Transcript

Uncertainty and Humanitarian Action: What Donald Rumsfeld can teach us

by Marc DuBois, Marzia Montemurro | Jan 13, 2021

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, unpredictable futures await. Within the humanitarian sector, we reveal this same preoccupation with the post-COVID future in a plethora of reports and webinars. While the virus itself may be the antihero of this narrative, we believe uncertainty should be recognised as the second, less visible protagonist.

Un mouvement émergent des Ministres de la Justice

by Sam Muller, Razane Boustany | Oct 28, 2020

Depuis le mois d’avril, nous appelons les leaders de la justice du monde entier à sortir de leur cagibi national et à se réunir afin de partager leurs craintes, leurs échecs, leurs succès ainsi que leurs stratégies, comme le font les ministres de la santé publique. La crise du COVID-19 est trop importante et trop inédite pour être uniquement traitée au niveau national. C’est justement ce qu’ont fait 22 Ministres de la Justice le 20 octobre dernier lors de la réunion “Justice pour tous dans une situation d’urgence mondiale” convoquée par le ministre de la justice du Canada, David Lametti. Ce fut un moment important, pendant lequel ils ont partagé leurs expériences de la crise du COVID-19. Voici ce que j’en ai retenu…

Switching Ministers and Crossing Canyons

by Sam Muller | Sep 10, 2020

There is a gaping divide between the impressive innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem of Tunisia and the formal justice sector. And now, like others, Tunisia is facing even larger justice demands from citizens as a result of COVID-19. But this divide must be bridged in order for Tunisian citizens to get what they need to solve their justice problems.

Who Speaks for the Global South Recipients of Aid?

by Themrise Khan | Jul 7, 2020

The murder of George Floyd and the resurfacing of the Black Lives Matter movement has led to heightened discussions on race in the international development sector. Aid practitioners in the North have not only condemned the systemic racism that they (suddenly) now see to be endemic in the sector, but have also vowed to ‘change’ or even ‘end’ aid altogether. COVID-19 has further spurred analysis of how the sector may now change – or not – post pandemic. But decisions about how aid should be ‘done’ in developing countries should be taken by those at the receiving end.

Love, Inequity, and Development Policy in a COVID-era?

by Laura Bailey, Rahul Chandran | Jun 25, 2020

This piece is a call for intimacy and to centre all of our work in a “politics of trust, empathy, love and care.” We know those emotions to be real, human, and to matter. Accepting that charges us with this: reconceiving how we address inequity and inequality (which remain the core mission of the problematic global institutions that we both still….love) through trust, and care, and love. How can we weave these ideas into everything that international institutions do? How do we get all the staff, workers, and seemingly inanimate ‘programmes’ to let our messy, warm humanity be the focus of our work, rather than the technocratically convenient, and theoretically bloodless numerical success of ‘ending poverty’?

The Privilege in Protesting Police Brutality

by Kayla Lewis-Hue | Jun 22, 2020

The United States is confronted by the culmination of its long history of police brutality and exploitation of Black people. And the stark reality of privilege in this country was also made clear as Black people faced higher infection and mortality rates of COVID-19. It is clear that no matter what crisis Americans face, Black people will suffer trauma at a disproportionate rate. It is now time for privileged individuals to acknowledge the liberties and capital they have is tainted by the trauma of individuals they have never met.

Crafting a Lasting, Global Legacy for George Floyd

by Nangamso Kwinana, Kabelo Kgobisa | Jun 20, 2020

This moment is a fitting one to consolidate a body of work by activists, academics, and other civil society organisations into an international instrument capturing our shared commitment to finally eradicating police brutality everywhere. But are resolutions and debates are an adequate and constructive response to the global outcry? The time and resources of the African Union would be better spent consolidating work into a binding standard against which all states should be monitored and evaluated.

Realising the True Potential of International Schools

by Alana Hairston, Desta Haile, Karishma Chugani, Stephanie Roe | Jun 19, 2020

As women of colour, we have seen racism manifest itself in our personal and professional lives. As products of international schools, we have also benefited from the tremendous privilege of being educated in world-class institutions and being exposed to many cultures, religions, and ethnicities from an early age. While there are many examples of the good work and progress that have been made by international schools to address racism, there are many others that continue to shelter an environment of racial inequity. The protests around the world provide a moment of reckoning and a teachable moment and we ask that the systems that govern international schools do better.

Justice in a Global Emergency

by Diego García-Sayán, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, Willy Mutunga | Jun 17, 2020

A cry for justice is echoing around the world. In the US millions of people are marching to demand changes to the failures of the American justice system. In Mali, crowds gathered to demand change to a justice system that is considered corrupt. The cry for an independent judiciary was loud on the streets of Beirut last weekend. And the demand for justice will continue to grow. But there is a better way. Here are our recommended next steps.

Making Allies and Burning Bridges

by Nihal Arthanayake | Jun 15, 2020

The killing of George Floyd became a problem for all of us. What would it take for this no longer to be seen as a US problem, a black problem, a ghetto problem, a problem for the poor? There is something different happening this time. The protests around the world and the interconnectedness of the young gives this moment an urgency.

Scenarios Week Round-Up

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Jun 12, 2020

Last month, we launch the #LongCrisisScenarios in partnership with the Local Trust. The four scenarios describe COVID-19 futures where the response is polarised or where collective action predominates, and where decision-making is centralised or distributed. For the past week, we’ve been inviting contributors to share their perspectives on a what COVID-19 future might look like. From education to cities, from citizenship to future foreign secretaries, you’ll find all the articles here.

How COVID-19 may be as significant as 9/11 for global migration policy

by Alessandra Buonfino | Jun 9, 2020

This time last year, we were living in a different world. Now over 400,000 people have died of COVID-19 and we are staring down the barrel at the deepest recession since the Second World War, with the many challenges that lockdowns have surfaced: unemployment, domestic violence, racial and economic divides, inequalities in access to health and education, and poor international co-operation.

After COVID, Where Will We Be?

by Alex Evans, David Steven | Jun 4, 2020

Yesterday afternoon, representatives from the Long Crisis Network, Local Trust, and The Alternative UK came together to explore the implications of the Long Crisis Scenarios for the future of communities.

Winning Ugly: Five Lessons From Managing a School Shutdown

by Fadi Yarak, Victoria Collis | Jun 2, 2020

On 28 February, Lebanon confirmed its fourth case of COVID-19, closing all schools with immediate effect on the same day. Fadi Yarak, the Director General of Education in the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), shares some lessons from over a decade of leading a school system through difficult times.

Putting the Most Marginalised at the Centre: Lessons for the COVID-19 Response from the HIV Epidemic

by Leila Zadeh | May 28, 2020

You can’t fight epidemics or improve public health by just telling people what to do and disregarding all the factors that affect our day-to-day decisions or force us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise do. You also can’t improve the health of a nation if you ignore people who are already sidelined.

Shooting the Rapids: COVID-19 and the Long Crisis of Globalisation

by Alex Evans, David Steven | May 18, 2020

Shooting the Rapids: COVID-19 and the Long Crisis of Globalisation is a major new report that explores what we do and don’t know about each of the three layers of the COVID-19 crisis, sets out a playbook for collective action, and presents a plan for international co-operation.

Long-Term Solutions to Food Crises: Building Credit Institutions That Can Finance Agriculture Value Chains

by Peter Dirou, Mark Weston | May 6, 2020

The World Food Programme has predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will double the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger. “We could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions,” according to its executive director, if we don’t act to avert them.

Foxes vs Hedgehogs: The Importance of ‘Followership’ in the Age of COVID-19

by Ali Goldsworthy | May 1, 2020

In recent weeks, the wider internet has felt awash with people who are certain of their expertise in epidemiology, despite weeks earlier being experts in something only tangentially related. When basic errors are pointed out to them, they double down. Admitting you were wrong or simply don’t know is not something humans are very good at doing or rewarding.

A Call to Action from Former Ministers, Attorneys-General, and Senior Judges

by Allyson Maynard-Gibson, Diego García-Sayán, Kalthoum Kennou, Salaheddin Al-Bashir, Sang-Hyun Song, Tharcisse Karugarama, Willy Mutunga | Apr 29, 2020

Ministers of justice are on the frontline of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike health ministers, they do not have the same opportunities to work together across borders. That needs to change.

Wrapping Up Local Week

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Apr 27, 2020

The initial call for collective action has taken on new life during our Local Week series. Throughout the week, we’ve shared insights from leading thinkers on public health, policy, community empowerment, local politics, urban planning, and more, each exploring the effects of the unfolding coronavirus pandemic at a local level – you’ll find them all here.

Respond and Renew: the Work of Local Trust

by Jessica Wenban-Smith | Apr 24, 2020

Where you live and who your neighbours are have never mattered more. With nowhere else to go, immersed in a protracted global emergency, we recognise that the places where we live will shape our fortunes.

The Next Wave: COVID-19’s Hunger Crisis

by Rahul Chandran, David Steven | Apr 21, 2020

There’s a lot of wartime imagery and metaphor around. The battle against COVID-19. The war against the pandemic. The fight of our lifetimes. But we’ve got the metaphor wrong.

Things We Now Have and Don’t Want to Lose

by George Graham | Apr 16, 2020

While the rapid changes we have seen in recent weeks have arisen from urgent necessity, and many carry very heavy costs, it is also true that some of these changes are profoundly positive.

The Virus of Misinformation: How Not to Use Technology in a Pandemic

by Rahul Chandran | Apr 9, 2020

Please: don’t hold a hackathon. Don’t put a map online showing where people are who need help or offer help. Don’t share people’s data without their consent and understanding.

Building Trust, Confidence and Collective Action in the Age of COVID-19

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Apr 8, 2020

Resisting the slide towards polarisation, harnessing the power of the “Larger Us” rather than retreating into “them-and-us” rhetoric, will be key.

New Ideas to Tackle Coronavirus – Global Dashboard takes up the Challenge

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Apr 6, 2020

Big challenges demand big ideas, and at Global Dashboard we’re ramping up our content in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fragility and Pandemics: Finding the right equation to steer action

by Rachel Locke | Apr 2, 2020

Rather than looking categorically at fragile states, we should consider overlaying fragility with indicators of inequality, authoritarianism, what Rachel Kleinfeld has termed “privilege violence”, and demographic data.

More on the Coronavirus and Slums

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2020

“The answers are going to come from within communities themselves. The community is the first line of defence, but governments can’t just wash their hands of this.”

How to Tackle Coronavirus in Slums

by Mark Weston | Mar 27, 2020

Western governments, following the example of China, have adopted broadly similar approaches to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. After initial hesitation, and...

The Collective Psychology of Coronavirus

by Alex Evans | Mar 13, 2020

Just like climate change or political tribalism, coronavirus asks us: do we see ourselves as part of a Larger Us, a them-and-us, or an atomised "I"? Each of...

10 thoughts from an Extinction Rebellion newbie

by Alex Evans | Jul 23, 2019

Two weeks ago, I went to my first Extinction Rebellion meeting in Leeds, curious to find out more about it ahead of its national actions in five UK cities...

What do we need to do to win the fight against inequality? An activist-researcher seeks your advice.

by Ben Phillips | Jan 8, 2019

As activists we sometimes talk as if we know the answers. As researchers we get to admit that we don't (until publication, of course :-)). As both an...

Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies – new website

by David Steven | Jun 21, 2018

The new Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies website, for all things SDG16+

The End Violence Solutions Summit

by David Steven | Feb 16, 2018

The End Violence Solutions Summit took place this week in Stockholm, Sweden, bringing to life a recommendation made in a CIC report in 2014. Key speakers...

The Vancouver summit on UN peacekeeping

by Richard Gowan | Nov 13, 2017

This week, defense ministers are meeting in Vancouver to talk about UN peacekeeping. This follows a conference hosted by President Obama on UN operations in...

The Global Goals – 43 countries, lots of info and some promising progress

by Alice Macdonald | Aug 7, 2017

It’s a good moment to reflect on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. In July each year, Governments come back to the United Nations in New...

Book review: Guinea-Bissau: Micro-State to “Narco-State”

by Mark Weston | May 30, 2017

Book review If you’ve ever written a book about Guinea-Bissau, you will know that popular interest in this remote little West African country is scant. Your...

A history of campaigning for the welfare state

by Kirsty McNeill | Apr 8, 2017

A guest blog by Rebecca Falcon (@RFalcon_) on a talk given by Roger Harding (@roger_harding) as part of the #changehistory series. You can listen to all the...

Scotland and our movement moment

by Kirsty McNeill | Mar 19, 2017

This weekend was the inaugural Adam Smith Festival of Ideas in Kirkcaldy and I was asked to speak about how Scotland could change the world in the years...

2016 has shattered outdated assumptions, but if we change ourselves to fight inequality, it need not shatter our world.

by Ben Phillips | Dec 28, 2016

A dominant worldview amongst many progressives in recent times has been that over time things will keep getting better, sometimes with exhilarating speed,...

Land grabbers, be afraid, the Women of Kilimanjaro are coming for you

by Ben Phillips | Oct 16, 2016

[Across Africa, tens of thousands of grassroots women activists have been organising rallies and mobilisations as part of #women2kilimanajro, a march and...

The Ten Commandments of Referendums

by Ryan Gawn | Sep 15, 2016

Guest post by Quintin Oliver, of Stratagem International, @StratagemInt Hot off the plane from Bogota where he was advising on the upcoming referendum,...

SDG Targets for Fostering Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies

by David Steven | Aug 1, 2016

Agenda 2030 states that “there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development.” Peace is identified as one of...

Embrace immigrants, whatever you vote on Thursday

by Mark Weston | Jun 20, 2016

A couple of weeks ago, realising that it was struggling to make a convincing economic case for Britain to leave the European Union, the Brexit campaign...

The awkward squad – why development depends on dialogue and dissent. (What others can learn from the Dutch Government.)

by Ben Phillips | Jun 13, 2016

The awkward squad – why development depends on dialogue and dissent. This article was first published by Vice-Versa, in Dutch, here. Hundreds of thousands of...

Action/2015 –the official verdict or why coalitions are totally worth it

by Alice Macdonald | Apr 21, 2016

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f1FpJxLGFg[/youtube] On April 22nd, about 160 countries are expected to officially sign the Paris Climate Agreement...

Lessons from the LGBT movement

by Kirsty McNeill | Mar 20, 2016

Guest post from Vic Langer, Campaigns Director at Save the Children UK, on a talk by Ruth Hunt, CEO of Stonewall, in the latest in Save the Children's...

9 take aways from COP21

by Alex Evans | Dec 17, 2015

Having attended COP21 as a member of the Ethiopian delegation, I've been meaning to write up a post with some take-aways and reflections on the outcome, and...

Yes, Jeremy Corbyn is a disaster. That’s not a reason to bomb Syria

by Alex Evans | Dec 2, 2015

Like many Labour members, I despair of the direction in which Jeremy Corbyn is taking the party. Back when he was elected, I wondered whether he had a plan...

How the tax fight is being won

by Kirsty McNeill | Nov 16, 2015

Guest post from Alice Macdonald, Save the Children's head of action/2015 campaign, @alicemac83. As part of Save the Children’s History of Change series (see...

Investing in our soft power assets – the British Council & the Spending Review

by Ryan Gawn | Nov 3, 2015

This is the second in a series of blogs on the upcoming Spending Review, and how Britain maximises its influence and soft power across the world at a time of...

What Diane Abbott gets wrong about Jo Cox’s proposals on Syria

by Alex Evans | Oct 11, 2015

Oh dear. So these people want to join with the Tories & vote to bomb Syria @jo_cox1@JWoodcockMP #sad http://t.co/WRAg4FwjUc — Diane Abbott MP...

Quoted without comment

by Alex Evans | Sep 18, 2015

If anything, I have had to keep empathy at bay. It is such a saturation of suffering that somehow as a journalist you have to harden yourself, otherwise it...

The state of the climate movement

by Alex Evans | Sep 8, 2015

This is the text of a talk I gave today at Save the Children as part of their #changehistory series, organised by Campaigns Director (and fellow...

What transformation looks like

by Alex Evans | Aug 27, 2015

Over the years I've frequently been a source of amusement to my wife Emma, but rarely more so than when I came home from work at DFID one day a decade or so...

The powerful have shown a really nasty side this month. That’s great news.

by Ben Phillips | Jul 16, 2015

In the Addis talks over tackling tax dodging, and in the EU-IMF talks on Euro-austerity, the powerful have shown a really nasty side this month. That's great...

From Declaration to Delivery: actioning the post-2015 agenda

by David Steven | Jul 7, 2015

This report, prepared for Save the Children, is based on the outcomes of a series of dialogues with 8 countries that have already begun exploring how to...

Time to Deliver the Post-2015 Agenda’s Promises to Children

by David Steven | Jun 2, 2015

The post-2015 agenda has a clear vision for children: the protection, survival and development of all children to their full potential. Four resonant and...

BRICS in Africa – challenging the old order or consolidating it?

by Ben Phillips | May 18, 2015

Arriving in Maputo last week I came across what has become a familiar sight in African airports: I don't mean the big groups of Chinese businesspeople and...

“Organizadas Somos Fortes” – Organised we are powerful. Reflections from the landless movement in Brazil.

by Ben Phillips | Apr 28, 2015

"This dance is not mine alone, this dance is by us all” – they move as one circle, hand in hand. Then, still as one circle, they put their arms around each...

How can we take on the power of the few? Three lessons from Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement in advancing a society that works for all

by Ben Phillips | Apr 19, 2015

Development is about power, and the biggest threat to development today is the excessive power of the few. As five major NGO leaders set out in their recent...

What Happens Now? Time to deliver the post-2015 development agenda

by David Steven | Apr 10, 2015

This is the third in a series of What Happens Now? papers from the Center on International Cooperation. Like the previous papers, it provides a guide for all...

OECD States of Fragility Report – Meeting Post-2015 Ambitions

by David Steven | Mar 26, 2015

This afternoon, in New York, the OECD is launching its States of Fragility 2015 report which explores how new sustainable development goals and targets (SDGs)...

Who’s going to pay for the SDGs?

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2015

In July, Addis Ababa will host a crucial summit on financing for development. If September’s summit on sustainable development goals (SDGs) in New York is...

Who will defend tax dodging?

by Ben Phillips | Feb 1, 2015

2015 has started off as a tough year for tax dodgers. In Zambia, the new President appears to have confirmed the fears that multinational mining corporations...

Why the Green surge is an opportunity for Labour as well as a threat

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2015

What a week for the Greens: first they sail past both UKIP and the Liberal Democrats on membership numbers; then they secure a place in the televised leaders'...

It’s time for development experts to admit that poverty is a #firstworldproblem too

by Ben Phillips | Jan 16, 2015

“Starbucks wifi not working on my iPhone #firstworldproblems” – if your twitter timeline is full of such stories, you are probably following a few too many...

Which countries can broker a deal on the post-2015 development agenda?

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | Dec 17, 2014

When the High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda was announced, Alex Evans laid out a useful typology of the five kinds of people you find on...

The morning after the US-China climate announcement (updated)

by Alex Evans | Nov 13, 2014

Never have I seen such a wave of social media euphoria as the one that swept through my Twitter and Facebook feeds this time yesterday, as news broke about...

From exclusion and inequality to humanity and Francisconomics? My personal reflections before a meeting in Rome

by Ben Phillips | Nov 8, 2014

This month I'll be joining a meeting convened by the Vatican on overcoming social and economic exclusion, and was asked in advance to share my personal...

Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré and the Secret of [Almost] Eternal Rule

by Mark Weston | Oct 31, 2014

My book The Ringtone and the Drum turned two last Sunday. Conveniently, one of the countries it covers, Burkina Faso, promptly had a revolution. Yesterday a...

Development as love – what I learnt from my Dad

by Ben Phillips | Oct 7, 2014

In International Development circles you are supposed to say that your ideas about Development come from Sen or Ul Huq or Cardoso. You are not supposed to say...

ISIS and the moral level of warfare

by Alex Evans | Sep 29, 2014

With all the atrocities that ISIS has visited on the people living in the territories it's overrun in recent months, the humanitarian basis for military...

Beyond Aid: the future UK approach to development

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2014

Written evidence by Alex Evans and the Center for Global Development's Owen Barder to the UK Parliament International Development Committee inquiry on the...

The six fathers of ISIS

by Alex Evans | Aug 29, 2014

(As defined by Ziad Majed and abridged by Amir Ahmed Nasr in this excellent post): ISIS is the offspring of more than one father, and the product of more than...

But tell us what you really think

by Alex Evans | Aug 19, 2014

Disproving my belief that official think tank feeds rarely say much of interest, here's a special moment on Twitter earlier today from the Center for...

Wishful Thinking and Great Power Politics

by Alistair Burnett | Jun 27, 2014

Today, President Petro Poroshenko signed the EU Association Agreement and Russia has warned of grave consequences. Of course, it was the refusal of...

Because I am their neighbour. A day at the Kingston Food Bank.

by Ben Phillips | Jun 13, 2014

In Kingston, South-West London, amongst leafy streets and upmarket cafes, a group of volunteers meets in a church to welcome locals who have been referred by...

A Laboratory of Development – The Impact of Social Policies on Children in Latin America and the Caribbean

by David Steven | Jun 4, 2014

The Latin America and Caribbean region is distinguished by the range of policies that it has developed to respond to both the opportunities and risks of...

Patching Up Nigeria’s North-South Divide

by Mark Weston | May 27, 2014

In the post-colonial period, African politics has tended to look something like this (as excerpted from my book on West Africa, The Ringtone and the Drum):...

Brazil fluffing its lines?

by Alistair Burnett | May 14, 2014

The World Cup in Brazil is less than a month away and the bad publicity is mounting with the news that the coach of the national team is being charged with...

Goodbye to all that

by Alex Evans | May 13, 2014

Yesterday's findings from two scientific teams that a large section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has now started to collapse (almost certainly unstoppably,...

OECD DAC Chair Erik Solheim replies on ODA to least developed countries

by Alex Evans | May 9, 2014

A couple of days ago, I argued in a post here that while it was welcome that aid flows had reached a new all-time high in 2013, it was bad news that aid was...

Surprise! Aid flows are at a new all time high

by Alex Evans | May 7, 2014

So here's a big surprise. Until last year, global aid flows were declining in the wake of the financial crisis - a trend that was widely expected to continue....

Debating stable and peaceful societies

by David Steven | Apr 24, 2014

Today, the President of the UN General Assembly hosts a debate on ensuring stable and peaceful societies within the post-2015 development agenda. I am...

G20 gives U.S. until end of year on IMF reform

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | Apr 14, 2014

When finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 major economies met last week in Washington, they rapped the United States on the knuckles for its...

Responding to Russia

by Kirsty McNeill | Mar 22, 2014

Latest of our #progressivedilemmas is on what we might expect from a future Labour Russia policy. Britain’s political class did not distinguish itself in its...

Ukraine: the corrosive effect of hypocrisy?

by Alistair Burnett | Mar 10, 2014

Much western commentary about the Ukraine crisis has asserted that Russian intervention in Crimea has undermined the post-Cold War order based on the...

Quadruple or Quits – managing the links between the four 2015 agendas of trade, climate, SDGs, and finance for development

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2014

Talk given by Alex Evans to a UK government cross-Whitehall session on the four key multilateral processes culminating in 2015: trade, climate, Sustainable...

Can Empowered Cities Save Fragile States? My article on Lagos in the NYT

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 2, 2014

Nigeria is arguably the worst run of the world’s seven most populated countries. Despite earning hundreds of billions of dollars in oil revenue over the past...

Rising incomes in the developing world do not a new age of equality make

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2014

Last week saw Oxfam's big new report on inequality, timed to coincide with WEF in Davos, garnering a huge amount of attention in the media - even attaining a...

After Afghanistan

by Kirsty McNeill | Jan 17, 2014

In the latest of our #progressivedilemmas we consider what Labour’s approach to failing states should be. 2014 is the last year of British military...

Time-lapse film of the ‘cleanest, darkest skies on Earth’

by Alex Evans | Jan 10, 2014

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/83436955[/vimeo] Shot by Nicholas Buer in the Atacama region of Chile. Via Boing Boing & David Hodgson. Headphones and full screen...

Syria’s refugees and the kindness of strangers

by Ben Phillips | Dec 30, 2013

It was the kindness of strangers. When Aziz fled from the Syrian conflict to Lebanon, he heard about a farmer who allowed Syrian refugees to camp on his land....

10 Tips for a Bold & Ambitious Post-2015 Development Agenda

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | Dec 13, 2013

Climate negotiations in Warsaw made faltering steps towards a possible 2015 agreement. Trade talks in Bali were salvaged at the last minute. As global...

The CCC puts its thumb on the scale

by David Steven | Dec 11, 2013

Today the UK is debating whether or not to alter a legally enforceable carbon budget for 2023-2027 (Carbon Brief has an excellent explanation of the issues at...

The WTO Bali package’s thin offerings on development

by Alex Evans | Dec 9, 2013

So thank goodness that the WTO managed to agree something in Bali. Yet another multilateral failure, after Copenhagen, Rio, and so on would have been beyond...

Development quiz

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2013

Pop quiz, readers. Which NGO is campaigning on the following platform? "The need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be delayed... "Welfare...

Delivering the Post-2015 Development Agenda: options for a new Global Partnership

by Alex Evans | Nov 23, 2013

What should be the key elements of a new Global Partnership to help deliver the post-2015 development agenda - and which of them look feasible in the current...

DFID in Russian Navy takeover shock

by Alex Evans | Nov 22, 2013

Hats off to DFID's communications team for a classy graphical overview of the humanitarian assistance that the UK has sent to the Philippines in the wake of...

What life’s actually like for Ethiopians in the Gulf

by Alex Evans | Nov 14, 2013

The BBC and other outlets are tonight carrying the story that some 23,000 Ethiopians have "surrendered" to police in Riyadh following a clampdown on illegal...

A Post-2015 Calendar

by Alex Evans | Nov 13, 2013

A non-comprehensive compilation of key political moments for the post-2015 development agenda between now and 2016. Extracted from a forthcoming CIC report on...

Why Witchcraft Works

by Mark Weston | Oct 29, 2013

Ukerewe, the island in the Tanzanian half of Lake Victoria where I am currently spending a few months, is famous for witchcraft. Witches are found in every...

What’s happening to global incomes

by Alex Evans | Oct 21, 2013

Now here's an interesting graph, courtesy of the World Bank's resident inequality guru, Branko Milanovic. It shows change in real incomes over the period of...

Ten billion dollars for global public goods? Where do we sign?

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2013

"Innovative financing" is one of those phrases you're always hearing in development, but that never quite seem to live up to the hype. It refers, in case...

Evidence, policy and badgers

by Claire Melamed | Oct 9, 2013

Fascinating discussion on how evidence from a randomised trial should be used in policy making, on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning. Summed up...

Where are the women? Gender imbalance in MY World mobile phone voting

by Claire Melamed | Oct 6, 2013

This is a joint post with Frances Simpson Allen, of the UN Millennium Campaign The million...

Christmas is sorted!

by Richard Gowan | Oct 3, 2013

Why diplomats enjoy the UN General Assembly (hint: it’s not the post-2015 development agenda)

by Richard Gowan | Sep 29, 2013

Thank you, New York Post, for finally bursting the UN General Assembly bubble: Midtown jiggle joint Flashdancers has seen a lot of action thanks to the United...

Iran’s biggest headache

by Alex Evans | Sep 26, 2013

A coda to my post a couple of weeks back on the role of climate change and resource scarcity as conflict threat multipliers in Syria, via Tom Friedman in the...

Total energy decarbonisation by 2030 AND flat fuel bills? Seriously?

by Alex Evans | Sep 25, 2013

Blimey - Ed Miliband certainly likes to make it hard for himself. Amid all the coverage this morning of his Labour conference speech yesterday, one small...

Ten thoughts on the UK Parliament vote on Syria

by Alex Evans | Aug 30, 2013

1. You can totally understand why the British public is where it's at. Last time they heard about WMD from the JIC, it was the 45 minutes claim. They've also...

Seven Scenarios for the Future of Syria

by Seth Kaplan | Aug 27, 2013

As the war in Syria drags on, it is becoming ever more vicious. Militias kill hundreds of civilians, ethnic cleansing large swaths of the country in the...

What progress looks like

by Alex Evans | Aug 19, 2013

We started out with four feet of skin care; today it's twenty feet. Today we don't have deodorants, but someday down the road we will have deodorants in...

Last of the White Russians

by Richard Gowan | Aug 12, 2013

Occasionally an item of news reminds us of how transient most great political dramas are, and how quickly major crises come and go. This is rather healthy:...

The first law of politics

by Alex Evans | Aug 6, 2013

From Janan Ganesh in the FT: More than any profession, politics suffers from the myth of strategy. Its practitioners and pundits tend to attribute electoral...

The case for (continuing) counter-narcotics work in Afghanistan

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 25, 2013

There's a bit of a debate currently about whether the Coalition in Afghanistan should continue to invest in counter-narcotics work in the country. The problem...

Finding a myth for the 21st century

by Alex Evans | Jul 19, 2013

Text of speech by Alex Evans to Modern Church movement annual conference (July 2013) Download Speech

Labour is getting the politics of globalisation all wrong

by Kirsty McNeill | Jul 2, 2013

Piece in The Fabian Review on the need for a progressive globalisation. Labour risks looking both self obsessed and crushingly irrelevant.

Introducing the new Conflict, Stability and Security Fund

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 26, 2013

There's some interesting stuff in the latest Spending Round, including the new Conflict, Stability and Security Fund which looks rather interesting (not least...

The Home Secretary’s foreign policy

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 21, 2013

Earlier this year the British Home Secretary made an unfamiliar journey to Afghanistan. Theresa May’s visit to Kabul focused on the future of terrorism and...

G8 delivery: 25% showmanship, 25% brinkmanship, 50% long hard graft

by Kirsty McNeill | Jun 18, 2013

I have a Telegraph piece on where Mr Cameron's summit preparations have gone wrong. Enniskillen is no Gleneagles for one very simple reason: this PM hasn't...

The right recipe for democracy

by Alistair Burnett | Jun 14, 2013

“There’s more to democracy than free and fair elections”. This is a refrain we’ve heard more than once since the anti-government protests broke out in major...

New Global Peace Index

by Alex Evans | Jun 11, 2013

Headlines (from their news release): Dramatic rise in the number of homicides drives reduction in world peace over the last year Measures of state-sponsored...

Let the Poor Starve (updated)

by David Steven | Jun 6, 2013

Congressman Stephen Fincher, a Republican from Tennessee, is part of an effort to cut $20 billion from food stamps, a program that helps feed nearly 50...

Power and Politics in Pakistan: A Limited Access Order

by Seth Kaplan | Jun 3, 2013

The Limited Access Order (LAO) conceptual framework is an excellent way to understand why developing countries work the way they do, analyze their political...

Early reactions to the High-level Panel Post-2015 report

by David Steven | May 30, 2013

Below, you can find my summary of the High-level Panel report on what should replace the Millennium Development Goals. Here's a summary of reaction to its...

Exactly

by Alex Evans | May 23, 2013

Steve Richards: For all the specific reasons that explain the destabilising crises that unnerve Prime Ministers, there is one constant factor. No 10 is...

Obama – inevitable lame duck

by David Steven | May 17, 2013

Tweet on election night: Pundits: get ahead of the game. Make a start on your "Obama's a lame duck now" column. — David Steven (@davidsteven) November 6, 2012...

How to Start Development’s Gutenberg Revolution

by Ben Phillips | May 16, 2013

As a schoolboy I was troubled to learn about medieval Europe where a narrow elite maintained unaccountable power by controlling access to information; and I...

A Balkan success for EU soft power?

by Alistair Burnett | May 6, 2013

Serbian leaders will make another attempt this week to convince Serbs in northern Kosovo to accept last month’s deal between Belgrade and Pristina to...

Post-2015: is there any point?

by Alex Evans | May 1, 2013

This month, the UN High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda moves in to the home straight, with its report due to be submitted to the...

“Within this Famine Pit lieth the unknown dead.”

by Ben Phillips | Apr 28, 2013

At this year's G8 summit in Loch Erne, Northern Ireland, world leaders will meet to tackle the causes of global hunger. Sometimes the answer is right beside...

Hurray for Twitter!

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2013

Via PublicShaming, a helpful snapshot of people who think that (a) Chechnya and Czechoslovakia are the same place, and (b) the latter still exists. Isn't it...

Boston and the new rules of media

by Alex Evans | Apr 19, 2013

Full marks to Buzzfeed for identifying the key point amid today's information blizzard from Boston (and for keeping their heads while all around them are...

Thatcher: The Facts (well, a few of them)

by Mark Weston | Apr 8, 2013

Unlike many of those who were still in their childhood or teens through most of her reign, I don't have a very strong view about Margaret Thatcher. I wasn't...

Social Covenants: The Missing Ingredient in State Building Efforts

by Seth Kaplan | Mar 31, 2013

Political theorists have for the most part focused on the state when thinking about how to make countries work better for their populations. This has...

Obama’s Israel speech

by Alex Evans | Mar 24, 2013

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxfw3ZfBx6I[/youtube]

On inequality, let’s do the Palma (because the Gini is so last century)

by Andy Sumner | Mar 21, 2013

There’s one measure of inequality that gets all the attention – the Gini index. The Gini was developed in the early 1900s – in fact about 100 years ago – by...

No booze, no drugs, no fun: the UN today

by Richard Gowan | Mar 5, 2013

This is your last drink for tonight, understand? This was the week the UN stopped being fun. To start with, the US is trying to stop diplomats turning up at...

The Tories are going to spend the aid budget on helicopter gunships!

by Alex Evans | Feb 21, 2013

Or so you might believe from your RSS feeds this morning. The Guardian, BBC, FT and others are all carrying the story that (as the Guardian has it), "David...

Austerity or plenty?

by Alex Evans | Feb 19, 2013

There's a very thoughtful article on where social democracy needs to go next over at Renewal (h/t to Casper for the link), which is thoroughly worth a read....

Quote of the week: “While I’m not comparing the Rebel Alliance to Al Qaeda or the Galactic Empire to the United States…”

by Alex Evans | Feb 14, 2013

Finding myself watching Empire Strikes Back last night, I found myself reflecting once again on the general crappiness of the rebels' defenses - for instance,...

The continuing Wall Street crisis

by Mark Weston | Feb 4, 2013

The ever-reliable Michael Lewis, reviewing a new book by a repentant Goldman Sachs employee, nails the (continuing) financial/political crisis: Stop and think...

Goals after 2015

by David Steven | Jan 31, 2013

As the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda meets in Liberia, New York University’s Center on International Cooperation has published a new...

Book Review: ‘The Ringtone and the Drum’

by Claire Melamed | Jan 20, 2013

At the risk of coming over all ‘Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like’, it’s hard to know how to talk about being a rich and privileged white person in a poor African...

Where it all went wrong on US climate policy

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2013

Remember back in 2006 and 2007 when it looked as though the US was about to get really serious on climate policy? You know, when not only Hillary Clinton and...

Kate Raworth at the RSA – must-watch re post-2015 and sustainability economics

by Alex Evans | Jan 11, 2013

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJL-cM8gb4[/youtube]

The US religious right: losing clout, but still holding the world to ransom on sustainability…

by Alex Evans | Jan 9, 2013

The received wisdom about the Tea Party is that it's pretty different in character to the old Moral Majority style religious right that was such a huge factor...

But tell us what you really think

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2012

[youtube]http://youtu.be/uXV6FW9Vg0I[/youtube]

Whatever happened to the AIDS apocalypse?

by Kirsty McNeill | Nov 30, 2012

When I first started working in the AIDS movement in the mid noughties the picture was plausibly apocalyptic, but on World AIDS Day 2012 we are celebrating...

Post-2015: where does sustainability fit in? (Updated)

by Alex Evans | Nov 22, 2012

Climate, scarcity and sustainability are among the most important – and politically challenging - elements of the post-2015 development agenda on what should...

No power? No computers? No smartphones? No problem. Blogging by blackboard in Liberia

by Mark Weston | Nov 19, 2012

How a Liberian uses low-tech to solve his community's information deficit: Many people in the West African city of Monrovia can't afford to buy newspapers or...

Bleak

by Alex Evans | Nov 15, 2012

Pithy summary of the problems faced by UK 16-30 year olds in an email sent round by the excellent Intergenerational Foundation: Frustrated / voiceless / no...

WWF launches 2012 Living Planet Report… in space

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2012

[youtube]http://youtu.be/5_urelnADjI[/youtube]

Do development indicators deceive us? Here is a better approach

by Seth Kaplan | Nov 5, 2012

Measuring how countries perform is all the rage. Everyone from the World Bank to Bertelsmann to Africa’s most famous entrepreneur does it, producing indices...

Someone please get this man a new press secretary

by Alex Evans | Oct 25, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwvqdEUWFm4[/youtube]

Separated at birth: Lehman Brothers, nukes

by Alex Evans | Oct 25, 2012

Great post from Nils Gilman on Small Precautions: In 2006 RAND staged a wargame to think through the implications of a nuclear terorr incident. They created a...

The unbelievable, incomprehensible, off-the-charts stupidity of imprisoning scientists for being wrong

by Alex Evans | Oct 23, 2012

Did this really just happen? Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake...

How much humiliation can Spain cope with?

by Alex Evans | Oct 19, 2012

The FT's Gillian Tett reports today on a conference presentation given by historical sociologist Dennis Smith, who's been working on the question of how...

Interesting factoids on employment and development

by Alex Evans | Oct 18, 2012

...courtesy of the World Bank's 2013 World Development Report (which is on jobs, and definitely worth a read): 1.6 billion people work for a wage or salary,...

Conservatives in redeeming feature shock

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H03LiiQg2mw[/youtube]

And they’re off….

by Claire Melamed | Sep 25, 2012

The focus of the post-2015 world today is New York where the High-Level Panel appointed by the UN Secretary-General to provide him with advice on the...

The problems with economists: they don’t understand development

by Seth Kaplan | Sep 19, 2012

Economists dominate the development field, but politics is more important to promoting it. This contradiction explains why the policies often recommended by...

In praise of advocacy’s amateurs

by Kirsty McNeill | Sep 17, 2012

In light of the great news that Oxfam are shifting to “focus more on national level change and relatively less on often-fruitless global summitry”, I’ve been...

West Africa: piracy’s new frontier?

by Mark Weston | Sep 5, 2012

News is emerging that an oil tanker has been hijacked off the Nigerian coast. This appears to be part of a growing trend, and one that was predicted in these...

Course on Fragile States in Washington, DC

by Seth Kaplan | Aug 24, 2012

I will be teaching a course this fall (780.718 Promoting Development in Fragile States) in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)...

What’s left for the UN in Syria?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 16, 2012

The Security Council decided today to close down the UN observer mission in Syria, which I once predicted would be a "heroic failure". But this isn't quite...

Beware September

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2012

This from an investor briefing sent out today by Nomura, the Japanese bank: Even if the eurozone manages to get through August without the crisis taking a...

Resource scarcity in Ethiopia

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2012

Global concern is currently mounting all over again about the impacts of a more resource-scarce world, with particular attention focused at present on the...

Why Greenpeace is part of the problem on global climate policy

by Alex Evans | Jul 26, 2012

On Twitter a couple of days ago, Greenpeace International's executive director Kumi Naidoo penned an appeal for people to become Greenpeace members. I threw...

Cows versus squirrels: a mammalian metaphor gone mad

by Richard Gowan | Jul 12, 2012

What on earth is all this about? When the winter comes in the squirrel has already stored 3000 nuts in different tree holes that provide the food...

Cheating with Numbers – Bankers vs Journalists

by David Steven | Jul 5, 2012

In a banking crisis, many - or most - banks flirt with insolvency. They stay in business through cheating, lying, and blackmailing the state. As I said in a...

The Myth Gap

by Alex Evans | Jul 3, 2012

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/42416260[/vimeo]

Post-2015: Possible solutions to the MDG/SDG puzzle

by Claire Melamed | Jun 29, 2012

I was doing some thinking on possible ways that the post-2015 MDG/SDG scenarios might play out after the launch of the SDG process at Rio+20 last week. I've...

Hollande’s protection detail forgot their guns at Rio+20

by Alex Evans | Jun 28, 2012

A delicious tale from this morning's Telegraph: French secret service agents tasked with protecting President Francois Hollande "forgot to pack their guns"...

Will the Eurozone crisis finally get EU leaders to address its democratic deficit?

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2012

The FT has this as lead story this morning: The European Union would gain far-reaching powers to rewrite national budgets for eurozone countries that breach...

DIY UAVs

by Alex Evans | Jun 24, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sTSPqUfItE[/youtube]

Do We Understand the Difference Between Fragile States and Transition Countries?

by Seth Kaplan | Jun 20, 2012

The term “fragile states” is much abused. Policymakers, development researchers, politicians, and the media seem to think that every country experiencing a...

Are Europeans Scared of China?

by Seth Kaplan | Jun 15, 2012

China's economy remains less than half the size of the United States'. Yet Europeans believe that China is the world's leading economic power. Few other...

The EU says it is “doing nothing” in Kosovo

by Richard Gowan | Jun 13, 2012

The EU rule of law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) is adopting an unusual PR strategy: “EULEX is doing nothing in the fight against high level corruption” is the...

The triumph of the commons – RIP Elinor Ostrom

by Alex Evans | Jun 13, 2012

Apart from being the first (and only) woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics, Elinor Ostrom will be remembered as a towering intellect for another reason...

Sympathy for the Devil: Charles Taylor and his Apologists in the West

by Mark Weston | Jun 5, 2012

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who was last week sentenced to fifty years imprisonment for crimes committed in Sierra Leone's civil war, was a...

Tory spin doctor caught on camera telling off BBC journalist

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjizya6TDFg[/youtube]

What would a good outcome from Rio+20 look like?

by Claire Melamed | May 28, 2012

A genuine question, honest. Triggered by today's earnest plea urging world leaders to get their act together and agree something - anything - for the Rio+20...

Is the Eurozone crisis a threat to democracy?

by Alistair Burnett | May 24, 2012

Here's a piece I've done for Yale Global magazine on democracy under strain in Europe. Politicians in power since the 2008 financial collapse, regardless of...

Best of Times, Worst of Times

by David Steven | May 23, 2012

An edited and expanded version of talk given to the ‘Lessons from the Economic Troubles’ panel at an international workshop on systemic lessons from the global economic crisis, hosted by the Global Futures Forum.

How best to argue for equality: fairness, social outcomes or economic outcomes?

by Alex Evans | May 21, 2012

It’s interesting that when progressives argue in favour of redistribution or other policies for greater equality, we tend to base our arguments either on...

In praise of Brooklyn

by Richard Gowan | May 18, 2012

This is a bit of a diversion from the normal Global Dashboard diet, but as a Brooklyn resident I cannot help reproducing parts of a sterling defense of NYC's...

Those magnificent presidents in their flying bathrooms

by Richard Gowan | May 16, 2012

There was mild amusement yesterday when newly-minted President Hollande had to delay his arrival in Germany after lightning struck his government jet. The...

