You couldn't make this stuff up: Sens. John Kerry, Bob Corker, and Sheldon Whitehouse today announced the passage of their legislation to remove former South...
David Steven
David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.
Torture you? That’s a good idea. I like that.
The good news from today's World Public Opinion poll on torture? A majority of Americans oppose torture in all circumstances. The bad news? 31% believe that...
Alhurra – public diplomacy as black comedy
Alhurra - the Arab language TV station and America's most costly public diplomacy boondongle - has been regularly slagged off, but this superb report from Pro...
Bush’s war crimes
Day by day, it seems more likely that senior members of the Bush administration will be prosecuted for war crimes. There's a new report out on medical...
Flame-grilled whopper
Remember Curveball? The intelligence ‘source' who supplied ‘virtually all of the [US] Intelligence Community's information on Iraq's alleged mobile biological...
McCain: how many suicide attacks does he want?
I have nothing against John McCain. The man is a war hero. He has carved out a distinctive career as a political maverick. And his support for the surge in...
The new public diplomacy and Afghanistan
Last week, I gave a talk at the Defence Academy on the new public diplomacy, focusing in particular on its implications for Afghanistan. The full text is...
Treating Afghan men like boys
We all know the theory behind counter-insurgency - cultural sensitivity, force as a last resort, the patient exertion of influence etc - but the reality is...
Ramsay meets Ravi
In case, you missed Ravi Gurumurthy, David Miliband's speech writer, on the F-Word, you can watch the whole thing on C4 on demand (requires Internet Explorer,...
The new public diplomacy and Afghanistan
Speech by David Steven to the UK Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group seminar on Strategic Communications, Public Diplomacy and Afghanistan (4 June 2008).
Danish Embassy bombed
Commenting on today's 'cartoon bombing' in Islamabad, Pakistani blogger NB argues: Calling this an an attack on the Danish Embassy is a little misleading. It...
Miliband and the politics of scarcity
I am at the New America Foundation this morning, where David Miliband is due to 'discuss the challenge of promoting Western style liberalism, democracy, civil...
The transatlantic relationship – inward or outward-looking?
Yesterday's Brooking's event on the US and Europe (see this post) included three panels - one on the Presidential election; one on the French EU presidency;...
The art of not scoring own goals
I've been at the Brookings Institution in Washington today for its conference on the transatlantic relationship. In the chair, Daniel Benjamin, who runs...
De Mello died, Bush lied
Earlier today, I noted George Bush's cretinous and insulting claim that he had given up golf in solidarity with American soldiers who are dying in Iraq. The...
Bush gives up golf for UN, soldiers
No comment needed: For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has...
McCain and climate – trouble ahead
John McCain's out on the campaign trail today promoting his green credentials, but its clear that his climate change proposals would put a McCain...
Climate: after the euphoria
Yesterday I was at a roundtable on Europe and climate change, hosted by Jim Murphy, the UK's minister for Europe, with his French counterpart, Jean-Pierre...
The Advent of Geodiplomatics
One more post on last week's Transformational Public Diplomacy symposium (see the others here and here), where the most incisive presentation was given by Sir...
Technology and the new public diplomacy
Yesterday, I gave a couple of talks at a Diplomatic Academy of London conference on ‘transformational public diplomacy’ (pdf – and read an earlier post here)....
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