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
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Syria – myth and argument about non-intervention
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
Homerton and Hebdo: thoughts on violence in and from the margins
On Wednesday last week as the world knows, three men attacked the staff of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing twelve people and wounding eight. The night before a 17-year-old was murdered just off the high street in Homerton, east London, about 15 minutes’ walk from where I live. Continue reading
There could be a Russian key to progress at Geneva II
Two leading scholars of Russian policy have produced a fascinating and important analysis of how and why Russia might generate progress at the Geneva conference on Syria. Continue reading
Vladimir Putin saves West from its hubris
That is a headline I never thought I’d write, a sentiment I never expected to utter. Continue reading
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