City Development States: Why Lagos Works Better than Nigeria

by Seth Kaplan | May 10, 2012

Nigeria is not known for strong governance. On the contrary, it is arguably one of worse governed countries in the world, losing hundreds of billions of...

Sustainability: a game you can lose, but can’t win

by Alex Evans | May 9, 2012

It is useful to think of sustainability in the metaphor of an athletic game: It is possible to “lose”–that is, to become unsustainable, as happened to the...

And so farewell…

by Richard Gowan | May 7, 2012

...to Dmitry and Nicolas!

The biology of poverty traps

by Mark Weston | May 4, 2012

By way of catching up on my popular social science, I have been reading Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow and Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee's Poor...

Morgan Annan = Kofi Freeman

by Richard Gowan | May 1, 2012

Kofi Annan often opens his speeches with a joke about once being mistaken for Morgan Freeman in Italy. Today Morgan Freeman was at the UN to launch...

Happy birthday to GD

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2012

Dear oh dear! Amid all the excitement about what happens after 2015 and so on, all of us somehow managed to overlook the small fact that it was Global...

Beyond the Millennium Development Goals

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2012

Debate on what should follow the Millennium Development Goals after 2015 is now underway in earnest. This briefing paper by Alex Evans and David Steven, prepared for a closed session Brookings Institution meeting organised at the request of the US government, sets out an overview of the MDGs and their expected status in 2015; describes the background to, and options for, a post-2015 framework; and discusses the political challenges of agreeing a new framework and sets out considerations for governments and other stakeholders.

Inspiring Speech on African Entrepreneurship

by Seth Kaplan | Apr 18, 2012

Best argument for entrepreneurship (and rural development) in Africa you will ever see: [wpvideo KDpijSFG] Thanks to New York University's Development...

The Luxembourgers are coming!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 18, 2012

The New York Times has just published a genuinely wonderful (if just a little humorous) piece about Luxembourg's revanchist dreams of dominating its...

What sort of High Level Panel?

by Alex Evans | Apr 17, 2012

To be effective, the new High Level Panel on the post-2015 agenda needs to be clear about what it wants to be remembered for. Here are the six basic options that international commissions have open to them when they sit down to consider that question…

A complex coup in Guinea-Bissau

by Mark Weston | Apr 16, 2012

Last Friday, just as West Africa watchers were recovering from the excitement of the coup d'état in Mali a couple of weeks back, little Guinea-Bissau piped up...

Newt Gingrich’s big multilateral idea: guns for all!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 15, 2012

Newt Gingrich, who is still hanging on to his presidential ambitions, has a long record of interest in the United Nations. In the post-Iraq era he was, by...

After the MDGs – avoiding the curse of the sequel

by David Steven | Apr 12, 2012

As David Cameron prepares to chair the High Level Panel charged with designing a successor to the Millennium Development Goals, he should be in no doubt that...

Texts from Hillary

by Jules Evans | Apr 11, 2012

You've probably already seen this but...this site is quite funny: http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/ As the name suggests, its photos of Secretary...

Book on the Social Divisions that Plague Fragile States

by Seth Kaplan | Apr 10, 2012

A new book edited by Jeffrey Herbst, Terence McNamee, and Greg Mills discusses the most important problem in fragile states: weak social cohesion. It looks at...

Bhutan’s well-being measurements (or ‘how Buddhist are you?’)

by Jules Evans | Apr 6, 2012

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...

Syria: has Annan been set up to fail?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 2, 2012

Kofi Annan is briefing the Security Council on his efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis today. As I wrote in a piece for Foreign Policy on Friday Annan -...

Tweeting Ambassadors and Paintballing with Hezbollah

by David Steven | Mar 25, 2012

Almost ten years ago, I had my first adventure with blogging at the World Summit on Sustainable Development - where I ran what was probably the world's first...

Obama’s World Bank Nominee Dances Thriller

by Casper ter Kuile | Mar 23, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrYdp8xgekU&t=1m50s[/youtube]

The Arab Spring: bad for tyrants and toilets

by Richard Gowan | Mar 22, 2012

This week, the FT had a special section on supply chains and risk management. It was mainly very good, but one passage struck a funny note: The risks are...

Obama, Cameron, Churchill, and the Right-Wing Echo Chamber

by David Steven | Mar 14, 2012

Our friends at National Review's The Corner - America's foremost Conservative group blog - were devastated on Britain's behalf at the disrespect Barack Obama...

Horizontal Versus Vertical Social Cohesion: Why the Differences Matter

by Seth Kaplan | Mar 12, 2012

Social cohesion is an underappreciated but crucial element in development, state building, and poverty reduction. It is an especially important factor in...

Danger: Global Cupcake takeover of International Women’s Day

by Claire Melamed | Mar 6, 2012

Since when did cupcakes become the international symbol of womankind? Because cupcake themed international women's day events are being promoted everywhere...

Yemen: Is President Saleh Really Ceding Power?

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 23, 2012

“I have 33 years of experience in power and I know the difficulties, I know the negatives and positives. The one who clings to power is mad.” - Former...

Going Silent: Where Languages Are Dying Fastest

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 20, 2012

If you speak a language no one else does, is it still considered a language? Courtesy: Wall Street Journal.

Brookings: How Not to Evaluate Aid Effectiveness

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 16, 2012

There have been growing demands for greater independent evaluation of foreign aid for at least half a decade now. As William Easterly argued as far back as...

What it’s like to work in international development

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2012

By Ahmed El Mezeny at Save the Children in Egypt, via Facebook. Outstanding.

Syria: is love the answer?

by Richard Gowan | Feb 9, 2012

War is not the answer, Marvin Gaye once observed, and only love can conquer hate. Now Citizens for Global Solutions is trying to translate this into policy by...

Wanted: big ideas

by Claire Melamed | Feb 3, 2012

So the other day I was asked what I thought the ‘big debates’ were in development. A dream question. But the more I thought about it, the more I found...

Grading Europe’s foreign policy performance

by Richard Gowan | Feb 1, 2012

ECFR has just launched the second edition of its European Foreign Policy Scorecard, which gives the EU grades for how it dealt with different...

An Agenda for the North, or How to Avert Civil War in Nigeria

by Mark Weston | Jan 27, 2012

Northern Nigeria is in turmoil. Last week's attacks in the main northern city of Kano, which left at least 180 dead, are the latest in a series of bombings...

Is Lagos next?

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 26, 2012

Although it is extremely hard to predict the actions of a terrorist group such as Boko Haram, Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, may be a looming target....

Chris Hedges goes viral

by Jules Evans | Jan 25, 2012

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...

The unsustainability of sustainable development

by Alex Evans | Jan 23, 2012

From XKCD, via Tim Harford.

Gabrielle Giffords to step down

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nguu0TkCTd4[/youtube]

Moving to Titan?

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 19, 2012

Have you lost all hope given the onslaught of bad news these past few years? Well, now you have a backup plan. A new index published in the journal...

Here’s a proper global threat: the Death Star

by Richard Gowan | Jan 17, 2012

It's so hard to know which global threat to worry about most these days. Global warming? Weaponized bird flu? WMD? Well, now you can add the Death Star to...

Everybody calm down about the Straits of Hormuz

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2012

As everyone starts to freak out about what it would mean for the UK - with its high gas import dependency on Qatar and low gas storage capacity - if Iran...

Who said print journalism was dead?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 14, 2012

Whatever you think of French politics - or ratings agencies - this is a super front page:

Canada’s new WMD: muskets

by Richard Gowan | Jan 11, 2012

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, which kicked off when America made a grab for what is now Canada. There then followed a range of...

Oh to be in the president of Turkmenistan’s entourage…

by Jules Evans | Jan 8, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1AOK8N9imw[/youtube]

Syria: can Arab League observers make a difference?

by Richard Gowan | Dec 27, 2011

Observers from the Arab League are now in Syria to check whether the Assad regime fulfills its promise to pull the army out of urban areas. Fifty observers...

Seriously?

by David Steven | Dec 21, 2011

William Hague's (alleged) advice to David Cameron ahead of the euro summit: If it’s a choice between keeping the euro together or keeping the Conservative...

North Koreans in creepy mass cry-in over Kim Jong-il

by Mark Weston | Dec 19, 2011

Posted without comment: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSWN6Qj98Iw&feature=g-upl[/youtube]

They can’t both be right

by Alex Evans | Dec 16, 2011

The Economist's World in 2012 publication captures one of the big uncertainties for next year - and this one's a straight either / or, they say: Somebody is...

Dmitry Medvedev’s potty mouth

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2011

From Reuters, this little gem: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev caused shock and jeers on Wednesday after an obscene insult directed at political opponents...

Britain and Europe after the veto

by David Steven | Dec 9, 2011

What a day. Five observations: My initial reaction this morning: On a sinking Titanic, the UK is lobbying to avoid further damage to the iceberg. If David...

The best political commentary of 2011

by Richard Gowan | Dec 7, 2011

What do you look for in good political commentary? I'm in favor of a mix of moral clarity and realistic judgment, topped off with an incisive turn of phrase...

Ken Rogoff: is modern capitalism sustainable?

by Alex Evans | Dec 6, 2011

That's what people keep asking former IMF Chief Economist Ken Rogoff, apparently. But, he observes, It is a curious question, because it seems to presume that...

Balls the new Brown

by David Steven | Dec 5, 2011

Remember how Gordon Brown used the Treasury to keep the rest of the Cabinet on a short leash? Seems like Ed Balls is up to the same trick: It’s almost cliched...

Creating Consensus on a post-2015 framework for development

by Claire Melamed | Dec 1, 2011

Any global framework for development which is agreed after 2015 will be a political deal between states. This paper looks at recent trends in policy and politics in emerging economies and traditional donors to assess where a consenus might lie. It suggests some principles for a post-2015 agreement which emerge from recent policy developments

Mortgage subsidies – it’s not the young who win

by David Steven | Nov 29, 2011

"It is disappointing that the country cannot liberate itself from the desire to subsidise borrowing to finance house purchases," complains Martin Wolf in his...

Daily Mail in love with Human Rights Act

by David Steven | Nov 27, 2011

Back in 2007, Paul Dacre - editor of the Daily Mail - told a House of Lords Select Committee "in the editorial line and in terms of the leader column, we are...

UC Davis Chancellor runs gamut of protestors after pepper spray incident

by Alex Evans | Nov 21, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8775ZmNGFY8[/youtube]

The delicate machine we do not understand

by David Steven | Nov 15, 2011

Quote for the day: The world has been slow to realize that we are living this year in the shadow of one of the greatest economic catastrophes of modern...

Cheap food: bad. Expensive food: terrible. Why the FAO’s glass is always empty

by David Steven | Nov 9, 2011

It’s interesting to look back a few years – to when the world was worried that food was too cheap, not too expensive. In 2004, the UN Food and Agricultural...

How many people are hungry?

by David Steven | Nov 4, 2011

The good news: poverty is in retreat. The bad news: hunger isn’t. That’s the headline finding for the first Millennium Development Goal , which aims to halve...

Are the Euro sceptics winning?

by Alex Glennie | Nov 2, 2011

‘Euroscepticism’ is firmly back on the political agenda following last week’s battle in the House of Commons over whether to hold a referendum on Britain’s...

Welcome to the seven billion…

by Jules Evans | Nov 1, 2011

Let the Little Boys Die – Reaction to the 2012 World Development Report

by David Steven | Oct 28, 2011

The 2012 World Development Report has a stat that the World Bank is mighty proud of. I’ll let Bank President, Robert Zoellick tell the story: Imagine if a...

The Vatican’s plan to stabilize the global economy

by Richard Gowan | Oct 24, 2011

At a time when many European governments insist in avoiding major economic reforms, the Vatican has bigger ideas: The Vatican called on Monday for the...

21 years ahead of its time

by Alex Evans | Oct 23, 2011

A 1989 article on ‘the global teenager’ in Whole Earth Review was way ahead of its time in identifying the crux of what today’s youth bulge means for global change

Migration and climate change: old assumptions and new ideas

by Alex Glennie | Oct 21, 2011

I spent yesterday afternoon at the launch of the new Foresight report on Migration and Global Environmental Change, a study commissioned and led by the...

The last 100 years as seen through the eyes of defence planners

by Alex Evans | Oct 13, 2011

Think you have a tough job? Then you haven't thought about the confusing lives that defence planners lead... 1900 If you are a strategic analyst for the...

Miss Representation – trailer

by Alex Evans | Oct 12, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gkIiV6konY[/youtube]

Robin Hood tax round up: what’s the argument about?

by Claire Melamed | Oct 7, 2011

Is the FTT a good idea? You'd think that since we've been arguing about this for the best part of 30 years now, there would be some consensus. Oh no. The...

Who spends what on foreign aid and where?

by Andy Sumner | Oct 5, 2011

The 'traditional' foreign aid donors (aka the OECD DAC) released it's latest report (here) and stats on aid (here) this week. This is of course amid different...

Europe and the post-Atlantic security order

by Richard Gowan | Oct 4, 2011

It's obvious that the Asia-Pacific will dominate American strategic thought for the foreseeable future. Today an Obama administration official confirmed just...

Nigeria struck by plague of special advisers

by Richard Gowan | Sep 27, 2011

When the current British government took office, it decreed a limit on the number of special advisers that each minister was allowed to appoint. Recent...

The Centre for Climate Change and National Secrecy

by Jules Evans | Sep 24, 2011

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...

Is the Security Council serious about preventive diplomacy?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 22, 2011

This afternoon, taking the briefest of breaks from arguing over Palestine, leaders are gathering in the Security Council to talk about preventive diplomacy. ...

The Chinese government: paranoid, or hanging by a thread?

by Alex Evans | Sep 18, 2011

China is not Egypt, Libya or Tunisia. As the Pew Global Attitudes project noted in March this year, only 28% of Egyptians were then 'satisfied' with their...

What is the population problem?

by Claire Melamed | Sep 14, 2011

Just before I went off on my long summer break (very nice thank you), I did a podcast on the Guardian website about population. It's well worth listening to...

Is it time for Sustainable Development Goals?

by Alex Evans | Sep 6, 2011

The pros and cons of a new global set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and how they might work in practice

Ducks, Gyms and Chinese foreign aid

by Andy Sumner | Aug 26, 2011

Foreign aid from ‘new donors’ (aka emerging economies) now makes up around $10bn/year. And this has doubled in the last five years as the Economist noted last...

Want some illicit tin ore? Ask the UN!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 24, 2011

While I am not a regular reader of Creamer Media's Mining Weekly, I know people who are. And they are not happy about this story from the Congo... Congolese...

Gaddafi: guilty of crimes against good taste as well as humanity?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 23, 2011

The New York Times reports that this sculpture of a golden fist crushing a U.S. jet was one of Colonel Gaddafi's favorite works of art. What is the point of...

US-China relations boil over

by Jules Evans | Aug 20, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQlUVtFvWs[/youtube]

The perfect global governance metaphor

by Alex Evans | Aug 18, 2011

Never mind deckchairs on the Titanic. Vinay Gupta (find him here on Twitter) has come up with the perfect metaphor to describe governance breakdown in the...

Foreign aid policy a la Heritage Foundation

by Alex Evans | Aug 13, 2011

Lest you think international development faces a tough political context here in the UK, let's pause for a moment to check in on the latest thinking on...

Five must-reads on the London riots

by Alex Evans | Aug 10, 2011

James Meek recalls a recent stroll down Hackney's Broadway Market, and what it said about London, on the LRB blog yesterday: As Ghaith and I walked down the...

Iran perfects the art of meaningless UN babble

by Richard Gowan | Aug 5, 2011

UN Watch is an NGO that specializes in getting cross about the numerous misdeeds (whether major or minor) of the UN system. This week it has had something...

The UN’s “Green Police”: how sloppy Guardian reporting feeds silly right-wing punditry

by Richard Gowan | Aug 1, 2011

Here's a rather odd bit of UN-bashing from last Friday: The United Nations Security Council is looking into forming a new environmental peacekeeping force to...

Whitehall’s new philosophy of well-being

by Jules Evans | Jul 29, 2011

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...

Obama’s frustration starts to show

by Alex Evans | Jul 24, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24hWXXV2GIM[/youtube]

UN Security Council “pathetic” on climate change – US Ambassador

by Alex Evans | Jul 21, 2011

US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, speaking in a Security Council session on climate change that took place yesterday: In this Council we have discussed many...

Fair shares in a world of limits: the new front line for development

by Alex Evans | Jul 20, 2011

Thoughts after from a joint WWF / Oxfam seminar on resource scarcity, fair shares and development.

Hunger in the US

by Alex Evans | Jul 17, 2011

Lest you thought that surging food prices were only an issue for low income countries and people living on less than a dollar a day, this week's Economist...

Is there a new kind of fragile state?

by Andy Sumner | Jul 13, 2011

What do Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Sudan and perhaps Libya, Egypt and Tunisia have in common? Fragility and middle-income status. The World...

Rory Stewart on hero-worship

by Jules Evans | Jul 8, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YvbnYzrSyA[/youtube]

What the ‘powershift’ narrative overlooks on US-China relations

by Alex Evans | Jul 2, 2011

The ‘powershift’ narrative about US-China relations obscures how much they have in common: unsustainable growth paths, shaky financial sectors, political sclerosis, massive inequality, reliance on imported resources and above all their status as the two principal obstacles to collective action on shared global risks.

How to deal with petty theft a la Big Society

by Alex Evans | Jul 1, 2011

H/t Microdave.

What happens in Palestine after the UNGA vote in September?

by Alex Evans | Jun 29, 2011

Talking to a senior Middle East expert a few weeks back, I was struck by his blunt assessment that after the UN General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood...

How policy encourages the banks to fleece us

by Mark Weston | Jun 27, 2011

Yesterday's El País carried what to me was an extraordinary story about repossessions of Spanish homes. The recession has seen the number of repossessions in...

Does the IEA’s release of emergency oil stocks make sense?

by Alex Evans | Jun 24, 2011

Javier Blas is interesting this morning on why the International Energy Agency took its surprise decision yesterday to release emergency oil stocks - only the...

Why closer union can’t save the Eurozone

by Alex Evans | Jun 21, 2011

Gideon Rachman's FT column today is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the outlook for the Eurozone. Right now, the conventional wisdom is that...

Tea Party Summer Camp

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2011

A Tea Party group is running a summer camp that will use 'fun, hands-on activities' to teach kids what the United States is really about. Here's one of the...

Are ANY multilateral organisations based in emerging economies?

by Alex Evans | Jun 13, 2011

I found myself wondering today, as you do, whether I could think of any multilateral organisations based in emerging economies. I scratched my head for a long...

Would you rather be poor in a rich(er) country or rich in a poorer country?

by Andy Sumner | Jun 10, 2011

Charles Kenny’s Getting Better is one of the books of the moment (here’s a summary and reviews in NYT and the Financial Times and listen to it here). It’s an...

Ban Ki-moon: our top ten Ban-tastic moments

by Richard Gowan | Jun 8, 2011

This week, Ban Ki-moon announced that he wants a second term at the helm of the UN. As I predicted last September, the U.S. is behind his renewal, and the...

Tweeting Yemen

by Ryan Gawn | Jun 3, 2011

Yemen and Arab Spring watchers will be fascinated by the Al Jazeera New Media team's Interactive Twitter Dashboard, illustrating what is being tweeted about...

The EU wants to take away not only your freedom, but also your Marmite

by Richard Gowan | Jun 2, 2011

Worrisome news from Guernsey, the nicest of the Channel Islands: A MARMITE ban in Denmark has shown what could happen in Guernsey if deputies sign up to EU...

All quiet on the Kashmiri front…

by Richard Gowan | Jun 1, 2011

Sushant K. Singh has a great piece over at World Politics Review on the state of Indian Kashmir (you may need to subscribe). Something seems to be going...

Explaining the EU’s Libyan no-show

by Richard Gowan | May 31, 2011

Two months ago the EU Council mandated a military mission called EUFOR Libya to help get aid to Libyan citizens and refugees - but only if the UN asked for...

Fukuyama’s post-Western, pro-Western world history

by Richard Gowan | May 27, 2011

Francis Fukuyama has got a lot of attention for his new book The Origins of Political Order. He's still so closely associated with having announced the "end...

What’s the point of the G8?

by Richard Gowan | May 24, 2011

It's G8-time again! Sadly, not all the leaders who've turned up to recent G8 summits - like the guy on the right, seen at the Italian-hosted meeting in 2009...

Cameron Hearts Tyrants

by David Steven | May 19, 2011

No-one reads The Independent, but - even so - Downing Street is sure to be steaming at tomorrow's front page:

Unsolicited career advice for Michael Ignatieff

by Richard Gowan | May 18, 2011

I have a short piece over at The Mark today about what Michael Ignatieff should do, now that running Canada is off the cards: Michael Ignatieff, off to teach...

The EU: “strategic suburbia”?

by Richard Gowan | May 15, 2011

I'm flattered that David Miliband has quoted me in speech on Europe he gave in Poland. The former Foreign Secretary believes that "America’s attention today...

Are the world’s poorest countries getting better off?

by Andy Sumner | May 13, 2011

Some certainly are. This week there’s been a big UN meeting about the world’s poorest countries - the 4th UN conference on the Least Developed Countries...

Diplomats and the danger of leeks

by Richard Gowan | May 12, 2011

Working through the website of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to gather information for CIC's annual Review of Political Missions, I...

What do we want? Jobs!

by Claire Melamed | May 12, 2011

This post appeared on the Guardian's Poverty Matters blog yesterday. See the original for some insightful comments. A recent survey asking people in...

Are 1 in 3 Africans middle class?

by Andy Sumner | May 9, 2011

Yes says a new report from the African Development Bank which says one in three (34%) or 313m of Africa's nearly 1bn people are now middle class (living on...

The UN speaks: let’s be friends!

by Richard Gowan | May 5, 2011

Earlier this week, the UN General Assembly voted to give the EU an "enhanced observer status" in its deliberations. This is a relief to European diplomats,...

Osama’s demise: an alternative view

by Alex Evans | May 3, 2011

Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching: "Weapons are instruments of bad omen, not instruments for the noble. [The noble man] uses them only when he cannot help it....

Lessons Obama learnt from Rumsfeld’s aborted 2005 raid on Pakistan

by David Steven | May 2, 2011

Today’s raid on Abottabad, where US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden, brings back memories of an aborted raid in 2005: A secret military operation in early...

Fox Breaks the News

by David Steven | May 2, 2011

Now that’s what I call a global risk

by Alex Evans | Apr 26, 2011

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/18150336[/vimeo] Fancy a go?

India: the super-prudent superpower?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 21, 2011

Over at Mint, my colleague W.P.S. Sidhu reflects on the BRICS summit in Sanya, where the big non-Western powers were in a non-interventionist mood... While...

Carbon space explained through the medium of a washing machine

by Alex Evans | Apr 19, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZoKfap4g4w[/youtube]

Alex Evans on sustainable economics at INET

by Alex Evans | Apr 14, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k71RK4QP4NQ[/youtube]

Eric Beinhocker on complexity economics

by Alex Evans | Apr 12, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqPuYQW_cqY[/youtube]

Lifting the lid on the drug trade through West Africa

by Mark Weston | Apr 11, 2011

A trial that has just got under way in New York looks likely to provide some interesting insights into how South American drug traffickers are going about...

Soul searching on Chinese foreign policy

by Alex Evans | Apr 9, 2011

ECFR and the Asia Centre have a new edition of China Analysis just out which is on the question of whether China has become too bold in its dealings with the...

How will more UK aid reduce poverty in fragile, corrupt and ‘non-free’ places?

by Andy Sumner | Apr 7, 2011

A new report, covered by the UK Guardian says that DFID, the UK aid agency, needs to be careful 'to minimize fraud and corruption risks' as it spends more aid...

Gaddafi: ‘Championing a United Africa’

by Mark Weston | Apr 5, 2011

This piece from yesterday's Africa Review contains much that is spurious. That coalition forces are 'taking their lead from the US,' that Libya will become 'a...

Will West’s attacks on Libya help Al Qaeda recruit West Africans?

by Mark Weston | Apr 1, 2011

Last week, a pro-Gaddafi protest in predominantly-Muslim Guinea was banned. This week, a similar event in Niger has been outlawed, with the head of the...

Survivalists of the world, unite

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2011

And while you're doing that, why not also subscribe to Off the Grid News, a free weekly newsletter that will tool you up with information on such cheerful...

The country where a woman without a man….doesn’t exist

by Claire Melamed | Mar 29, 2011

A country where a woman who has no man to speak for her literally doesn't exist as far as the authorities are concerned - and can't claim benefits, can't get...

Development’s next decade

by Alex Evans | Mar 28, 2011

Report by Alex Evans for ActionAid’s International Strategy 2012-2016, identifying eight critical uncertainties for development over the next decade, and ten recommendations for ActionAid as a global campaigning organisation.

Do international NGOs have a future?

by Andy Sumner | Mar 24, 2011

More horizon scanning out this week – it’s a growth industry - from the Irish NGO, Trocaire (and some inputs from IDS). This scan is a bit different -...

Mandelson the aid expert…

by Claire Melamed | Mar 23, 2011

In an article in the Daily Mail today, Peter Mandelson takpes a pop at the Labour Government's aid policy. He says: ‘I’m not anti-aid, but if you ask me...

Is there a Plan?

by Alex Evans | Mar 21, 2011

Foreign Policy scooped the US broadsheet press by a day over the weekend with its breakdown of what persuaded President Obama to undertake his volte face on...

What the oil spike means for development

by Alex Evans | Mar 18, 2011

ODI have some new research out this week on this, looking at the potential impacts of a one third increase in oil prices over the next two years (which they...

Ban Ki-moon 2.0?

by Richard Gowan | Mar 14, 2011

A few weeks ago, David Bosco and I had a rapid-fire exchange (look here, here and here) over how Ban Ki-moon measures up to Kofi Annan as UN...

Aid 2.0: What does aid look like with drastically fewer poor countries?

by Andy Sumner | Mar 11, 2011

There’s a new paper out from the Washington-based Centre for Global Development, on the ever declining number of poor countries. Moss and Leo estimate that...

Just very quickly – how on earth d’you sleep at night?

by Alex Evans | Mar 9, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbcACpriZ9s[/youtube]

Food, Libya’s rebels and humanitarian space

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2011

Chris Albon has an excellent post over at The Atlantic, which has this to say: Warfare has changed much since Napoleon's Grande Armée marched across Europe,...

Premier Wen comes clean on China’s fragile recovery

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Mar 5, 2011

Nearly two years ago I had warned on this blog of the deep risks linked to China’s (then-widely-praised) fiscal stimulus and financial easing measures, which...

OK, this is slightly off topic. But hey.

by Alex Evans | Mar 3, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4abiHdQpc[/youtube]

Fancy tackling climate change from your desk?

by Ryan Gawn | Mar 1, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pk3QDC84Go[/youtube]

The tawdry spectacle of David Cameron’s Middle East trip (updated)

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2011

Presumably like many of my fellow countrymen, I am writhing with embarrassment about my Prime Minister's ugly little junket to the Middle East this week. It...

America’s backwards development trajectory

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2011

Blimey. From the NYT - large version here.

The Great Stagnation! (don’t panic)

by Jules Evans | Feb 19, 2011

According to the FT, the “most talked-about non-fiction book of the year” is the economist Tyler Cowen’s The Great Stagnation, more of a long essay really,...

The benefits and costs of altruism

by Jules Evans | Feb 17, 2011

Daniel Batson, the social psychologist, has recently brought out what is probably his defining work on the topic he has studied for 30 years, Altruism In...

Mubarak #Fail

by Casper ter Kuile | Feb 15, 2011

As campaigners start to chase down the billions that Mubarak took with him, many outsiders are trying to figure out how the Egyptian revolution came to be....

Cable Cars for Development?

by Claire Melamed | Feb 14, 2011

Step forward today's candidate for least likely development hero of the week. It's the cable car. Traffic in some of the big cities of the developing world...

China’s drought and global food prices

by Alex Evans | Feb 11, 2011

Taking stock of where we are on the 2011 food price spike, with a particular focus on the implications of the brutal drought in China’s grain-producing regions

China – worst drought in 200 years

by Alex Evans | Feb 9, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBGsxn_lvX4[/youtube]

What if you have a mobile phone but you can’t read?

by Claire Melamed | Feb 7, 2011

What will happen if mobile phone use carries on expanding at its current rate in Africa, but literacy rates don't improve? This graph, using data from the...

How much does inequality matter to poverty reduction?

by Andy Sumner | Feb 5, 2011

Quite a bit it seems judging by the poverty projections in the new Brookings paper that shows what’s possible if inequality is unchanging. In short, much,...

Want to join the Security Council? Stay away from Yankee Stadium!

by Richard Gowan | Feb 3, 2011

The Ottawa Citizen counts the costs of Canada's 2010 run for the Security Council: The Harper government spent nearly $1 million ferrying diplomats around the...

Avoiding the kettle – mobile phone coordination during protests

by Ryan Gawn | Feb 1, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSltSvVeYHY&feature=player_embedded [/youtube]

Fidel Castro’s Obamania

by Richard Gowan | Jan 29, 2011

Google "Fidel Castro", and you can find an amazing trove of pictures of him with some of the most famous world leaders of the last half-century like Pope John...

Footage of a Chinese military drill? Or, er, a clip from Top Gun?

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2011

Joshua Keating at ForeignPolicy.com has returned from the Chinese blogosphere bearing treasure. Footage posted by the PLA that purports to show a recent air...

Economic disobedience

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4i1tTgUMuI[/youtube]

The Palestine Papers: deal breaker or deal maker?

by Arjan van Houwelingen | Jan 25, 2011

It’s over. The peace process that never really was a true effort to find peace has now been exposed to have died a slow death. The two-state solution has...

Is this the world’s most successful hunger eradication program?

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlExLpFZfwA[/youtube]

Did the world get less free last week?

by Andy Sumner | Jan 21, 2011

Yes, according to the annual survey of US ‘independent watchdog’ Freedom House and carried by Foreign Policy and Voice of America. Every year the...

Ban Ki-moon: not Gbagbo’s chevalier

by Richard Gowan | Jan 19, 2011

Do you have one of these? No? Then you are not a Grand Officier de L'Ordre National de la République de Côte d’Ivoire. Unlike, for example, Ban Ki-moon: Mr...

Should we hold G8 summits in space?

by Jules Evans | Jan 18, 2011

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell thinks so. I interviewed Dr Mitchell about how the 'big picture effect' transformed many astronauts, including him. For best results,...

Mexico’s kidnapping business (AlJazeera)

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt6wG1xfxQ[/youtube]

The World in 2020 – Geopolitical and Trends Analysis

by David Steven | Jan 14, 2011

Report asking how organisations can prosper in what will be a turbulent period for world order

Our evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee

by Alex Evans | Jan 12, 2011

Here's the webcast of our appearance in front of the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee earlier today - you'll need to have MS Silverlight installed on your...

Ten principles of good strategy making

by Alex Evans | Jan 12, 2011

As preparation for this afternoon's Foreign Affairs Select Committee hearing, one of the papers I'm looking at the Public Administration Select Committee's...

The Onion War

by David Steven | Jan 10, 2011

On the face of it Pakistan may have bigger things to worry about, but recent weeks have seen it fall out with India over the humble onion: The pungent...

FAO Food Price Index highest ever – so where are the riots?

by Alex Evans | Jan 6, 2011

As if to mark the start of the new decade with an indication of what we can expect from it, the FAO's Food Price Index has just surpassed its 2008 peak (it's...

The first really stupid foreign policy story of 2011

by Richard Gowan | Jan 5, 2011

Two twits tweet: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accepted Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to go skiing. '@Schwarzenegger: Thanks. We agreed - I...

What happens if you steal a hacker’s computer

by Alex Evans | Dec 30, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oB28ksiIo[/youtube]

Nativity 2.0

by Alex Evans | Dec 15, 2010

Via @CasperTK.

Joke of the week

by Alex Evans | Dec 14, 2010

Lest you haven't heard this yet: A man phones up Liberal Democrat headquarters. He says, "I'd like to buy a copy of your manifesto, please." "I'm very sorry,...

Is Ed Miliband about to torch his environmental credentials? (updated x2)

by Alex Evans | Dec 8, 2010

BBC News: UK Climate Secretary Chris Huhne is set to fly back to London from the UN climate summit for the Thursday's Commons vote on student tuition fees....

How not to prevent accidents

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2010

A French court yesterday found Continental Airlines guilty of involuntary homicide for its part in the Concorde crash outside Paris in 2000. This is...

From BRICs to PIGS: what’s in a name?

by Jules Evans | Dec 6, 2010

First there was BRICs. Then came CIVETS. Then we were presented with BASIC, CRIM, BRICK, CEMENT, BEM, N11 and the 7% Club. Now barely a week goes by before...

ECB stands firm (sort of)

by Jules Evans | Dec 3, 2010

The ECB yesterday slightly increased its bond purchasing programme, but did not push the nuclear button and announce some huge new programme of QE or bank...

The Girl Effect

by Alex Evans | Nov 30, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53yuF64UgSM[/youtube]

Spanish flu

by Alex Evans | Nov 29, 2010

Spain's 10 year gilt curve today, via FT Alphaville.

What a limits to growth agenda would really look like

by Alex Evans | Nov 26, 2010

Never mind all the talk about changing the indicators of how we measure progress. A real ‘limits to growth’ agenda would involve changing how bannking, debt and indeed money itself work…

Where ideas come from

by Alex Evans | Nov 24, 2010

...according to Seth Godin: Ideas don't come from watching television Ideas sometimes come from listening to a lecture Ideas often come while reading a book...

Quantitative easing made simple

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k[/youtube]

Picture of the week

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2010

You have to love this picture that Wired.com used to illustrate a story about US surveillance of Russian nuclear weapons. What tickles me is the fact that the...

The only four stories about the future

by Alex Evans | Nov 18, 2010

This from Jon Turney's excellent Rough Guide to The Future: Jim Dator, a futurist at the University of Hawaii, developed a classification system in the 1970s...

Things you seldom see: City brokerages publishing reports on limits to growth

by Alex Evans | Nov 16, 2010

Tullett Prebon, if you haven't heard of them, describe themselves as: ...an intermediary in wholesale financial markets facilitating the trading activities of...

Today in Britain (1964)

by Alex Evans | Nov 14, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbb7g1HT0YA[/youtube]

New CIC report on Globalization and Scarcity

by Alex Evans | Nov 11, 2010

Does the issue of resource limits necessarily lead to a world of zero-sum games, resource nationalism and intensifying competition for dwindling resources? And if not, then what kinds of multilateral action are needed in order to prevent this outcome?

How many people can the earth support?

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2010

Here's Lester Brown's take: One of the questions I am often asked is, "How many people can the earth support?" I answer with another question: "At what level...

The latest front on scarcity

by Alex Evans | Nov 6, 2010

Here's the NYT's Dealbook column on 11 October: If you care at all about the future of the world’s food supply, you care — whether you know it or not — about...

So you want to go to Law School

by Alex Evans | Nov 4, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMvARy0lBLE[/youtube]

The Rise of the Neo-Aristotelians

by Jules Evans | Oct 28, 2010

I'm excited about going to see Alasdair MacIntyre talk today. I think he's the most influential living philosopher, and it's a rare chance to see him speak in...

Nick Robinson loses the plot

by David Steven | Oct 21, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Ye06r2_n8[/youtube]

DFID and fragile states

by David Steven | Oct 20, 2010

For DFID - the heart of yesterday's defence review was a new commitment to spend 30% of Britain's development cash on "priority national security and fragile...

A New Concert of Europe?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 15, 2010

My colleagues at the European Council on Foreign Relations have just published a new report: The Spectre of a Multipolar Europe. Lead authors Mark Leonard...

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb: Sponsored by Europe

by Mark Weston | Oct 11, 2010

Last month, not long after the release by the terror group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb of two Spanish hostages it had held in captivity for nine months,...

Taking aim at bean counters

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2010

Former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios has a new Center for Global Development paper railing against the agency's culture of bureaucracy - and, in...

Alex Evans on resilience and scarcity

by Alex Evans | Oct 7, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Cmn5AOOxg[/youtube]

What if social protection isn’t enough?

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2010

During the food price spike and since, one of the things just about everyone (including me) has agreed on is the desirability of scaling up access to social...

Rob Hopkins on transition towns

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQuh-Kf6ng8[/youtube]

British armed forces to be replaced by the A-Team

by Alex Evans | Oct 4, 2010

Currently doing the rounds in Whitehall: As part of budget cuts the entire Ministry of Defence is to be dismantled and replaced by four soldiers of fortune...

Afghanistan: the Michigan State University option

by Richard Gowan | Sep 30, 2010

Have we tried everything possible to save Afghanistan? No! We have not turned over the entire state-building exercise there to scholars from Michigan State...

Raytheon unveils new Iron Man suit

by Alex Evans | Sep 28, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO0xNI3xpmE[/youtube]

How many deaths from terrorism is society willing to accept as the price of being free?

by Alex Evans | Sep 27, 2010

David Foster Wallace in the Atlantic has a good question: What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but...

Brits almost as fat as Americans; Italy trimmest EU member in OECD

by Alex Evans | Sep 27, 2010

A new OECD report finds Britain has the highest rates of overweight and obesity in the EU, and rates 5th overall (after the US, Mexico, NZ and Australia)....

‘The most sophisticated malware in the last 5 years’ – and it’s aimed at power plants

by Alex Evans | Sep 24, 2010

Today's FT has a piece about a bit of malware called Stuxnet, which "has infected an unknown number of power plants, pipelines and factories" (or more...

Can these men reform the UN?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 21, 2010

Bruce Jones and I have just published a short piece on the Brookings website pointing out that (i) there's a growing sense that UN reform, and especially...

Why can’t the EU crack the UN?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 17, 2010

This week, a resolution granting the EU a special status at the UN was postponed by a vote of 76 states to 71 (the rest abstained or didn't vote). European...

Americans: bunch of UN-loving wimps

by Richard Gowan | Sep 16, 2010

The BBC has a good summary of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' latest "Global Views" survey of U.S. public opinion on international affairs. The main...

Defining the UN-sphere

by Richard Gowan | Sep 14, 2010

I've just returned from a very interesting presentation at the International Peace Institute (of movie fame). Christoph Mikulaschek was outlining the first...

Education after the apocalypse

by Richard Gowan | Sep 12, 2010

Jeffrey R. Young, an expert on higher education, is touring Asia to see how the region's universities are using information technology - and he's blogging...

Think-tank life: the video

by Richard Gowan | Sep 10, 2010

What is life like inside a hot-shot New York think-tank? What does it really feel like to, say, pick up a phone and talk to the answering machine of a...

Resource Scarcity, Climate Change and the Risk of Violent Conflict

by Alex Evans | Sep 10, 2010

Background paper on whether resource scarcity and climate change will cause increased violent conflict

Oh. My. God.

by Alex Evans | Sep 9, 2010

News just in from Colum Lynch at FP's Turtle Bay blog: Sha Zukang, the U.N. undersecretary general for Economic and Social Affairs and the organization's most...

The UN needs better codenames

by Richard Gowan | Sep 3, 2010

In April 2009, I noted that UN forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo mounted an anti-rebel operation codenamed "Rock of Steel". This week, after mass...

Why being a diplomat sucks

by Alex Evans | Sep 1, 2010

Tyler Cowen sets it all out: I see diplomacy as a stressful and unrewarding profession. A good diplomat has the responsibility of deflecting a lot of the...

Yay for humanitarian workers

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95lQ-IzEhOc[/youtube]

Musical chairs at the IMF

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2010

Sounds like the US is playing hardball at the IMF. The Economist's Free Exchange blog takes up the tale: When the IMF was formed, it was agreed that its...

Do tough neighborhoods breed big powers?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 24, 2010

Are emerging great powers like Old Etonians or street-fighters? Or, to be a bit more literal, should we expect great powers to emerge out of privileged,...

Nudging the Issue

by Jules Evans | Aug 23, 2010

News here that David Cameron has approved the establishment of a 'behavioural insight' unit, led by policy advisor David Halpern, to find ways to implement...

Are you staring at the EU’s ass?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 21, 2010

Look at this little fellow... ...and try telling me that he wouldn't look better with this logo stuck to his furry flank: What, you may ask, am I going on...

Indian aid to Pakistan: too statist?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 20, 2010

China has been accused of being "stingy" for offering its Pakistan just $2 million in flood aid. India is being more generous, and Pakistan will accept help...

How to do TV weather

by Alex Evans | Aug 18, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3SuooQ-1T0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Scarcity event in Washington DC (and on the web), 2nd September

by Alex Evans | Aug 17, 2010

If you're in DC on 2nd September, the environmental change and security program at the Woodrow Wilson Center is organising an event on resource scarcity and...

NYC philosophy professors: worse than Wall Street?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 16, 2010

Henry Kissinger once said that academic politics is so vicious because the stakes are so low. In today's NYT, Mark Taylor (who runs Columbia's Religion...

“Journalists hadn’t earned the right to broadcast our whingeing”

by Alex Evans | Aug 14, 2010

What soldiers actually think about media reporting of inadequate provision of vehicles to troops in Afghanistan: I didn't doubt that someone somewhere, tired...

The EU-Team

by Richard Gowan | Aug 11, 2010

What do the four people above have to learn from the four below? I pity the fool that does not find out the answer here (OK, it's just a link to another...

UN bicycles endanger your freedom!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 6, 2010

Look at the picture above. What do you see? A public bicycle rack in Denver. But look closer. It's really a terrifying plot to make Americans submit to the...

Can UN troops protect UK investments?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 2, 2010

Last week, human rights types were up in arms about this news: Britain’s new government has signalled its willingness to become “candid friends” of Sudan’s...

How to win at Monopoly

by Alex Evans | Aug 2, 2010

The perennially popular board game Monopoly is a reasonable simulacrum of capitalism. At the beginning of the game, players move around a commons and try to...

RUSI’s Michael Clarke on the Afghan leaks

by Alex Evans | Jul 28, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIRBqXkEy88[/youtube]

On the web: the UK Strategic Defence and Security Review, Russia-China-US relations, and India’s international outlook…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 23, 2010

- Writing in The World Today, General Tim Cross and Brigadier Nigel Hall examine the prospects of the UK's Strategic Defence and Security Review, suggesting...

Is the post-9/11 moment on military intervention now over?

by Alex Evans | Jul 21, 2010

Just by way of kite-flying, here's a hypothesis I tried out this morning at a seminar that Chatham House hosted for the US National Intelligence Council:...

Why Britain needs a National Intelligence Council

by Alex Evans | Jul 19, 2010

Britain's new National Security Council is built along much the same lines as its counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic - but if we're copying the...

On virtual worlds

by Alex Evans | Jul 15, 2010

About a quarter of a billion people spend time every week inside some kind of virtual world (like World of Warcraft, or Second Life, or IMVU). That's one of...

Where the hell is Nigel Havers when the KGB needs him? And how bad is the man’s PR?

by Richard Gowan | Jul 9, 2010

The Useless Yonkers 10 (mysterious Anna Chapman, real name Anna Chapman!!!, and chums) are being deported to Russia in exchange for Western spooks in Russian...

