22, 2017 | Leave a comment

This year’s Munich Security Conference was held amid an atmosphere of deep foreboding. It became a meeting that was not so much about western security as about the West itself. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Conflict & peace

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

The international security conference tell

Posted on November 1, 2016 | 1 comment

And so to Beijing, as I might write in the diary I don’t keep, for the Seventh Xiangshan Forum, a big day-and-a-half conference on international security affairs. It is the third such event I have been to this year – first Munich, then Moscow and now Beijing. In some ways quite similar yet also very different, what can be gleaned from each? Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Conflict & peace

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

Whither Peace?

Posted on September 21, 2016 | 4 comments

Today is the UN International Day of Peace and it comes at a time when many people seem to feel peace is taking a horrible worldwide kicking. Is it so bad? Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace, Uncategorized

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

Syria – myth and argument about non-intervention

Posted on September 7, 2016 | 7 comments

Last week an article in the Washington Post stirred what seemed like quite a Twitter buzz, lamenting the effects of “the disastrous nonintervention in Syria“. The article is angry and vivid about the misery and destruction wrought by war in Syria. It blames the war’s continuation largely on the US deciding not to intervene in the war. It is an argument that could become influential so it’s worth examining. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in Conflict & peace, The Middle East, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

European security. Crisis? What crisis?

Posted on February 18, 2016 | 1 comment

The tone of this year’s Munich Security Conference – the Davos of global security – was captured by the Munich Security Report’s theme: ‘Boundless chaos, reckless spoilers, helpless guardians.’ The front page headline on The Security Times, a conference special edition from the stable of Die Zeit, featured a box of matches and urged an appropriate response: ‘Don’t do stupid stuff.’ Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Conflict & peace

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