This is a piece I wrote in 2003 about Bruce Jackson, an American neo-con-banker-arms-dealer-spy, who did alot to help the eastern expansion of NATO in the 90s and noughties. I thought it might be of interest considering this week’s conference on the further eastern expansion of NATO.
Jules Evans
Question Time
I feel for 'the sweaty man in the third row'. We'll all been there. [youtube]http://youtu.be/p3tUqRBiMVo[/youtube]
Has neo-liberalism fatally undermined the idea of global governance?
GD readers might find interesting this piece by Columbia University's Mark Mazower, from the FT this weekend. He has a book coming out in October on the...
The Vickys: can you be paternalist without being patronising?
Two news stories caught my eye this weekend. Firstly, the British government wants to launch a voucher scheme so every parent can take parenting classes from...
Texts from Hillary
You've probably already seen this but...this site is quite funny: http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/ As the name suggests, its photos of Secretary...
Bhutan’s well-being measurements (or ‘how Buddhist are you?’)
The UN Happiness Conference last week looks to have been a fascinating event. The Prime Minister of Bhutan sent me a giant Willy Wonka-esque invitation, for...
Balkan gangstas kill Serbian prime minister, eat each other
Well, the headline pretty much says it all, but here's some more of the story: A mafia traitor was beaten to death with a hammer and then eaten by Serbian...
Chris Hedges goes viral
It's become an unlikely YouTube hit. No, not sneezing pandas or puppies on skateboards...but Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges talking on C-Span...
Oh to be in the president of Turkmenistan’s entourage…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1AOK8N9imw[/youtube]
Herman Van Rompuy is thinking positive
Herman Van Rompuy is thinking positive. He is staring into his mirror each morning, and repeating to himself: 'I am a strong, confident, powerful currency. I...
Edgar Mitchell on the Overview Effect
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE-PUTVULFg&feature=g-upl[/youtube]
Russian politics re-boots
Here's a piece I wrote for the Wall Street Journal Europe about six months ago, about the effect of the internet on Russia's stagnant politics: In November...
What happens if / when the eurozone collapses?
I was dismayed to read the Telegraph's account of the Foreign Office's forward planning for the collapse of the eurozone. Apparently, ministers are telling...
Welcome to the seven billion…
Why are national happiness levels always so flat?
Yesterday, I went to the British Academy to hear Richard Easterlin, the father of happiness economics, present his latest thinking, together with Andrew...
Can you measure eudaimonia?
Martha Nussbaum has another book out. Does she never sleep? This one is called Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach, and looks at the...
The Centre for Climate Change and National Secrecy
Two years ago, the CIA set up a Centre for Climate Change and National Security. The Centre would "do more than bring together in a single place expertise on...
US-China relations boil over
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQlUVtFvWs[/youtube]
Whitehall’s new philosophy of well-being
Global Dashboard had its summer drinks party last night - thanks to Alex and David for hosting us, it was great fun. I particularly enjoyed talking to some of...
Stoicism and warrior resilience training
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MTBOiQ2C8s[/youtube]
More from Global Dashboard
Let’s make climate a culture war!
If the politics of climate change end up polarised, is that so bad? No – it’s disastrous. Or so I’ve long thought. Look at the US – where climate is even more polarised than abortion. Result: decades of flip flopping. Ambition under Clinton; reversal...
Big Elephants and Small Islands: getting beyond the New Aid Orthodoxy
Official development assistance (ODA) – or aid – is a small but conspicuous pillar of the international order, and its frailties are being exposed by COVID as surely as those of the other foundations of this order. The assumptions underpinning aid and its management...
Uncertainty and Humanitarian Action: What Donald Rumsfeld can teach us
Since its onset, one striking feature of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has been the narrative power of its novelty. This global narrative depicts COVID-19 pushing humanity towards a ‘historical divide’ of BC and AC (before and after COVID-19), where unknown,...