Are collapsitarians socially inadequate?

by Alex Evans | Jul 5, 2010

Poor old collapsitarians. It’s bad enough spending your days convinced that you’re one among a small band of Cassandras burdened with the foresight to see...

A man scorned: respect, vengeance and the use of rape in war

by Mark Weston | Jun 28, 2010

In the recent conflicts in Darfur, Uganda, Congo, and Bosnia, rape has been used systematically as a tool of war. The horrors perpetrated on civilian women...

“Every year they voted to be kept in the dark”

by Alex Evans | Jun 22, 2010

Hard to argue with this one from Monbiot: Call me a hard-hearted bastard, but I'm finding it difficult to summon up the sympathy demanded by the institutional...

The problem of complexity

by David Steven | Jun 19, 2010

Atul Gawande: Half a century ago, medicine was neither costly nor effective. Since then, however, science has combated our ignorance. It has enumerated and...

Is the G8 about to get blown away?

by Richard Gowan | Jun 17, 2010

The G8 is, analysts concur, in trouble. Since the G20 shot to prominence during the financial crisis, the 8 have always looked, er, 12 members short of full...

Mark Malloch Brown on WEF’s Global Redesign Initiative

by Alex Evans | Jun 16, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmCEG4i0P_I[/youtube]

Turning point on Deepwater Horizon?

by Alex Evans | Jun 15, 2010

Later today, Barack Obama will give his first televised address from the Oval Office. He didn’t do this on healthcare reform, and he hasn’t done it on the...

What will peak oil mean for foreign policy?

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2010

What do countries do when they run out of oil? That's the question posed by Oxford University's Joerg Friedrich in a fortcoming journal piece in Energy...

Exponential growth 101

by Alex Evans | Jun 7, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9znsuCphHUU[/youtube]

Organizing for Influence: our new Chatham House report

by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2010

Our new Chatham House report on how the UK should organise its foreign polcy is now published – looking at national security, global systems and fragile states.

The French “non” to the EU – 5th anniversary

by Richard Gowan | May 29, 2010

Five years ago today, I had a chicken korma for dinner. I know this not because of quality of the curry (it was, as I recall, not bad) but because about half...

Wanted: 100 American military observers to save Congo

by Richard Gowan | May 27, 2010

The UN has had peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a decade. Congolese President Joseph Kabila, hoping to show he's not reliant on the blue...

55% controversy – “no zombie governments”

by David Steven | May 26, 2010

Last night saw a well-attended late night debate in the Commons on the proposed 55% for dissolving Parliament, which I picked up on when it popped up in the...

“Opening up Whitehall recruitment”, civil service style

by Alex Evans | May 24, 2010

So is the UK government opening central government job vacancies up to external applicants or not? That, after all, is what the new Coalition announced it...

Great problems in disaster management: can you save a gerbil during a catastrophic earthquake?

by Richard Gowan | May 20, 2010

Global Dashboard asks hard questions about whether communities and systems are resilient enough to survive catastrophes. But I don't think we've ever asked...

Texas Police to Use Spy Drones

by David Steven | May 17, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5vm149vGc[/youtube]

US to UK: time for discipline on the EU

by Richard Gowan | May 15, 2010

Yesterday's meeting between Hillary Clinton and William Hague seems to have gone well. The Washington Post reports that there was a "simpatico vibe" in the...

The 55% Crisis

by David Steven | May 14, 2010

So it takes 46 hours to go from this on Global Dashboard... My prediction is that this will prove the most controversial part of the [LibCon] pact... "This...

Conservatives lead DFID for first time (updated)

by David Steven | May 13, 2010

Andrew Mitchell becomes the first Conservative Secretary of State at the UK's Department for International Development. DFID was formed in 1997, as one of the...

Britain’s new National Security Adviser

by Alex Evans | May 12, 2010

Adam Boulton explains his Alistair Campbell outburst

by David Steven | May 11, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cADCKP-za-I&feature=related[/youtube]

Boulton blows up at Campbell (in full)

by David Steven | May 10, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTntLzqDzJk[/youtube]

After the vote: negotiate first with your base

by David Steven | May 9, 2010

One lesson I took from from the Northern Irish peace process was that, when building a complex agreement, trouble results if any party forgets this rule: the...

After the vote – confronting the economic crisis

by David Steven | May 6, 2010

I thought I could safely ignore the election for a few hours this evening. I voted days ago by post. And not much normally happens before the polls close at...

Greece screwed – Euro next?

by David Steven | May 5, 2010

On Greece, Martin Wolf is bleak... Yet [despite the bailout] it is hard to believe that Greece can avoid debt restructuring. First, assume, for the moment,...

After the vote: enter Lisbon, stage left

by David Steven | May 5, 2010

This morning sees early evidence of the difficulties David Cameron will face on Europe, if he ends up leading a minority government or has a very slim...

UKTI admits to pimping out British embassies

by David Steven | May 4, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjMIFNFE6j8[/youtube] UK Trade and Investment's Mike Gavin has been caught on camera by Heydon Prowse dishing out the...

Well, fancy that

by Alex Evans | May 3, 2010

The difference between the first and second edition headlines of today's Times, courtesy of PoliticsHome. Take 1: Take 2: Sorry, Mr Murdoch, sir. Won't happen...

After the vote: electoral reform

by David Steven | May 2, 2010

I have been wondering how the road to reform of the British electoral system might play out. Assume Thursday’s vote gives the Liberal Democrats sufficient...

Metaphor of the week

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulh1dAjnblA[/youtube]

Eurozone crisis – Alistair Darling needs to get off the campaign trail

by David Steven | Apr 29, 2010

If you're in any doubt of the seriousness of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, read Mohamed El-Erian in the FT. A banking crisis has fuelled a sovereign debt...

Eyjafjallajökull: all a con, or not. Who knows?

by David Steven | Apr 27, 2010

It is often in the aftermath of a crisis that the government definitively loses control of the agenda - it moves on, while the media cements its narrative on...

Popegate – time to downgrade the Holy See?

by David Steven | Apr 26, 2010

From the Telegraph, contrasting reactions to Popegate - the FCO memo that ridiculed Pope Benedict XVI. Damian Thompson - "editor of Telegraph Blogs and a...

The Navy shoots itself in the foot

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2010

How bemusing is all the muttering from the Navy about UK warships being deployed to help rescue stranded tourists from the continent? First we had Admiral...

OMG! Ban Ki-moon rocks American Idol

by Richard Gowan | Apr 21, 2010

Dag Hammarsjkold never did this! Ban Ki Moon will make his prime-time American television debut this evening on...American Idol. Yes. You heard correct....

Rape as an initiation rite in Afghanistan? (updated)

by David Steven | Apr 20, 2010

Blimey: Stewart Jackson, Conservative shadow communities and local government minister and the party’s regeneration spokesman, was reported by audience...

The laboratory of resilience

by Jules Evans | Apr 19, 2010

I've spent an enjoyable weekend reading Charles Emmerson's Future History of the Arctic. Charles, a friend of Global Dashboard's, looks at the opening up of...

Calais Rescue Shut Down! (updated)

by David Steven | Apr 18, 2010

When crisis strikes, it doesn't take long for people to start finding ways to help themselves. On 9/11, a self-organising flotilla began to evacuate people...

Iceland volcano footage

by David Steven | Apr 17, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pazzn44zDs&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Should the Guardian check facts? (updated x3)

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2010

This morning, The Guardian's website leads with a polling sensation. Apparently, Nick Clegg did so well is last night's debate that the British election is...

The lost children of Muslim Africa

by Mark Weston | Apr 13, 2010

A couple of weeks ago in the small, poor Sahelian town of Dori in northern Burkina Faso, we were sitting at a roadside stall having a breakfast of coffee and...

Lieberman says no on nuclear treaty

by David Steven | Apr 11, 2010

It seems that the START treaty is going to struggle to make it through the Senate, despite President Obama's confidence that a swift passage is possible....

Without America, innovation will die

by David Steven | Apr 9, 2010

Jonah Golderg (of cheese-eating surrender monkey and liberal fascism fame) is no fan of Europe (Switzerland, excepted). Today, he frets that, if Obama is...

Ban Ki-moon to Central Asia: stop talking!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 6, 2010

An unfortunate glitch in a story from the UN News Center*: Mr. Ban will begin his official visit [to Central Asia] in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, where he will...

On the web: Moscow’s terror response, G20 rumbles, US foreign policy, and libertarians at sea…

by Michael Harvey | Apr 1, 2010

- With Moscow still smouldering in the wake of the metro bombings, Sam Greene assesses how the Kremlin might respond, suggesting that recourse to further...

James Bond voting Tory (in disguise)!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 1, 2010

The BBC has published a story entitled "Business Leaders Back Conservative Tax Pledge" (which may rank with "Dog Would Like to Bite Man, But Chases Tail For...

Global Governance: a very French debate

by Richard Gowan | Mar 30, 2010

This week, all the big ideas for the future of world order are coming from Frenchmen. Here's WTO Chief Pascal Lamy speaking in Brussels on how the EU should...

Europe United

by David Steven | Mar 29, 2010

Lots of protestations from European leaders that they really can be credible partners for the United States: Stung by a perception of America’s indifference...

RUSI on security after the election

by David Steven | Mar 24, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DENv1bEA_ww&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Praying for European collapse

by David Steven | Mar 23, 2010

John Bolton: The collapse or at least the decline of intra-EU political cooperation, facilitated by the corrosion of trust inherent in the EU financial...

Nuclear winter redux

by David Steven | Mar 23, 2010

Ever wondered what a nuclear strike would do to the environment? The detonation of 100 15-kiloton nuclear weapons in Indian and Pakistani megacities would...

Tufte kills cats

by David Steven | Mar 21, 2010

Via @fantomplanet. Tufte's surprisingly ugly website is here.

Germany to Europe – do as we say and do

by David Steven | Mar 20, 2010

A few weeks ago, I questioned German wage restraint, pointing out that other Eurozone countries would prefer Germany to allow salaries to rise, thus...

Nigeria: do donors know what they’re spending? (update x2)

by David Steven | Mar 19, 2010

You see plenty of reports from development agencies castigating development countries for one reason or another, but the boot is much less often on the other...

Churchill band of the future

by David Steven | Mar 17, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW6jW9y59JY[/youtube]

Ten things you probably didn’t know about Burkina Faso

by Mark Weston | Mar 14, 2010

We are now in Burkina Faso, the last stop on what has been a fascinating and somewhat challenging tour of West Africa. Here's a beginner's guide to one of the...

The Telegraph on acid – France, the CIA, and a touch of plagiary (updated x4)

by David Steven | Mar 12, 2010

[Updates below: Maybe ergot, maybe not. The CIA's obsession with acid.] After 'Duke of Edinburgh asks female sea cadet if she works at a strip club', the most...

Daily Mail lies about Facebook (updated x7)

by David Steven | Mar 10, 2010

Daily Mail lies about Facebook. Facebook sues. Exclusive.

Scarcity issues arrive in the world of Icanhascheezburger

by Alex Evans | Mar 10, 2010

(H/t Icanhascheezburger's sister site, Ihasahotdog.com.)

Not so permafrost

by David Steven | Mar 5, 2010

Today sees the release of worrying evidence that the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is leaking methane. Julia Whitty has a good account, based on this new paper...

Ku Klux Klan 2010 Rally in South Georgia

by David Steven | Mar 4, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxV9K3aw-h0[/youtube]

How not to tweet an obituary

by Richard Gowan | Mar 3, 2010

I'm rather fond of David Miliband's blogging and twittering. But his initial tweet in response to the news of Michael Foot's death hit the wrong note: Michael...

1st accurate model of cause/effect in the global economy

by David Steven | Mar 3, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w[/youtube]

The Sierra Leone Guide to Prevention of Tourism

by Mark Weston | Mar 1, 2010

When I arrived in Sierra Leone six weeks ago and encountered its friendly people, spectacular beaches, lively nightlife and mysterious traditions, I wondered...

The battle for India’s climate policy

by Alex Evans | Mar 1, 2010

While we're on the subject of comings and goings on India's climate team, worth noting that the Indian press is full of talk of an epic fallout between...

Better late than never

by Alex Evans | Mar 1, 2010

Leaders should therefore commission an independent review of the IPCC’s integrity, auditing the executions of its mandate to provide a comprehensive,...

Daniel Hannan rewrites Falklands’ history

by David Steven | Feb 27, 2010

MEP and internet superstar, Daniel Hannan is up in arms at what he sees Barack Obama sucking up to 'Peronist Argentina' on the Falklands. "When matters last...

On the web: skirmish in the Falklands, NATO futures, State Dept’s media relations, and “cloud computing”…

by Michael Harvey | Feb 26, 2010

- As the diplomatic temperature continues to rise in the South Atlantic, Simon Jenkins suggests that the Falklands are “the Elgin marbles of diplomacy” and a...

Prefabricated multilateralism

by Richard Gowan | Feb 25, 2010

I have a new paper out, published by FRIDE in Madrid, on the Obama administration's approach to multilateralism. It points out that - contrary to our pleas...

Betting the House

by David Steven | Feb 24, 2010

On Tuesday (March 2nd), I am speaking at a seminar on resilience in the UK housing market. The seminar picks up on my recent paper for the Long Finance...

If Jesus were running for office…

by Alex Evans | Feb 23, 2010

H/t Chuck Currie.

“I’m in control”

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRZqDN-2eYs[/youtube]

Britain = the new Norway? I wish

by Alex Evans | Feb 19, 2010

At the Chatham House seminar a couple of weeks ago on David and my paper on how the UK organises for influence - part of the Institute's program on rethinking...

Forget the G2

by Alex Evans | Feb 19, 2010

Yale's Jeffrey Garten thinks America needs to face up to a key fact: it doesn't have the leverage to deal with China on its own. So, he says, it needs to...

How to get coverage for your protest: dress up like Avatar

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chw32qG-M7E[/youtube]

Back to Realism

by Richard Gowan | Feb 13, 2010

Transnational factors and threats should make state-centric approaches fall apart, in theory – but in practice, today’s statesment seem extraordinarily adept at sticking with “national interest”-based thinking.

The Solitary Life of Cranes

by Alex Evans | Feb 12, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5cdU4t43u4[/youtube]

Is China dumping US assets?

by David Steven | Feb 10, 2010

There are disturbing reports floating around today that the Chinese government has "ordered its reserve managers to divest itself of riskier securities and...

Head of FSA resigns

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2010

Shock news that Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, has resigned. Though, I am sure the two events are not causally related - let me again plug my...

The death of the IPCC?

by Alex Evans | Feb 9, 2010

That's what Clive Crook thinks we may be looking at, as he explains in a post on FT.com: A turning point has been reached when in the space of a few days the...

Why have embassies? Why not just use a PR firm?

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2010

I tried asking that to roomful of Foreign Office diplomats yesterday, at a Chatham House seminar (part of the Institute's program on Redefining the UK's...

A snapshot of Freetown

by Mark Weston | Feb 5, 2010

Had a surprisingly interesting tour of Freetown's port yesterday. It's the world's third largest natural harbour. Seventy years ago, the ship carrying my...

Ecobank: An African Success Story

by Mark Weston | Feb 4, 2010

Last week I met someone high up in the Sierra Leone branch of Ecobank. He proudly told me the history of his bank. In the 1980s, because of widespread...

China managing expectations at Davos

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Feb 2, 2010

In sync with Chinese Vice Premier (and likely PM-in-waiting) Li Keqiang’s address at Davos, an interesting piece appeared today in the Global Times (the...

What happens after an earthquake

by Alex Evans | Jan 31, 2010

Duncan Green has been perusing ALNAP's report on lessons from past experiences of the aftermath of earthquakes, and has summarised some of the key findings. ...

Our Brookings report in The Economist

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2010

Our new Brookings report Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization (blog post here; full pdf here) is covered in an article in tomorrow's Economist (on the...

Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2010

Brookings Institution report by Alex Evans, Bruce Jones and David Steven on how globalisation could fail – or be made more resilient. Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Foreign Office’s budget travails

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2010

Finally, some proper media coverage of the appalling budgetary nightmare in which the UK Foreign Office finds itself - the result less of actual budget...

Did Copenhagen die yesterday?

by David Steven | Jan 20, 2010

Yesterday, I speculated about prospects for the Copenhagen Accord if Democrats lost their super-majority in the Senate. Well, voters in Massachusetts handed...

Does Copenhagen die today?

by David Steven | Jan 19, 2010

Most people left Copenhagen thinking the next big crunch date would be the last day in January, when 49 or so countries are due to lodge their commitments for...

Haiti: how many Europeans does it take to assess an earthquake?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 13, 2010

Yesterday - not long before news of the awful earthquake in Haiti - there was a rumpus in Brussels over whether the European Commissioner-designate for...

Afghans: cheerier than Americans

by Richard Gowan | Jan 11, 2010

Some unexpected data comes in from the BBC: Of more than 1,500 Afghans questioned, 70% said they believed Afghanistan was going in the right direction - a big...

On the web: the EU diplomatic service, reacting to terrorism, the state of liberalism, and fiscal cuts…

by Michael Harvey | Jan 8, 2010

- Writing in E!Sharp magazine, David Charter examines some of the contentious debates surrounding the shaping of the new European External Action Service...

Guess which is the sole UK non-profit on Iran’s blacklist?

by Alex Evans | Jan 6, 2010

December was a veritable smorgasbord of top 10s of the decade, top 100 foreign policy intellectuals and what have you, but now that the new year is underway,...

A prodigal son returns

by Mark Weston | Jan 4, 2010

Yesterday on our way back to Bissau from the south, we were stopped at a military checkpoint and forced to empty our rucksacks. Well, empty them until the...

Hotting up in West Africa

by Mark Weston | Dec 30, 2009

The arrest of a Nigerian national suspected of plotting to blow up a transatlantic plane is another worrying piece in the jigsaw of West African Islamic...

Blame China

by Alex Evans | Dec 23, 2009

Mark Lynas in today's Guardian: The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western...

Hitting Reboot – where next for climate after Copenhagen

by David Steven | Dec 21, 2009

Report by Alex Evans and David Steven analysing the post-Copenhagen context on climate change, including a proposed 12 point action plan. Written for the Brookings Institution / NYU Center on International Cooperation Managing Global Insecurity programme.

Test your social media IQ

by Alex Evans | Dec 18, 2009

From Sparxoo, this: 1. Do you have a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook? 2. Do you have more than 300 friends on Facebook? 3. Do you know what a...

Heading for the crash? – Obama’s Copenhagen speech

by Alex Evans | Dec 18, 2009

David Corn at Mother Jones has been one of the must-read bloggers from Copenhagen over the last fortnight. Here's an edited-down version of his take on...

Plumbing the depths

by Mark Weston | Dec 17, 2009

This morning I went to an orphanage in Bissau (see @markweston71 on twitter for more photos). Can there be a less promising start to life than being orphaned...

Data mashup of the week

by Alex Evans | Dec 15, 2009

Who knew how open source air traffic control data had become - now you can track any flight in real time as its journey progresses, or indeed track what's...

That globe in Copenhagen you keep hearing about

by Alex Evans | Dec 15, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLm-_fY5Qn0[/youtube]

Is this the least professional security detail, like, ever?

by Alex Evans | Dec 13, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v78hZ62_uKE[/youtube]

Us Now

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlqU1o3NmSw[/youtube] This is the first bit of Us Now, an hour-long film by Ivo Gormley - screened on Channel 4 but...

Copenhagen “in disarray”? Don’t believe the hype

by Alex Evans | Dec 9, 2009

The Guardian's leading with a rather breathless piece this evening on how the Copenhagen talks are ... in disarray today after developing countries reacted...

Why are environmental NGOs pushing for a later peak emissions year than the IPCC?

by Alex Evans | Dec 6, 2009

As we've been arguing here since March, the year that policymakers select as the deadline for global emissions must peak is the key short-term variable to...

A rough guide to Copenfailure (part 2)

by Alex Evans | Dec 4, 2009

Yesterday I published a post looking at how the Copenhagen climate summit might fail. Today: why it might fail. David and I have identified seven main...

The FT trashes the CDM, endorses per capita convergence

by Alex Evans | Dec 3, 2009

The FT's leader on Copenhagen this morning was exactly right. First it trashed the CDM (see here for CDM-trashing here on Global Dashboard over the last two...

Putting the “EU” back in Eurasia?

by Richard Gowan | Dec 1, 2009

Ninety minutes from now, Barack Obama will give his Afghanistan speech, and almost certainly say he wants NATO allies to send 10,000 more troops to match...

Hey! Look! Climate policy that would actually work!

by Alex Evans | Nov 26, 2009

So imagine if you will that you're a small energy company. You're thinking about building a wind farm, say, off the coast of Yorkshire. Problem is, you're...

Public diplomacy: Boris Johnson shows us how

by Alex Evans | Nov 24, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsFRgIb8mAQ[/youtube]

The sincerest form of flattery

by Alex Evans | Nov 24, 2009

Proposals to be unveiled [in a speech today by Conservative Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne] include a “green investment bank” designed to...

Hard landings

by Alex Evans | Nov 23, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opk1bmjTFqo[/youtube]

Cathy Ashton grilled on her agenda as EU Foreign Minister

by Alex Evans | Nov 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfrk6vdO3V0[/youtube]

Jared Diamond on collapse at TED

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESYMFtLIis[/youtube]

International cooperation – the book!

by Richard Gowan | Nov 18, 2009

We don't just blog. Some of us edit books. Old school! Cambridge University Press has just published Cooperating for Peace and Security, a guide to all types...

Reinfeldt announces summit (Nov 19) to nominate candidates for key EU jobs

by Michael Harvey | Nov 12, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQMiW4dTgjI[/youtube]

The window of opportunity on scarcity issues starts to close (updated x3)

by Alex Evans | Nov 11, 2009

With oil and food prices already back to July 07 levels, have policymakers missed the window of opportunity to take action when prices eased after the credit crunch?

“I have never seen such elation…”

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut5t3hWyAwQ[/youtube]

More climate debate frenzy

by Jules Evans | Nov 8, 2009

Wow, who says democracy is dead? The nay-sayers should check out this incredible debate on the crucial issue of the day - climate change - which happened on...

All we are saying is… assist countries emerging from conflict to achieve sustainable peace in a coordinated manner!

by Richard Gowan | Nov 3, 2009

A press release from the UN... NEW YORK, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate the unifying spirit and 40th anniversary of the Plastic Ono Band's universal...

Miliband is bad enough for the FCO, let alone the EU

by Jules Evans | Nov 2, 2009

David Miliband is in Russia, the first visit there by a British foreign minister since 2004, though Lord Mandelson was there last year, and did relatively...

Remind me why we’re in Afghanistan again

by Alex Evans | Oct 28, 2009

From the September 10 resignation letter of Matthew Hoh, the US State Department's Senior Civilian Representative for Zabul Province in Afghanistan: I find...

Piracy is good for fish

by Mark Weston | Oct 26, 2009

Last December I wrote about a Somali pirate's justification for his choice of career. A former fisherman, like many of his countrymen, his main gripe was with...

The Russo-Georgian War…once more, with feeling

by Jules Evans | Oct 24, 2009

Here in Tbilisi, where I've come to attend a friend's wedding, the city is filled with nervousness and excitement. A few days ago, the police sealed off...

Parliament: more global, less local (part 4)

by David Steven | Oct 22, 2009

In the first three parts of this series (1, 2, 3), I have suggested reforms to make the British parliamentary system better equipped for what could be an...

Parliament: more global, less local (part 3)

by David Steven | Oct 21, 2009

Prompted by Bracknell’s open primary, I argued in part 1 and part 2 of this series that: National politics is increasingly dominated by complex international...

The Pentagon’s new spiritual fitness programme

by Jules Evans | Oct 19, 2009

Exclusive interview with Brigadier-General Rhonda Cornum on the Pentagon’s new spiritual fitness training programme, which uses Stoic techniques.

Republicans launch crusade against America’s ‘Muslim Mafia’

by David Steven | Oct 15, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqrb08A32U&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Interoperability – NATO style

by David Steven | Oct 15, 2009

Another object lesson from NATO on how not to work together: When ten French soldiers were killed last year in an ambush by Afghan insurgents in what had...

Italy to world – we’re ridiculous

by David Steven | Oct 12, 2009

Another European country is going to great lengths to render itself absurd in the eyes of the rest of the world. Yes, it's Italy's turn (emulating Germany's...

Climate – anger at America’s free pass

by David Steven | Oct 12, 2009

I was talking to a friend about the Copenhagen climate summit the other day. She was aghast – and angry – that, even in a best case deal, the United States...

Johnson 2 – 0 Paxman

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgThJK8xfKw[/youtube]

Q: Why’s the dollar in freefall? A: Robert Fisk.

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2009

Tumultuous times for the dollar this week. Gold has hit an all-time high three days in a row (this morning it's at $1,045 troy ounce - it was only $990 on 29...

On the web: Afghan anniversary, modern terrorism, and the Nobel race…

by Michael Harvey | Oct 7, 2009

- With the eighth anniversary of war in Afghanistan, debate about the strategic direction of the conflict continues apace. Foreign Policy has an extract from...

US in Pakistan: Diplomats or Missonaries? [updated]

by David Steven | Oct 6, 2009

Reading the papers over breakfast in Lahore, I was dumbfounded by the story of a US diplomatic official being attacked while she attempted to distribute -...

NSC Advisor on Afghanistan: “The president should be presented with options, not just one fait accompli”

by Michael Harvey | Oct 5, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDtjtYMCLKM[/youtube]

Time to dust off an old (Jan 08) classic…

by Alex Evans | Oct 4, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Cj1b-rp1E[/youtube]

5 years ago today: Jon Stewart takes on CNN’s Crossfire

by Alex Evans | Oct 2, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE[/youtube]

Tories use girl’s death to score (invalid) points

by Mark Weston | Oct 1, 2009

When the story broke on Monday that a young British schoolgirl, Natalie Morton, had died after receiving the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer, I wondered why...

Pot meets kettle

by David Steven | Sep 30, 2009

Nicolas Sarkozy - apparently - believes Barack Obama is "incredibly naive and grossly egotistical - so egotistical that no-one can dent his naivete." Things...

On the web: Merkel’s re-election, Japan’s foreign policy, inefficient markets, and what not to say at the UN…

by Michael Harvey | Sep 29, 2009

- With Angela Merkel re-elected as German Chancellor, and the CDU-CSU now forming a coalition with the free-market FDP, Mary Dejevsky assesses the...

Huckabee: US Out of the UN

by David Steven | Sep 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84Fhe3362I&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

G20 – The Trophy Shot

by David Steven | Sep 28, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3FP3blL3mE[/youtube]

The first thing to go wrong in every horror movie…

by Alex Evans | Sep 24, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZVcRccCx0[/youtube]

Emissions have peaked! (Shame NGOs don’t call for them to do so til 2017…)

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2009

If you missed it earlier in the week, the FT's Fiona Harvey has been given a preview of the next World Energy Outlook, which the International Energy Agency...

Obama explains climate deal at G8

by Alanna Shaikh | Sep 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIjPIG6ZGI[/youtube]

Great Moments in Public Health

by David Steven | Sep 20, 2009

When swine flu first hit, Egypt killed its pigs. All of them. Now this senseless decision has left Cairo with a major public health problem on its hands. The...

The Pittsburgh G20: your cut-out-and-keep guide

by Alex Evans | Sep 18, 2009

So what should we all be watching out for at next week's G20 summit? Let's start with the obvious stuff. - Expect to hear lots about bankers' bonuses, in...

Facebook fail (episode 2)

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2009

Episode 1 here.

Who will point out that the CDM emperor has no clothes?

by Alex Evans | Sep 14, 2009

From yesterday's Sunday Times, more news that all is not well with the Clean Development Mechanism: The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion)...

Down with collapse!

by Alex Evans | Sep 10, 2009

Enough already with all the talk of ‘collapse’, ‘descent’, ‘powerdown’. How about talking about ‘renewal’, ‘transformation’, ‘renaissance’?

Walthamstow overrun! [by sloppy journalism, that is]

by Alex Evans | Sep 9, 2009

You'd hope that the Security Editor of a national newspaper would be able to tell the difference between doctrinaire religious views and terrorism - but not...

Glenn Beck’s next targets

by Alex Evans | Sep 8, 2009

Former White House chief of staff John Podesta (now at the Center for American Progress) is far from happy about the ejection from the White House of Van...

Let the dialogue commence…

by Alex Evans | Sep 1, 2009

I take it all back. Within moments of publishing the post below about the naked protestors at Edelman, not one but two Edelman employees were in touch via...

Jose Ramos Horta on E Timor: “In 20 years, we’ll be killing each other over land and water”

by Alex Evans | Sep 1, 2009

Ten years of freedom for East Timor today, and a notably graceful editorial in the Jakarta Post: Indonesia would have learned a great deal from the fatal...

Scarcity, security and institutional reform

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2009

Presentation by Alex Evans to a seminar organised for the UN Department of Political Affairs by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (August 2009)

Down with special advisers!

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2009

From Daniel Finkelstein in The Times, a sad tale: "They needed a room with proper ventilation so that the security guards could make bacon sandwiches without...

Ban accused of weakness – CNN

by Alex Evans | Aug 21, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJlfMCLzcg4[/youtube]

Megrahi’s release: select your conspiracy theory now

by Alex Evans | Aug 20, 2009

As Abdelbaset al-Megrahi makes his way to the airport after his release from prison on compassionate grounds, you have a choice of two conspiracy theories...

Denim and the decline of the West

by Richard Gowan | Aug 18, 2009

Time to catch up with the Global Market Review of the Denim and Jeanswear Industries - Forecasts to 2006, which we foolishly missed on its publication in May....

Twitter accounts of political giants (Michael Ignatieff has had some nice fish!)

by Richard Gowan | Aug 14, 2009

Twitter, eh? Helps us relate to the great and good like never before. In times past, I would have spent the day vexed by the impossibility of knowing if...

Peak oil’s entry into mainstream discourse: now complete

by Alex Evans | Aug 11, 2009

The Independent had an interview with International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol a week ago, in which Birol was unequivocal about peak oil. He...

There go the supply chains

by Alex Evans | Aug 10, 2009

The FT has a big splash this morning on how concerns about future climate policy and the global downturn are both driving a move away from global supply...

Tcktcktck? Tsk tsk tsk

by Alex Evans | Aug 7, 2009

Back in February, I figured that the pre-G20 "Jobs, Justice, Climate" NGO campaign was probably the "pointless NGO campaign of the year", naively arguing...

Another free lunch for investment banks

by Jules Evans | Aug 6, 2009

The Bank of England today decided to inject another £50bn into its asset purchase facility. Since February, it has already spent £125bn buying bonds from UK...

“Over-population is a myth”: pro-life groups take aim at the UN Population Fund

by Alex Evans | Aug 4, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVOU5bfHrM[/youtube]

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish… actually just give him a bloody fish

by Richard Gowan | Aug 3, 2009

Bad news from South Sudan: At least 185 people - mostly women and children - have been killed in ethnic violence in South Sudan, officials say. Members of the...

Department of wishful thinking

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2009

Is a peak for global oil demand in sight, wonders the Guardian's Data Blog this morning? Er, no - what might make them think that, you wonder? Answer: a new...

Joe Biden shows off his mean left hook…

by Richard Gowan | Jul 31, 2009

...while President Obama aims to resolve the Harvard race-policing row by getting everyone to sit on curiously low chairs.

Gordon Brown channels Clay Shirky

by Alex Evans | Jul 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rrJAC84FA[/youtube]

Pandemic flu – what are we missing?

by David Steven | Jul 28, 2009

For governments, managing risk is a pretty thankless task. Today, the House of Lords Science and Technology committee published its report on pandemic flu....

The Siege of Chicago (2009 edition)

by Richard Gowan | Jul 24, 2009

Ah, here is a familiar scene. Deserted streets, police barricades, stranded buses... the flotsam and jetsam of some mass upheaval, surely? Nope. It's just...

Peacekeepers declare war on climate change, boy scouts in reserve

by Richard Gowan | Jul 23, 2009

Oh Good Lord, what fresh lunacy is this? 22 July 2009 – United Nations peacekeepers are no strangers to working in some of the world’s most hazardous regions,...

The paper of rumour

by David Steven | Jul 23, 2009

Standards are soaring at the New York Times. For the self proclaimed 'newspaper of record rumour', it seems that news is now "defined as anything juicy that...

Britain’s place in the world? Drifting… obviously

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 22, 2009

Yesterday William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, gave a speech in London setting out what British foreign policy might look like under a Conservative...

On the web: overconfident bankers, China on the high seas, the Iraq War Inquiry and the Geneva Conventions…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 22, 2009

- Writing in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell explains how “the roots of Wall Street’s crisis were not structural or cognitive so much as they were...

Please someone save me! (updated)

by David Steven | Jul 19, 2009

India Knight, writing in the Sunday Times, wishes a state-employed magician could come along and make her feel better about swine flu. As that's not possible,...

Er…

by Alex Evans | Jul 16, 2009

We will be doing this quadrennial review, which will be, we hope, a tool to provide us with both short-term and long-term blueprints for how to advance our...

Climate change and international institutions: presentation at Feasta

by Alex Evans | Jul 15, 2009

Last month I spoke about David and my report on institutions and climate change at a Feasta conference entitled The New Emergency: Managing Risk and Building...

Ban Ki-moon: analyst, nostalgist or leader?

by Richard Gowan | Jul 14, 2009

Ban Ki-moon has given a long and enlightening interview to the Wall Street Journal (which duly responded by publishing a rather mean article about his time as...

State Dept announces Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2009

The State Department announced at the end of last week that it plans to undertake a 'Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review', the rationale being that,...

A turning point for Nigeria’s insurgency?

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2009

The last two weeks have seen a storm of insurgent activity in Nigeria: Shell's onshore output has been halved to around 140,000 barrels a day, Chevron has...

Everything Sarah Palin has done, ever

by Richard Gowan | Jul 13, 2009

From the Wasilla Frontiersman, Sarah Palin's hometown newspaper: To the editor: I am a supporter of Gov. Palin from Staten Island, N.Y., and blog exclusively...

Great Expectations

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 13, 2009

Andrew Mitchell, Shadow International Development Secretary on BBC News earlier : We will have a national security council under a Conservative government...

The next reserve currency

by Alex Evans | Jul 13, 2009

Last week's G8 saw more rumblings of dissatisfaction from China about the US dollar's continuing role as the world's reserve currency: State Councillor Dai...

Friday caption contest

by David Steven | Jul 10, 2009

Context that seems to let Obama off the hook here. Alex adds: well, maybe - but then what about this one? H/t Guido.

On the web: Hillary at State, Afghan elections and Burma’s plight…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 9, 2009

-Foreign Policy magazine has news that Hillary Clinton is planning to raise her foreign policy profile with a speech next week at CFR. It suggests "smart...

The Resilience Doctrine

by David Steven | Jul 9, 2009

Article on risk and resilience by Alex Evans and David Steven – part of a special in World Politics Review on risk and resilience in a globalized age (July 2009)

Italy: great in the G8 and on the plate

by Richard Gowan | Jul 9, 2009

Further to Alex's grovel below, it's time for me to clarify my position on Italy's place in the G8. Yes, I was the one named source in the Guardian's piece...

G8 update: Sarkozy thrilled to see Obama’s pen

by Richard Gowan | Jul 8, 2009

Full-scale photo here.

The Resilience Doctrine

by David Steven | Jul 7, 2009

Alex and I have a new article published today by World Politics Review, as part of their special on risk and resilience in a globalized age. The other piece...

DFID: the department for conflict prevention?

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2009

DFID’s new White Paper is a big step forward on conflict prevention – but not necessarily for a joint approach across government

In memoriam Robert McNamara

by Alex Evans | Jul 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5JLf_bC4Ow[/youtube]

Sarah Palin’s bonkers resignation announcement

by Alex Evans | Jul 5, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1tnUvtjaaY[/youtube]

We love Gordon

by Alex Evans | Jul 3, 2009

Yes, yes, it's not a phrase one hears very often these days, but credit where it's due: Gordon Brown's climate change speech a week ago was first rate. Don't...

Patriotism + fighting malaria + Diddy = a piss-up

by Richard Gowan | Jul 2, 2009

If one man can see the links between global health risks and national security, it's Diddy: “Official Vodka of Summer” and Diddy Celebrate Military Service...

Former CIA officer – WTF?

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 1, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HtSb7kwTFE[/youtube]

The Return of Ethics: Panglossian Banking?

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 30, 2009

The financial crisis has led to a lot of talk about the failure of ethics in the banking sector. Greed overtook wisdom, we're told. No doubt this is the case....

Earth to Russia: mumbo-jumbo is not a foreign policy

by Richard Gowan | Jun 28, 2009

From a new op-ed by Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, on the "abduction of Europa": Today, the identity of the west is being challenged by colossal...

Anglo-Iranian relations face new low: AKA spooks on a plane

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 26, 2009

In the light of ongoing events in Iran (which sadly seem to be in danger of being utterly overshadowed by the other thing), various commentators have been...

Saint Stephen rises from the ashes

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 26, 2009

Last year I highlighted a particularly depressing and lightweight evidence session held by the Defence Select Committee on national security and resilience....

Michael Jackson: the foreign policy angle (updated)

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2009

Update: I wondered last night where Breaking News had picked up its David Miliband quote. Turns out it was from the Foreign Secretary's own Twitter feed. The...

National Security: Too complex for columnists?

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 23, 2009

Like you I am eagerly awaiting HMG's national security strategy update set for this Thursday and next week's IPPR report on national security.* Both...

Tehran’s party scene

by Alex Evans | Jun 23, 2009

There's some interesting backstory to the Tehran protests in, of all places, this month's UK edition of GQ - which, as chance would have it, sent Ed Caesar...

Applying Kilcullen’s ideas to urban regeneration

by Peter Hodge | Jun 22, 2009

What do you do if you're fighting a counterinsurgency campaign and you run out of troops, western troops that is? According to David Kilcullen in The...

Daily Mail poll #fail (updated)

by David Steven | Jun 19, 2009

The Daily Mail, bastion of British bitterness, is frothing at the mouth at plans to allow travellers (or as columnist Richard Littlejohn prefers,...

Our new head of MI6 in action

by Jules Evans | Jun 17, 2009

If you want to see Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6, in action, check him out in this steely confrontation with Iran's foreign minister, from Norma...

New Secret Intelligence Service head part of secret UFO conspiracy

by Alex Evans | Jun 16, 2009

News has emerged over lunchtime that Sir John Sawyers, currently Britain's Ambassador to the UN, is to become the next head of the Secret Intelligence...

Would the EU please stand up?

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2009

Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey is itching for Obama to get stuck in to the Iranian regime: We have an opportunity to get the Iranians to use this thick-skulled...

Here comes trouble

by Alex Evans | Jun 15, 2009

From a post here last October: [We can expect] a reduction in commodity prices for the duration of the global downturn (however long that may be) as demand...

Geldof slams ‘poor, sad Italy’

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 15, 2009

Development charity One.org has released its annual report examining how far G8 countries are meeting their Gleneagles commitment to double aid to Africa. The...

Is Australia’s defence strategy “goofy paranoia”?

by Peter Hodge | Jun 13, 2009

Australian army signaller on patrol in East Timor, 2007 (photo: David Axe). American strategist Tom Barnett thinks that Australia's Defence White Paper is "a...

How to run your own foreign aid program

by Alex Evans | Jun 12, 2009

I'm at a Ditchley conference on aid effectiveness, where the most interesting thing I've learned so far is that Kiva now lends some $50 million a year. Kiva,...

Obama insults Israel (his feet smell too*)

by David Steven | Jun 10, 2009

Granted "taking offense" has been turned into a competitive sport, but this takes the biscuit. Top story on Drudge - Barack Obama is said to have insulted...

Stimulating news!

by Richard Gowan | Jun 9, 2009

The Columbia Journalism Review surveys local newspaper coverage of how the U.S. stimulus package is being spent: The Billings Gazette takes a look at a...

Aid during the downturn

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 7, 2009

A few days ago the House of Commons International Development Committee released its latest report (entitled Aid Under Pressure: Support for Development...

Spreading the wealth to evade the Dutch disease

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 5, 2009

Yesterday's Financial Times featured an interesting proposal from Martin Sandbu and Nicholas Shaxson, aimed at evading the so-called 'Dutch disease', in which...

Silvio per il Nobel!

by Alex Evans | Jun 5, 2009

Full marks to the NYT for deadpan delivery: ROME — Ever since the Italian media began peering into Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s personal life — and...

Why the September G20 will be in Pittsburgh

by Alex Evans | Jun 4, 2009

Mild surprise has been heard in various quarters that the next G20 summit - scheduled for 24-25 September - is to be held in Pittsburgh, rather than in New...

World Bank taking a leaf out of Westminster’s book on expenses

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 3, 2009

Here in Britain, the fallout from recent revelations about MPs' expenses continues. Meanwhile, it seems that World Bank officials have been up to similar...

British foreign policy explained in full

by Richard Gowan | Jun 2, 2009

From a recent speech by General Sir Mike Jackson: It takes more than soldiers to win wars. DFID’s aims are to relieve poverty, unqualified from geography and...

Obama administration now having to do, like… literally EVERYTHING around here

by Richard Gowan | Jun 2, 2009

Who said Britain was in decline? Here's the NYT. The Obama administration is working with their French counterparts to make sure that Britain’s Queen...

New guest contributors on Global Dashboard

by Alex Evans | Jun 1, 2009

We're very pleased that two guest contributors will be with us on Global Dashboard for the month of June - Peter Hodge (aka Kotare from The Strategist) and...

The world according to Pravda

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2009

And now, by way of Friday afternoon amusement, a selection of headlines from the always-excellent English language version of Pravda: if you haven't...

Obama’s new Global Engagement Directorate

by Alex Evans | May 27, 2009

President Obama announced a raft of reforms to the National Security Council yesterday, summed up in this White House statement and this Washington Post...

US immigrant professionals returning home

by Alex Evans | May 26, 2009

From today's Washington Post: KISUMU, Kenya -- With the U.S. economy in turmoil, his job as a truck driver no longer secure and his upwardly mobile life in...

David Simon on US drug policy

by Alex Evans | May 21, 2009

Don't get too excited about Portugal. The Wire creator David Simon is less than sanguine about prospects for change in the US: ..despite his avowed...

Has Iraq Turned a Corner? (Live blog)

by David Steven | May 18, 2009

At the REEL Iraq festival, the question is: "Has Iraq turned a corner?" In the chair, Rob Edwards kicks off asking the audience whether they think things in...

Alan Duncan gets free gardening

by David Steven | May 16, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOMSdH4qhaw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Four key risks for India’s next PM

by Alex Evans | May 15, 2009

Indian writer Aravind Adiga yesterday offered the winner of India's election a heads-up on four emergencies likely to test them early in their term of office....

More on African land deals

by Mark Weston | May 13, 2009

Article on rich-country land acquisitions in Africa

Oh, those crazy Russians

by Richard Gowan | May 13, 2009

Living in the U.S., I had overlooked the fact that it's the week of the Eurovision Song Contest - being held, for the first time ever, in Russia. A quick...

UAE torture sheikh arrested

by Jules Evans | May 12, 2009

I wrote a few days ago about a member of the Royal Family in the United Arab Emirates - brother to both the ruler of Dubai and the minister of interior - who...

An Institutional Architecture for Climate Change

by Alex Evans | May 10, 2009

Report by Alex Evans and David Steven exploring the future international institutional requirements for managing climate change, and including three scenarios for climate institutions between now and 2030. Commissioned by the UK Department for International Development. (May 2009)

DC’s architects of a new approach to resource scarcity issues

by Alex Evans | May 7, 2009

More evidence of increasing awareness of scarcity issues (and the consequent need for integrated policy approaches to managing them) over in the US: this...

Pirate assault on the Liberty Sun – from Wired

by Alex Evans | May 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka_KfSPkrw4[/youtube]

The Beijing Consensus

by Alex Evans | May 6, 2009

Back in March, I flagged up the significance of a proposal from Zhou Xiaochuan, China's central bank governor, for the dollar to be replaced as the world's...

EU more popular in America than UK

by Richard Gowan | May 5, 2009

An intriguing graphic from E!Sharp, the European policy magazine:

FLU TIPS: don’t fall into Helena Christensen’s arms. Or ask Salman Rushdie to banter.

by Richard Gowan | May 4, 2009

New York magazine has been asking celebrities how they are warding off swine flu. To select a couple of responses at random (or, more accurately, quote the...

Dealing with China: a How To Guide

by Daniel Korski | May 1, 2009

At the G20 summit one prospect frightened most of the delegates more than their inability to stem the economic downturn: that China would emerge as the de...

No secrets (even in Madagascar)

by Mark Weston | May 1, 2009

Just a quickie on the Madagascar coup from a Royal Africa Society talk I attended on Tuesday. According to Volatiana Rahaga, who is president of the...

How to define success on climate change

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2009

Lots of media coverage today of a special edition of Nature that's just been published, and in particular on two articles that discuss what it will take to...

Crap journalism – swine flu, risk communication

by David Steven | Apr 29, 2009

In the New York Times, think tanker, James Jay Carafano (areas of expertise: homeland security, defense, military affairs, affairs, post-conflict operations,...

UK Defence: A crisis of leadership & strategy

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 29, 2009

On Monday I spoke at the IPPR's conference on The National Security Strategy: One Year On. The organisers and the Cabinet Office team would, I hope, have been...

Banco De Gaia

by Jules Evans | Apr 29, 2009

Lord Browne recently complained that not enough private financing was going into the renewables sector, particularly offshore wind farms, and he called for...

Jared Diamond on the evolution of religion

by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th7CFye03gQ&fmt=18[/youtube]

Swine flu: how to stay alive

by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2009

Over on the public health section of the always-excellent Change.org, Alanna Shaikh has helpfully written The Definitive Swine Flu Post. Here's her advice:...

Swine flu cooked up in a lab (updatedx8)

by David Steven | Apr 26, 2009

From 9/11 truther mission control, Infowars, comes stunning news: "deadly swine flu... was cooked up in a lab." Yes - the first swine flu conspiracy theories...

Rock of Steel!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 24, 2009

Some good news from the UN in the DR Congo: The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) said today that most of the objectives of its joint...

Ahmed Rashid on Pakistan’s Taliban Sanctuaries

by David Steven | Apr 23, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZfGpRxh8I&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

CIA agents forced to torture

by David Steven | Apr 23, 2009

The FBI's Ali Soufan has an explosive op-ed in today's New York Times. "For seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the...

UK’s carbon budget – not what it seems

by David Steven | Apr 22, 2009

British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling has been trumpeting a "34% cut in UK emissions by 2020" in his budget speech: Today, I am presenting the...

Hating on the UN – whatever happens

by David Steven | Apr 21, 2009

In the FT, Gideon Rachman argues that yesterday's conference walkout during Ahmadinejad's speech will be bad for Ban Ki-Moon: Rather than walking away from a...

Pity the rich (or genocide awaits)

by David Steven | Apr 20, 2009

Like most of you, I spend most of my days weeping at the fate of rich. But I don't think I'd realised how bad things were, until I came across Gabriel...

William Lind simmers 299 editorials into 3 bullet points

by Alex Evans | Apr 16, 2009

William Lind is (along with Martin van Creveld) the godfather of fourth generation warfare theory, so it's worth sitting up straight when he publishes his...

Tea Protest – Republic Threatened

by David Steven | Apr 15, 2009

In the US, hundreds of millions of right wing 'tea baggers' (yes - really) are protesting against "illegitimate President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic...

Landgrab map

by Mark Weston | Apr 15, 2009

Further to Alex's recent posts (here, here and here) on wealthy countries' purchases of arable land in the developing world, here's a map from Le Monde...

Right to Obama – “you’re making us crazy”

by David Steven | Apr 14, 2009

The US report (linked by Alex earlier) on far-right extremism risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it drives the far-right even further up the wall....

Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop – out April 17

by Alex Evans | Apr 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQrqMkCuHqA[/youtube]

Firing the first shot

by Mark Weston | Apr 14, 2009

The piracy saga in the Indian Ocean has taken a nasty turn, as France's new Napoleon, Nicolas Sarkozy, has decided capital punishment is the best way of...

The revenge of Levi Johnston

by Alex Evans | Apr 11, 2009

Come on, admit it. Sure, it's nice to have Barack Obama as President. But you've felt something missing in your life ever since we lost the daily spectacle...

‘Nato solidarity more important than winning in Afghanistan’ (er…)

by Alex Evans | Apr 9, 2009

Quentin Peel had a slightly bizarre column in the FT yesterday, bemoaning the Europeans' paltry response to Obama's request for more boots on the ground in...

KGB versus reality TV

by Jules Evans | Apr 8, 2009

While we in the UK genuflect before the shrine of reality TV and its patron saint, St Jade of Essex, in Russia, minister of interior and KGB tough-guy Rashid...

Video reveals police attack on man who died at G20 protest

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 8, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19h-0ejKA6I[/youtube]

The Italian Earthquake

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 6, 2009

The L'Aquilan earthquake is a huge tragedy and it looks like the death toll may rise further as the emergency services continue their search among the rubble....

London schoolkids’ surprise visit from Michelle Obama

by Alex Evans | Apr 4, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBM7OdSxUag[/youtube]

The Hollowmen: Leaked ABC Funding Submission

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 3, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY4r0Co__R8[/youtube]

After the summit: what happens now?

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

I've already done a post with some quick reactions to the specifics of the communique, but before I pass out with fatigue, a final reflection on the day. As...

A bridgehead for bloggers

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

Today's summit marks the first time that bloggers have been included as fully accredited members of the press at a heads' level summit meeting - in their own...

The other crunch: food prices

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

Although the food price crisis has slipped from the agenda as the credit crunch has gathered pace, for poor people around the world it hasn't gone away - and...

Unexploded bombs, and other G20 excitment

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

So here I am in the cavernous media centre at the London Summit. Some of the main excitement of the day so far: (a) the police found an unexploded World War...

Looking in the wrong place?

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2009

Space Hijackers have driven their armoured vehicle through the City, making it as far as the Royal Bank of Scotland - much to the amusement of everyone bar...

G20 pointless initiative award: the race is on!

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2009

With a summit close at hand, one thing we can be sure of is that pointless 'initiatives' can't be far behind. The criteria for such 'announceables' are...

Spoof you for the Presidency

by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2009

They do things differently in West Africa. It turns out, according to the Kansas City Star, that Moussa "Dadis" Camara won the Guinean presidency after the...

How to bugger up a mildly diverting publicity stunt (yes, it’s the UN!)

by Richard Gowan | Mar 31, 2009

So, Battlestar Galactica is over, at least on American screens. It was rather good. The UN came up with a sort-of-fun tribute: To mark the show's finale,...

London Summit deja vu

by Alex Evans | Mar 29, 2009

Dani Rodrik has found the following quote from HG Wells, writing in 1933. From the text, you might wonder whether Wells' writing on time machines was...

Czech PM not trying to channel Chris Rea

by Richard Gowan | Mar 27, 2009

The Lede gives us the lowdown on how they do political rhetoric in Prague: To anyone who heard echoes of AC/DC when the Czech prime minister assailed...

Gordon Brown vs Madonna and Justin Timberlake

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2009

As we all know, Madonna and Justin Timberlake only had four minutes to save the world. The big question today: can Gordon Brown achieve the same in four...

The accidental guerrilla

by Alex Evans | Mar 26, 2009

David Kilcullen on the central concept of his eponymous book: Interviewer: When did the concept of the "accidental guerrilla syndrome" really start to click?...

Bretton Woods 2: now we’re talking

by Alex Evans | Mar 25, 2009

Just before the Washington G20 summit in November last year, David and I co-wrote a paper entitled A Bretton Woods 2 Worth of the Name. As the title implied,...

Who’s who in the Niger Delta

by Jules Evans | Mar 24, 2009

Check out Stratfor's funky interactive graphic of power politics in the Niger Delta. It has a graph showing the relationships between all the big players in...

Paul Krugman – the song

by David Steven | Mar 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOYAuk809fY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

The front line of the US recession: Iraq and Afghanistan vets

by Alex Evans | Mar 22, 2009

USA Today ran a cover story a couple of days ago noting that among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan aged over 18, the US unmployment rate is now 11.2%. The...

Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5OJJiB9NFs[/youtube]

Thanks!

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I posted news of a competition for 20 places for bloggers at the G20 London Summit on 2nd April, which would be allocated on the basis...

China’s 6.5% economy

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Mar 18, 2009

The latest World Bank quarterly update on China’s economy made headlines today, as it revised downward by one full percentage point (to 6.5%) its estimated...

Russia looking to capitalise on the crunch

by Jules Evans | Mar 18, 2009

The Kremlin has been shaken by the credit crunch, which hit the Russian stock exchange worse than any other exchange in 2008, pushing it down around 65%. The...

Cheney: Mission accomplished in Iraq

by David Steven | Mar 16, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8ZpaU0MNCo[/youtube]

Can NATO “Re-brand”? What do you think?

by Daniel Korski | Mar 13, 2009

During the Cold War, when Western and Warsaw Pact tanks were facing each other, the idea of a “selling” NATO’s role to allied publics would have been...

Just a thought: Is the NSF an admission of failure by Government?

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 11, 2009

On Monday Gordon Brown announced the creation of a National Security Forum. The forum, which will be supported by the National Security Secretariat, is made...

U-turn at the IEA?

by Alex Evans | Mar 6, 2009

Nobuo Tanaka, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, is quoted in the FT this morning as saying that "it would be in the interests of...

Time to dump 0.7

by Alex Evans | Mar 4, 2009

Why does 0.7 remain so central to the development debate, given that it was arbitrary even when it was agreed… forty years ago?

The price of democracy: weaponry

by Richard Gowan | Mar 3, 2009

A recurrent game in Washington DC is trying to fix the fact that DC itself has no Congressman (it sends a non-voting delegate). Initiatives to give the...

Sri Lanka cricketers attacked in Pakistan

by David Steven | Mar 3, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvf6bGRPofk[/youtube]

Drugs and death in Guinea-Bissau

by Mark Weston | Mar 2, 2009

My forthcoming article in EMEA Finance magazine on how the assassination of Vieira is likely to be linked to the cocaine trade that has swamped Guinea-Bissau:...

Peak Emissions Now

by David Steven | Mar 2, 2009

Why wait until 2015? Let’s declare 2009 the high watermark for global greenhouse gas emissions.

More reasons to be cheerful

by Mark Weston | Feb 27, 2009

While we're on the subject of climate change misery (see the two posts below), an interesting finding in Raymond Fisman and Eduardo Miguel's 'Economic...

On The Road

by Jules Evans | Feb 27, 2009

Spent the afternoon at a water-park in Dubai, mainly reading Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel, The Road . If there's ever a book I don't recommend reading in a...

Boeing 777 evacuation test

by David Steven | Feb 26, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TAkAcQOnQY[/youtube]

Another rendition for Mohamed

by David Steven | Feb 24, 2009

Disgraceful comments today from Con Couglin, the Daily Telegraph's 'executive foreign editor', on the release of Binyam Mohammed. Coughlin thinks Mohammed...

When the going gets tough… the tough create a new think-tank?

by Richard Gowan | Feb 23, 2009

From the Financial Times: One of Germany’s most influential engineers has made an urgent plea to bring leading global industrialists, scientists and...

Network Disruption Bingo

by Alex Evans | Feb 21, 2009

One thing all serious experts on disasters and resilience agree on is the need to keep your morale up while everything you thought you could rely on is...

Pirate-in-Chief

by Daniel Korski | Feb 20, 2009

The new African Union (AU) chairman Muammar Gaddafi -- Tony Blair’s friend, Nicolas Sarkozy’s partner, freer of hostages, and friend to the enslaved –- has...

Papacy churning out any old rubbish for fun

by Richard Gowan | Feb 18, 2009

From the people who brought you the Inquistion and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, it's trivia time! Women are prouder than men, but men are more lustful,...

After the crunch: more urbanisation or less?

by Alex Evans | Feb 18, 2009

Consensus may be growing that the credit crunch spells the end of suburbia – but will what comes next involve more urbanisation, or less?

Risks and Resilience in the New Global Era

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2009

Article by Alex Evans and David Steven exploring resilience as a political agenda – part of a special edition of Renewal on the transformation of foreign policy (February 2009)

Nation builders or warriors: John McHugh for the Guardian in Afghanistan

by Alex Evans | Feb 16, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnpQY7kCmuY&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

Ukraine down the drain

by Jules Evans | Feb 15, 2009

One of the biggest risks for the global economy right now is Ukraine. The country's currency is rapidly depreciating, which is causing serious trouble for the...

Now that’s what I call community resilience

by Richard Gowan | Feb 13, 2009

From Bangadi, eastern Congo: Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army sent torture victims — including a man whose back was sliced with a machete — to warn the...

Engaging Diasporas in Peace-building

by Daniel Korski | Feb 13, 2009

Diaspora and exile groups may play an important, but sometimes also controversial, role in conflicts and political unrest in their countries of origin. Often...

Man wastes dog

by Richard Gowan | Feb 12, 2009

Somewhat incredibly, this is the lead story on cnn.com this Thursday afternoon: The shotgun blast rips into the stray dog's midsection, sending it tumbling...

Pointless NGO campaign of the year

by Alex Evans | Feb 12, 2009

Yes, it's only February, but it seems pretty unlikely that anything will top this for sheer pointlessness and banality. Here's the pitch from the "Put People...

Attack of the killer zombies

by Jules Evans | Feb 12, 2009

There's a great new piece by Nouriel Roubini, the economist nick-named Dr Doom for his early prediction of the extent of the losses in the US banking sector -...

Bailing out the bail-out

by Jules Evans | Feb 10, 2009

Goldman Sachs estimates the US government will issue US$2.5 trillion in debt this year, way up on the US$850 million it issued last year. That's partly...

Resilience – a case study

by Alex Evans | Feb 10, 2009

60 Minutes had the first interview with the crew of the US Airways flight that crash landed in the Hudson over the weekend, including accounts of the crash...

An American DFID?

by Alex Evans | Feb 9, 2009

One debate that will run and run in the coming months is on the whether, why and how of reforming US foreign assistance - a theme that Barack Obama riffed on...

The British public: ‘Of Marginal Utility’

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 7, 2009

At the end of last year the UK Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee created a sub-committee to look at CONTEST , the Government's counter-terrorism...

Kentucky: community resilience threatened by peanuts

by Richard Gowan | Feb 6, 2009

While the UK struggles with snow, spare a thought for Kentucky, which is suffering from an ice storm: The storm has been blamed for 27 deaths in Kentucky,...

Ban Ki-moon: angry at the top

by Richard Gowan | Feb 5, 2009

The Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat has interviewed Ban Ki-moon, and the English transcript of the Secretary-General's comments is powerful stuff: When was the last...

The UN’s Gaza lie?

by Daniel Korski | Feb 4, 2009

One of the most disturbing stories to emerge during Israel’s recent incursion in Gaza was Israeli shelling of a UN school. This is how Reuters described it:...

Worry not. Worry. Worry not.

by David Steven | Feb 4, 2009

The EU may be planning to sue over the US's Buy American nonsense, but in the FT, Lex is confident that globalization cannot easily be put into reverse:...

Joke of the week

by Alex Evans | Feb 3, 2009

Q. What is the capital of Iceland? A. About two krona. Shouldn't laugh, I know, given that we're next. H/t The Economist.

UN’s John Solecki kidnapped in Pakistan

by David Steven | Feb 3, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQ8bT3ZWig[/youtube]

Don’t watch this if you’re scared of flying…

by Alex Evans | Feb 2, 2009

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gN78LLRZnzM[/youtube]

UK strikes online

by David Steven | Feb 2, 2009

Wildcat strikes have gone viral in the UK - oil, power and nuclear workers have all walked out and the government is scrambling to get the situation back...

Credit crunch = peacekeeping crunch

by Richard Gowan | Feb 2, 2009

News from Lebanon: BEIRUT: Poland has said it may withdraw its troops from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), prompting fears of a "crunch"...

Google and the end times

by David Steven | Jan 31, 2009

There were scenes of raw and ghastly panic on the interwebs today as Google went into meltdown and declared every site in the world (including their own) a...

Welcome to the London (G20) summit

by David Steven | Jan 30, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6kOYI753Dk[/youtube]

It’s an offense to film the police (not)

by David Steven | Jan 30, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfQrDK9YHas[/youtube]

Climate – what’s the worst that can happen

by David Steven | Jan 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg[/youtube]

Why should I listen to the IMF?

by David Steven | Jan 28, 2009

The IMF today predicted a grim economic outlook for 2009, with some green shoots in 2010. The news is especially grim for the UK and Eurozone countries, with...

Actis bold as love

by Jules Evans | Jan 28, 2009

We recently published an interview with the CEO of Actis, Paul Fletcher, in www.emeafinance.com. Actis is the emerging market private equity fund which was...

That’s it – the end of post-racial America

by David Steven | Jan 27, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R90xshYjQYY[/youtube]

Karzai’s “Southern Strategy”?

by Daniel Korski | Jan 27, 2009

This holiday I read Alpha Dogs, the story of the Sawyer Miller Group, a political consultancy firm that pioneered international electioneering. Long before...

Obama’s Al-Arabiya interview

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2009

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9QqA9vEJ3oE[/youtube]

Obama moves on fuel efficiency

by David Steven | Jan 26, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scN0KNHWHDI[/youtube]

The Feeding of the Nine Billion

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2009

Chatham House pamphlet by Alex Evans on how scarcity issues will shape the outlook for global food production, and the actions that policymakers need to take at the international level and in developing countries to ensure food security in the 21st century

What are we missing?

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2009

Over the past few weeks the UK government has been organising an extensive series of horizon scanning events to feed into the current revision of the National...

Who’ll bail out the IMF?

by Jules Evans | Jan 23, 2009

Analysis of the challenges facing the IMF, in a world where the reform process is stalled, demand on its money is growing, but funds are getting short.

Spare a thought for those Obama foreign policy advisers left on the shelf

by Alex Evans | Jan 21, 2009

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNhU4zwAh0] Here's Joe Biden swearing in the new White House senior staff as President Obama looks on (looking rather...

2009 – A Year for International Reform

by David Steven | Jan 21, 2009

Paper by David Steven, presented to “Reforming International Institutions – Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century,” a conference organized by the United Nations University and the British Embassy in Tokyo (Jan 2009).

Pound driven out of the ERM

by David Steven | Jan 20, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHDsO7gvXHQ[/youtube]

How the Crash affects the global balance of power

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2009

Former US Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman has a piece in the new edition of Foreign Affairs on the Great Crash of 2008, which takes the following as...

Nutjobs on Obama’s citizenship

by David Steven | Jan 18, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdk26ezVio[/youtube]

Generation Kill goes to Gaza

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2009

Chances are you'll already have seen media coverage of Generation Kill - HBO's outstanding new mini-series based on Evan Wright's book on his time as an...

Stupidest man alive?

by David Steven | Jan 17, 2009

Donald Luskin has long held the position of 'stupidest man alive' - but Larry Kudlow has surely now taken the crown. A couple of days' ago, I posted a...

No miracle on the Hudson

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 16, 2009

We instinctively grope for religion and invoke God to help us try and explain major accidents and natural disasters. 'Miracle on the Hudson’ ran the headlines...

Danger Zone

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 14, 2009

The image shows the areas in Africa most at risk from Malaria.

The Tories and DFID

by Alex Evans | Jan 13, 2009

As everyone waits to see what Obama plans to do about reforming foreign assistance in the US, back here in Britain change is in the air too: the Conservatives...

Nicolas Sarkozy has a very big tank

by Richard Gowan | Jan 12, 2009

We have noted Nicolas Sarkozy's attraction to large domestic appliances (first his TV, then his telephone table...). So we are not surprised to see him, third...

Israel’s war crimes

by Alex Evans | Jan 11, 2009

"Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war...

How to get into the United Nations

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2009

Here is what happens when you arrive for a meeting at the United Nations (where David and I currently find ourselves). Once you're through security, you go...

The next defeatism

by Richard Gowan | Jan 6, 2009

Bob Herbert of the New York Times: Our interest in Afghanistan is to prevent it from becoming a haven for terrorists bent on attacking us. That does not...

How to blog, courtesy of the USAF

by Alex Evans | Jan 5, 2009

Full size version here. H/t Jeremiah Owyang, via Tom Watson.

Saturday’s Map: Ocean Currents

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 4, 2009

From a special report in The Economist: Human beings no longer thrive under the water from which their ancestors emerged, but their relationship with the sea...

Deadlock in Ghana

by Mark Weston | Dec 31, 2008

One of Africa's few shining lights, Ghana, is on tenterhooks as it awaits the result of an incredibly closely-fought general election. Publication of the...

Niall Ferguson’s retrospective of 2009

by Alex Evans | Dec 30, 2008

Last weekend's FT Magazine had this excellent look back at the year - 2009, that is - from Niall Ferguson. The whole thing's worth a read (especially on...

Top 10 books of 2008

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 28, 2008

My top 10 books of 2008 are an eclectic mix of insightful analysis, counter-intuitive reasoning, master story-telling, and solutioneering. Some brilliant...

The Failure of Quiet Diplomacy

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 22, 2008

We have posted various snippets about the tragedy of Zimbabwe. The Times expresses its dismay at the failure of British diplomacy to do anything. Today's...

Inspiration

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 16, 2008

Here at Global Dashboard we're dedicated to making sure you're ready to tackle any issue, big or small. So sit back and listen to 40 inspirational speeches in...

Georgia: the EU’s in the dark

by Richard Gowan | Dec 13, 2008

Long before this year's Georgian war, I chatted to a European foreign policy expert recently returned from the Caucasian flash-point. He was shocked to...

Dumb kids in charge at State

by David Steven | Dec 12, 2008

There are many reasons why American foreign policy has been so teeth-grindingly awful during the Bush years, but the hiring policy for ambassadors probably...

Flash Gordon after all

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2008

Overseas readers may have missed Gordon Brown's priceless slip of the tongue at Prime Minister's Questions this week. So much for the "Not flash; just Gordon"...

Obama’s new energy chief on energy efficiency

by David Steven | Dec 11, 2008

Steven Chu - Nobel prize laureate in Physics - is Obama's new energy secretary. He's freaked out by climate change, and believes that energy efficiency should...

Who cares? R2P is RIP

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 10, 2008

Courtesy of The Times Our collective inability to do f*** all in Zimbabwe is, you have admit, awe-inspiring. On Tuesday the African Union rejected tougher...

Rewiring the trans-Atlantic relationship

by Daniel Korski | Dec 9, 2008

Following Barack Obama’s election, the intellectual market has filled up with policy papers about how the U.S and Europe can cooperate on substantive...

Wikipaedophile latest

by David Steven | Dec 8, 2008

Yesterday, I posted on UK action to block a Wikipedia page because it includes an image from a 1970's Scorpions album cover that the Internet Watch Foundation...

Wikipaedophile

by David Steven | Dec 7, 2008

Prepare yourself for a bad-tempered row over UK attempts to censor Wikipedia. The reason? Virgin Killer - a 1970s album from German heavy metal band,...

Incoherence in Poznan

by David Steven | Dec 6, 2008

The climate talks in Poznan were never going to be a dazzling success - but, away from the nitty gritty of text, three big things need to happen for a...

Georgia and Ukraine barred from NATO

by Jules Evans | Dec 6, 2008

This may have escaped people's attention (it did mine), but Ukraine and Georgia were told they couldn't join the NATO club this week, and Georgia was given a...

CEE In Crisis

by Jules Evans | Dec 5, 2008

I've covered eastern European markets for about eight years, and all of those eight years, the region has been on a growth trajectory, either because it is...

On long-term targets

by David Steven | Dec 5, 2008

What's striking about the climate talks in Poznan is that (some) developed countries want a long-term goal, while (most) developing countries are only...

What’s happening in Poznan

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2008

Relatively little media coverage so far on the UN climate talks currently underway in Poznan - but that's not to say that nothing interesting is happening...

In Brown’s Britain, Stalin rides again

by David Steven | Dec 2, 2008

It's been very disturbing to discover today that I have a contraband government document in my possession. Given the recent furore over leaks, I am expecting...

Germany’s lonely walk

by Daniel Korski | Dec 2, 2008

“Never let Germany walk alone”, Francois Mitterand apparently used to tell his military commanders. But two decades after the end of the Cold War, Germany has...

Piracy catches on

by Mark Weston | Dec 1, 2008

The piracy fad may be spreading around the African coast. Last week a Chinese fishing boat was attacked off the coast of Sierra Leone in West Africa. The...

Violence sweeps across Nigeria’s Plateau State

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 29, 2008

The Nigerian city Jos, the capital of the Plateau State, is the scene of some of the worst sectarian violence in recent years. Up to 300 people were killed...

Mark Abell – from Mumbai (updated x4)

by David Steven | Nov 28, 2008

Yesterday morning, many of us here in the UK heard from Mark Abell, a British lawyer, who spoke to British radio from the Oberoi in Mumbai, where he was...

OPEC reserves: who the hell knows?

by Alex Evans | Nov 28, 2008

The question of OPEC's reserves looms large in the latest World Energy Outlook. A small excerpt (with emphasis added): The world's total endowment of oil is...

What to do about Guantanamo

by Alex Evans | Nov 26, 2008

This short piece from the Economist - styled as an email to Barack Obama - is worth a read: Your promise to close Guantánamo is popular. Including a clear...

The Seduction of Analysis

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 25, 2008

Do we need to call 'time out' on global risk analysis? The NIC report on global trends 2025 is one of a plethora of recent publications on global risks and...

Next year’s battle of the summits

by Alex Evans | Nov 25, 2008

As Gideon Rachman notes, the fact that the G20 has now staged a summit at the level of leaders rather than finance ministers - which by my reckoning made it a...

From the department of big numbers…

by David Steven | Nov 24, 2008

$7.4 trillion... $7.4 TRILLLION - that's what Bloomberg calculates the US government has now pledged to the bailout.

Pessimism fulfilled

by David Steven | Nov 21, 2008

We may well see another dramatic weekend as the banking meltdown continues. It's just a week since I wondered whether Citigroup might be the next bank to...

“The most unpopular kid”

by David Steven | Nov 20, 2008

Watch Bush being ignored by other world leaders at the G20. "It's kinda sad," CNN's Rick Sanchez comments.

A sea change in approach

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 19, 2008

While one part of the US Navy argues for a next generation of frigates, elsewhere a small band of reformers in the USN including US Marines are experimenting...

Curing the Bosnia Blues

by Daniel Korski | Nov 18, 2008

In the last couple of weeks there has been more attention heaped on little Bosnia than has been the case for years. First, Paddy Ashdown and Richard Hoolbroke...

Kilcullen close to despair

by David Steven | Nov 15, 2008

In an email exchange with George Packer, David Kilcullen sounds a pessimistic note about prospects in Afghanistan. The situation is 'dire' but there's a...

Lest we forget

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 14, 2008

One of thirty-one photos recently published in The Boston Globe: Imam Hashim Raza leads mourners in prayer during a funeral for Mohsin Naqvi at al-Fatima...

A Bretton Woods II worthy of the name

by Alex Evans | Nov 13, 2008

Ahead of this weekend's G20 summit, David and I have published a short paper entitled A Bretton Woods II worthy of the name. Key points: - The summit is...

Everything you need to know about the food crisis in 4 minutes 20 seconds

by Alex Evans | Nov 13, 2008

I loved this public service announcement from the Japanese Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries - easily the most succinct and accessible summary...

The other Obama transition

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2008

As Edward Luce reported in yesterday's FT, Obama's sensibly merged his campaign team with the pre-election transition team headed by former White House chief...

Why not to be the first person off the plane in Nigeria

by Alex Evans | Nov 6, 2008

Fantastic: This morning, at the airport in Brussels, I was chatting with a retired Scottish aid worker. He told about his friend who got on a flight in Lagos...

Our destiny is shared

by David Steven | Nov 5, 2008

President-elect Obama to the world: And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around...

Deja vu? 1929 isn’t the half of it…

by Alex Evans | Nov 2, 2008

Marcello Simonetta in Forbes agrees that current events have a certain familiarity to them - but he's looking a lot further back than everyone...

Fighting terrorism together

by Daniel Korski | Oct 30, 2008

No issue has been the source of greater trans-Atlantic division during the last eight years than international law and counter-terrorism. The policies...

Sarah’s greatest hits

by Alex Evans | Oct 28, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrzXLYA_e6E] Gnnnaaaaaaa. Bush looks positively cerebral by comparison.

Incoming: the mother of all currency crises

by Alex Evans | Oct 26, 2008

Dani Rodrik: Paul Krugman frets that we are about to witness the mother of all currency crises in emerging markets, and I am afraid that he is right. As I...

Obama slides on US aid budgets

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2008

Think an Obama Administration would spell an upwards march on the US aid budget? Think again. The Obama / Biden campaign platform is formally committed to a...

What the credit crunch means for multilateralism

by Alex Evans | Oct 22, 2008

If you haven't read it already, World Bank President Bob Zoellick's speech on multilateral reform earlier this month is definitely worth a read. One of best...

Seasonal Resilience: The 4 seasons – Fire, flood, drought & earthquake

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 21, 2008

Every year, between October and February the Santa Ana winds flow down the valleys and canyons of California picking up speed. As the winds increase so does...

Re-energizing Europe’s security and defence policy

by Daniel Korski | Oct 21, 2008

As conflict continues to rage in Chad and Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism at home persists, maximising the effectiveness of the current European...

Global deal – the developing country ask

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2008

Imagine you're advising China or India - or perhaps a poorer developing country such as Ghana - on their preparations for the climate change negotiations in...

John McCain goes to Canossa

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2008

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v48l5s8qryk] John McCain's first visit to the Letterman Show since The Cancellation. See also Part 2 (in which he's...

The financial crisis is no excuse for backtracking on climate change, au contraire

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Oct 16, 2008

With a global recession looming, international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions may be in jeopardy, as concerns are voiced in the US, Canada and...

Think global, Act local

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 15, 2008

Brent Smith, a Professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Arkansas has just published an interesting paper (pdf) on terrorist behaviour....

Social Media in Action: Wikipedia and 7/7

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 14, 2008

Readers of this blog will be familiar with our enthusiasm for Web 2.0 especially when used in times of emergency. Following the London bombings a wikipedia...

The Laundry Warriors

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 14, 2008

Smart Intelligence via Bruce Schneier. The following operation was used against the IRA: One of the most interesting operations was the laundry mat [sic]....

Gordon Brown in spontaneous joke shock

by Alex Evans | Oct 14, 2008

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nRl3uRra_w8] As Gideon Rachman put it yesterday, The current financial crisis seems to have actually cheered Mr Brown...

Krugman’s prize

by David Steven | Oct 13, 2008

Economists are getting a bad rap for greater failings at the moment - so probably not many will notice their dismal failure to predict the winner of this...

Is international trade next to seize up?

by Alex Evans | Oct 13, 2008

Letters of Credit (LOCs) are the crucial lubricant without which the wheels of international trade cannot turn. Here's how John Mauldin explains them: If you...

The UN’s NATO mistake (and bigger mistakes about international security)

by Richard Gowan | Oct 11, 2008

The UN and NATO have signed a - not very radical - declaration about their cooperation in places like Afghanistan and Darfur, and the Russians are peeved:...

Palin brushes up foreign policy credentials

by Alex Evans | Oct 10, 2008

According to the Onion: ORLANDO, FL—Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin sought to silence those who have criticized her lack of foreign affairs...

Future of Resilience – RUSI

by David Steven | Oct 10, 2008

I'm just back from RUSI, where I spoke about the future of resilience. Full text is below the jump, or you can download the PDF. The talk complements one from...

The problem with adaptation

by David Steven | Oct 9, 2008

Climate change policy is bedevilled by two ugly terms: mitigation and adaptation. (For those who have managed to avoid this jargon, forget the dictionary...

Live blogging Michael ‘Heckuva Job’ Brown

by David Steven | Oct 8, 2008

Michael Brown is speaking on resilience here at RUSI - it's the first time he's spoken outside the US about the Katrina debacle. From his conference biog,...

Ban raps!

by Richard Gowan | Oct 7, 2008

There is much excitement in UN-land at the news that Ban Ki-moon rapped at a recent U.S. UN association gala. Jay-Z described the man we will soon doubtless...

Monday’s video: Shirky @ Web 2.0 Expo in New York

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 6, 2008

Clay Shirky on information overload and filtering.

New York Times op-ed page needs new fact-checker, possibly with Balkan experience

by Richard Gowan | Oct 4, 2008

In his debate with Sarah Palin on Thursday (which failed to meet the Dan Quayle test), Joe Biden talked about the "Bosniaks" not "Bosnians". Republican...

Friday’s mid morning map

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 3, 2008

Just spotted the following map in The Atlantic . From The Atlantic Riots and protests over food prices have broken out in 30 countries since 2007. Haiti’s...

Nicolas Sarkozy has a very modern telephone table

by Richard Gowan | Oct 1, 2008

This photo of the French presidential office might seem a bit gilded and cluttered. But the style afficiando will spot the ultra-modern styling of Monsieur...

Headline writers vs. facts

by Mark Weston | Sep 30, 2008

The BBC, which seems to be relishing the current financial crisis, reports on its website, under the headline 'US failure hits Europe shares', that "European...

What’s the Chinese for “Bothered?”

by Richard Gowan | Sep 29, 2008

A headline from the BBC: Tories refuse to give China aid

The Politics of British Defence

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 26, 2008

Menzies Campbell, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats is the latest member of the establishment to call for a review of British defence policy....

Suspended animation

by Alex Evans | Sep 24, 2008

Steve Benen made me laugh with his take on McCain's decision to 'suspend' his campaign and seek a postponement of Friday's debate: I've never even heard of a...

Stockwell photo

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 24, 2008

As reported elsewhere: Jurors have retraced the final steps of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, including visiting the Tube station where he was shot dead...

A trillion dollar bailout?

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2008

Via Steve Clemons, this excerpt from a speech by Leo Hindery - an Obama economic adviser and Chair of the New America Foundation's Smart Globalisation...

Pirate utopias

by Alex Evans | Sep 22, 2008

Yet another ship was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia on Sunday, bringing the total of ships seized there to over 30 this year alone. The current...

NYT: Firestarter

by David Steven | Sep 19, 2008

Proving that there's no crisis so serious that you won't find a 'high brow' journalist flinging gasoline on the fire: Editor's Note A front-page article on...

China vs United States bad debts showdown: who’s the commie now?

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2008

I'm out in China, where I've just spent a couple of weeks visiting Hong Kong, Beijing and the rural province of Yunnan. Some observations on China and...

Effing Miliband

by Jules Evans | Sep 12, 2008

I'm in Moscow for a few days, where the weather is miserable and the mood is worse. The stock market has lost 50% of its value since May, much of it since the...

9/11 Anniversary

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 10, 2008

In the run up to tomorrow's anniversary (the wikipedia article on 9/11 is locked because of a high risk of vandalism) here are some interesting reports and...

To stop Russian expansionism, take away the excuse for it

by Jules Evans | Sep 3, 2008

I've argued before that if the West wants to stop Russian expansionism, it has to take away the excuse for that expansionism - the oppression of Russian...

Is Alistair Darling ready to play chess with Death?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 1, 2008

Having returned from two very pleasant days in Red Neck Pennsylvania, I have only just read Alistair Darling's doom-laden interview with the Guardian about...

Can Obama’s network help Gustav’s victims?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 31, 2008

As the Gulf Coast gets ready to evacuate and plans for the Republican Convention have been throw into disarray, an interesting question has emerged. To what...

Sarah Palin: climate change not man-made

by Alex Evans | Aug 30, 2008

From a Newsmax interview done before her nomination as McCain's running mate: What is your take on global warming and how is it affecting our country? A...

Global Vulnerability

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 29, 2008

The new report on Humanitarian Implications of Climate Change: Mapping emerging trends and risk hotspots, which was carried out by CARE International, the UN...

Paul Collier’s dubious vision for developing country agriculture

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2008

Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion, is amusing himself by taking shotguns to sacred cows on agriculture and development again. This time, as Owen...

The Olympics via Venezuelan state TV

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 28, 2008

The games are over, but courtesy of Daniel Duquenal, a video gem from the swimming pool. Michael Phelps is on his way to win his 8th gold medal, Venezuelan...

Celebrity galas in the McCain White House are going to be awful

by Richard Gowan | Aug 26, 2008

Do you know who these people are? You do? OK, get off this blog and play outside. You don't? Then you're over 16. They are the Jonas Brothers, a...

Brits abroad

by Alex Evans | Aug 24, 2008

This is the third most emailed story on the NY Times site today. Great.

The High Court Judgement on Binyam Mohamed: what now?

by Alex Evans | Aug 23, 2008

Yesterday afternoon, I waded through the full 75 page High Court Judgement on Binyam Mohamed v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. It's...

Georgia: will Russia’s tactical victory lead to its strategic defeat?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 22, 2008

With each day that passes, members of the commentariat out-bid each other with explanations of how events in Georgia signify the decline of the West. ...

Gerhard Schröder is not a Georgian

by Richard Gowan | Aug 21, 2008

Der Spiegel has a fairly astonishing interview with Gerhard Schröder, a man who likes Russia: SPIEGEL: Do you believe that the American military advisors...

Understanding radicalisation

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 20, 2008

Today The Guardian (among others) publishes an excerpt from an operational note by the Security Service's Behavioural Science Unit; a small team of scientists...

How low can you go?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 20, 2008

Over on the Guardian website, Nick Brown, a senior Labour leader, is supporting Russia’s invasion of Georgia to make a partisan political attack against David...

Queen wins olympics

by David Steven | Aug 20, 2008

The official medal table has China winning the Olympics. The US media rejigs things to put Team America is in its rightful place above us all. Europhiles,...

Can the Clinton camp quit carping?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 19, 2008

In the current Atlantic Monthly, Joshua Green paints an astonishing picture of the Clinton campaign's self-destructive tendencies. The whole thing was, in...

The EU wins the Olympics

by David Steven | Aug 18, 2008

Earlier today, I demonstrated that - official medal table notwithstanding - the US is winning the Olympics. But it seems I spoke too soon. It turns out that...

USA wins Olympics

by David Steven | Aug 18, 2008

Perhaps you thought the Chinese were leading the Olympics medal table - maybe using erroneous information supplied by the official Olympics website, and...

The Hollowmen: Military Matters

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 18, 2008

What better way to spend 25 minutes of this grey and overcast Monday morning digesting Richard's and Daniel's posts on military matters through the medium of...

Summer crisis? Get the look!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 14, 2008

Number two in our occasional series of tributes to the iconic style of M. Sarkozy:

Beginning the reconstruction

by Daniel Korski | Aug 14, 2008

Whilst the US has stolen a march on Europe by deciding to send aid with the US military, this will be palliative and humanitarian, rather than deal with the...

Great moments in Chinese public diplomacy (part 2194)

by Alex Evans | Aug 13, 2008

As regular readers will know, we're always on the lookout for lessons from China on how [not] to do public diplomacy. So we're happy to be able to pass on...

The Secret War with Iran

by Daniel Korski | Aug 11, 2008

At the risk of turning Global Dashboard into a book club, I have to recommend a book for the autumn reading list. Written by Ronen Bergman, one of Israel’s...

What’s Georgian for Agranat?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 10, 2008

Now that the Russo-Georgian War is coming to an end, hopefully the Georgian authorities will review the steps that led to the confrontation, and its military...

Who’s in charge?

by Jules Evans | Aug 9, 2008

One of the interesting questions in the Georgia - Ossetia - Russia conflict is who is calling the shots. On the Ossetian and Russian side, is Dmitry Medvedev,...

Georgia: when the smoke clears

by Richard Gowan | Aug 8, 2008

The international response to events in Georgia is still at the declaratory stage, and some analysts predict a long struggle. It's not a good sign when the...

The Russian tanks are rolling again

by Jules Evans | Aug 8, 2008

Pretty amazing pictures from Georgia, where the Russian tanks are on the roll again, prompting dark memories of Afghanistan, Prague, Berlin... This all for a...

Is it nerdy for politicians to like Amartya Sen?

by Alex Evans | Aug 8, 2008

Jim Pickard at the FT's excellent Westminster blog has been wondering whether David Miliband really has the common touch. "Will the public warm," he wonders,...

Paris Hilton for President

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 6, 2008

The video is a spoof of John McCain's 'celebrity' advertisement released last week in which the Republican candidate compared Barack Obama's popularity with...

Euro-American-African legal smackdown out of control

by Richard Gowan | Aug 5, 2008

In July, I argued that the African Union's discomfort with the indictment of Sudan's President Bashir might be a turning-point in the evolution of...

Nigeria’s feral universities

by David Steven | Aug 4, 2008

Never mind feral cities, Nigeria has feral universities. From the Economist: A young man whispers a confession: as a university student, he killed six or...

Seriously?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 3, 2008

A story from Australia. A charity program sending bras to women in developing nations has provoked debate about what's appropriate assistance. The Uplift Fiji...

Nicolas Sarkozy has a very large television

by Richard Gowan | Aug 1, 2008

Look, look at the screen looming up behind him. It's enormous. (As you probably guessed, the picture's from Vanity Fair).

From Gazprom to Foodprom

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2008

Oh dear. First the collapse of Doha, and now this: Russia plans to form a state grain trading company to control up to half of the country’s cereal exports,...

Orwellian surveillance society not all good news for cops

by Richard Gowan | Jul 31, 2008

Something for all our resilence+networks+technology-loving readers from Gothamist, a proper blog for normal people (well, New Yorkers, anyway): NYPD...

Prohibition, insurgency and state failure

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2008

Daniel's a hundred per cent right to call for an end to some of the more stupid measures taken in Afghanistan in the name of counter-narcotics work. Take...

Where Korski Goes, the FT follows. Sort of

by Daniel Korski | Jul 30, 2008

I hope my fellow bloggers will forgive me this self-indulgent post, but I could not resist. You see, the FT has a leader about the Afghan drugs trade,...

Distracted by terrorism

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 30, 2008

Readers of GD will be familiar with my/ our claims that the focus on international terrorism has often been to the detriment of other risks. So interesting to...

Disruptive politics – a user’s guide

by David Steven | Jul 29, 2008

Take a two-party system. Drop it into a multi-connected, media frenzied world. And what you get is a system with two steady states and dramatic swings between...

Ensuring Security In An Unpredictable World

by Daniel Korski | Jul 29, 2008

National security reform is, I guess, one of the leitmotifs of this blog and both Charlie and I have written about this in its U.S and British forms. Now, the...

Under the weather

by Richard Gowan | Jul 28, 2008

We overlooked last month's Annual Disaster Statistical Review, but the numbers speak for themselves: In 2007, 414 natural disasters were reported. They killed...

Subsidies and fuel prices

by Alex Evans | Jul 28, 2008

A key fact here from BP, via the New York Times: From Mexico to India to China, governments fearful of inflation and street protests are heavily subsidizing...

The oil price: what’s happening, what next?

by Alex Evans | Jul 26, 2008

Herewith an attempt to marshal my thoughts about what's happening on the oil price (which has fallen sharply over the last few weeks), what's likely to happen...

MoD 2.0: An ‘open mind’ not a ‘safe pair of hands’ is needed

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 25, 2008

I've just given a talk to 120 + senior officers at the Australian Command and Staff College on national security. My talk was deliberately aimed at the...

ElBaradei: we need a World Energy Agency

by Alex Evans | Jul 24, 2008

As a general rule of thumb, my starting assumption is that we need new multilateral agencies like we need a hole in the head. But if there's an exception to...

The UK’s national security forum: Progress update

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 23, 2008

Tucked away in a Written Ministerial Statement yesterday comes news of progress on the UK's national security forum: Core group: The forum will have a core...

Peacekeeping: I’m not the only one in a panic

by Richard Gowan | Jul 22, 2008

Hardly had I posted my take on the current peacekeeping crisis yesterday than Thorsten Benner and his colleagues at GPPi published this op-ed in the IHT: UN...

Brownian motion and national security

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 22, 2008

Readers of GD will be familiar with Brownian motion - the random movement of particles suspended in a liquid or gas or the mathematical model used to describe...

Karadzic Goes Down!!!!!

by Daniel Korski | Jul 21, 2008

As Richard's reported, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused of being responsible for the massacre of more than 100.000 Bosnian Muslims during...

Vote McCain – for foreign policy expertise

by Alex Evans | Jul 21, 2008

As David put it a while back: just what we need, another moron. Asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer Monday morning whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in...

Australia, the Pope and Hollowmen

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 21, 2008

My visit to Australia is impeccably timed. While London is set to bask in temperatures of 21°C this week, it's cold in Sydney and the forecast looks miserable...

You ARE a nice rebel, you can have a present!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 18, 2008

I've spent much of the last month poking fun (with serious intent) at Irish EU peacekeepers in Chad praised by rebels for staying neutral during a shoot-out...

“African ownership” strikes back

by Richard Gowan | Jul 17, 2008

It's ten days since seven UN troops were killed in Darfur - today, one more has been killed. In between, there have been a series of events that raise big...

Monbiot changes his mind on post-2012 climate policy

by Alex Evans | Jul 17, 2008

Although plenty of people see the Guardian's George Monbiot as an irritating gadfly (see also Gideon Rachman's amusing account of what it's like to work with...

Zimbabwe veto says as much about US and UK as Russia

by Daniel Korski | Jul 16, 2008

The Russian and Chinese veto of UNSC sanctions against Zimbabwe may in hindsight have been predicable, even inevitable, but on day of the vote they came as a...

Men with queer accents

by Mark Weston | Jul 15, 2008

West Africa's drug problem is spreading beyond the borders of Guinea-Bissau, which I wrote about a few months back. The UN has warned that her nextdoor...

Where Gowan goes, Fox News follows

by Richard Gowan | Jul 14, 2008

One or two readers may recall that, back in June, I created a bit of a rumpus with a whimsical post on items from the Putnam County News and Recorder, an...

Great moments in public diplomacy

by David Steven | Jul 12, 2008

George Bush prepares for his post-presidential stand up career: The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle...

Towards a Theory of Influence

by David Steven | Jul 11, 2008

Chapter by Alex Evans and David Steven in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office publication, 'Engagement: public diplomacy in a globalised world' (July 2008)....

Military Morale — Up And Down!

by Daniel Korski | Jul 10, 2008

Today’s defence news is a new survey showing that British soldiers – and the British army – are operating at breaking point. In the Army, 59 per cent of those...

Countdown to crisis in Turkey

by Mark Weston | Jul 8, 2008

I have just spent two weeks holed up in a sleepy Turkish fishing village in the far eastern corner of the Mediterranean. Even there, one cannot escape the...

The Great Game

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 8, 2008

Hello kiddies

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2008

More subversion and mayhem from everyone's favourite enfants terribles of the international civil society scene, Avaaz.org: here's the full page advert (big...

Why people ARE reading your think-tank’s latest report

by Richard Gowan | Jul 6, 2008

In April, I posted about a fine if suitably hard-to-find academic article on why most policy literature goes unread. Now, a post by Dan Drezner draws my...

CSI War Crimes?

by Daniel Korski | Jul 4, 2008

Today Naser Oric, a Bosnian Muslim commander, was cleared on appeal of crimes committed during the Bosnian War. The Appeals Chamber of the UN's International...

Dreaming of electric cars

by Alex Evans | Jul 4, 2008

David and I are both out in Japan to speak at a conference on climate change organised by the United Nations University . Highlight of the day so far: sitting...

Terror over Sydney

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 1, 2008

Mild embarrassment for Australian Defence officials who have had to apologise to office workers and residents of Sydney for a public stunt that didn't quite...

Anti-Terrorism Patents

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 30, 2008

Via Bruce Schneier, the top ten strangest anti-terrorism patents. My three favourites. Railroad missile system Aeroplane Trap Door Explosion Containment...

When fiction becomes fact

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 29, 2008

GD readers may be familiar with The Kingdom, a fictional film inspired by bombings at the Riyadh compound on May 12, 2003 and the Khobar housing complex on...

UK National Security Strategy: 100 days old

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 27, 2008

(Updated 26 July 2008) By my estimation the UK's national security strategy is 100 days old. So what initiatives from the UK NSS have gained traction? What...

Great public relations disasters of our time

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2008

A few weeks back, I wrote a post about Abengoa - a biofuels company which has been taking out full page ads in the FT and elsewhere, arguing that biofuels are...

Strategic myopia: the case of UK defence

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 25, 2008

This afternoon I'm giving a presentation to the Sandhurst Defence Forum. The subject of my talk: Strategic Myopia develops some of the themes from the report...

Alhurra – public diplomacy as black comedy

by David Steven | Jun 23, 2008

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...

New Serbian government imminent

by Daniel Korski | Jun 22, 2008

The Pro-European Serb President, Boris Tadic announced yesterday that talks to form a governing coalition with the Socialist Party would begin. Several weeks...

Hazardscape

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 21, 2008

A fantastically useful map created by RSOE EDIS, a nonprofit emergency services organization based in Budapest: The live map or hazardscape is regularly...

Aircon and the rise in crime in Jamaica

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 20, 2008

Crime in Jamaica has always been pretty bad. The island of 2.7m people has one of the highest murder rates in the world and the last decade has seen a 10%...

America’s corn crunch

by Alex Evans | Jun 20, 2008

If there's a silver lining to the disastrous flooding in the US mid-west, then this might be it. As prices for corn go through the roof, the impacts of...

Texan political advertising at its best

by Richard Gowan | Jun 19, 2008

Here's a really very moving campaign ad for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, or "Big John". It's almost enough to make me forgive Clooney's "Waging...

Allez les bleus

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 18, 2008

While the national football team’s loss to Italy last night heralded the end of an era for French football and possibly Raymond Domenech tenure as coach, a...

A vote of confidence in Ban Ki-moon

by Alex Evans | Jun 17, 2008

PIPA's latest global opinion poll is a bit of a downer on world leaders: it finds that in 20 nations around the world, "none of the national leaders on the...

Why you should have a digital camera to hand at all times

by Alex Evans | Jun 17, 2008

[Hat-tip: New York Times]

Still saving global Europe

by Daniel Korski | Jun 16, 2008

As European foreign ministers settle down to what must be one of their most uncomfortable meetings this year, my colleague Ulrike Guerot and I try to remind...

Kosovo: born on the 15th of June

by Richard Gowan | Jun 15, 2008

Kosovo continues to limp, hop and stumble towards statehood. Today, the UN hands over some policing and justice duties to the EU, in a deal hammered out by...

How can donors get better at conflict prevention

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2008

At a seminar held yesterday as part of IPPR's Commission on National Security, we got onto a discussion of how far aid donors still need to go in sorting out...

“Cliqueness” and policy development

by Daniel Korski | Jun 13, 2008

The resignation of David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, in protest over the 42-day detention vote in Parliament, was followed by a number of stories about...

Subvertisement of the week

by Alex Evans | Jun 12, 2008

If you pick up this week's Economist and leaf through the classified ads, you'll find this one: a job advert for the position of UN High Commissioner for...

Failed states, failed cities

by Alex Evans | Jun 12, 2008

Things keep going from bad to worse in Naples, where the piles of uncollected rubbish are still heaped up. Last week, the head of a waste disposal firm...

Web 2.0 (in under 5 minutes)

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 9, 2008

Definitely worth watching.

Taking down Turkey

by Mark Weston | Jun 9, 2008

Turkey's government - its most successful in decades - is on its way out. Last week, the Constitutional Court overturned the recent lifting of the ban on...

Climate, scarcity and multilateralism

by Alex Evans | Jun 7, 2008

Speech by Alex Evans to United Nations Association UK (7 June 2008)

Ramsay meets Ravi

by David Steven | Jun 6, 2008

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,...

Nothing new under the sun

by Mark Weston | Jun 5, 2008

Among the most popular policy responses to recent rises in food prices are export bans. Cambodia has banned rice exports, for example. Kazakhstan, Pakistan...

Things you don’t often see

by Alex Evans | Jun 3, 2008

Well, here’s something you don’t often see: a Prime Minister saying that the Club of Rome’s seminar 1972 Limits to Growth report “was right”. Here's an...

From carbon footprints to grain footprints

by Alex Evans | Jun 3, 2008

The FT's Gideon Rachman has a terrific column today mulling over the question that this week's UN food summit in Rome is likely to sweep politely beneath the...

Could soaring oil costs reverse globalisation?

by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2008

Here's a question I've been wondering about for a while now. Just how much of an impact are soaring oil costs having on international trade through making it...

EU offers Harriet Harman chance to prod Silvio Berlusconi

by Richard Gowan | Jun 1, 2008

As Alex notes in the post immediately below, new social networking technologies can be forces for good or evil. I'll leave you to decide which category the...

A not-so-happy Peacekeeper’s Day

by Richard Gowan | May 29, 2008

For those readers wondering why I posted the new George Clooney "Waging Peace" video immediately below, it's Peacekeeper's Day. But although this is sixtieth...

Jihadi chic & hate couture

by Charlie Edwards | May 29, 2008

Walk along Oxford Street in London, mosey down King Street in Manchester or slink around the Victoria Quarter in Leeds and you are sure to see people wearing...

Succeeding where Kyoto failed?

by Alex Evans | May 28, 2008

The FT has a long analysis piece this morning on how the political salience of environmental issues is faring in Britain as the economy nosedives. The news...

Slum wars

by Charlie Edwards | May 23, 2008

Richard mentioned Mike Davis' compelling book Planet of the Slums a while back and I've recently finished it, coincidentally it seems, just at the point when...

Zits

by Charlie Edwards | May 22, 2008

From today's Times:

The transatlantic relationship – inward or outward-looking?

by David Steven | May 21, 2008

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;...

Kosovo: no longer the new North Ireland, more like Iraq

by Richard Gowan | May 20, 2008

Since time immemorial, or at least the 1970s, British soldiers have liked to point out that they can "do" counter-insurgency thanks to their Northern Irish...

The US: wading further into biofuels

by Alex Evans | May 20, 2008

For all the media comment criticising biofuels lately, you might have thought that the tide had clearly turned against the increasing trend of using crops for...

Computer Bug

by Charlie Edwards | May 18, 2008

Swarms of ants are eating their way through electronics in America’s deep south. They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at...

The orphan of Whitehall

by Charlie Edwards | May 16, 2008

I've got a short piece about organised crime on the Guardian's blog Comment is Free. From the intro: The annual report from the Serious Organised Crime...

Soldiering and European society

by Daniel Korski | May 15, 2008

General Richard Dannat, the head of the British army, once remarked that the British Armed Forces are less understood and less honoured for their commitment...

A shambolic response to organised crime

by Charlie Edwards | May 14, 2008

Tomorrow the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) will publish its annual report/ threat assessment. It will make for uncomfortable reading at the Home...

Starting to think through the long term food agenda

by Alex Evans | May 14, 2008

Just back from ten gorgeous days on holiday in Cornwall - hence radio silence on the blogging front, and a much-needed break from frenetic activity on the...

McCain and climate – trouble ahead

by David Steven | May 12, 2008

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...

Serbia selects sanity…

by Richard Gowan | May 11, 2008

...or so suggest the exit polls after today's national elections - see why here.

Responsibility to protect?

by Charlie Edwards | May 11, 2008

Is Lebanon going to war over a network?

by Charlie Edwards | May 8, 2008

It may be too soon to determine what has trigged the current violence in Beirut. Some analysts have suggested Hezbollah took advantage of a labour strike on...

Water water everywhere (so what’s all the fuss)

by Charlie Edwards | May 6, 2008

Is the lack of fresh water a catalyst for conflict? The scenario has become fashionable of late, with Ban Ki-moon pondering such a future earlier this year,...

More globalisation please

by Mark Weston | May 1, 2008

A typically forthright and sensible article from former WTO head Mike Moore in the New Zealand Herald argues that we need more globalisation, not less, in...

Where next for humanitarian assistance?

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2008

I'm over in Geneva, where I've just been presenting to the IASC, which is composed of the heads of the world's largest humanitarian agencies (including UN...

Rising Food Prices: Drivers and Implications for Development

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2008

Briefing paper by Alex Evans, published through Chatham House’s food programme (April 2008).

The common enemy

by David Steven | Apr 29, 2008

Last night I was at Gresham College where their Professor of Commerce, Michael Mainelli, was lecturing on global risks (read his lecture here).Mainelli...

I have no evidence, I have a story

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 29, 2008

What are the connections between climate change and migration? Not as obvious as one might think... one of the conversations we’ve been having in the coffee...

UN staying on in Kosovo: told you so

by Richard Gowan | Apr 28, 2008

This just in from the BBC: The head of the UN mission in Kosovo, Joachim Ruecker, has said he expects it to stay, throwing into doubt a planned June handover...

There’s more to life than football…

by Mark Weston | Apr 28, 2008

England football manager Fabio Capello went on an unusual overseas tour earlier this month. His destination? Maseru in Lesotho, where he visited an HIV...

Public (school) diplomacy

by Alex Evans | Apr 26, 2008

David Miliband writes: My visit this week to Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq was punctuated with people describing their links to Britain. One...

Joined up government

by David Steven | Apr 25, 2008

Nice to see an integrated approach to UK operations in Afghanistan... When I asked the men of 3 Para what their first tour had achieved, they all fell silent....

Whitehall 2.0

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2008

A civil servant friend told me yesterday that the Cabinet Office has just issued guidance that all senior civil servants (that's deputy directors and upwards)...

Labour advisers flee Government nest (according to PR week)

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 24, 2008

PR week, the gossip-laden magazine for political apparatchiks and comms people will no doubt set tongues wagging with their latest installment of Brown...

Suburban farming

by Alex Evans | Apr 23, 2008

On the front of yesterday's Wall Street Journal, via John Robb - a sign of things to come, perhaps: BOULDER, Colo. -- When suburbanites look out their front...

Barroso goes to China

by Daniel Korski | Apr 22, 2008

Later in the week half of the European Commission will go to Beijing. Playing Kissinger to EU President Barroso's Nixon, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson...

Saudis say “no need” for more oil expansion; global majority thinks oil running out

by Alex Evans | Apr 21, 2008

Interesting times for the peak oil debate. Last week came the news that Russian oil had peaked: its Q1 oil production in 2008 fell, for the first time in a...

Bush’s neanderthal approach to climate change

by Alex Evans | Apr 17, 2008

Via Joshua Keating at ForeignPolicy.com, the news that German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel has issued a statement strongly criticising President Bush's...

Looking Forward: how do we build resilience?

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2008

Speech by David Steven to RUSI Conference on Critical National Infrastructure (16 April 2008).

Windmills to make driving cheaper – official

by David Steven | Apr 14, 2008

Yes, fresh from bringing peace to Northern Ireland and dodging snipers in Bosnia, Hillary Clinton is planning an amazing feat - she's going to make the US...

From financial services to food: liberalisation’s high water mark

by Alex Evans | Apr 12, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, Martin Wolf penned an FT op-ed proclaiming that the rescue of Bear Stearns "marked liberalisation's limit". We should remember Friday...

Islam’s commercial revolution?

by Jules Evans | Apr 10, 2008

I've started writing about Islamic finance as of a few months ago. It's a fascinating, bizarre market, fusing as it does the world of ancient religious law...

Food riots: the new case for democracy promotion

by Richard Gowan | Apr 9, 2008

I normally leave scarcity issues to the other, better-informed contributors to this blog, but this week's food riots in Haiti have brought UN peacekeepers...

The shape of things to come

by Alex Evans | Apr 8, 2008

Nouriel Roubini wins the prize for metaphor of the week: will the US recession be shaped like a V (short and shallow), a U (a bit more sustained at the...

The television torturers

by David Steven | Apr 7, 2008

Do, if you get time, read Phillippe Sands on the American 'torture trail' in May's Vanity Fair. Sands is a law professor at University College London and...

Progressive Governance: Our View

by David Steven | Apr 7, 2008

On Saturday, Alex and I presented our paper on multilateralism and global risks to heads of state at the Progressive Governance Summit, which was chaired by...

Transhumans: better, stronger, faster…

by Jules Evans | Apr 5, 2008

I posted a few weeks ago suggesting that one of the big -isms of this century would be transhumanism, or the idea that humans can 'evolve' to higher beings...

Welcome to the 51st state

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 4, 2008

British readers of Global Dashboard may think the headline is a description of Britain's relationship with the US. But you would be wrong. Kevin Rudd, the new...

Kosovo: a whole new struggle ahead?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 3, 2008

Just when things had gone quiet in Kosovo, the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague has found a way to spice matters up. It has acquitted former...

Introducing RoboDog

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 3, 2008

Straight from Boston Dynamics comes RoboDog. Don't be put off by the shot of it going up the hill, watch the bot in the car park with a human and skidding on...

What was Harriet thinking?

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 1, 2008

Following David's post on morons - Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party goes walkabout in her constituency... is the stab proof vest really...

Fool

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 1, 2008

The scramble for rice

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 31, 2008

Alex and I have recently posted on the WFP's appeal for more funds as the price of food continues to rise. Last week the price of rice began to shoot upwards...

A thousand words…

by Alex Evans | Mar 30, 2008

Green’s giggles on Radio 4

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 29, 2008

Yesterday morning Charlotte Green, the BBC newsreader collapsed in a fit of giggles on the Today Programme. Having listened to an item about the oldest known...

Mapping the internet

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 28, 2008

'Any attempt to map the internet is bound to fall frustratingly short of its true complexity, or to be so complex as to be illegible'. True - but by using the...

Half a billion dollars’ worth of system coherence, please

by Alex Evans | Mar 26, 2008

As Charlie noted earlier this week, the World Food Programme has again called for half a billion extra dollars to cope with higher food and transport costs. ...

Sovereign Wealth Funds’ embarrassment of riches

by Jules Evans | Mar 26, 2008

Record commodities prices have given countries like China, Singapore, Russia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and UAE control over trillions of dollars, which they have...

WFP Appeal

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 24, 2008

According to today's FT: The World Food Programme has launched an “extraordinary emergency appeal” to governments to donate at least $500m in the next four...

The FSB versus the Russian-Oxford alumni association

by Jules Evans | Mar 20, 2008

I was astounded to read today of the FSB's arrest of Ilya Zaslavsky, who's a manager at TNK-BP in Moscow, and also the organizer of the Russian branch of the...

Ouch

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo] As Ethan Zuckerman observes, this kind of remix culture approach to campaigning has been called...

A taste of what is to come

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 19, 2008

There have been numerous column inches in the papers about Gordon Brown's announcement today on the UK's first national security strategy. While it seems...

Commodities set to tumble – but don’t breathe a sigh of relief on food prices just yet

by Alex Evans | Mar 18, 2008

As the dollar, together with US equity and bond markets, continue an apparently inexorable slide downards, everyone's been piling into safety - and especially...

Agent Blogger

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 17, 2008

The Israeli secret service has launched a blog written by four of its agents. According to the BBC the agents discuss how they were recruited, and what sort...

A carbon reality check

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

When I was the IPPR's energy research fellow, I always loved working with Dieter Helm - a total iconoclaust who'd infuriate the green establishment by poking...

Spinning Lukashenko

by Jules Evans | Mar 17, 2008

Lord Bell, PR guru and Tory peer, has plied his dark arts for some fairly controversial characters in the past - Augusto Pinochet, Boris Berezovsky, Michael...

Not shocked but stressed

by David Steven | Mar 15, 2008

In a recent post on Global Dashboard, I wrote about resilience, drawing on thinking that Alex and I have been developing together for a new project we hope to...

Latest security threat

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2008

Last month it was Playmobil security checkpoints. Now we know what they were looking for... (hat-tip: John Robb).

New Avaaz campaign on biofuels

by Alex Evans | Mar 12, 2008

Our friends at Avaaz have a new campaign on biofuels (full text below the fold). Biofuels are already absorbing 20 per cent of the US corn crop, and that...

US national security – the budget version

by Alex Evans | Mar 12, 2008

William Lind is not what you might call bullish on the US economy ("...the American economy is in free-fall. After decades of frivolity, that economy now...

Apocalypse Capital

by Jules Evans | Mar 11, 2008

Dark times in western markets. The financial press at the moment reads like a particularly gloomy prophesy from the Middle Ages. This from Euroweek: Undreamt...

Free graves

by Richard Gowan | Mar 8, 2008

The McClatchy Company is the third biggest newspaper owner in the U.S., but most of the papers it owns tend to be of the smaller, less internationally-known...

Dollar at record low against euro; oil and gold at record highs

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

Lots of worries about a very bumpy day ahead on the US markets. Nouriel Roubini reckons that the US is already on steps 10-12 of his 12-step financial...

Arnemia: Europe’s next peacebuilding triumph?

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

As regular readers will be aware, my fellow Global Dashboard columnist Richard Gowan is never happier than when Europe is burnishing its peacebuilding...

Chad/Darfur: the predictable crisis

by Richard Gowan | Mar 5, 2008

Just after making light of incidents on Kosovo's periphery below, I've been alerted to much nastier events on the Chad/Darfur border. An French EU soldier...

FCO 2020 ‘A different way of doing things’

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 5, 2008

I am sure Alex and/or David will post something about Miliband's speech to the FCO leadership conference which happened yesterday. My advice - don't get too...

The MEPs and Iraq: strong on details, weak on strategy?

by Richard Gowan | Mar 4, 2008

Last week, I noted that the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee had come out with a new report calling for the EU to get serious about Iraq's...

Free Kosovo, Week 2: soft landing = soft partition

by Richard Gowan | Mar 3, 2008

It's all gone a bit quiet on the Kosovo front. The violence of week one has given way to... not very much. When the most exciting piece of news is that...

Food prices: where to get briefed

by Alex Evans | Mar 2, 2008

[Last updated: May 30th] Now that food prices are moving fast up the agenda, you might want to check out some of the wider briefing available on the web. ...

More pictures from Abu Ghraib

by David Steven | Feb 29, 2008

Wired has a series of photos from Philip Zimbardo's presentation at TED 2008: Zimbardo devised and ran the famous Stanford prison experiment. His new book,...

Reforming Islam?

by Mark Weston | Feb 28, 2008

News that Turkey is to publish a modernised revision of the Hadith - the traditions that govern the practice of Islam - will come as a shock to those Turks...

The numbers that really matter for McCain

by Richard Gowan | Feb 28, 2008

This is now nearly a day late, but I can't resist juxtaposing two stories from Tuesday's New York Times - stories which oddly enough, the NYT ran entirely...

The last post: The State Department sucks

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 27, 2008

In late 2006 Manuel Miranda accepted an offer by the Department of State to join their diplomatic mission in Baghdad as a Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Prime...

Pakistan cripples YouTube

by David Steven | Feb 26, 2008

The world is beginning to resemble a low-budget television comedy: A Pakistan ISP that was ordered to censor YouTube accidentally managed to take down the...

Global disease hotspots

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 25, 2008

Having analyzed 335 emerging diseases from 1940 to 2004, scientists have converted the results into maps correlated with human population density, population...

Be late to kill Obama

by David Steven | Feb 23, 2008

Yesterday, I blogged on Dallas's bid to stage another high profile political assassination. Now the Secret Service has tried to explain its decision to let...

Corruption in Kenya? Never mind, said DfID

by Mark Weston | Feb 22, 2008

Reading Alex's recent post on Kenya, I was reminded of a snippet I put on my own mini- and not-very-productive blog exactly two years ago today (excuse the...

The cunning of the Kosovo Serbs

by Richard Gowan | Feb 21, 2008

So, Kosovo is burning - but only a little. While protestors in Belgrade grab headlines by attacking the U.S. embassy, a rather more subtle game seems to be...

Oil now properly above $100 for first time

by Alex Evans | Feb 21, 2008

Yeah, yeah, it touched the $100 mark on January 2, but that was just a trader paying over the odds and making a loss in the process so that he had "the right...

Henry Kissinger: the new Alex Evans

by Richard Gowan | Feb 20, 2008

Readers of this blog will, almost by definition, be well aware of the thoughts of Mr. Alex Evans on global risks, resilience, the new dynamics of...

John Bolton, funny ha ha

by Richard Gowan | Feb 18, 2008

I've spent some of my President's Day holiday hammering out a review of Surrender is Not an Option, John Bolton's scaborous memoir of his tenure at the UN....

Oh the transhumanity!

by Jules Evans | Feb 17, 2008

The best way to understand the present is to read science fiction. Only sci-fi writers are dreaming far enough into the future to tell us where we are in the...

Kenya in a nutshell, from John Githongo

by Alex Evans | Feb 15, 2008

John Githingo - Kenya's crusading anti-corruption champion, who was permanent secretary in charge of governance and ethics until he had to flee to the UK in...

Whether waterboarding is torture “depends on the amount of water” – US Justice Dept

by Alex Evans | Feb 15, 2008

Everything else is early this spring - so maybe April Fool's Day too? Er no, they're serious. TPM Muckracker has more: The CIA's use of waterboarding was...

Basra. Back in the headlines

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 15, 2008

The current situation in Basra is extremely worrying. Consider the following: Local authorities in the city advise all civilians to stay at home after sunset....

Strategic myopia

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 13, 2008

Last November Alex posted about Brown’s woes inside the No.10 bunker. Sue Cameron is back today with more insights into life in Downing St. The trouble with...

Ashdown and the art of strategy

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 13, 2008

Paddy Ashdown is in trenchant mood in today's FT. With fighting in Afghanistan now entering its seventh year, no agreed international strategy, public support...

Eye on the world

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 11, 2008

I've just come across Maplecroft maps. If you have a few minutes to spare, go and have a look. More than 30 different issues are already available. Some of...

US Director of National Intelligence: terrorism “not at all” the greatest threat faced by US

by Alex Evans | Feb 11, 2008

Lawrence Wright has an excellent interview with US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in the last edition of the New Yorker. Read the whole...

Police clash with lawyers – the video

by David Steven | Feb 10, 2008

Here's some video I took of yesterday's violent confrontation between Pakistan's police and its lawyers - a clash in which there were 12 arrests and 30...

Police confront Pakistan’s lawyers

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2008

As I write, police here in Islamabad are just finishing breaking up a demonstration by Pakistan's lawyers. The lawyers had been holding a convention and were...

Open source disaster co-ordination

by Alex Evans | Feb 8, 2008

Via John Robb, a great story about how a local radio station in California became an open source co-ordination hub for disaster response during the...

Too much globalisation – or not enough?

by Alex Evans | Feb 7, 2008

The BBC and Globescan have just published another of their epic, 34 country opinion polls, this time looking at perceptions of economic globalisation. They...

AQ is on the run…

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 7, 2008

Gary Anderson from George Washington University has a good piece in the Washington Post. Al-Qaeda is losing. As he argues: The conventional wisdom is that...

A fifth cable cut?

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 6, 2008

The undersea cable conspiracy continues. A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These...

Outside the Super Tuesday spotlight…

by Alex Evans | Feb 6, 2008

In Kenya the death toll now tops 1,000, according to the International Red Cross (quoted in a CBC story yesterday). The number of internally displaced people...

On statebuilding and the English Channel

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2008

A while since we've heard from William Lind, who's cheerfully posting away on DNI's snazzy new blog. On sparkling form, he's currently offering an...

The IMF’s structural adjustment

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2008

The excellent Bretton Woods Project has news of happenings at the International Monetary Fund: it's having to lay off 15 per cent of its staff. Here's more:...

When disaster strikes

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 3, 2008

The excellent FT Magazine has a review by Michael Skapinker of recent books on disaster and resilience. I don’t agree with the selection of books on offer (I...

European security in 2020 – straw poll of policymakers and research experts

by Alex Evans | Feb 2, 2008

I did a straw poll this morning of the 70 or so participants at Wilton Park's European Security in 2020 conference (mainly policymakers from foreign and...

A license to be awkward

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 1, 2008

Some of the presentations today have been excellent but have highlighted the desperate need for alternative approaches to some of the problems governments are...

Presentation by (CIA) factbook

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 1, 2008

A common theme that has run throughout all presentations at Wilton Park is the reliance on stats. Presentations have been an orgy of numbers and percentages...

The UN Under Secretary-General your mother warned you about

by Alex Evans | Feb 1, 2008

Sha Zukang, the smooth-dressing, tough-talking USG in charge of the dedicated men and women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, is in The...

EU: bring ’em on!

by Richard Gowan | Feb 1, 2008

I'll have more to say on this soon, but the fact that the French EU deployment in Chad seems to be coinciding with, maybe even stimulating, an increase...

Winning on wicked issues

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 30, 2008

I've got an article in this month's World Today, Chatham House's monthly magazine. It's about the UK's approach to national security. Here's a taster: British...

Police reform in Fallujah

by Alex Evans | Jan 30, 2008

Michael Totten's still pottering around Iraq and the Middle East, blogging as he goes. This week he's in Fallujah, looking at police reform: I sat down with...

“Like Benjamin Barber after a three-day coke bender in Macao”

by Alex Evans | Jan 30, 2008

Dan Drezner wins the prize for catty swipe of the week as he takes no prisoners on Parag Khanna's new book The Second World: Over at Duck of Minerva, Daniel...

Terror focus ‘hits security work’

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 30, 2008

Margaret Beckett has become the new chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, succeeding Paul Murphy who got moved in last week's reshuffle....

Strange Maps

by Alex Evans | Jan 29, 2008

Strange Maps is fast becoming my favourite website: it's the only blog I've ever come across where I've scrolled all the way back to the beginning to read...

Blogging live…

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 29, 2008

I'm at a conference in The Hague on National Safety and Security. The conference has just been opened by Guusje ter Horst, the Minister of the Interior &...

Honour among spooks

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2008

Last December, one book in particular seemed to crop up on every newspaper or magazine's list of books of the year: Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: The History...

Karzai’s divide and rule strategy

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 27, 2008

Last week saw Dan Korski’s excellent new paper on Afghanistan – and, following the announcement of Paddy Ashdown's nomination to be the UN's Envoy to the...

Walls come tumbling down

by Mark Weston | Jan 26, 2008

The humble low-tech wall continues to muscle its way stubbornly onto 21st century newsreels, with Palestinians tearing down the barrier that separates Gaza...

Rehabilitating McCarthy

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2008

Yesterday, in the context of writing about the government's new Counter Terrorism Bill, I was discussing why MCarthyism had never made real inroads in the UK...

Ban Ki-Moon: the scarcity SG

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2008

One I missed from December last year: A struggle by nations to secure sources of clean water will be “potent fuel” for war, the first Asia-Pacific Water...

Quantum of Solace

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 24, 2008

The next James Bond film is to be called Quantum of Solace. The name is taken from one of a collection of short stories published by 007 creator Ian Fleming...

Introducing the Yes Men

by Alex Evans | Jan 24, 2008

A few weeks back, I was wondering aloud what had happened to the anti-globalisation movement. By way of a partial answer to that question: some of them...

Can you see a black swan? OA can.

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 23, 2008

Alex has blogged before about black swans and the human assumption that the unexpected can be predicted by extrapolating from variations in statistics based...

US energy security: an unexpected casualty of US climate policy

by Alex Evans | Jan 23, 2008

US unwillingness to sign up to binding climate standards, either domestic or international, is leading to a strange unintended consequence: the extent of...

How William Hague got David Miliband in stitches

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2008

Never mind the fact that, as Adam Boulton says, the Conservatives' Europe policy is a muddle. Hague's speech in the Commons chamber yesterday - riffing on...

Al Gore survivors’ group

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2008

When David and I wrote our Guardian piece in defence of climate sceptics a couple of weeks ago, we included a story from Stephen Sackur, host of BBC's Hard...

Gordon’s vision for multilateral reform (again)

by Alex Evans | Jan 21, 2008

Adam Boulton at Sky News, travelling with the PM in India, gives us a heads-up of another speech on multilateral reform: The Prime Minister believes that the...

Fight! Fight!

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2008

So now we're in a breakout group on how democracies should fight terrorism. Quite a panel they've assembled: Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty, David Omand who...

Obama outlines vision for humanity, document management

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2008

Matt Yglesias finds Barack Obama charming voters in Nevada: “Because I’m like, an ordinary person, I thought that they meant what’s your biggest weakness?”...

Live blogging Fabian foreign policy conference tomorrow

by Alex Evans | Jan 18, 2008

We're off to tomorrow's Fabian Society conference on foreign policy, and will be live blogging it throughout the day. Some tickets still available,...

Hillary’s inner Tracy Flick

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2008

From Slate, this delicious mash-up (hat-tip - Dan Drezner)

How the Pentagon planted a false story on Straits of Hormuz

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2008

Readers will recall the story on January 9 of Iranian speedboats swarming around US ships, with one of them apparently saying over the radio that, "you will...

The shipping sector’s carbon footprint

by Alex Evans | Jan 15, 2008

A coalition of international shipping companies have banded together to create a 'Container Shipping Information Service' to counter what they worry may be an...

Simulating urban panics

by Alex Evans | Jan 15, 2008

Regular readers will know that we do love a good old-fashioned urban panic here at Global Dashboard. So imagine the delight here when Bruce Schneier noted...

Joining the dots on water scarcity

by Alex Evans | Jan 12, 2008

Tom Engelhardt at The Nation has a good question: Why is it that, except at relatively obscure websites, you can hardly find a mainstream piece that mentions...

Possibly the best television show I’ve ever seen

by Alex Evans | Jan 11, 2008

David's going to laugh when he reads this post: he lent me season 1 of The Wire three days ago, and already I find myself compelled to write a post explaining...

Bastards 1 – Ron Paul 0

by David Steven | Jan 9, 2008

While you're all focused on the important political issues - Clinton/Obama; McCain/Huckabee/Romney - I have continued to enjoy the Ron Paul insurgency, which...

Is poverty really falling?

by Alex Evans | Jan 9, 2008

Lawrence Haddad, the thoughtful Director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, has published a list of eight events and trends...

What happened to the anti-globalisation movement?

by Alex Evans | Jan 8, 2008

Amid the general surfeit of apocalyptic language being used about the solvency crunch, climate change, oil prices and various other dark sides of...

The fall of LTCM redux

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2008

Amidst the general hedge fund-collapsery all around us, now's the time to refresh your memory about the unhappy case of Long Term Capital Management, which...

Japan’s G8

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2008

This year's G8 summit is brought to you by Japan, who as David Pilling reports have decided to hold the event in a uniquely Japanese-sounding venue: the...

Martin Wolf: prospects for civilisation in a zero sum economy

by Alex Evans | Jan 3, 2008

Martin Wolf opines in his blog that his last column of the year is possibly also his most important of the year. He's right. His subject: prospects for...

Festive cheer from the IEA

by Alex Evans | Jan 2, 2008

No ho-ho-hos from the International Energy Agency this Christmas. They chose December 27th, of all days, to announce that, er, their reserves data is - how to...

Climate Change: The State of the Debate

by Alex Evans | Dec 30, 2007

Report by Alex Evans and David Steven, written for the London Accord (December 2007).

Food security: presentation to PM’s Strategy Unit

by Alex Evans | Dec 20, 2007

As promised a few weeks back, here's the presentation on rising food prices that I gave the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit a couple of weeks ago. The...

Santa Claus is Chinese

by Alex Evans | Dec 19, 2007

This was the arresting discovery made last year by Lester Brown at the Earth Policy Institute. How could he tell? I know Santa Claus is Chinese because each...

Miaow

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2007

I love it when FT columnists get all catty. Willem Buiter did a blog post about climate change, asking what's the ideal temperature for the atmosphere, and...

Top down or bottom up resilience? Don’t ask Nick Clegg

by Alex Evans | Dec 10, 2007

Earlier today I went along to the launch of Demos's new report, National Security for the 21st Century, by Charlie Edwards. It's an excellent pamphlet and...

Which qualities matter in a PM?

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2007

(Source: PoliticalBetting.com. Based on a poll for the Political Studies Association of 300 politics academics in UK universities.) Oh, you thought...

Climate change as a religious issue

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2007

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) have just launched a major three year programme to work with...

“LIFE IS TOUGH. IT’S TOUGHER IF YOU ARE STUPID”.

by Richard Gowan | Dec 6, 2007

Want to get ahead in peacekeeping? Here's some guidance from a very senior representative in one of the UN's larger missions, who circulated these 9 rules to...

The perfect terrorist attack

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007

Here's one I missed first time around: security expert Bruce Schneier held a contest on his blog back in April last year. It went like this: For a while now,...

What does China want from a post-Kyoto climate agreement?

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007

That's the question I ask in an article published today on ChinaDialogue, a bilingual English / Chinese environment website. I've already blogged here about...

World food consumption has outstripped supply for last five years

by Alex Evans | Dec 4, 2007

So says International Food Policy Research Institute head Joachim von Braun in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today: "Demand is running away. The...

Australian Stern Review tilting towards Contraction & Convergence

by Alex Evans | Dec 3, 2007

More interesting post-election goings on in Australia. Since April, a Stern-esque Review of climate change has been underway, headed by Professor Ross...

Iraqi refugee return = return to violence?

by Richard Gowan | Dec 1, 2007

For much of this year, Washington analysts have been extremely worried about what to do about the vast numbers of refugees flowing out of Iraq (about 2...

Moqtada al-Sadr: why so quiet?

by Alex Evans | Dec 1, 2007

William Lind notes this week that the reason parts of Iraq have quietened down isn't only because al-Qaeda have managed to alienate their own base through...

Democracy for the few

by Mark Weston | Nov 29, 2007

Just as I was wondering whether Turkey's Kurds still had reasons to be grumpy, up pops the country's Supreme Court to ban the leading Kurdish political party,...

Hi… I’m a progressive.

by Alex Evans | Nov 29, 2007

Here's an amusing Center for American Progress rip-off of the Mac advert to brighten up your morning.

Lock the children up too

by David Steven | Nov 28, 2007

Head over to the BBC website for some eye-opening commentary from (mostly Muslim) readers on the British teacher who has been arrested in Sudan for allowing...

“Cancelling the mission is an option”

by Richard Gowan | Nov 25, 2007

Time for an update on the peacekeeping shortage, which gets a lot of well-deserved attention in the current edition of The Economist. Oh that this could have...

Israeli paper names Muslim as world’s best leader shock

by Mark Weston | Nov 22, 2007

OK it's Haaretz, a left-wing rag, but hey. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdo?an, they argue, is the pick of today's rum bunch of global leaders. Without him,...

Australia to return to the Kyoto fold?

by Alex Evans | Nov 21, 2007

What a coup it would be for the UN - and Ban Ki-Moon in particular - if one of Kyoto's prodigal sons returned to the fold ahead of the Bali climate summit...

The UN tells it like it is (Part II)

by Richard Gowan | Nov 17, 2007

It continues to be Brutal Honesty Month from the UN. Since I noted here that Ban Ki-moon and his team had started to tell harsh truths about the dangers of...

Brown back in the bunker?

by Alex Evans | Nov 16, 2007

Lots of gossip in Whitehall about Sue Cameron's piece in the FT the day before yesterday: Oh dear! No one in Whitehall expected Gordon Brown to revert to type...

The UN: learning to say no?

by Richard Gowan | Nov 15, 2007

There seems to be a small revolt in progress at the UN over the ever-growing demand for its peacekeepers. There are currently more than 100,000 of them around...

New top spook is Grateful Dead fan

by Alex Evans | Nov 15, 2007

Benedict Brogan brings us this newsflash from his blog at DailyMail.co.uk: Downing Street has announced that Alex Allan is to become the new chairman of the...

Operation Wash Lunatics

by Mark Weston | Nov 15, 2007

Social capital, Sierra Leone style: Youths along Sani Abacha Street on Saturday 10th of November, embarked on what they termed ‘Operation wash lunatics’, a...

Eat your heart out, David

by Alex Evans | Nov 13, 2007

David Miliband can say what he likes about a 'new diplomacy', but he's got a long way to go to catch up with his German and French counterparts, Frank-Walter...

Counter-terrorism versus public diplomacy

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2007

Via Bruce Schneier's security blog, this sad tale from the US: The train is a half hour west of New Haven when the conductor, having finished her original...

Europe’s strategic disarray on Russia

by Alex Evans | Nov 7, 2007

ECFR has a new report out today with a provocative message: "Despite its economic strength and military might, the European Union has begun to behave as if it...

“What am I supposed to do, drive a Honda?”

by Alex Evans | Nov 7, 2007

From BloggingStocks.com, the news that Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa is considering a Congressional investigation into an intriguing tax break: "whether...

Standing by Musharraf

by David Steven | Nov 6, 2007

In Slate, Lee Smith paints the Pakistani army as the last bulwark against the Islamic hordes: The Pakistani military, as is the case with most armed forces in...

Polling Pakistanis

by David Steven | Nov 4, 2007

Reacting to the crisis in Pakistan, Ali Eteraz, over at the Guardian, argues that only opportunistic opposition politicians, a handful of lawyers, and...

Hermes: god of public diplomacy

by Alex Evans | Nov 3, 2007

I'm having a lazy Saturday morning in my kitchen, and pottering through Erik Davis's gloriously out-there tome Techgnosis (it says on the blurb: "writer and...

Bye bye Karen

by David Steven | Nov 1, 2007

NYT: Karen P. Hughes, one of the few remaining members of President Bush’s circle of longtime Texas advisers, said today that she will return to private life,...

New form of government discovered

by David Steven | Oct 31, 2007

From the Onion: Political scientists at the Cato Institute announced Monday that they have inadvertently synthesized a previously theoretical form of...

The Post-Kyoto Bidding War: bringing developing countries into the fold

by Alex Evans | Oct 30, 2007

New paper by Alex Evans on climate policy after 2012 from the Center on International Cooperation (October 2007).

Climate sensitivity – must-read paper in Science

by Alex Evans | Oct 28, 2007

Two scientists, Gerard Roe and Marcia Baker, have a paper in Science this week which is a must read for everyone in climate policy. Here's the abstract:...

California fires being fought by prison inmates on a dollar an hour

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2007

Reading through today's New York Times coverage of the fires in California that have caused half a million people (and counting) to flee, I came across this...

A Creationist President?

by David Steven | Oct 23, 2007

My thoughts on evolution, the US and its presidential campaign on the Telegraph blog, Brassneck.

re: Limbaugh 10, Reid 1

by David Steven | Oct 21, 2007

Here's the graphic from the auction Alex blogged about earlier - not just a lot of money, but over 100,000 people popped by to have a look...

Amount of CO2 soaked up by oceans halves

by Alex Evans | Oct 20, 2007

The BBC's Roger Harrabin has an alarming story this morning, picking up on a new 10 year long study from the University of East Anglia. The headline: the...

Europe’s posture on global climate policy

by Alex Evans | Oct 19, 2007

With Angela Merkel's advocacy of a per capita based approach to future global climate policy, and now (as David reported earlier this week), the prospect of...

Quote of the day/week/month

by David Steven | Oct 17, 2007

Bruno Latour: “Science is certainty; research is uncertainty. Science is supposed to be cold, straight and detached; research is warm, involving and risky....

True, I fear

by David Steven | Oct 15, 2007

Gary Rosen: Democrats [are] in an awkward position. If they were to follow the lead of the Nobel committee, which commended Gore for recognizing “the measures...

RIP David Muffett

by David Steven | Oct 14, 2007

His Telegraph obit: A huge, lumbering bear of a man, 6ft 2in tall and nearly as broad, with a booming voice and bristling moustache, Muffett looked rather...

re: The bad boys of Blackwater

by David Steven | Oct 12, 2007

David Kilcullen on how to run a successful counter-insurgency: In counterinsurgency, the initiative is everything. If the enemy is reacting to you, you...

A pep talk to Bush on the Middle East

by Alex Evans | Oct 12, 2007

While we're on the subject of US policy on the Middle East, take a look at the letter to Bush and Condi in the new edition of the NYRB from Brent Scowcroft,...

A fond farewell to Nigel Sheinwald

by Alex Evans | Oct 11, 2007

The new edition of Prospect shows a soft spot for Sir Nigel Sheinwald, erstwhile foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair and now arriving in the US as our man in...

Tracking trends on Google

by Alex Evans | Oct 10, 2007

Google has a superb new toy called Google Trends, which allows you to track how often a particular term is searched for on Google (here its .co.uk variant),...

Triangulation

by David Steven | Oct 8, 2007

Neal Stephenson: "Speaking as an observer who has many friends with libertarian instincts, I would point out that terrorism is a much more formidable opponent...

“We’re making fools of ourselves in the eyes of the world”

by David Steven | Oct 5, 2007

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is back in the news. Round-the-clock security keeps the Somalia-born Dutch citizen from meeting the same fate as her erstwhile collaborator,...

Iran, Paul updates

by David Steven | Oct 3, 2007

Like everyone else, we've been wondering whether war between the US and Iran is coming (see here and here). Scott Horton says EU diplomats believe it's only a...

How presentations should be done

by Alex Evans | Oct 2, 2007

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w] Here's the most engaging presentation on international development I think I've ever seen. You'll laugh...

Alternative CSR: the Foreign & Commonwealth Office

by David Steven | Sep 30, 2007

Chapter on the FCO from Manchester University Press’s Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review, by David Steven (September 2007).

Condoms cause AIDS

by David Steven | Sep 26, 2007

Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, the head of Mozambique's Catholic Church, talking to the BBC: "Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries...

Defending the true faith

by David Steven | Sep 25, 2007

On National Review, Jay Richards continues his push back against Evangelical Christians who support action on climate change. His advice? Stop being gulled by...

What they think, not what we want them to think

by David Steven | Sep 21, 2007

Make sure you read this article by Marc Lynch (who runs the excellent blog, Abu Aardvark). A teaser: Much of the conventional wisdom about the Sunni areas now...

Not a parody – sadly

by David Steven | Sep 20, 2007

The leader of the Western world, yesterday: Asked what traits people should look for in choosing a President, George Bush responded immediately: “Be...

What’s the story?

by David Steven | Sep 19, 2007

Eric Alterman on the role of narrative in election campaigns: For the people who cover them for a living, elections are not about issues or evidence or even...

Mission (re)accomplished

by David Steven | Sep 17, 2007

It's hard to underestimate how buoyed Republicans have been by Petraeus's testimony last week. They're pleased by his reports of progress in Iraq, of course,...

Meanwhile, back in the real economy…

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2007

The FT notes that: Oil touched an all-time high at the end of last week, reaching $80.36 at one point, as traders reacted to last week's OPEC decision to...

A global climate control OS

by David Steven | Sep 13, 2007

Discussing climate change with a group of campaigners and activists yesterday, I was struck by the fact that, despite all the recent attention for the issue,...

“Callous authorities lay mighty siege”

by David Steven | Sep 11, 2007

Yesterday was a day of high political action here in Islamabad. Nawaz Sharif is now under virtual house arrest in Saudi Arabia, but at least he has a lavish...

Going, going, gone (maybe)

by David Steven | Sep 10, 2007

So Nawaz Sharif is being deported... He was taken from the airport by helicopter and, for a time, it looked like he would be arrested and kept in Pakistan....

Bin Laden’s new video

by Alex Evans | Sep 9, 2007

Osama's new video is worth watching / reading in full. He's been reading Chomsky, and it shows. Multinational corporations figure heavily, and there's even...

Piss Power.

by David Steven | Sep 5, 2007

While we're talking about resilience, what could be more useful - when the worst happens - than a battery that can be recharged by peeing into it... Dubbed...

US policy on Iran (cont.)

by Alex Evans | Sep 4, 2007

Earlier this week, I published a post quoting my CIC colleague Barney Rubin, who's picking up noise about Cheney's office calling on allies to start rolling...

Coming soon to a high street near you

by Alex Evans | Sep 4, 2007

(Hat-tip: Crooks and Liars)

The epistemic tribes of climate change

by Alex Evans | Sep 3, 2007

John Llewelyn, a senior economic policy adviser at Lehman Brothers, had a great piece in the Observer yesterday identifying five distinct categories of belief...

Guardian: food security perfect storm “appears to be gathering force”

by Alex Evans | Aug 29, 2007

The Guardian today has a lengthy piece by John Vidal on "the looming food crisis": A "perfect storm" of ecological and social factors appears to be gathering...

Chertoff for Attorney General

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2007

Well, that's the rumour doing the round on various American blogs today, anyway. Here's the gossip at US News: The buzz among top Bushies is that beleaguered...

Time for more upbeat historical memes

by Alex Evans | Aug 24, 2007

Another week, another comparison between the US and the last days of Rome. This week, the man full of woe about military overstretch and fiscal implosion is...

Hearts and minds… and souls?

by Alex Evans | Aug 23, 2007

From the Los Angeles Times this morning: the news that the US Department of Defense was (until halted by an investigation by the Military Religious Freedom...

Cheney in 1994: toppling Saddam Hussein in 1991 would have led to “quagmire”

by Alex Evans | Aug 21, 2007

Someone's found interview footage of Dick Cheney being interviewed in 1994 about the 1991 Gulf War. Should US or UN forces have pressed on to occupy Baghdad,...

Believe everything you read in the papers.

by David Steven | Aug 16, 2007

Or not. According to research into news reports in ten US papers: About 69 percent of the 3,600 news sources [eg people named in an article] completed the...

Afghanistan: glass half empty or half full?

by Alex Evans | Aug 15, 2007

My CIC colleague Barney Rubin has an excellent post this morning comparing the recent New York Times and Wall Street Journal [subscribers only, annoyingly]...

Christian China, takes on Islam, Oh Good.

by David Steven | Aug 10, 2007

Here's a purported future trend that has some on the right salivating - a rapidly Christianizing China acting as a natural counterweight to Islam. According...

Kill Bill: Vol 2.

by David Steven | Aug 9, 2007

Pro-Dem muckraker, Dan Moldea, warns that a group of 'former intelligence officers' is preparing a new anti-Clinton offensive. The strategy: kill Bill to...

Missive from a minion

by David Steven | Aug 1, 2007

A breathtakingly thuggish op-ed on the 'special relationship' between the UK and US in the FT today. The author? John Bolton, who these days is a senior...

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you…

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2007

Gideon Rachman's amusing piece in the FT today about conspiracy theories brings to mind the little visited but nevertheless glorious section of the US State...

Brittle power

by David Steven | Jul 31, 2007

The Rocky Mountain Institute's Amory Lovins first described the idea of 'brittle power' in a book published twenty-five years (!) ago. Modern energy systems,...

That Gonzales testimony fiasco in full…

by Alex Evans | Jul 26, 2007

Readers will already be aware from news coverage that US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales's testimony at the Senate didn't go so well earlier this week...

Jules on CBT in Prospect

by Alex Evans | Jul 25, 2007

Global Dashboard contributor (and my brother) Jules Evans has a superb piece in this month's Prospect magazine about Stoicism and cognitive behaviour therapy....

Should UNMOVIC have been wound up?

by Alex Evans | Jul 23, 2007

The UN Security Council decided on Friday to terminate the mandate of UNMOVIC - the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, itself the...

Armoured suburbs

by Alex Evans | Jul 12, 2007

Regular readers of GlobalDashboard know that we're big fans of fourth generation warfare theorists William Lind and John Robb. Both writers have warned...

Reasons to be cheerful

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2007

Catching up with recent posts on John Robb's Global Guerrillas blog, I find a small ray of sunshine for a bright summer's day: We've all heard the term...

Towards High Reliability Organisations for foreign policy?

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2007

George Packer at the New Yorker has a terrific post asking why it is that bad news rarely seems to permeate to the top of organisations, and why those at the...

Flying blind…

by David Steven | Jun 28, 2007

There was a paradox at the heart of this week’s conference on climate change. When describing the scale of the problem, speakers gave very strong messages....

Fair shares

by David Steven | Jun 26, 2007

In his closing key note speech at Chatham House, Malik Amin Aslam Khan, Pakistan’s environment minister, argued that ‘we are fast running out of time for...

The global carbon committee…

by David Steven | Jun 26, 2007

In the post below, Alex envisages an implausibly high stabilization target (1000ppm say), followed by a dramatic shock (one that, presumably, everyone needs...

Nuclear waste vs carbon capture

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2007

Day 2. Danish Foreign Secretary Per Stig Møller explains that Denmark is not investing in nuclear power stations because there’s no long term solution to the...

The little we know about leadership

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

We’re talking about leadership… John Llewellyn, Senior Economic Policy Adviser for Lehman Brothers, makes the case for economic incentives. Exhortation, he...

Cuba claims Miami.

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

Cleo Paskal switched focus from the problems that climate change will exacerbate to the unfamiliar problems it could cause. What if a small, low lying country...

Petrol on the fire.

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup – Chief of the UK’s Defence Staff – opens the conference, pitching for a frontline role for the military in the response...

Finally!

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

It's been many years coming, but there are signs that, at last, George Bush is getting serious about climate change: In a nationally televised address...

Bunkered

by David Steven | Jun 3, 2007

Over at Wired, Sharon Weinberger (a one-time public diplomacy temp in the US Embassy in Doha) reflects on the ever-growing walls around American embassies:...

The EU’s clueless central Asia policy

by Jules Evans | May 17, 2007

Last week, the Kremlin signed a deal with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that apparently stymies the mooted Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, which the EU was hoping...

UN not joined up but still being asked to do difficult things

by Elizabeth Sellwood | May 10, 2007

Noah Pollak's National Review article, posted on Michael Totten's blog today, reminds me of our internal debates during the Lebanon war last summer (when I...

Pentagon troop survey: torture widely condoned

by Alex Evans | May 5, 2007

A new survey undertaken by the US Defense Department's Mental Health Advisory Team, which interviewed over 1,700 soldiers and marines deployed in Iraq...

Essential Middle East blogging

by Alex Evans | May 3, 2007

If you haven't already made the acquaitance of Michael Totten, then you should. Totten is an itinerant blogger who seems to wander around the Middle East on...

Young Russia’s Choice

by Jules Evans | May 2, 2007

The generation of Russians who are now in their twenties have a choice, a really defining choice for their country. They can either go up the cul-de-sac of...

Van Creveld’s lessons of Northern Ireland

by Alex Evans | Apr 29, 2007

Martin van Creveld, author of the outstanding The Transformation of War, has a new book out. Below, William Lind extracts from it van Creveld's key lessons on...

Horrendous quote of the week

by Jules Evans | Apr 27, 2007

"We have given the Iraqi people the chance to have freedom, to have their own country. It is up to them to decide whether or not they're going to take that...

Yeltsin’s wake

by Jules Evans | Apr 24, 2007

This evening I went to see Yeltsin's body lying in state at the Church of the Saviour in central Moscow. At first, I thought there wasn't any queue at all,...

Schools not bombs?

by Elizabeth Sellwood | Apr 24, 2007

Yesterday, in Jerusalem, the acting President of Israel Dalia Itzik offered some advice to Israel’s enemies on the 59th anniversary of Israel’s independence:...

Putin bans his government from going to London forum

by Jules Evans | Apr 20, 2007

The latest news here in Moscow is that Putin has decreed the country's elite should not go to this weekend's Russian Economic Forum in London. The Forum...

Muddy boots in the information battlespace

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2007

The winner of the US Army Information Operations Proponent (USIOP) essay-writing competition, Elizabeth Robbins, explores [pdf] the rise of the Milblogger and...

Democracy, Russian-style

by Jules Evans | Apr 14, 2007

As I write this, insipid pop music is being blared out from speakers about 100 metres from my flat. There’s a big stage being constructed there, with...

Resign!

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2007

It looks pretty bad for Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. The Guardian reports the reaction yesterday when he tried to address Bank staff in their...

Asking for it

by David Steven | Apr 3, 2007

Among the responses to the Iranian hostage crisis, this one: it serves the Brits right. In the LA Times, Niall Ferguson puts it all down to Tony Blair's...

Being Influenced by Obama

by David Steven | Mar 31, 2007

Harvard Law professor, Charles J. Ogletree Jr. on his former protege: “He can enter your space and organize your thoughts without necessarily revealing his...

Where next for NGOs?

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2007

What's a single issue NGO to do in a multi-issue world? It's no easy balancing act. On one hand, funding departments argue that members want to see them...

Dividing the Clans

by David Steven | Mar 29, 2007

Not sure why the decision has been taken to split the Home Office into two. Perhaps it's about disaggregating incompatible personality types - dividing the...

Indonesian mud volcano: the showdown

by Alex Evans | Mar 28, 2007

Since June last year, a Javanese village has been subjected to a belching mud volcano producing 130,000 cubic metres of toxic mud a day. Thought to have been...

Monbiot on biofuels

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2007

George Monbiot has a piece in today's Guardian calling for a five year ban on biofuels. He writes: In 2004 I warned, on these pages, that biofuels would set...

Vandergriff: 4th generation leadership (2)

by David Steven | Mar 22, 2007

Retired US army major, Donald Vandergiff (see last week's post), asks "seven key questions that need to be answered in order to solve the problem of how to...

Conversations as foreign policy

by Alex Evans | Mar 20, 2007

Another weekly slice of excellence from the great William Lind. This week: why "good decisions are far more often a product of informal conversations than of...

New insurgent tactics

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2007

ForeignPolicy.com has a short but interesting piece on new insurgent tactics - downing helicopters, chlorine bombs, direct attacks on US bases and explosively...

Squeezing diplomacy

by David Steven | Mar 18, 2007

The US is still sucking resources out of its soft power programme...

Security in Iraq…

by David Steven | Mar 18, 2007

50% of Iraqis now say that they have personally experienced the kidnapping or murder of a family member, friend or colleague in the past three years. In...

Institute for the Future on cooperation

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2007

The Palo Alto-based Institute for the Future have an outstanding report entitled The Literacy of Cooperation which sets out some cutting edge thinking on...

World Orders…

by David Steven | Mar 16, 2007

Two curious - and contrasting - articles on the international system. In Foreign Affairs, Daniel Drezner argues that - despite outward signs of unilateralism...

Justice is missing the boat

by Sam Muller | Jan 4, 2021

The year 2020 will go down in history as the year when much changed. One thing seems to remain constant: the fact that the justice sector is slow to change. As a consequence, it seems to be missing a rather big boat.

Justice for children in detention during the pandemic

by Cédric Foussard, Angela Vigil | Oct 22, 2020

It is increasingly clear that the direct and indirect impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic are not borne equally, hitting the most marginalised and vulnerable the hardest. While the impact of COVID-19 on prison populations has garnered some international attention, this attention has mainly focused on adults. Children in detention have been largely overlooked, despite being disproportionally vulnerable to health risks arising due to the conditions in which so many are being held.

Justice for All and the Economic Crisis

by David Steven | Jul 9, 2020

As COVID-19 plunges the world into its most serious economic crisis for a century, a surge in demand for justice is inevitable. The impact on justice systems will be enormous. Already battered by the pandemic and by the strains of designing and regulating lockdowns, they should expect millions more people to need help with evictions and job losses…

A Blueprint for Black Lives Matter in the Development Sector

by Hannah Ryder | Jun 29, 2020

Racism is rooted in a combination of prejudice and power, and action to combat racism must address both. The development sector is plagued by problems on both dimensions, but the Black Lives Matter moment offers an opportunity to change course. So far, however, development organisations have focused more on prejudice rather than confronting inequalities of power. To do more, we should adapt models from elsewhere to our own challenge. So here’s my four-point blueprint for Black Lives Matter in the development sector.

Freedom and Justice Week Magazine

by Rachel Locke, David Steven | Jun 24, 2020

Read our collection of articles from Freedom and Justice Week in an easy to browse flipbook.

The Western Spring

by Neda Shaheen, Nikita Shukla | Jun 22, 2020

Over the last few weeks, The Western Spring unmasked how little Black lives matter. In the US, while Black people make up only 13% of the US population, they are three times more likely to be killed by police and make up over a quarter of deaths by COVID-19. As young leaders, we recognise that in order to succeed in our work while living in a country that continues to reinforce systematic racism and white supremacy, we must continue to challenge the institutions upholding racial and ethnic inequalities.

Sea of Change: A New Wave of Activism in Bermuda

by Jeff Baron | Jun 20, 2020

While Bermuda does not have the same racialised violence that has sparked widespread protest in the United States, even our idyllic island is not immune to the poison prejudice of racism. We have our own brand of racism – it just looks and feels different. It always has. But now is the moment to right the wrongs and the tides are changing.

We Still Have a Dream

by Jenny Chigwende | Jun 18, 2020

Where I work, the stories of past traumas from racist experiences have come pouring out from both staff and young people. And as I heard their experiences, my initial anger turned into an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. But this sense of heaviness also began to change, as I understood the opportunity for people to speak their truth. And that Dr King’s dream of equality can still be realised in the generations to come.

Shades of Black

by Ebru Deniz | Jun 16, 2020

In Turkey, those who had these opportunities because they were born in the ‘right’ part of the country feel superior to the others and discriminate against those who didn’t have the same luck. We need visionary leadership that tackles intra-race racism as well as the hatred that festers between races, so that we are no longer defined by the colour of our skin.

Nihal Arthanayake – extract from Afternoon Edition

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2020

This is an extract from the Afternoon Edition on BBC 5Live, hosted by Nihal Arthanayake. It provides background for Making Allies and Burning Bridges -...

An Independent Panel on COVID-19, Science, Uncertainty and Policy

by Rahul Chandran, David Steven | Jun 11, 2020

There is a communications challenge around COVID-19. Messages about what we know, and what we should do, are not clearly shared and reproduced. We propose that WHO should immediately set up an Independent Panel on COVID-19, Uncertainty, Science and Policy (CUSP – everything needs a good acronym), and its main job would be to talk to publics.

Towards More Equal and Resilient Cities Post-COVID-19

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Jun 8, 2020

What path we take post-COVID-19 will depend in large part on how the world’s cities change. The Long Crisis scenarios are a timely and helpful reminder that nothing is settled: our future is up for grabs. A better future can only be won by equipping and empowering cities to drive a green, inclusive recovery post-COVID-19.

The Long Crisis Scenarios are a Call to Citizen Thinking

by Jon Alexander | Jun 4, 2020

The Long Crisis Scenarios are a tremendous gift to us all. Considered and calm, they offer a way to make sense of events that can otherwise seem so great in magnitude that, for myself at least, there is a real risk of feeling completely overwhelmed. But more than that, in the form of the Winning Ugly scenario, in particular, they offer both a call to action and a reassurance that action can and will be meaningful.

Four Scenarios and a Future for Communities

by James Goodman | Jun 1, 2020

To think through the changes we need to make, it makes sense first to try to understand the new landscape, even as it is still unfolding. To help answer that question, we asked Alex Evans and David Steven, founders of the Long Crisis Network, to develop some scenarios, each describing a different future that could emerge from the events happening around us now.

Our COVID Future: The Long Crisis Scenarios

by Alex Evans, David Steven | May 22, 2020

COVID-19 marks a turning point in the 21st century.? Levels of uncertainty are off the chart, making predictions impossible. ?But if we can create plausible stories about different futures, we create a foundation for decision makers, campaigners, and communities to influence the process of change.?

Justice Leadership in a Pandemic: Read the Call to Action in Four Languages

by Sam Muller, David Steven | May 14, 2020

Last month, we released a call to action by members of the Justice Leadership Group – a call for justice leaders to step up, work collaboratively, and put people-centred justice at the heart of their response to the COVID-19 crisis. Now, we’re pleased to announce that the original English article is also available to read in Arabic, French, and Spanish.

The True Cost of COVID-19 School Closures

by Victoria Collis | May 5, 2020

According to our model, just four months of school and university closures across the United States could result in a $2.5 trillion total loss in future earnings. At a global level, these new data suggest that the current generation of students could lose up to $10 trillion as a result of COVID-19 closures over the course of their careers.

#BuildaBridgetoBetter: Recommendations to Drive Pandemic Responses

by Rachel Locke, Laura Bailey | Apr 30, 2020

Disasters have a way of focusing the mind, focusing our energies, and harnessing attention. The unfolding disaster that is the coronavirus pandemic is no different: the world is united in our focus on this singular enemy. What is different is that this pandemic is not a one-off event; this is not a storm that we will easily ‘ride out’. There is no clear blue sky on the horizon.

Justice Leadership in a Pandemic

by Sam Muller, David Steven | Apr 29, 2020

Ministers of justice are on the frontline of the COVID-19 response. But unlike health ministers, they do not have the same opportunities to work together. That needs to change.

After the Virus: Ensuring No Community and No-One Is Left Behind

by Alex Collis, Anna Smith | Apr 26, 2020

COVID-19 has underlined both the challenges faced in Cambridge and the strengths within the community we serve as a council. As a group we are now thinking through what our strategy needs to be over the coming months as we regroup and rebuild.

Learning From the Lockdown to Build Back Better

by Clare Wilks | Apr 23, 2020

Learning from how people are coping in lockdown will help us make the right decisions about retrofitting existing places or designing new ones.

Local Week on Global Dashboard

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Apr 20, 2020

Over the next seven days, we’re enlisting the help of prominent thinkers on health, food, local government, community empowerment, and urban planning to examine the global crisis through the lens of the local.

Four Pathways to Better Decisions

by Rahul Chandran, David Steven | Apr 15, 2020

How do you make good decisions when you’re playing whack-a-mole? Here are four recommendations for governments to improve their decision-making.

Justice for All and the Public Health Emergency

by David Steven, Mark Weston | Apr 9, 2020

Justice systems are vital to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigating its worst effects, but they will need to overcome many challenges if they are to operate effectively.

Building Trust, Confidence and Collective Action in the Age of COVID-19

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Apr 8, 2020

In spite of questionable handling of the crisis so far, David Steven and Alex Evans say it’s not too late for leaders and individuals to formulate a response...

Ideas for Tackling COVID-19 in the Short-Term

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Apr 6, 2020

Already, our contributors to the newly relaunched Global Dashboard are churning out new ideas for tackling the coronavirus pandemic in the short-term.

Feed the World

by Rahul Chandran | Apr 2, 2020

There is not enough attention being paid to the basic questions: what can the world do to ensure that we don’t miss planting season and spread a global food crisis on top of COVID-19?

COVID-19 and the Intergenerational Covenant

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2020

Until a month ago, a deep generational divide was the new front line in our polarised politics. But COVID19 could be about to change that – if we get this moment right.

Peace and Pandemics: How COVID-19 will impact violence and what we can do about it

by Rachel Locke | Mar 27, 2020

As the world prepares for and responds to the direct health impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus, those of us who work on reducing violence and preventing...

Communications in the age of digital elections

by Jonathan Tanner | Nov 8, 2019

Recent elections in the US and the UK have yielded more questions than answers about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to messages and tactics...

“We ask to be moved so our children live. We ourselves are already dead” – the power of solidarity with a mother’s struggle against a mining corporation.

by Ben Phillips | Jun 21, 2019

You can taste the pollution at Kankoyo. Not just smell it, you can taste the air. Welcome to Kankoyo, Zambia, welcome to the Mopani Mufulira mine that has...

What kinds of personal transformation help to drive system transformation?

by Alex Evans | Oct 19, 2018

What kinds of personal transformation help to drive whole system transformation? That was just one of the questions explored at a fascinating event hosted by...

10 thoughts on the future of activism

by Alex Evans | May 18, 2018

So here are 10 thoughts on the kind of activism we need at a point of widespread crisis and deep polarisation - a distillation of what I've been thinking...

Where Next? Ending Violence Against Children

by David Steven | Jan 17, 2018

As the 2030 Agenda enters its third year, those working to end violence against children must redouble their efforts to make significant progress towards...

Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies – published version

by David Steven | Oct 4, 2017

The Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies covers some of the major challenges of the twenty-first century, including ending violence against women and children, tackling abuses such as forced marriage and modern slavery, fighting corruption and illicit financial flows and renewing institutions so they can meet growing demand for inclusive growth and environmental sustainability

Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies – HLPF side event

by David Steven | Jul 18, 2017

At the Center on International Cooperation, our focus is on the targets for peaceful, just and inclusive societies – not just those in SDG16, but in all Sustainable Development Goals.

The State of the World: A Report Card on International Cooperation

by David Steven | May 24, 2017

Guest post by Megan Roberts, associate director of the International Institutions and Global Governance program at the Council on Foreign Relations Last week...

Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies: A Call to Action to Change our World

by David Steven | Mar 29, 2017

In Agenda 2030, the world’s governments expressed their determination “to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and...

Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies – Brief

by David Steven | Mar 10, 2017

"The new agenda recognizes the need to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies that provide equal access to justice and that are based on respect for...

Why the way we vote matters for fighting poverty

by Alice Macdonald | Nov 4, 2016

2016 is a big year for voting. The result of EU referendum sent shockwaves through the UK and around the world. The outcome of Colombia’s referendum vote...

This week’s UN refugees summitry: a missed opportunity?

by Alistair Burnett | Sep 19, 2016

The huge numbers of people on the move around the world – be they seeking refuge from war or oppression, or looking for a better life – will be top of the...

How English-medium education is hobbling Tanzania’s children

by Mark Weston | Aug 22, 2016

Imagine yourself as a 12-year-old. Perhaps you’ve just squeezed your first zit or been crippled by your first crush. You’ve also just graduated from primary...

Turning Ambition into Reality – Platforms and Partnerships for Delivering Agenda 2030

by David Steven | Jul 12, 2016

Partnerships are expected to play a critical role in sharing the knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources that will support the achievement of...

Jo Cox, brilliance, and kindness.

by Ben Phillips | Jun 17, 2016

Many are, undertandably, asking what are the lessons of Jo's death. But those who had the privilege of working with Jo feel too raw to answer that. Instead,...

A little less conversation a little more action: How to tackle inequality, for real.

by Ben Phillips | May 3, 2016

Sometimes, the best way to avoid doing something is to pretend that you agree. Let's say that you are a political leader, or a corporate leader, who rather...

Slay it Loud and Slay it Proud: Lessons from the Fourth Wave

by Kirsty McNeill | Mar 26, 2016

Guest post from Helen Elliot from Save the Children UK, on a talk by Maria Neophytou of the GREAT Initiative, as part of the #changehistory series of talks....

Reasons to be cheerful in the fight against inequality

by Ben Phillips | Jan 24, 2016

My job is to challenge the causes of poverty. That means that I spend a lot of time highlighting the gross injustices that I have witnessed people face. This...

The coolest thing I’ve been involved in (in a very small way) this year

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2015

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN1eSMXI_6Y[/youtube] Ever since I was very small, I've always just been crazy, crazy, crazy about space. I still...

Winning for Women

by Kirsty McNeill | Nov 20, 2015

Guest post from Yvonne Jeffery, @bakingforpeace, campaigner at Save the Children, reflecting on the latest in Save the Children's #changehistory series. You...

Investing in our soft power assets – the GREAT campaign & the Spending Review

by Ryan Gawn | Nov 11, 2015

This is the fourth in a series of blogs on the upcoming Spending Review, and how Britain maximises its influence and soft power across the world at a time of...

A choice between decline and growth – UK global influence and the Spending Review

by Ryan Gawn | Oct 30, 2015

This is the first in a series of blogs on the upcoming Spending Review, and how Britain maximises its influence and soft power across the world at a time of...

New Soundcloud mix

by Alex Evans | Oct 5, 2015

What a joy to be able to think about something other than the Sustainable Development Goals for a change...

NGO air miles? Whose bright idea was THAT?

by Alex Evans | Sep 15, 2015

Remember a time when people went out and joined hands in the streets to demonstrate their passion about the issues they cared most about? Well, forget all...

Why the SDGs flunk the partnership test

by Alex Evans | Sep 7, 2015

Among the many useful elements of this year’s OECD Development Cooperation Report on partnerships, which is out today, is a handy 10 point checklist for what...

A problem for every solution on climate

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2015

It frustrates me so much that UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres was rubbishing the idea of a carbon budget two years ago, even as the IPCC was...

Lessons from Make Poverty History

by Kirsty McNeill | Jul 12, 2015

At Save the Children we’re acutely conscious both of how much there is to be done to shape the future and also how much there is to be learnt from the past....

NGOs get their courage back on inequality and climate (thanks to the Pope)

by Ben Phillips | Jul 2, 2015

"I'm off to the most radical country in the Western world," I told my colleagues, "the Vatican." There was a time when NGO radicalism would have made our...

Labour and the vision thing

by Alex Evans | May 19, 2015

Some of my best friends are spads. But it may be that they are just not suited to leadership. Spads are great at schmoozing and PR. Some may even be good at...

5 flashing warning lights on the dashboard of the global humanitarian system

by Alex Evans | May 15, 2015

In case you hadn't noticed, these are extraordinary times for the global emergency relief system, which has never looked more overstretched. 5 facts lifted...

How to make the Addis Financing For Development summit a success

by Alex Evans | Apr 24, 2015

A couple of weeks ago, preparations for July's Financing For Development summit in Addis Ababa passed the 100 days to go mark. Unfortunately, the summit is at...

The Restorative Economy

by Alex Evans | Apr 16, 2015

Over the past six months, I’ve been working with my friend and colleague Rich Gower on a report for Tearfund, the Christian development NGO, entitled The...

Five Ways the Co-Facilitators Have Made the Post-2015 Targets Worse

by David Steven | Mar 31, 2015

What was once a storm whipped up around the question of whether the world needs 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets has now degenerated into a...

If foreign policy doesn’t feature in this election a global powerhouse risks losing its voice

by Kirsty McNeill | Mar 13, 2015

In a piece for Real Clear World I argue that The chances of Britain making it through to May 7 without facing at least one unexpected international event with...

Joburg’s Unfinished Journey

by Ben Phillips | Feb 14, 2015

In Joburg’s old Prison Number 4 stands a flogging frame. Here political prisoners would be instructed to step on to it and be beaten with leather, wood, or...

Has securitising Ebola paid off?

by Alistair Burnett | Jan 28, 2015

UN officials are expressing cautious optimism that the tide has been turned in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa which has now claimed more than 8,600 lives....

Saying the unsayable in 2015

by Anna Thomas | Jan 19, 2015

It’s 2015, a year where global debate on development will be loud and active, with the new global sustainable development goals, the conference on how to...

The change we need in 10 words: A larger us. A longer future. A different good life.

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2015

Yesterday saw the launch of action/2015, the new global campaign on poverty, inequality, and climate change that will rally more than a thousand campaigning...

Reactions to the Secretary-General’s synthesis report

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | Dec 8, 2014

The post-2015 synthesis report was never going to be an easy task. No one can envy UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon his responsibility, mandated by UN member...

Our Unfinished Millennium Jubilee

by Alex Evans | Nov 10, 2014

Talk presented at Tearfund on why our Millennium Jubilee remains a work in progress - and what it would take to complete it (November 2014) Download Speech

The NGO campaign I’ve wanted to work on for the last 15 years (updated)

by Alex Evans | Nov 7, 2014

Tearfund has always been one of my favourite civil society organisations - above all because they have such a great track record of being a ‘pathfinder’ for...

If Not Now, When? Ending Violence Against the World’s Children

by David Steven | Oct 22, 2014

As part of UNICEF UK’s Every Child in Danger campaign, CIC’s David Steven contributed research with an eye toward the political solutions necessary for ending violence against children. In this report, he describes the scale of the epidemic, reviews the likely post-2015 targets that will make a difference in combating violence, and proposes ways forward on the issue, urging political leadership and global partnership above all.

Do you have 10 years experience in boar semen collection?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 1, 2014

Because if you do, ACDI/VOCA (a non-profit promoting "a world in which people are empowered to succeed in the global economy') has a job for you: ACDI/VOCA is...

Post-2015 Means of Implementation: What Are We Trying to Win?

by Alex Evans | Sep 19, 2014

Working draft of a paper by Alex Evans on potential elements of a global political deal on 'means of implementation' for the post-2015 development agenda...

The future of DFID and the ‘beyond aid’ agenda

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2014

The UK Parliament's Select Committee on International Development is running an interesting inquiry at the moment on the future of Britain's Department for...

Ebola: where is everyone?

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2014

The messages emerging from people dealing with the Ebola outbreak on the ground in west Africa are becoming more hair-raising by the day. Here's the World...

Why the multilateral system is stumbling on conflict prevention

by Alex Evans | Aug 19, 2014

Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, South Sudan - not to mention Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Gaza, or Somalia. None of them is exactly a poster child for the...

Decline of Europe, World Cup edition

by Claire Melamed | Jun 27, 2014

This chart shows the percentage of European teams getting through to the last 16 in World Cup tournaments since 1986 (before which there was a last 12, in...

Environmentally friendly oil rigs? Well yes, Norway, but….

by Claire Melamed | Jun 6, 2014

We are big fans of Norway here at GD. And look - in a bid to make oil production more environmentally friendly, the Norwegian parliament is hoping to force...

No SDGs for you, North Korea! (updated)

by Alex Evans | Jun 3, 2014

Gird your loins: the zero draft of the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals is out! While most post-2015ers will have raced ahead to see...

What’s wrong with Geneva?

by Richard Gowan | May 21, 2014

The BBC website has a rather breathless piece about the joys of Geneva today, declaring that "a cosmopolitan city known for diplomacy (and watches), is now...

What’s wrong with development agencies

by Alex Evans | May 14, 2014

Here's John Kay, writing about the corporate cultures of Oxford University and the Co-operative Bank in the UK - but his description also applies 100% to more...

Climate tipping points – a quick guide

by Alex Evans | May 13, 2014

It looks like we’re already over two key climate tipping points. What about the rest?

Next Generation Pakistan: Insecure Lives, Untold Stories

by David Steven | May 8, 2014

Next Generation: Insecure Lives, Untold Stories is one of the largest pieces of qualitative research ever conducted in Pakistan and is rooted in a...

No diplomats, thanks

by Alex Evans | May 7, 2014

Anyone who's spent much time around UN headquarters in New York will know that the one ATM within walking distance of the UN is in the UN Plaza branch of JP...

Ensuring Stable and Peaceful Societies

by David Steven | Apr 23, 2014

On April 24th and 25th, the President of the UN General Assembly will lead a thematic debate on ensuring stable and peaceful societies. At the request of the President of the General Assembly, I prepared a memo which highlights why peace and stability is important for sustainable development and how it might be addressed in the post-2015 development agenda. The outcome of this discussion will be included in the President’s summary and will be available as an input in the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (April 2014)

Climate Change is not a debate: It is a struggle that pits survivors against fossil fuel profiteers

by Ben Phillips | Apr 8, 2014

Climate change is not a debate. The scientists couldn’t be clearer about how real and how harmful it is. But governments are still not basing their...

IMF: To solve inequality, tax food, books and funerals

by David Steven | Mar 19, 2014

The IMF has attracted plenty of favourable attention from unfamiliar places with two ‘staff papers’ (we’re enjoined to consider them as the personal opinions...

A day in the life of a (hot) UN official

by Richard Gowan | Feb 27, 2014

What universal standards does the UN stand for? Human rights, justice, peace... and high quality tailoring. That at least is the message from the UN...

Could foreign aid actually help UK flood defences?

by Claire Melamed | Feb 12, 2014

Thankfully the Daily Mail's mean-spirited campaign to get the government to cut aid to pay for the UK's flood response was swiftly dismissed by the PM in his...

Could Iceland actually be any more progressive?

by Alex Evans | Jan 29, 2014

Remember how Iceland got flattened by the financial crisis? How, as an IMF official put it to Michael Lewis at the time, "You have to understand,...

It’s developed country, not emerging economy, attitudes that are the problem on sustainability

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2014

One of the best sets of data available on attitudes to sustainability around the world is the ‘Greendex’ produced by the polling company Globescan for...

The new politics of time

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2014

Real terms median wages have been stagnating in developed countries since the mid-1970s, when - as David Schweickart notes in this terrific paper (h/t Casper...

John Maynard Keynes on the post-2015 agenda

by Alex Evans | Jan 6, 2014

In the same spirit of hopeful ideas for a new year as Ben's excellent post on inequality, herewith some musing of JM Keynes's about "economic possibilities...

The Post-2015 Agenda: 3 thoughts on Latin America, and 1 on the Caribbean

by David Steven | Dec 17, 2013

Late last week, New York University’s Center on International Cooperation published A Laboratory for Sustainable Development? Latin America, the Caribbean and...

A Laboratory for Sustainable Development? Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

by David Steven | Dec 13, 2013

The Latin American and Caribbean region has a unique opportunity to exercise leadership and influence over the post-2015 development debate. The region's...

The bicycle theory of social change

by Claire Melamed | Dec 9, 2013

Something odd is happening on the streets of London. Cyclists are obeying the law in droves. On my daily cycle from home to work, it’s rare now to see anyone...

A high ambition coalition of the willing on climate change

by Alex Evans | Dec 6, 2013

Could a high ambition coalition of the willing on climate change get going with defining a global carbon budget and taking on their shares to it, while leaving the door open for other governments to join at a later date? Owen Bader, Alice Lepissier, and Alex Evans think so – and have developed a detailed quant model to show how it could work and what the decarbonisation costs and emissions trading revenue flows might be.

China’s transition from object of Western power to rival to it

by Kirsty McNeill | Dec 2, 2013

In our latest #progressivedilemmas article we look at how the left should respond to China’s rise. During Labour’s last period in government we failed to make...

The meanest goddamn debate about the UN ever

by Richard Gowan | Nov 22, 2013

Academics and policy wonks are mainly mild-mannered folk. I know that I am. But occasionally it's fun to cut loose and have a really nasty debate with an...

A UN translator’s tale

by Richard Gowan | Nov 15, 2013

The London Review of Books has a nice piece by Lynn Visson, a former UN translator, on the secrets of her trade: The most important language in most...

Who chooses? a response to Jishnu Das

by David Steven | Nov 14, 2013

There was widespread admiration in my Twitter stream yesterday for an article by World Bank Senior Economist Jishnu Das slamming The Economist for its support...

The UK’s Anti-Malala Backlash

by David Steven | Nov 12, 2013

Sadly, Malala Yousafzai became a controversial figure in Pakistan soon after she was shot and the theory that she is a pawn of the West is now entrenched....

What Happens Now? – The Post-2015 Agenda After the High-level Panel

by Alex Evans | Oct 25, 2013

Briefing paper by Alex Evans and David Steven that explores the outlook for the post-2015 development agenda over the next two years and makes seven...

One last thought

by Alex Evans | Oct 18, 2013

Via David Hodgson.

Angus Deaton and the foreign aid debate

by Claire Melamed | Oct 16, 2013

Angus Deaton is in town, promoting his new book, The Great Escape. I am a huge fan, so off I went to a breakfast discussion at the (super-plush!) Legatum...

Going postal

by Richard Gowan | Oct 8, 2013

Dear reader, there is nothing make fun of here. Nothing. 9 October World Post Day is celebrated each year on 9 October, the anniversary of the establishment...

What Have We Learned About Institutional Change?

by Seth Kaplan | Oct 4, 2013

A number of noteworthy reports on institutional change, development, and foreign aid have been published recently. There is much agreement between them,...

McKinsey’s latest on scarcity

by Alex Evans | Oct 1, 2013

McKinsey have just published an annual update on their resource scarcity work, which is well worth a read if you watch those issues. Key headlines as follows...

Ban Ki-moon: Zen master of twitter (updated)

by Richard Gowan | Sep 26, 2013

UPDATE: see end of this post for an important and intriguing correction. Yesterday, Australian historian and UN-watcher Michael Fullilove took a pot-shot at...

No Man is a (Small) Island…

by Richard Gowan | Sep 25, 2013

Snarky comments are not, I think, necessary here: Expressing #EU support for Small Island Developing States' SustDev at working breakfast w/ @UN's...

Business Development or Solidarity? How to help Palestinian farmers

by Ben Phillips | Sep 5, 2013

"Palestinian olive oil was once world renowned," says Jamil, a livelihoods expert, in the car on the way to the factory. "With 100,000 Palestinian families...

Ecological footprints – mapped out

by Alex Evans | Aug 29, 2013

How much land would be needed if all 7 billion of the world's people had the average living standards of each of the countries shown. From Explorer.

What Antoinette Tuff has to teach politics

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2013

Amid all the commentary about Antoinette Tuff's successful talking down of a potential school gunman in Georgia, Gary Younge in the Guardian makes two of the...

The women of rural India are not meek – and we do not help them when we pretend that they are

by Ben Phillips | Aug 13, 2013

The meeting started off with a comfortable simplicity. In a village in Uttar Pradesh, India, a group of semi-literate women greeted the visiting development...

Kissinger: when you don’t have a foreign policy, talk about development!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 9, 2013

Micah Zenko of CFR has just blogged this transcript of a 1975 telephone call between Henry Kissinger and his long-time aide Winston Lord on the knotty problem...

How the Snowden saga will end

by Alex Evans | Aug 6, 2013

This thoughtful post on Hacking Distributed is a must-read, arguing that the endgame on the Snowden saga will be determined by the relative strength of three...

This is a panacea

by Ben Phillips | Jul 25, 2013

A powerful new paper, "This is a panacea" by Swift, J., has broken new ground in the field of development and social science research. A paper like no other....

“I think we’re fucked” and other reasons not to publish a book

by Alex Evans | Jul 19, 2013

Last night saw the launch at the Science Museum of a new book called Ten Billion, by Stephen Emmott. I'm not sure I can recall another book that's annoyed me...

#NSA: Issues for Congress 16th January 2001

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 28, 2013

From a Congressional Research Service Report for Congress published pre 9/11. NSA: Issues for Congress: by Richard A. Best, Jr On reaching that watershed...

No hero

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 25, 2013

From today’s FT: Having violated his secrecy contracts, Mr Snowden has broken serious laws and should face the music. What he disclosed to The Guardian and...

Not just about a 20 cent bus fare rise

by Alex Evans | Jun 19, 2013

From a protestor on the ground in Brazil: Brazil is living through a special moment today, it’s true. Some well-applied political programs over the last...

More on the worst corporate scandal you’ve never heard of

by David Steven | Jun 14, 2013

A month ago, I posted on the Ranbaxy drug scandal - a shocking tale of systematic fraud by one of the world's leading manufacturers of generic drugs. After...

Revealed! Inside the IF Campaign

by Ben Phillips | Jun 12, 2013

Now everyone's talking about the IF campaign. Saturday's rally in Hyde Park was on TV, radio, and in pretty much every Sunday paper. More importantly, the IF...

Reflections from the #BigIF

by Kirsty McNeill | Jun 10, 2013

The Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign held a rally in Hyde Park this weekend. Three things stood out as major highlights for me: 1) Wow. Getting...

Taksim, Tayyip and Turkey – a balance sheet

by Mark Weston | Jun 5, 2013

During my annual visits to Turkey over the past fifteen years, I have taken a great interest in the country's development. My wife was born in the...

The Future is Not Good Enough: Business As Usual After 2015

by Jane Frewer | Jun 3, 2013

Background paper by Alex Evans and David Steven, written for the High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and published as part of the Panel's...

After 2015 – the High Level Panel reports

by David Steven | May 30, 2013

The Secretary General’s High Level Panel has published its report (download here) on the post-2015 development agenda – here’s quick review of what it’s come...

“We’ll stop hurting our brothers and sisters” – What success at the G8 would look like

by Ben Phillips | May 22, 2013

It has become to fashionable to say that G8 meetings never achieve anything. It is also incorrect. Civil society campaigners have made use of G8...

The worst corporate scandal you never heard of

by David Steven | May 17, 2013

Like many people, I have grown blasé about the successive waves of corporate scandal that have broken since the financial meltdown of 2008, but Fortune's...

Britain’s dirty secret – the island havens that make life hell for the world’s poor

by Ben Phillips | May 9, 2013

The G8 agenda on tax is getting increasingly radical, and much of the credit on that must go to to the UK Government hosts. Issues that were off the table...

What the World Bank Does Not Understand About “Doing Business”

by Seth Kaplan | May 2, 2013

In its 10-year history, the World Bank’s Doing Business Report has achieved enormous influence. The annual study, one of the flagship knowledge products of...

Wow (updated x2)

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2013

UK Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening in a speech today: "South Africa has made enormous progress over the past two decades, to...

Brazil & the US – never on the same page?

by Alistair Burnett | Apr 22, 2013

Relations between the two giant democracies of the Americas, Brazil and the US, should be easy, but they never seem to be - as the recent spat over...

Syria: why not a no-fly zone?

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2013

Enthusiasm for foreign intereventions from the sky seems to ebb and flow as the years go by. Back during the Kosovo intervention, Clinton and Blair were...

A pogrom against bankers?

by David Steven | Apr 11, 2013

What an appalling quote from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph: Let us all agree that top bankers behaved very badly. Let us agree too with Vince Cable...

The end of a colourful career, as former Guinea-Bissau navy chief Bubo Na Tchuto is caught trafficking drugs

by Mark Weston | Apr 5, 2013

Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, who was arrested by US agents in a sting operation in international waters on Tuesday, has had an exciting career....

Annan on Syria: “we left it too late” to invade

by Richard Gowan | Mar 27, 2013

It's six months since Kofi Annan stepped down as UN-Arab League envoy for Syria. Does he have second thoughts about his efforts to mediate an end to the...

Avaaz CEO Ricken Patel’s Commonwealth lecture

by Alex Evans | Mar 22, 2013

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHtMAVxS690[/youtube]

Is Britain the organised crime capital of Europe?

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 21, 2013

Last summer Philip Stephens, the FT's chief political commentator, wrote the following The High Court is witnessing an expensive legal battle between Oleg...

Wealth inequality in America

by Alex Evans | Mar 4, 2013

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM#![/youtube]

We need an MDG on quinoa!

by Alex Evans | Feb 21, 2013

Breaking news on the post-2015 development agenda just in from Richard in New York, who reports that the UN Secretary-General has set a major new agenda on...

The United States after the Great Recession

by David Steven | Feb 18, 2013

A paper by David Steven, Joshua Meltzer and Claire Langley, published by the Brookings Institution, supported by the FutureWorld Foundation, on how the United States should respond to the aftermath of the recession in order to promote growth and sustainability in the coming years.

Let’s measure everything!

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2013

Here's that nice Bill Gates extolling the gospel of measuring what we do in development: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=380sy5_ZQzo[/youtube] And...

What the OECD Does Not Understand About Fragile States

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 3, 2013

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and its International Network on Conflict and...

Game changer time: China’s working age population is now in decline

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2013

Last year saw a big tipping point in China that went relatively unnoticed: its working age population shrank, kicking off a trend that will carry on over the...

Algeria, Mali and the West: Joining the Dots in the Sahara

by Mark Weston | Jan 20, 2013

'We need to be absolutely clear whose fault this is. It is the terrorists who are responsible for this attack and for the loss of life.' (David Cameron, House...

Lots of lovely numbers

by Claire Melamed | Jan 15, 2013

A New Year present for data geeks. In case any of you are bored with twitter and facebook as ways of wasting your time, have a look at this. 'Worldometers'...

GD’s Mark Weston on travelling in the world’s poorest countries

by Mark Weston | Jan 10, 2013

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJAcj46TtZY [/youtube]

The US National Intelligence Council’s world in 2030

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2012

Here's a snapshot of the defining features of the world in 2030, courtesy of the US National Intelligence Council's excellent Global Trends 2030 report, the...

A US carbon tax?

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2012

Lots of Brits will, like me, have been pleasantly surprised - astonished, in fact - by Henry Porter's Observer piece over the weekend arguing that things seem...

Early adopters: Africa’s hunter-gatherer Pygmies go hi-tech to combat loggers

by Mark Weston | Nov 26, 2012

If you were asked to rank the peoples of the world in terms of their enthusiasm for the things of the 21st century, it is a fair bet that Singaporeans,...

Climate, Scarcity and Sustainability in the Post-2015 Development Agenda

by Alex Evans | Nov 22, 2012

What should sustainability advocates aim for in the post-2015 international development agenda – and how should they go about it?

“Within five months, they’d hacked Android…”

by Alex Evans | Nov 18, 2012

The experiment is being done in two isolated rural villages with about 20 first-grade-aged children each, about 50 miles from Addis Ababa. One village is...

A class bit of campaigning from Greenpeace UK

by Alex Evans | Nov 14, 2012

[youtube]http://youtu.be/aTOIHC8zUdE[/youtube]

Obama’s failure on climate

by David Steven | Nov 6, 2012

In the Guardian, George Monbiot is incandescent about the failure of Obama and Romney to speak out about climate change. The two candidates remain struck...

Not that you’ll hear either of the candidates saying anything of the sort, but…

by Alex Evans | Nov 1, 2012

Via Ezra Klein. Full Business Week article here.

“The struggle between incumbency elites and those who see the need for change will be the defining struggle of our times”

by Alex Evans | Oct 25, 2012

Such a great intro to a speech: Business as usual died in 2008. Publics understand that. Elites, on the whole, do not. In Britain, our economy is now almost...

All change at Change.org?

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2012

I like Change.org. Everyone likes Change.org. It's about harnessing the power of the internet to empower citizens and help them push for stuff they mind about...

It’s the apocalypse! Bring your own lunch…

by Richard Gowan | Oct 22, 2012

Here is a tempting invite from the UN Department of Public Information... The Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is pleased to invite...

Intelligent Agents or How to Stop Consumers Getting Screwed

by David Steven | Oct 18, 2012

Seemingly inadvertently yesterday, David Cameron made a commitment to legislation that would force utilities to ensure their customers were always on the...

The times they are a-changing at the IMF

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2012

"Some dismiss inequality and focus instead on overall growth – arguing, in effect, that a rising tide lifts all boats. When a handful of yachts become ocean...

“You always become the thing you fight the most…”

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2012

Two car bombs exploded in Karbala, a centre of Shia worship south of Baghdad, killing 13 people and injuring 50 in a shopping area ... A similar double...

Pigs in crisis!

by Richard Gowan | Sep 24, 2012

Global food scarcity is approaching a catastrophic tipping-point: Might want to get your fill of ham this year, because "a world shortage of pork and bacon...

The five kinds of people you encounter on High Level Panels

by Alex Evans | Sep 19, 2012

With the UN's new High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda due to hold its first meeting next week, the big question is which Panel members will...

Rumsfeld – Keeping American Strong and Safe

by David Steven | Sep 12, 2012

Donald Rumsfeld a few moments ago... The attacks on our embassies & diplomats are a result of perceived American weakness. Mitt Romney is right to point...

The Enemy at the Gates

by Mark Weston | Aug 28, 2012

On a beach in Málaga the other day I asked a Senegalese handbag seller if the collapse of Spain's economy, whose effect on business has made life increasingly...

Reflections from a poacher, turned gamekeeper, turned poacher

by Kirsty McNeill | Aug 23, 2012

In 2005 the development charities got the keys to Number 10 – but they still don’t understand why. Before I was an adviser in Gordon Brown’s Downing Street I...

Have you heard who will replace Annan? It’s Mr. Inaudible!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 15, 2012

There's mounting confusion at the UN about who will replace Kofi Annan as the envoy to Syria. Everyone knows that it's meant to be veteran UN mediator...

Resources, Risk and Resilience: Scarcity and Climate Change in Ethiopia

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2012

The first in a series of CIC case studies on the challenges that resource scarcity and climate change pose to poor countries – and how they, and their international partners, can build resilience to them. The report assesses both Ethiopia’s current policies on scarcity and climate, and a range of key gaps, vulnerabilities and exogenous risks that need to be taken account of in future planning.

Another great moment in development communications

by Alex Evans | Jul 30, 2012

Following my post last month on a UNECA advertisement in Addis Ababa inviting people vulnerable to climate change to "download coping strategies", here's...

Are Language Policies Increasing Poverty and Inequality?

by Seth Kaplan | Jul 25, 2012

Language is one of the most neglected areas in the development field. It barely registers on any agenda to help poor countries despite its importance to a...

The view from the International Space Station

by Alex Evans | Jul 12, 2012

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/44801709#[/vimeo]

A safe and just operating space for humanity – Kate Raworth

by Alex Evans | Jul 5, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCAx3TG8LkI[/youtube]

Improving the Rule of Law in Fragile States

by Seth Kaplan | Jul 3, 2012

Many fragile states suffer from incoherent legal systems. Whereas in developed countries, one single system exists and is effectively enforced, in fragile...

The world’s economic centre of gravity

by Alex Evans | Jun 29, 2012

From the Economist: It is not exactly news that the world's economic centre of gravity is shifting east. But it is striking how fast this seems to be...

The end of impunity for bankers? How Spain’s indignados are using crowdfunding to bring them to justice

by Mark Weston | Jun 26, 2012

Following the collapse of the bank he was running until earlier this year, Rodrigo Rato probably thought he would be able to slip into a quiet, if tarnished...

Why We Blog

by Seth Kaplan | Jun 26, 2012

Why do you blog ? From the New York Times Book Review.

Post-2015: What role for business?

by Claire Melamed | Jun 22, 2012

There’s a consensus that any post-2015 global development framework should have more to say about the role of the private sector than the MDGs have done. But what does that actually mean in practice? This new report from the Overseas Development Institute explores some options for how the private sector might be represented in and contribute to a new set of global goals for development.

Sustainable Development Goals: what just happened?

by Alex Evans | Jun 20, 2012

An interesting paragraph in the draft outcome document from Rio (which is now more or less the final draft, if media reports are to be believed): 248. We...

Let’s be Norway (part 2)

by Claire Melamed | Jun 15, 2012

So I'm in South Korea this week, and yesterday heard a presentation on 'Green Growth' from a senior government official. Korea wants to stay at at the head...

Rio +20: ‘involving civil society’ (and squirrels)

by David Steven | Jun 13, 2012

They are from a few months' ago, but I've been looking at the consolidated comments from 'civil society or stakeholder sectors' to the Rio+ 20 outcome...

Majority of Chinese people rank environment higher than economy – Gallup

by Alex Evans | Jun 12, 2012

From Gallup's website: Fifty-seven percent of Chinese adults surveyed in 2011 -- before the country's economic slowdown grabbed headlines -- prioritized...

What Does it Mean to Work Politically in Development?

by Seth Kaplan | May 31, 2012

Adrian Leftwich gives a great description of what it means to work politically in the development field in a recent publication Politics, Leadership, and...

The perils of Googles Images…

by Alex Evans | May 28, 2012

Pity whichever hapless BBC researcher was in a hurry to find a background image for a report on the UN Security Council today and instead managed to post...

Has neo-liberalism fatally undermined the idea of global governance?

by Jules Evans | May 26, 2012

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...

Christmas comes early in the form of Tim Worstall

by Alex Evans | May 24, 2012

Much delight to be had in the Daily Telegraph, where Tim Worstall is to be found firing a major broadside in DFID's direction. Here's a sample: Aid should...

So Conrad Black, tell us what you really think about France…

by Richard Gowan | May 22, 2012

A while back I posted an excerpt from an essay by George Orwell about Hitler that, for me, was a perfect piece of political commentary. It was concise, sharp...

The Vickys: can you be paternalist without being patronising?

by Jules Evans | May 20, 2012

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...

Syria: war is bad for hotels and fairgrounds

by Richard Gowan | May 17, 2012

The Syrian government defies belief: In a letter to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly made public on Thursday, Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari,...

Occupational hazards

by Alex Evans | May 16, 2012

Quote 1: We do not make demands from governments ... or parliament members, which some of us see as illegitimate, unaccountable or corrupt. Quote 2: We demand...

Ouch

by Alex Evans | May 10, 2012

Armed with their billions, these NGOs have waded into the world, turning potential revolutionaries into salaried activists, funding artists, intellectuals and...

Is the EU about to stuff it up on international climate change (again)?

by Alex Evans | May 8, 2012

So near, and yet so far - as so often in EU climate policy. Back in December of last year, at the Durban climate summit, it looked as though the EU was...

The Sharing Experiment

by Alex Evans | May 4, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUPzr2MGKMs[/youtube]

How Ethnic Divisions and Politics Produce Conflict

by Seth Kaplan | May 1, 2012

What type of ethnic divisions and political circumstances are most likely to produce conflict? There is no easy answer, but there are formulas that can...

Hurrah for politics

by Alex Evans | Apr 27, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFELLK8htKM[/youtube]

Make way for the Local President!

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2012

All the current furore about the doings of US Secret Service agents is likely to cause a few chuckles among their sister services in other countries, who tend...

Why is this innovative capacity building program so small?

by Seth Kaplan | Apr 24, 2012

One of the largest problems in fragile states is how the government operates. There is a enormous shortage of capable managers and executives to staff key...

Repatriated – and gagged with packing tape

by Alex Evans | Apr 18, 2012

That's a snap from Alitalia's 0920 Rome to Tunis flight yesterday morning, taken by Francesco Sperandeo and posted on his Facebook page. He comments, Two...

The most heavily aided place in the world

by Alex Evans | Apr 17, 2012

Ever wondered where gets most Official Development Assistance per capita in the world? Have a guess. Somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa? Nope. The Occupied...

Why a Focus on Inequality in the MDGs (and in Fragile States) is Wrong

by Seth Kaplan | Apr 16, 2012

With the appointment of the United Kingdom’s prime minister, David Cameron, as one of the chairs of a forthcoming UN committee tasked with establishing a new...

Wiliam Hague never did this

by Richard Gowan | Apr 16, 2012

Hillary Clinton, out on the town in Colombia this weekend:

Hitler and the naughty chair

by Richard Gowan | Apr 13, 2012

The Globalist has published an intriguing extract from Adam Nagorski's new book Hitlerland. It recounts the recollections of Helen Niemeyer, an American...

Geography fail

by Alex Evans | Apr 12, 2012

000 WEIO21 PHEB 110945 TSUIOX TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 002 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED AT 0945Z 11 APR 2012 THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS...

The 10 countries most likely to default on their sovereign debt

by Alex Evans | Apr 10, 2012

New data out yesterday from Markit, the gurus of credit default swap data: H/t Business Insider.

Syria: this is how war works

by Richard Gowan | Apr 9, 2012

Last Friday, my attention was caught by the title of a piece on the Mideastwire blog: Richard Gowan misses the key aspect of conflict mitigation: positive...

Can the UN monitor Syria effectively?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 5, 2012

Briefing the General Assembly today, Kofi Annan noted that UN officials are now in Syria to plan a new ceasefire monitoring mission - one element of Annan's...

Here we go again: cost of Africa’s oil imports > Africa’s aid (updated)

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2012

Back in 2010, when I wrote Globalisation and Scarcity (pdf), one of the stats cited in the report that seemed to kindle most interest was the International...

This is how to do political analysis properly

by Richard Gowan | Mar 24, 2012

The person who controls the Twitter feed for Aeon - a new magazine of philosophy, ethics and politics launching later this year - has hit upon a remarkable...

Friday reality check

by Alex Evans | Mar 23, 2012

Great quote from the Economist's Democracy in America blog, back in December: A hundred years from now, looking back, the only question that will appear...

What does the Security Council think about Ethiopia / Eritrea?

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2012

With Ethiopia having launched an attack on camps inside Eritrea last week, and apparently another over the weekend (though the Ethiopian government denies...

Libya: Tripoli (and others) Should Welcome Benghazi’s Demand for Autonomy

by Seth Kaplan | Mar 13, 2012

Last week, 3,000 militia and tribal leaders from eastern Libya announced unilateral plans to begin establishing their own autonomous government. They demanded...

Mitt Romney’s genius for baby-holding

by Richard Gowan | Mar 9, 2012

Politico reproduces a rather odd political endorsement: Did you know Mitt Romney’s baby handling skills may be a big help in Mississippi? So says Gov. Phil...

Is Oil a Bubble?

by David Steven | Mar 5, 2012

With Brent bumping up against the $125 mark and petrol/gasoline prices at record highs, many commentators are once again assuming that high prices are the new...

The Last Ottomans: Does this mark the end of Aleppo’s famous souk?

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 22, 2012

Aleppo's famed souk is arguably the most vibrant and interesting in the whole Middle East. What differentiates it from other great markets in the region (such...

The future of global governance in Abu Dhabi

by Richard Gowan | Feb 19, 2012

This is just a quick note for any GD readers in Abu Dhabi. On the evening of Monday 20 February, I'll be interviewing Stanford University's Stephen Stedman...

Greece: the image that will reassure the markets

by Richard Gowan | Feb 15, 2012

The Greek President speaks on the Euro crisis today, with an interesting backdrop.

Is Pakistan an emerging market?

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 13, 2012

Most people in the West believe that Pakistan is an unstable country on the verge of imminent collapse or an explosion of violence. It is consistently...

Men and Development: Why gender should not just be about women

by Mark Weston | Feb 8, 2012

Last week I was asked to review a new book on gender and development. Since these things are usually turgid affairs, full of abstruse jargon ("registers of...

Is the map of the Middle East about to change?

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 2, 2012

If people in the Middle East could democratically choose what country they lived in, would they choose the one they are in now? Amidst all the talk of an Arab...

Why do some countries have so few NGOs?

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 31, 2012

Homegrown nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play crucial roles providing social services to the poor, holding governments accountable, aggregating the...

Globalisation: a new wave?

by Alex Glennie | Jan 26, 2012

In recent years, the word ‘globalisation’ has become synonymous with a whole range of international ills. Financial globalisation has been particularly...

Ban Ki-moon to end disease, defend penguins

by Richard Gowan | Jan 25, 2012

Good news: Ban Ki-moon will save Antarctica! Ban Ki-moon has just set out his plans for his second five year term. He is not unambitious: “Today I want to...

Biggest solar storm since 2005 underway

by Alex Evans | Jan 24, 2012

The Sun is up to all sorts of interesting things this week, with unusually high sunspot activity leading to a series of solar flares (or coronal mass...

Should we have Sustainable Development Goals as well as (or indeed instead of) MDGs?

by Alex Evans | Jan 23, 2012

Later today in New York, a 2 day meeting on the idea of 'Sustainable Development Goals' will begin, bringing together numerous countries' Permanent...

Sustainable Development Goals – a useful outcome from Rio+20?

by Alex Evans | Jan 20, 2012

Recent months have seen increasing interest in the idea that Rio+20 could be the launch pad for a new set of ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs). But what...

Inequality Within The G20

by Casper ter Kuile | Jan 19, 2012

As the Occupy movement gets ready to hit the slopes of Davos, a new Oxfam report reveals that inequality is growing in almost all G20 countries. Russia,...

Piracy: the new aid

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2012

OK, OK, that's not quite what Chatham House are saying in their new report Treasure Mapped: Using Satellite Imagery to Track the Developmental Effects of...

What’s Wrong With CGD’s Pakistan Initiative

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 16, 2012

The Center for Global Development has been organizing a Study Group on a U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan. It published a report listing its...

The Arab League in Syria: time to embrace defeat?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 12, 2012

Two weeks ago, I blogged about the Arab League's observer mission in Syria, and argued that it was likely to struggle. And struggle it certainly has. Last...

Another turbulent week in Guinea-Bissau

by Mark Weston | Jan 9, 2012

Guinea-Bissau is one of the world's unluckiest countries. Ravaged by the slave trade, stifled by Portuguese colonisers (when the latter were forced out, only...

Is Egypt going broke?

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 2, 2012

Is Egypt running out of money? Financial woes add an extra layer of drama to one of the most important stories to watch in 2012. Egypt's reserves have dropped...

Boko Haram’s Christmas present to Nigeria

by Seth Kaplan | Dec 25, 2011

The radical Islamist group Boko Haram obviously does not like Christmas: Five bombs exploded on Christmas Day at churches in Nigeria, one killing at least 27...

What happens when progressives cede the “morals and values” ground

by Alex Evans | Dec 20, 2011

Key point: Over the last few decades the religious Right has dominated the mainstream discussion around “morals and values” in the United States. Claiming to...

Riot police become part of Occupy Portland (unintentionally)

by Alex Evans | Dec 19, 2011

This account of tactical innovation at Occupy Portland is pretty funny: We occupied the park and set up a few tents and facilities to serve food and coffee....

Edgar Mitchell on the Overview Effect

by Jules Evans | Dec 13, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE-PUTVULFg&feature=g-upl[/youtube]

Russian politics re-boots

by Jules Evans | Dec 10, 2011

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...

The Conservative Party: the political wing of the hedge fund industry

by Alex Evans | Dec 9, 2011

Some wag was on Twitter earlier this week, observing that if, during the 1980s, the media used to refer to Sinn Fein as “the political wing of the IRA”, then...

What would a post-2015 agreement on development actually be for?

by Claire Melamed | Dec 7, 2011

Pardon the existential angst, but as I'm about to spend the next few years of my life obsessing about what comes after the MDGs, and as the same question is...

Newt Gingrich – climate change hero

by David Steven | Dec 5, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYv9yd3_3HA[/youtube] I can see why the world is warming to Newt. He talks a lot of sense on climate change. My...

How close is the UK to the edge? (updated)

by David Steven | Dec 2, 2011

In his autumn statement, George Osborne warned that, without his programme of fiscal consolidation, “Britain would have borrowed an additional hundred billion...

Russia: the sick BRIC?

by Richard Gowan | Nov 30, 2011

A new report from ECFR on Russia makes startlingly depressing reading: The economic crisis has exposed a governance crisis inside Russia: even Putin now...

Office of Budget Responsibility – laughing stock

by David Steven | Nov 29, 2011

I remember being astonished by the rose-tinted specs donned by the UK's Office of Budget Responsibility ("independent and authoritative analysis of the UK’s...

Romney: the common interest doesn’t exist

by David Steven | Nov 23, 2011

Under President Romney, 310m Americans won't have any shared interests with any of the 6.7bn other people who insist on living in less exceptional countries:...

Gloom and doom at the Security Council

by Richard Gowan | Nov 16, 2011

Syria is slipping further into chaos. It's sad to think that the Security Council has been debating the situation there for almost half a year to no effect. ...

Putting the ‘sustainable’ and the ‘development’ into the Sustainable Development Goals

by Claire Melamed | Nov 14, 2011

A few months ago, the Colombian government created what passed for excitement among international climate and development types, with its proposal for...

Okaay

by Alex Evans | Nov 8, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjOwSIsgE8c[/youtube]

The US Presidential motorcade: your cut-out-and-keep guide

by Alex Evans | Nov 3, 2011

Brought to your courtesy of the Atlantic. Click here or on the image above for a full size version.

A post-2015 Global Development Agreement: why, who what?

by Claire Melamed | Nov 2, 2011

Paper from ODI and UNDP, authored by Claire Melamed and Andy Sumner, summarising the evidence on the impact of the MDGs, and looking at current trends in poverty and in global governance that will affect the shape and the scope of any future agreement on global development.

Fabio isn’t dreaming of Barack

by Richard Gowan | Nov 1, 2011

Politico reports that Eighties muscle god Fabio thinks that President Obama is too European. Sure, that's not a new accusation. But Fabio has an insider's...

UNFCCC: try not to laugh

by Alex Evans | Oct 26, 2011

Brand identity is important for a high-profile global agency. Your logo tells your stakeholders who you are, what you stand for, and where you're going. It's...

Why inequality matters

by Claire Melamed | Oct 24, 2011

Whatever else the Occupy protests (over 900 at the last count), have done, they have propelled the issue of inequality on to the front pages and into...

Are autocracies better at tackling climate change?

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Oct 21, 2011

This arresting question was raised at every stop on a recent visit to four European capitals to present the findings of the World Resources 2010-2011:...

Tony Blair on development and leadership

by Claire Melamed | Oct 21, 2011

On Wednesday ODI was host to Tony Blair, giving a speech on 'leadership' and the work of his Africa Governance Initiative. There were, of course, predictable...

Ban Ki-moon subjected to horrific art attack

by Richard Gowan | Oct 12, 2011

What has he done to deserve this?

Will the Euro crisis kill peacekeeping?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 11, 2011

A year ago, I was worrying about the implications of the Euro crisis for UN operations: Despite the financial crisis, the UN’s peacekeeping budget — running...

Why are national happiness levels always so flat?

by Jules Evans | Oct 7, 2011

Yesterday, I went to the British Academy to hear Richard Easterlin, the father of happiness economics, present his latest thinking, together with Andrew...

Syria: the Security Council paralyzed

by Richard Gowan | Oct 5, 2011

It turns out that my last post on the Security Council and Syria was wrong. Exceptionally wrong, in fact. Rather than acquiesce to a resolution condemning the...

How to unseat foreign aid mantras?

by Andy Sumner | Oct 2, 2011

I just finished a fantastic and provocative book – a wake up call to the aid and development ‘industry’ (of which I am a part so good to be woken up once in a...

Can you measure eudaimonia?

by Jules Evans | Sep 26, 2011

Martha Nussbaum has another book out. Does she never sleep? This one is called Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach, and looks at the...

Security Council debate on preventive diplomacy gets undiplomatic

by Richard Gowan | Sep 23, 2011

Yesterday, I posted a preview of Thursday's Security Council debate on preventive diplomacy, and predicted that it would be boring. The meeting certainly...

A moment of perfect cognitive dissonance

by Alex Evans | Sep 20, 2011

Earlier today, I was reading the transcript of an interview that my brother (GD contributor Jules Evans) conducted earlier this year with Apollo 14 astronaut...

Our unspoken bet on climate change: we’re going to wing it, and to hell with the poor (and our kids)

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2011

Simon Kuper in this weekend's FT Magazine about where the state of the climate change debate now stands: When someone offered me a trip to India, I said,...

Are the world poverty goals for 2015 on-track? It depends when you ask…

by Andy Sumner | Sep 12, 2011

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - the UN Poverty Targets - are just a few years away from judgment day – 2015 – so it’s a pretty good time to ask how...

Not waving but clowning

by Alex Evans | Aug 31, 2011

What on earth was with this painfully cringeworthy waving at the Seoul G20? Heavens above - this is supposed to be a summit, not a school outing. If you look...

Dick Cheney has written my book of the year (and I haven’t even read it yet)

by Richard Gowan | Aug 25, 2011

I am an exceptionally excited man. Next week brings the publishing event of 2011: the appearance of Dick Cheney's memoirs. The NYT has seen an advance copy,...

The European crisis in 3 minutes

by Alex Evans | Aug 24, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOzR3UAyXao[/youtube]

Securing Libya: the next steps

by Richard Gowan | Aug 22, 2011

So, it's all over in Libya. Or is it? I tend to concur with Stephen Walt's nervous take: The danger is that we will have another "Mission Accomplished"...

The UN’s not-so-rapid rebuttal mechanism

by Richard Gowan | Aug 19, 2011

This Wednesday (17 August) Foreign Policy published a piece by Ban Ki-moon's Chief of Staff, Vijay Nambiar, rebutting an earlier article by former South...

Meet the Republican front runner

by Alex Evans | Aug 18, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrdSOrfNG1c[/youtube]

The Horn of Africa doesn’t need the UK’s teenagers

by Richard Gowan | Aug 12, 2011

There is no shortage of post-riot commentary pieces about what to do with Britain's under-educated and unemployed teens. The prize for most dangerous...

Flash mob vs flash mob

by Alex Evans | Aug 9, 2011

Lots of commentary on the media about how London rioters are using social media to coordinate their movements. But the converse holds, too: here's a snap of...

Why is inequality falling in Latin America?

by Andy Sumner | Aug 4, 2011

If inequality is falling it's worth taking a closer look as to why. A range of new papers, seek to shed light on why inequality has fallen in some Latin...

Jobless growth: is China next?

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2011

An interesting weak signal from Beijing: Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer by revenue, plans to increase the use of robots in its...

International aid: ready for retrenchment?

by Richard Gowan | Jul 25, 2011

It's clearly the season to be thinking about whether our current levels of aid spending are politically sustainable. As Alex highlights in his excellent post...

Quote of the week

by Alex Evans | Jul 22, 2011

"I always hire people who absolutely want my job. Not just in a 'that would be nice to have her job' way but in an absolute 'I can do better than her'...

Andy Coulson’s security clearance

by Alex Evans | Jul 21, 2011

Media attention is focusing this morning on the question of why Andy Coulson didn't go through "Developed Vetting" security clearance - an in-depth background...

“He will say things people should not say in public” (or not, as the case may be – updated)

by Alex Evans | Jul 18, 2011

Looking forward to Rupert Murdoch's Select Committee appearance tomorrow? This quote from his biographer Michael Wolff, speaking today to ITV (and transcribed...

Jetpack fail

by Alex Evans | Jul 15, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he2a4xK8ctk[/youtube]

Stoicism and warrior resilience training

by Jules Evans | Jul 12, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MTBOiQ2C8s[/youtube]

So. Farewell, then, News of the World.

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2011

As we bid goodbye to the News of the Screws, it seems an appropriate moment to dust off this cherished vignette of tabloid life (admittedly, from the Mirror...

Are the emerging economies invincible?

by Andy Sumner | Jul 1, 2011

There's a couple of interesting pieces this week on overheating in the BRICs and other emerging economies, notably in Asia - that is overheating in the...

How to get the media’s attention for another environmental summit

by Casper ter Kuile | Jun 30, 2011

As governments struggle to agree what to use next year's Rio+20 meeting for, it is encouraging to see that Secretary General Sha Zukang has this pithy quote...

Why is there only one MDG on education but three on health?

by Alex Evans | Jun 29, 2011

Did you ever wonder why it should be that there's only one Millennium Development Goal on education, but no fewer than three on health (specifically, on child...

Jeffrey Sachs pens a love letter to Ban Ki-moon

by Richard Gowan | Jun 24, 2011

Development guru Jeffrey Sachs really, really likes Ban Ki-moon: The world can breathe easier with the reelection this month of United Nations...

The UN’s slithery Swazi snake sorrows

by Richard Gowan | Jun 23, 2011

A new threat to the United Nations is reported in Swaziland: A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) worker was terribly shaken and emotionally moved...

Norwegian diplomacy will hurt your ears

by Richard Gowan | Jun 16, 2011

The versatility of modern diplomats never ceases to amaze... Following a reported global rise in interest in black metal, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has...

How should Europe play the Kyoto question at the Durban climate summit?

by Alex Evans | Jun 15, 2011

Poor old Europe. Once upon a time it led the global charge on climate change - but these days, it looks rather isolated, what with its public humiliation at...

Surprise impacts of the UK’s 0.7% GDP aid commitment?

by Andy Sumner | Jun 11, 2011

News this morning from Reuters (here) that Ethiopia is buying 200 tanks from the Ukraine for US$100m (£62m). This reminded me of a similar figure from a few...

What sausages have to teach climate campaigners

by Alex Evans | Jun 10, 2011

What have sausages got to do with climate change (and no, this isn't about methane emissions from livestock)? For the answer, see Sizzle - the new report on...

Moralism and realism in the Security Council

by Richard Gowan | Jun 8, 2011

Today, Britain and France are tabling a Security Council resolution condemning the violence in Syria. While the French Foreign Minister has predicted in...

Making Rio 2012 Work: Setting the stage for global economic, social and ecological renewal

by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2011

The Rio 2012 sustainable development summit is at risk of being the latest in a long line of damp squibs on environmental multilateralism – but could still make real progress, if it focuses on greening growth and building resilience to shocks and stresses, and above all faces up to the issues of fair shares that arise in a world of limits.

How to subcontract your foreign aid budget

by Andy Sumner | Jun 2, 2011

More UK aid to India debate this week (see earlier posts here and here). India has pledged $5bn in aid to help African countries meet the MDGs and got berated...

Putin and the “gnome raised by bears”

by Richard Gowan | Jun 1, 2011

Ben Judah has a wonderful piece over on the ECFR blog about a new Russian comic strip celebrating "Super Putin": Liberal bloggers have certainly been stirred...

Why Oxfam’s new Grow campaign is a big deal

by Alex Evans | May 31, 2011

Oxfam has just launched its new Grow campaign on food justice in a resource-constrained world. I've had the chance to see this campaign being put together...

Does insult-based NGO advocacy work?

by Richard Gowan | May 26, 2011

When you want something done in your office, like fixing a broken chair, how do you go about it? Do you go to the administrator responsible and ask...

Europe’s silly case for the IMF leadership

by Richard Gowan | May 20, 2011

Imagine that you ran out of money, and all your friends were nearly bankrupt. Would you then go to the nearest outlet of HSBC or Citibank and demand to be...

RCTs – not so new, after all?

by Claire Melamed | May 19, 2011

Quiz time. Who said that policy makers should be ready for: ...an experimental approach to social reform, an approach in which we try out new programmes...

Liam Fox’s leaked letter

by Alex Evans | May 18, 2011

Here in the UK, there's a big media hoo-ha underway about a leaked letter from Defence Secretary Liam Fox to the Prime Minister about the UK's foreign aid...

IMF Head Held on Sexual Assault Charge

by David Steven | May 15, 2011

Extraordinary news here in New York where the IMF's Dominique Strauss-Kahn was this afternoon hauled out of the first class cabin of an Air France plane at...

Down with the cuts! Make Britain great again!

by Alex Evans | May 13, 2011

With consular emergencies underway in multiple countries, the eurozone falling apart, climate change gathering pace and a military intervention underway in...

Ban Ki-moon: democrat and phone pest

by Richard Gowan | May 12, 2011

Here's a bleakly amusing extract from a speech by Ban Ki-moon in Sofia: Just before coming to Sofia, I spoke with President al-Assad of Syria. This was my...

Five theories of change on global climate politics

by Alex Evans | May 11, 2011

With no prospect of a serious global climate deal any time soon, what's likely to be the main driver of change on climate politics? I think there are...

Pakistan’s mysterious population figures

by David Steven | May 9, 2011

The new UN population projections were published to great fanfare last week, with much of the coverage focusing on a significant increase in overall estimates...

If the UK had launched the raid against bin Laden

by Alex Evans | May 4, 2011

H/t Chris Albon.

Investment strategists gear up for scarcity and peak oil, part 2

by Alex Evans | May 3, 2011

A while back I linked to an analysis from Tullett Prebon, a leading brokerage firm, discussing peak oil and limits to growth - not the sort of issues you...

What was BNP leader Nick Griffin doing at a conference on peak oil?

by Alex Evans | May 2, 2011

I was in Brussels last week speaking at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (here's my presentation on the oil-food price...

Libya: time for an Islamic Peacekeeping Force?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 29, 2011

In a New York Times op-ed earlier this week, retired U.S. general James Dubik reiterated the need for some sort of post-conflict peacekeeping force in Libya:...

At last – the speculator villain that NGOs have been looking for on food prices

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2011

Finally, campaigners have found the villain they've been looking for on speculation and food prices. Watching them saddle up and prepare for battle is likely...

CBeebies on international aid architecture

by Alex Evans | Apr 20, 2011

If you have young children, then you will of course be familiar with In the Night Garden, a TV show on CBeebies which goes out each evening just before...

All those other things still to do after the apocalypse

by Alex Evans | Apr 18, 2011

And now for a special preview of The Future - courtesy of XKCD (who add the following caveat in a pop-up: "Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical,...

World Bank picks up idea of a World Resources Outlook

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2011

The World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report sets out its support for Alex Evans’s proposal of a new integrated World Resources Outlook to give policymakers an overview of resource scarcity trends and their implications for economics, development and conflict risk.

The man Soros calls the new Keynes

by Alex Evans | Apr 12, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7UdI41Pu4[/youtube]

A postcard from Bretton Woods (updated)

by Alex Evans | Apr 10, 2011

I've been spending the weekend at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire - the scene of the conference that produced the IMF, the World...

Ban and Cathy: soulmates?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 8, 2011

How did the EU and UN go from being run by these guys... ...to their current leaders? Having written a fair bit about the UN's Ban Ki-moon and EU's Catherine...

Libya: are the BRICs wasting a good crisis?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 5, 2011

My post earlier today about whether or not rising powers like Brazil, India and China might help mount a UN peace operation in post-Gaddafi Libya has drawn...

Abidjan: the UN’s quagmire?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 4, 2011

Peacekeeping-watchers are aflutter over the news that UN peacekeepers in Côte d'Ivoire have decided to take offensive actions against Laurent Gbagbo and his...

The state of Spain

by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2011

A joke told to me by an unemployed Spanish friend today: Three government ministers go on a tour of Europe. One is from Britain, one from France, and the...

HM Treasury: time for a purge

by Alex Evans | Mar 30, 2011

Bravo to Philip Stephens for telling it like it is on HM Treasury in yesterday's FT: The inflationary bust of the early 1990s shredded the Treasury’s...

The Daily Mail: an all-time best?

by Alex Evans | Mar 28, 2011

The Daily Mail is so cheerfully and consistently hypocritical that most of the time it just feels like too much bother to pick them up on it. But every now...

Rap News – Revolution

by Casper ter Kuile | Mar 27, 2011

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b66u-mzfBPE]

Murdering language

by David Steven | Mar 24, 2011

"Language is one area of culture that Nicolas Sarkozy can't dominate," complains Hélène Cixous in the Guardian, "so he mangles it with a calculated...

The two sides of immigration

by Mark Weston | Mar 22, 2011

The Dark Side: I have recently moved to Spain. In order to buy anything official like insurance, a flat, a car or a bank account - you have to pay for your...

Physician, heal thyself

by Alex Evans | Mar 18, 2011

Not much austerity in evidence at the IMF: The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have pushed ahead with pay raises above the rate of inflation...

Value for money? Whose values, how much money?

by Claire Melamed | Mar 16, 2011

I've been moonlighting on other blogs this week. First up was round two on results - I posted here on GD a few weeks ago about what a results agenda could do...

Chew on that, locavores

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2011

This Report rejects food self-sufficiency as a viable option for nations to contribute to global food security, but stresses the importance of crafting food...

Rumblings of discontent in Burkina Faso

by Mark Weston | Mar 11, 2011

The convulsions in North Africa have in the past three weeks found an echo south of the Sahara. The death in custody of a student in Burkina Faso has sparked...

Happy 100th International Women’s Day

by Claire Melamed | Mar 8, 2011

There's a fantastic array of blog postings to mark the 100th International Women's Day today, and twitter is abuzz with stories, links and random celebrations...

Should corporations have First Amendment rights?

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5kHACjrdEY[/youtube]

Aid and the Daily Mail tendency

by Claire Melamed | Mar 4, 2011

I've spent too much of my week arguing that yes we should give aid and yes it can work. The launch of DFID's Aid Reviews launched another round of...

Did we say ‘Feed the Future’? Oh! We meant ‘Feed Car Engines’

by Alex Evans | Mar 3, 2011

The Obama Administration has a respectable story to tell on food security in lots of ways: its Feed the Future initiative, particularly, put it in a genuine...

Foreign Policy ironies

by Alistair Burnett | Feb 26, 2011

Prime Minister, David Cameron’s tour of the Gulf on a trade promotion mission as the Arab world is rocked by mass protests against long-lasting authoritarian...

Amusing VW advert

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0[/youtube]

Aid to India? Er…I’m not sure

by Claire Melamed | Feb 20, 2011

Last week was aid to India week. There were three pieces on the subject on the Guardian website, plus the predictable ‘why oh why’ articles in the Daily Mail...

An amoral perspective on the UN

by Richard Gowan | Feb 17, 2011

David Bosco has an interesting post over at FP riffing on a Reuters piece about Ban Ki-moon's record at the UN. The Reuters article basically says that most...

Blame this man for France’s foreign policy woes

by Richard Gowan | Feb 16, 2011

Who is he? Louis Edouard Bouët-Willaumez, of course. In 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his intention to found a new history museum in Paris....

Institute of New Economic Thinking interview on limits to growth

by Alex Evans | Feb 15, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzPvAGd_kDQ[/youtube]

The Boy Effect

by Alex Evans | Feb 14, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLix4QPL3tY[/youtube] First we had the Girl Effect. Now this. It's hilarious. (H/t @davilalu on Twitter.)

Unscrambling the price spike

by Alex Evans | Feb 11, 2011

Article published on China Dialogue on reasons for the new food price spike, including potential implications of the current drought in China. (February 2011)...

Wikileaked cable: peak oil in 2012

by Alex Evans | Feb 9, 2011

The Guardian has a story on Wikileaked cables from the US Embassy in Riyadh this morning, which record conversations between the US Consul-General in Riyadh...

Keith Olbermann quotes GD (and then gets fired)

by Jules Evans | Feb 7, 2011

Nice to see Keith Olbermann reads Global Dashboard. In January, shortly before MSNBC fired him, Olbermann did a story on the US Army's ambitious resilience...

Amazon forest tipping from carbon sink to carbon source?

by Alex Evans | Feb 4, 2011

That's the gist of a new paper in Science, reported in the Guardian yesterday: Billions of trees died in the record drought that struck the Amazon in 2010,...

Should governments measure well-being?

by Jules Evans | Feb 3, 2011

Here's a brief video of an event I attended yesterday, held by the Franco-British Council, about new French and British government initiatives to measure...

In Praise of Results

by Claire Melamed | Jan 31, 2011

There’s much anxiety in development-land these days. New, frightening beasts like ‘results’ and ‘value for money’ are stalking the defenceless and helpless...

The Cancun climate talks in 2 minutes. With, er, hand puppets (h/t UKYCC)

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76BgKe1naFc[/youtube]

Starvation in Pakistan

by David Steven | Jan 27, 2011

I have spent much of my time in Pakistan over the past few months and have been deeply concerned by signs that an unheralded food emergency is under...

Tim Pawlenty for President – the movie

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfkNEq1XioE[/youtube] From Gawker: Ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be running for president soon, so this exciting...

How we scooped the New Yorker

by Richard Gowan | Jan 25, 2011

Back in June 2008, I wrote a chirpy but snooty post about the Putnam County News and Reporter, a very old-fashioned newspaper in upstate New York with...

The West Wing (oh, and 60,000 poor people) guide to development policy

by Claire Melamed | Jan 25, 2011

The West Wing: fictional TV series about liberal American President. Voices of the Poor: rigorous research project involving over 60,000 people in 60...

What’s changed at DFID? Reading the signs

by Claire Melamed | Jan 20, 2011

The Coalition government, just like the last Labour government, have promised to hit the magic number of 0.7% - that's the proportion of the UK's income that...

Dominic Lawson, scourge of the straw man

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2011

Dominic Lawson's Independent piece yesterday, in which he debunked the "neo-Malthusian movement" of "population doomsters", made me chuckle. Here's a sample:...

Select Committee transcript now available

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2011

Transcript of Alex Evans and David Steven’s evidence session with the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on the role of the Foreign Office

Après l’Empire…

by Richard Gowan | Jan 14, 2011

Last month, I wrote a brief piece over on the ECFR website about France's lack of leverage in the Ivorian crisis between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara:...

Blunt speaking from David Miliband on Afghanistan

by Alex Evans | Jan 14, 2011

Some very plain speaking on Afghanistan from David Miliband in the Telegraph yesterday, in a piece written to coincide with the commemoration of Richard...

Is this anyone’s idea of a good time?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 12, 2011

Do you live in London? Do you have plans for Tuesday 8 February? Does this event at the Southbank Centre sound like your idea of a good time? Following the...

Global Dashboard in front of Foreign Affairs Select Committee

by Alex Evans | Jan 11, 2011

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee is doing an inquiry at the moment into "The Role of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in UK...

How not to assemble a cover story

by Alex Evans | Jan 10, 2011

The BBC's story today about an undercover policeman who infiltrated environmental groups for nearly a decade, before switching sides and offering to give...

I’ve been nudged (and I liked it)

by Jules Evans | Jan 6, 2011

So last week, I sent off an application for a provisional driver's license (I know, I know - 33 and still can't drive). At the bottom of the DVLA application...

What price democracy in the Ivory Coast?

by Mark Weston | Jan 2, 2011

I have never visited the Ivory Coast and do not feel well qualified, therefore, to comment on the situation developing there. But as an observer from afar of...

Joined Up Development

by Mark Weston | Dec 20, 2010

As the IMF agrees to grant Guinea-Bissau $700 million of debt relief, the European Union, the country's main donor, threatens to withhold $150 million of aid....

Happy holidays from the IMF!

by Alex Evans | Dec 15, 2010

Good to know that in these tough times of austerity and spending cuts, at least someone's feeling jaunty as the festive period approaches...

Peak oilers versus climate activists

by Alex Evans | Dec 13, 2010

You might have thought that there would be a natural affinity between the peak oil crowd and climate activists, given that both basically want a plan for...

How not to petrol bomb a pub

by Alex Evans | Dec 8, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-dtsi1UDU[/youtube]

A Christmas morality tale from Spain

by Mark Weston | Dec 7, 2010

If you had ever planned an aerial invasion of Spain, last Friday would have been a good day to do it. For on that day, unannounced, Spain's air traffic...

The woman with the toughest job in the world

by Alex Evans | Dec 6, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzOwjFYXG4I[/youtube]

Eurovision Sov Contest

by Jules Evans | Dec 1, 2010

The European sovereign bond markets are a bit calmer today, after ECB central bank governor Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB might continue with its bond...

Yes, THAT bad

by Alex Evans | Nov 30, 2010

This analysis just posted by EuroIntelligence: The same pattern again. The EU agrees a pact, and the markets are panicking. This time it took them only a few...

US-Sino currency rap battle

by Alex Evans | Nov 28, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGYAhiMwd5E[/youtube]

I’m Mullah Omar! And so’s my wife!

by Alex Evans | Nov 26, 2010

Ahem. Turns out it may have been largely the Brits' fault: President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff on Thursday said that British authorities were responsible...

Are developed economies the risky bets now?

by Alex Evans | Nov 22, 2010

The FT's John Authers was asking a pretty seminal question last week: Do we have the emerging markets all wrong? When money goes into China, Brazil and other...

Clay Shirky on cognitive surplus

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu7ZpWecIS8[/youtube]

Jay-Z’s tune has changed, but has NATO?

by Ryan Gawn | Nov 19, 2010

1999. The year the euro was established. Gates’ personal fortune surpassed $100bn. Napster was born. Jay-Z delighted fans with lyrics such as “More money,...

50 Cent: the Oxford English Dictionary version

by Alex Evans | Nov 17, 2010

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/16885715[/vimeo] Courtesy of the excellent English 50 Cent, who helpfully provides a running translation of 50 Cent's tweets. More...

Now that Republicans have a majority in the House…

by Alex Evans | Nov 16, 2010

...you may be wondering just how bad it's going to be on climate change. Here's a clue: Last year, when John Boehner, of Ohio, the incoming House Speaker, was...

European military power: a museum piece?

by Richard Gowan | Nov 12, 2010

When I was small, I was taken to London's Imperial War Museum (above) and I had a good time. With the EU and NATO lowering their military ambitions, I'm...

Globalization and Scarcity

by Alex Evans | Nov 11, 2010

Center on International Cooperation report on what forms of multilateral cooperation are needed to manage scarcity of resources

California Dreaming

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKkJB8Etq54[/youtube]

Introducing… hyperstagflation!

by Alex Evans | Nov 6, 2010

Wondering what the implications are of QE2 (as in Quantiative Easing mark II, not Her Majesty) in the US - whereby the Fed will buy up long-dated government...

Auto-rebuttal of climate sceptics arrives on Twitter

by Alex Evans | Nov 4, 2010

The details, courtesy of Good: Debating climate change can get exhausting, especially when so much of the science is settled. So Nigel Leck, a software...

The UN building: full of bugs!

by Richard Gowan | Oct 27, 2010

Bad news from the Globe and Mail! New York City’s bedbug epidemic has spread to yet another landmark in the city that never sleeps - the United Nations,...

Has the Treasury shafted the FCO (again)?

by David Steven | Oct 20, 2010

I know Treasury mandarins don’t laugh much, but I suspect a few of them will be smirking on their way home tonight. If I read the spending review right,...

National Security Strategy – or selling British business

by David Steven | Oct 18, 2010

Beyond sharing the ‘age of uncertainty’ title, the UK’s new national security strategy overlaps considerably with the Chatham House report on British foreign...

10 key issues for international development

by Alex Evans | Oct 12, 2010

Presentation to UK Parliament International Development Select Committee on key global challenges to development

A narrow political vision on Britain’s global role?

by Alistair Burnett | Oct 8, 2010

Three weeks, three party conferences, but what did they tell us about where the parties see Britain's place in the world? First up were the Liberal Democrats...

And the winner of the financial crisis is…Ethiopia!

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2010

Over at Brookings, Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz have been crunching the data in the IMF's new World Economic Outlook, which came out yesterday (pdf of...

Priesthood? Who, us?

by Alex Evans | Oct 7, 2010

David and I are very partial to having a good rant about the pernicious influence of the single-issue 'priesthoods' that, as we put it in Confronting the Long...

Cruise ship fail

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrDZpX9nfQ0[/youtube]

Food sovereignty: the sharp end

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2010

Next time you meet a Transition Towner who wants to tell you that everyone should localise food production, ask him / her about what happens to the following...

Osama Bin Laden believes everything he reads on Global Dashboard

by Richard Gowan | Oct 1, 2010

There's a new - if as yet unauthenticated - audio message from Osama Bin Laden: In the recording, the voice says more people are affected by climate change...

So much for Scandic liberalism

by Alex Evans | Sep 29, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkRRdth8AHc[/youtube]

NYC’s race segregation map

by Alex Evans | Sep 28, 2010

This map of New York City, produced by photographer Eric Fischer, is colour-coded by race: Red is White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic,...

Holy Conservation Effort, Bat Ki-moon!

by Richard Gowan | Sep 27, 2010

Somehow, with all the excitement of the UN General Assembly last week, I missed this press release: 22 September 2010 – The United Nations and partners today...

Social networking technologies a la Foreign Office

by Alex Evans | Sep 27, 2010

H/t Owen Barder.

Is Ban Ki-moon’s second term already secure?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 23, 2010

Yesterday, the Managing Global Insecurity project hosted an event in New York on the U.S. and UN. You can read a transcript or watch a video online. The...

Gordon Geldof?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 21, 2010

Gordon Brown is angry. Very angry. About international development. Speaking in New York, Mr Brown said he wanted to "press, inspire and push" people to see...

European Dental Command: DENTCOM 1

by Richard Gowan | Sep 16, 2010

Just occasionally, the sheer scale of the U.S. military system catches you by surprise. Like when you read this: Col. William Bachand assumed command of the...

Andrew Mitchell goes to war

by Richard Gowan | Sep 16, 2010

Andrew Mitchell, the British development minister, has just given a well-argued speech about the need to "spend more of the UK’s aid programme in conflict and...

High-level misery at the UN? Blame me!

by Richard Gowan | Sep 14, 2010

Has an office away-day ever gone as badly wrong as the recent policy retreat for Ban Ki-moon and top UN officials in Alpbach, Austria (above)? Everyone is...

India’s helicopter headaches

by Richard Gowan | Sep 11, 2010

Earlier this week, I noted that India had decided to withdraw its military helicopters from the UN missions in the DR Congo and Sudan, and suggested this...

“Mindless scientific method” (never mind the bullocks)

by Richard Gowan | Sep 10, 2010

"How can you reduce animal pain and increase their comfort in your laboratory?" This is not a question I ask myself often, as I do most of my research among...

The World Bank’s landgrabs report

by Alex Evans | Sep 10, 2010

So the World Bank has finally published its big report on landgrabs (this after an earlier version of it was leaked at the end of July, as I noted at the...

Mozambique government backs down on wheat subsidies

by Alex Evans | Sep 8, 2010

Following up on my post last week about the spike in wheat prices and the rioting in Mozambique that killed (at last count) 10 people, it emerges this morning...

Food spike 2.0 – what you need to know (updated)

by Alex Evans | Sep 3, 2010

The FT's big front page splash today ("Fears grow over global food supply") has sent a ripple of interest through the wider media - expect to hear a lot about...

More on the US / Europe IMF showdown

by Alex Evans | Sep 1, 2010

On the fight brewing between the US and Europe over IMF board seats that I wrote about last week, David Bosco at Foreign Policy has been talking to Ted...

The FT goes red top

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2010

From the FT this morning, the following newsflash: It is unfortunate for private equity boss Lyndon Lea that colourful details of his summer party leaked just...

Iranians shoot down Thunderbird 2!

by Alex Evans | Aug 25, 2010

Over the weekend, Richard blogged about the Iranians' scary new bomber drones, and their uncanny resemblance to Thunderbird 2. Alas for the Iranians, the...

Rum, sodomy and the budget

by Richard Gowan | Aug 24, 2010

In the 1950s, British naval strategists briefly adopted the notion of "broken-backed" warfare, by which they meant fighting on after an atomic strike on the...

Iran vs. Thunderbirds

by Richard Gowan | Aug 22, 2010

Iran has just revealed its first "bomber drone": While this is obviously rather annoying, I can't help noticing the resemblance between this machine and...

Drawing over-hasty conclusions

by Jules Evans | Aug 21, 2010

Here's a new RSA animation in which Matthew Taylor, former head of the Institute for Public Policy Research and now chief executive of the RSA, sets out what...

A complete history of the Soviet Union, arranged to the melody of Tetris

by Alex Evans | Aug 19, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8[/youtube]

A “break from the past” at the CIA? Really?

by Alex Evans | Aug 18, 2010

Back when Barack Obama was running for President, he promised "a break with the past" on how America's intelligence machinery was managed: no more renditions,...

A “silent withdrawal from ringfencing the aid budget”? Hmm.

by Alex Evans | Aug 16, 2010

Lots of agitation on the internets this weekend with news of cancellation of various DFID funding priorities. It all seems to stem from this leaked submission...

More competition for Global Dashboard (and that’s a good thing)

by Richard Gowan | Aug 16, 2010

David Bosco, author of a good book about the Security Council, has launched a new blog for Foreign Policy called The Multilateralist. Here's his mission...

Darfur: total strategic meltdown

by Richard Gowan | Aug 14, 2010

The Cable reports tensions - and maybe personnel changes - in Washington: President Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, could be...

A frugal America in a world of weaklings

by Richard Gowan | Aug 11, 2010

Michael Mandelbaum summarizes his new book, Frugal Superpower, for The New Republic. From now on, "the United States will have far less to spend on foreign...

The Peckham Terminator (nsfw)

by Alex Evans | Aug 5, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2waIvp265CM&has_verified=1[/youtube]

Latrines Cave In, 1000 Users Stuck!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 2, 2010

While doing a bit of research for the post above, I delved into the news pages of the Ugandan Observer. I came away with an undying respect for whoever...

“The future I most fear for America is Latin American”

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2010

“I have this gnawing feeling about the future of America. When people lose the sense of optimism, things tend to get more volatile. The future I most fear...

Draft World Bank land grabs report leaked

by Alex Evans | Jul 28, 2010

Someone at the World Bank just leaked the FT's Javier Blas a draft copy of a report on 'landgrabs' that was due to come out in August (the leaker apparently...

From the Southside to South Sudan: rap war!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 23, 2010

The LSE has just published a very worrying report about the potential for violence in South Sudan, which holds a referendum on secession from Khartoum next...

Carne Ross on the Chilcot Inquiry

by Alex Evans | Jul 21, 2010

Carne Ross - who now runs Independent Diplomat, but who used to be a Foreign Office diplomat based at the UK Mission to the UN until he resigned in protest at...

On the web: US introspection, development aid, and challenging economic orthodoxy…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 16, 2010

- This week’s Economist sees Lexington bemoan those advancing the discourse of American exceptionalism, suggesting that “[t]he last thing the country needs is...

This is an interesting road

by Richard Gowan | Jul 14, 2010

No, really. Find out why here (h/t Chris Blattman).

Cardboard warfare is hell

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-ZmwATS8E[/youtube]

Getting your priorities right

by Mark Weston | Jul 4, 2010

Eastern Turkey is currently plagued by a simmering war between the Kurdish separatist PKK and the Turkish army. Hardly a day passes without some battle or...

Obama’s statement on General McChrystal’s resignation

by Michael Harvey | Jun 24, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKI5i_ZAW_4[/youtube]

Are West Africa’s Islamic extremists beginning to coalesce?

by Mark Weston | Jun 22, 2010

In a talk I gave at Demos early last year, I wondered whether Islamic extremists in different parts of West Africa, who had hitherto acted in isolation, might...

When the art of the possible won’t cut it

by Alex Evans | Jun 18, 2010

So we should deal with Copenhagen’s failure by embracing bottom-up voluntary action and switching to a more upbeat narrative of green collar jobs and green new deals? I’m not buying.

OECD / FAO food outlook – a lot worse than this time last year

by Alex Evans | Jun 17, 2010

This year's OECD / FAO agricutural outlook, which looks ahead over the period from 2010 to 2019 (news release; summary), didn't get terribly extensive...

Poland to Europe: beat the retreat!

by Richard Gowan | Jun 15, 2010

In February 2009, I wrote an op-ed for the European Voice about Poland's decision to pull some of its troops out of UN missions in the Middle East: Whenever...

Irony overload!

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2010

American anti-Muslim wingnuts are, needless to say, having a field day over plans to build a mosque and community centre two block away from Ground Zero. But...

Why the EU is like Danny Glover

by Richard Gowan | Jun 10, 2010

What am I talking about here? You've seen this story in a thousand cop shows. The aged policeman, a week from retirement, takes one last case with an...

Land grabs meet climate policy

by Alex Evans | Jun 4, 2010

Very interested to see the news today that City of London police have "arrested the director of a Merseyside-based business in connection with an alleged plan...

Israel and Turkey – time for cool heads

by David Steven | May 31, 2010

Waking up to the catastrophic news of Israel's attack on the flotilla that was trying to break the blockade of Gaza, my snap reaction was that this event had...

Obama’s strategy can’t work… but it’s working

by Richard Gowan | May 28, 2010

Yesterday, I blogged about Hillary Clinton's speech on the U.S. National Security Strategy at Brookings. Since then, a good few pundits have popped up to...

Doha trade round newsflash

by Alex Evans | May 27, 2010

We interrupt our regular coverage to bring you breaking news from Geneva: WTO negotiators have managed to agree on something in the Doha Round! Unfortunately,...

Early foreign policy test for Coalition?

by David Steven | May 26, 2010

Via @MarthaKearney

Are supermodels above the law?

by Mark Weston | May 24, 2010

Having refused to testify against Charles Taylor, the thuggish former Liberian president currently being tried at the Hague for war crimes, it now seems...

Whitehall: the next 150 years

by Alex Evans | May 18, 2010

(Click here or on the map for a zoomable version.) H/t Public Strategist - who also report, rather fabulously, that the map above was apparently devised by...

Thailand: no to the UN

by Richard Gowan | May 16, 2010

Yesterday, I briefly blogged about how the Thai crisis underlines the obstacles to international mediation in Asian conflicts. I noted a new paper from CIC...

Avoiding the next Thailand

by Richard Gowan | May 15, 2010

The Thai military have now declared parts of Bangkok a "live firing zone" as their struggle with the Red Shirt protestors intensifies. One of the most...

Sarkozy threat to pull France out of Euro?

by David Steven | May 14, 2010

Seems Nicolas Sarkozy, Global Dashboard's favourite European leader, was in typically understated form during the recent Eurozone crisis summit: Sarkozy...

I spy a Security Minister…

by Michael Harvey | May 13, 2010

Visual confirmation for the eagle-eyed - from the first meeting of the new UK National Security Council - that Dame Pauline Neville-Jones is the new Minister...

Hague has landed

by David Steven | May 12, 2010

The new Foreign Secretary arrives for work...

After the vote – resilient strategies

by David Steven | May 11, 2010

Yesterday, I indulged in some late night speculation, wondering whether the only ‘impossible’ election outcome – the Queen being forced to send parties back...

The end of European exceptionalism?

by Richard Gowan | May 10, 2010

While there's a lot of talk about the sheer size of the EU stability package agreed yesterday, doubts are already mounting about how much good it can do - as...

Volvo’s new state of the art collision avoidance system

by Alex Evans | May 7, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1buUIaew8FI[/youtube]

Peak Emissions Now – the US position

by David Steven | May 6, 2010

In the run up to Copenhagen, I suggested the economic downturn could be used to push for a goal of an immediate peak to global emissions. In a pastiche of...

Audio of BASIC shafting the EU at Copenhagen

by David Steven | May 5, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvpHOBAIyps[/youtube]

The little drone that wanted to go home

by Richard Gowan | May 5, 2010

Last month, Ireland withdrew its peacekeepers from the UN peacekeeping force in Chad. Some of their military hardware had tried to get home early: The Irish...

Gulf of Mexico: the bad, the worse, and the ugliest

by David Steven | May 3, 2010

From Cumberland Advisors, a sobering analysis of the possible fallout from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Three bleak scenarios are set out....

Charlie Brooker’s take on party leaders

by Alex Evans | May 3, 2010

Goes like this (read the whole thing): Picking a modern leader boils down to a question of which false persona you prefer. At least Brown's is almost...

After the vote: how would a coalition change policymaking in Whitehall?

by Alex Evans | May 2, 2010

In a post on Friday, I looked at the potential composition of a coalition government, and which Cabinet posts might be most attractive in negotiations between...

Coalition scenarios for the UK election

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2010

So with a week to go until polling day and the polls still suggesting the possibility of a hung Parliament as the result of the gripping election campaign...

The future of globalisation? We could tell you, but we’d have to kill you

by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2010

The OECD has a sophisticated new maritime transport costs database that will help answer what happens to international trade under peak oil or tight emission controls – but its publications is being blocked by the US

“Dark Forces” at work in the FCO

by David Steven | Apr 27, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPY5PiGWH7s&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

On the web: history and economics, the voice of the BRICs, and the UK’s emerging three-party politics…

by Michael Harvey | Apr 23, 2010

- Writing in the The New York Review of Books, Paul Krugman and Robin Wells highlight the importance of historical perspective in understanding the financial...

If only someone would ask this tonight

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2010

Owen Barder has a suggestion for a question that someone ought to ask in tonight's leaders debate: We understand that all the main parties are committed to...

“Joyous disbelief” in Brussels over Nick Clegg’s rise

by Alex Evans | Apr 21, 2010

Tony Barber in Brussels: Viewed from Brussels, the rise of Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats in Britain’s election campaign is a fantasy come true. For...

The leaders’ foreign policy debate gets interesting

by Alex Evans | Apr 20, 2010

What a fascinating occasion this Thursday's election debate between the three party leaders on foreign policy promises to be. No-one expected foreign policy...

Hey FCO – tell us what you’re doing on Eyjafjallajökull (updated x3)

by David Steven | Apr 18, 2010

Yesterday, I warned that governments were losing control of the Eyjafjallajökull crisis: In the UK, it doesn’t help that there’s an election on. But Lord...

Eyjafjallajökull – Europe’s slow motion crisis (updated x5)

by David Steven | Apr 17, 2010

As the Eyjafjallajökull eruption continues, my sense is that the crisis is beginning to become quite serious (check out radar of Europe's empty skies). Lots...

British taxpayer sucker in alleged Goldman fraud (update x8)

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2010

A great spot from Reuters' Peter Thal Larsen. According to the SEC's complaint against Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland took the bulk of the losses when...

Then and Now

by Alex Evans | Apr 14, 2010

"I can only say that I am deeply sorry that our management – starting with me – was not more prescient and that we did not foresee what lay before us." -...

The hacks opposing START

by David Steven | Apr 12, 2010

Much of the opposition to START (see previous posts) is embarrassingly hackish. Take this 'analysis' from the Foreign Policy Initiative's Jamie Fly and John...

A pixellated world

by Alex Evans | Apr 10, 2010

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcv6dv_pixels-by-patrick-jean_music[/dailymotion]

Will START get ratified?

by David Steven | Apr 9, 2010

I've been wondering whether the new US-Russia nuclear pact is a cert for ratification (it needs 67 votes to get through the Senate). If this treaty...

More drug trouble in Guinea-Bissau

by Mark Weston | Apr 3, 2010

Back in January, I posted the text below (I subsequently took it down for re-posting at a later date because of a bizarre and unnerving incident that happened...

Brookings Long Crisis Seminar

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2010

Opening Remarks at a Seminar on Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization – Risk, Resilience and International Order (pdf of paper), Brookings Institution,...

The Long Financial Crisis (updated)

by David Steven | Mar 31, 2010

Maybe the global financial crisis started back in the 1990s…

Fighting fat!

by Richard Gowan | Mar 30, 2010

The BBC reports that U.S. forces may soon be slimmer targets for Taliban snipers: Burger bars and pizza joints in Nato bases across Afghanistan are being...

On the web: a new US-Russia START deal, new diplomacy, and the Swiss example…

by Michael Harvey | Mar 26, 2010

- With the US and Russia finally concluding negotiations on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty, Julian Borger assesses the deal’s significance. Josh Rogin,...

NATO to Hoon: sod off

by David Steven | Mar 24, 2010

NATO is not impressed by Geoff Hoon's involvement in lobbygate: NATO says it is dropping former British defense secretary Geoff Hoon from a group of experts...

The fierce urgency of the Universal Postal Union

by Richard Gowan | Mar 23, 2010

The State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs has just released a fact-sheet entitled U.S. Multilateral Engagement: Benefits to American...

Five foreign policy lessons from healthcare

by David Steven | Mar 22, 2010

First, other governments will now be well aware that is becoming increasingly hard for the American political system to make major decisions. None of their...

Ben Folds Ode to Merton – Chatroulette live

by David Steven | Mar 21, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfamTmY5REw[/youtube]

A rare display of EU common sense on the G20

by Richard Gowan | Mar 19, 2010

Regular (or obsessive) readers will be familiar with my exasperation at the EU's inability to rationalize its presence in the G20, G8 and similar loose-knit...

Moody’s – it’s time to stop hiding

by David Steven | Mar 18, 2010

Michael Lewis, in his highly entertaining new book, The Big Short, has a pop at ratings agencies (amongst a bazillion other targets). All the big Wall Street...

Africa’s growth rates

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2010

Engrossing graph encountered while researching the effect of Chinese investment in Africa (click on it for the full size version): From the excellent World...

Economist – blogs make us yawn

by David Steven | Mar 14, 2010

Could the Economist be any more patronising? “I noticed that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. I reached down and moved the mat back into its...

Labour, Tories – mixed messages on money

by David Steven | Mar 12, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP9_kkzfN-w[/youtube] It's no wonder the markets are raising questions about UK public finances - neither of the main...

Ripple effects on camera

by Alex Evans | Mar 10, 2010

This image shows NOAA modelling of the tsunami that followed Chile's earthquake - which proved to be highly accurate. Yale Environment 360 explains how to...

A precarious peace in Sierra Leone

by Mark Weston | Mar 8, 2010

"You wouldn't understand this country if you stayed here for five years. I don't understand it," says Nestor Cummings-John, the head of the Sierra Leone...

On the web: Obama’s enforcer, the EEAS and climate, the politics of natural disasters, and nuclear negotiations…

by Michael Harvey | Mar 5, 2010

- The New Republic's Noam Scheiber has an in-depth profile of President Obama’s under fire right-hand man, Rahm Emanuel, explaining why “laboring as chief of...

Stop Betting the House talk

by David Steven | Mar 4, 2010

Talk given by David Steven at Gresham College on risk and resilience in the UK housing market, as part of a Long Finance Roundtable meeting (March 2010)

Betting the House – Gresham talk

by David Steven | Mar 3, 2010

Yesterday, I was at the wonderful Gresham College for a seminar on housing - I posted some highlights earlier. But here's a lightly edited version of my talk....

On housing – Gordon Brown, Mervyn King, asleep at the wheel

by David Steven | Mar 3, 2010

I gave a talk at Gresham College yesterday, drawing on my paper for the Long Finance Foundation on risk and resilience in the UK housing market. Also on the...

Africa to meet MDGs (updated)

by David Steven | Mar 1, 2010

Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Maxim Pinkovskiy today published a working paper today that drops the following bombshell (here's a free version): Our main...

Pay restraint in Germany

by David Steven | Mar 1, 2010

According to the FT, the German government is proud that it is keeping pay down in both the public and private sectors, and hopes this will provide an example...

Taiwan’s take on Gordon (FF to 35 seconds in; h/t Dizzy Thinks)

by Alex Evans | Feb 28, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxJoMIFDTSs[/youtube]

Tangerinegate (alas, the story isn’t true)

by Alex Evans | Feb 27, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqH-pmSJTg8[/youtube]

Obama to McCain: “we’re not campaigning anymore, the election’s over”

by Michael Harvey | Feb 26, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgXUaH5P3js[/youtube]

The UN’s impending reshuffle

by Alex Evans | Feb 25, 2010

Last week I noted that Britain now has fewer European Commission staffers per capita than any other member state apart from Romania. Now that the news of...

Autotune the UN

by David Steven | Feb 23, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnoD3NUux3M&feature=PlayList&p=kLi6BpF1IZ4[/youtube]

The Tea Party movement is stupid: it’s official

by Alex Evans | Feb 23, 2010

Ali Rizvi has a delicious piece in the Huffington Post, containing such delights as this: What was until recently a difference in ideology has devolved, in a...

Bullying in the Foreign Office (updated)

by David Steven | Feb 22, 2010

The eruption of bullygate reminds me of this recent exchange between Labour MP, Sandra Osborne, and Peter Ricketts, the Foreign Office’s Permanent Secretary:...

David Cameron @ TED: Governing in the post-bureaucratic age

by Michael Harvey | Feb 19, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ELnyoso6vI[/youtube]

Only Romania has fewer European Commission staff per capita than Britain

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2010

If you're a Brit working in or around the UN, you'll be familiar with the fact that your nationality doesn't exactly help you when it comes to applying for UN...

The Dollar Boys of Freetown

by Mark Weston | Feb 15, 2010

The leone, Sierra Leone's currency, is not highly prized abroad. Nor is it especially strong compared to more established currencies: in 1978 when it broke...

What is it with Canada?

by David Steven | Feb 13, 2010

Canadians used to think of themselves as global citizens, par excellence. Recently, though, this image has taken a battering. Canada is now so obstructive in...

The UN: sending laziness viral

by Richard Gowan | Feb 12, 2010

"Meandering" is an excellent new-ish blog on peacekeeping and its discontents by Ed Rees, who works for the Peace Dividend Trust. Ed recently asked readers...

Extra-judicial killings in Nigeria (shocking footage)

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlpZr8IRUcY[/youtube]

The peak oil conspiracy

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2010

It's tough keeping up sometimes. I thought that the peak oil conspiracy theory ran like this: The world is much closer to running out of oil than official...

The Horror

by Mark Weston | Feb 8, 2010

This morning, presumably because of a burst pipe, a trickle of water was bubbling up through a hole in the surface of a busy Freetown street. Next to the...

AIDS – the wrong answer

by David Steven | Feb 5, 2010

The wretched of the earth

by Mark Weston | Feb 5, 2010

I've been in Freetown for a couple of weeks now and am starting to get my head around the place. Sierra Leone has only recently climbed off the foot of the UN...

‘Only a tiny handful of writers even noticed the collapse of Rome’

by Alex Evans | Feb 4, 2010

John Michael Greer has just posted the latest instalment in a series of essays on collapsonomics over at the Archdruid Report - here's a sample. I don't agree...

Time to Stop Betting the House

by David Steven | Feb 1, 2010

Today, I launch a new paper on risk and resilience in the UK housing market. The report calls for a fundamental shift in the way in which the UK mortgage...

Carne Ross on how the Chilcot Inquiry blew it with Blair

by Alex Evans | Jan 31, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48P1u0RMSH8[/youtube]

Q: what’s worse than being rescued than the IMF? A: China refusing to rescue you

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2010

Poor old Europe: it just goes from bad to worse. Already sore from being brutally sidelined during the Copenhagen summit last year, it now faces this addition...

Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization: Risk, Resilience and International Order

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2010

Brookings Institution report by Alex Evans, Bruce Jones and David Steven on how globalisation could fail – and how it could be made more resilient. Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary World Economic Forum in Davos.

One quarter of US grain crop now fed to cars rather than people

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2010

Food for thought from the Earth Policy Institute yesterday: The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed...

What Obama should be watching today

by Alex Evans | Jan 20, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-zLIg1ns0[/youtube]

Caveat elector

by Alex Evans | Jan 18, 2010

ConservativeHome and ConservativeIntelligence have just polled the 250 Tory candidates in the party's most winnable seats. The survey finds that in terms of...

The face of aid

by Mark Weston | Jan 13, 2010

"The nature of the ties linking the African with the European has not really changed since the first Portuguese ships went sailing down the west coast of the...

Is France a country?

by David Steven | Jan 10, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEP7uti0PDw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Obama reports on security review into failed Christmas terror plot

by Michael Harvey | Jan 8, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJ0oMcuJV0[/youtube]

Between a rock and a hard place

by Mark Weston | Jan 5, 2010

The next stage of our journey presents a dilemma. We have to get from Guinea-Bissau, where we are now, to Sierra Leone. The overland route would be by far the...

2009’s US news stories (and a dog that didn’t bark…)

by Alex Evans | Jan 3, 2010

So here's a map of last year's news stories in the US. The size of the box corresponds to the extent of coverage in 55 US news sources - print, TV, radio and...

What is a climate tipping point? – Tyndall’s Tim Lenton

by Alex Evans | Dec 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkUaAltxUpg[/youtube]

Hitting Reboot – where next for climate after Copenhagen?

by David Steven | Dec 22, 2009

Today, the Brookings Institution publishes Hitting Reboot – a new paper from Alex and I reviewing climate policy in the aftermath of Copenhagen. The picture...

Climate Groundhog Day

by David Steven | Dec 21, 2009

“This agreement is a vital step forward for the whole world,” Gordon Brown after the Bali climate summit in December 2007. "This is the first step we are...

On the web: nuclear progress, gold bubbles, Ashton’s diplomacy, and key thinkers of 2009…

by Michael Harvey | Dec 18, 2009

- With the US and Russia reportedly close to agreeing a successor START deal, Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi chart the next steps for a secure nuclear...

Lord Monckton, October 09: “they are about to impose a communist world government…”

by Alex Evans | Dec 18, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40[/youtube]

In a land without land registries

by Mark Weston | Dec 17, 2009

A dispute broke out in our neighbourhood in Bissau when a woman bought a plot of land and began to build a small shop on it. A neighbour objected, claiming...

My bitterness knows no bounds

by David Steven | Dec 15, 2009

Finally, the Evening Standard says what needs to be said: By and large, bloggers remain writers who have not been able to find more rewarding outlets for...

Gaze not too long into the abyss

by Alex Evans | Dec 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA5VsSF6FZA[/youtube]

Climate Change and Hunger: Responding to the challenge

by Alex Evans | Dec 13, 2009

World Food Programme report on the state of the science on what climate change means for hunger, plus policy recommendations. Authored by IPCC Impacts Chair Martin Parry with Mark Rosengrant, Tim Wheeler and Global Dashboard’s Alex Evans (December 2009)

A rough guide to Copenfailure (part 3)

by David Steven | Dec 10, 2009

In a couple of previous posts (1, 2), Alex has been looking at how and why Copenhagen might fail - but here's a fresh question: what's the difference between...

Did you know?

by Chris Abbott | Dec 8, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8[/youtube]

Welcome to Gropenhagen

by Alex Evans | Dec 4, 2009

Newsflash just in from Der Spiegel: Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers...

Climate injustice

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Dec 4, 2009

Here's what the world looks like if country sizes were proportional to their emissions (world map scaled to fossil-fuel carbon-dioxide emissions in 2002): And...

Afghanistan: does July 2011 mean July 2011?

by Richard Gowan | Dec 2, 2009

Yesterday, President Obama announced the U.S. would start drawing down in Afghanistan by July 2011. Sounds pretty specific, huh? Or maybe not. Here are...

Wall Street ready for war

by Richard Gowan | Dec 1, 2009

From Bloomberg... “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group...

Europeans: here to save the world from MS Powerpoint

by Alex Evans | Nov 25, 2009

This little gem - spotted amid Iraq documents leaked to the Telegraph and apparently quoting one Colonel J.K. Tanner, chief of staff to the British general...

Even more damaging leaked climate science email comes to light

by Alex Evans | Nov 24, 2009

Following the saga of hacked emails from the Hadley Climate Research Centre, the Anthropogenic Global Warming lobby has taken another body blow - with a new...

Exxon tells it like it is

by Alex Evans | Nov 24, 2009

Currently doing the rounds on teh internets: this vintage 1962 Life Magazine advert from Humble Energy - which became Exxon after its merger with Standard...

Get ready to switch off the QE boosters…

by Jules Evans | Nov 23, 2009

At the beginning of this year, there was a lot of concern about whether the government bond markets could absorb the record amounts of debt being issued by...

On the web: EU top jobs, US-UK relations over Afghanistan, and modern foreign policy…

by Michael Harvey | Nov 20, 2009

- With the new EU President and High Representative finally decided, the FT wonders whether current Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, is the true...

How we talk about climate change

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2009

We’re kidding ourselves if we think that “green collar jobs” will persuade people to take serious action on climate change. A deeper narrative is required.

There goes the [global] neighbourhood

by Alex Evans | Nov 14, 2009

Front page splash on The Times this morning: Less than half the population believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to an...

The EPA ‘whistleblower’ YouTube

by Alex Evans | Nov 11, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSNQzSjb38g[/youtube] This video, by Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, two veteran Environmental Protection Agency...

UN to develop Nigerian Lego car

by David Steven | Nov 10, 2009

Wrong on so many levels: The National Automotive Council (NAC) is collaborating with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to...

What to make of Gordon Brown’s conversion to the Tobin Tax?

by Alex Evans | Nov 9, 2009

"Very substantial drawbacks." "Big problems attached to it." "It is very difficult to advocate a tax that has been, in a sense, rejected by the person who put...

Dubai…believing is seeing

by Jules Evans | Nov 6, 2009

'Call it the power of inevitability', scroll the white letters on a black background, as a woman wails in Islamic fervour. 'You know you have to be here.' Cut...

How a good outcome might yet be salvaged from the UK drugs row

by Alex Evans | Nov 3, 2009

The row in Britain over the sacking of Professor David Nutt, until last week the head of the head of the government's Advisory Committee on the Misuse of...

Telling India the hard facts on climate – a lone voice

by David Steven | Nov 1, 2009

On climate, campaigners are unbelievably craven when it comes to the big emerging economies. China, in particular, gets treated with kid gloves. Within NGO...

With friends like these

by Alex Evans | Oct 28, 2009

If you've opened a British newspaper over the past few days, then you'll already know that despite the warm signals from capitals around Europe towards the...

On the web: 1989 anniversary, climate predictions, and India’s relations…

by Michael Harvey | Oct 26, 2009

- With the upcoming anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Timothy Garton Ash surveys the current debate about the causes behind those dramatic events...

Does HIV cause AIDS? How much more evidence do you need?

by Mark Weston | Oct 23, 2009

It beggars belief that a decade after Thabo Mbeki and other AIDS denialists were completely discredited by a mountain of evidence (see a good summary here if...

Fascism goes prime time

by Alex Evans | Oct 22, 2009

This evening, Nick Griffin, the leader of Britain's neofascist British National Party, makes his debut on the BBC's flagship panel discussion show, Question...

NYT – Pls get the basics right on climate

by David Steven | Oct 20, 2009

Again, the preposterous idea that countries are holding back from offering cuts in emissions ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks, as they wait for the US...

Parliament: more global, less local (part 1)

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2009

Over the weekend, the Conservative Party held an open primary in Bracknell – the second time (I think) they have selected a candidate for the general election...

The EU’s cowboy (state)builders

by Richard Gowan | Oct 15, 2009

This morning, ECFR published a new report by Daniel and me on the EU's efforts at civilian state-building from the Balkans to Afghanistan. This non-military...

Copenhagen passes – a modest proposal

by David Steven | Oct 13, 2009

Yesterday, I pointed out that, for non-climate specialists, there’s only one yardstick that makes sense when judging national contributions to climate change:...

Wake up Nigeria: lessons from Sierra Leone

by Mark Weston | Oct 12, 2009

While researching my upcoming book on the world's poorest countries last week, I came across David Keen's 'Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone,' an...

German government goes batsh*t crazy

by David Steven | Oct 11, 2009

What on earth does the German government think it’s doing? According to the Sunday Times, its diplomats are briefing journalists that it trying to ensure...

Nobel Peace Prize – just say no! (update x5)

by David Steven | Oct 9, 2009

Early reactions to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize are almost universally negative. I agree. The decision is absurd. I'd love to be in the White House now. How does...

Global economic imbalances: where we are

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2009

From Martin Wolf in the FT.

Europe: you’re either with us or against us

by Alex Evans | Oct 7, 2009

Honestly, how tedious enthusiasts for European integration are - almost as tedious as avowed Eurosceptics, in fact. Despite the fact that Euro-cheerleaders...

Deutsche Bank: oil at $175 a barrel by 2016 – then back to $70 by 2030

by Alex Evans | Oct 5, 2009

Deutsche Bank have good news and bad news, as the Wall Street Journal's excellent Environmental Capital blog recounts: Here’s an intriguing thought: Global...

Keanu Reeves, John Cleese and, er, global level non-zero-sum co-operation

by Alex Evans | Oct 4, 2009

So there I am on a long plane flight home, in need of something to watch. Hailing as I do from the Global Dashboard stable, the preferred option was clear: a...

World to America: Grow Up! (updatedx3)

by David Steven | Oct 3, 2009

As America digests the news that Chicago won't be holding the Olympics, the right has reacted with unbridled joy, while other commentators just seem...

IMF head joins elite club of shoe targets

by Alex Evans | Oct 2, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a_56l6Wx8g[/youtube]

Brainwave – let’s re-invent the IPCC

by David Steven | Oct 1, 2009

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, George Will has a bright idea in today's column which will, sadly, be read in 350 or so US newspapers this morning:...

What. Just. Happened?

by Alex Evans | Sep 30, 2009

Exhibit A: I grew up in a family, a party and a country that believes no obstacle is so great that it can stop the onwards march of fairness and of justice....

Obama: Losing control?

by David Steven | Sep 29, 2009

Tom Ricks thinks Obama's grip on foreign policy is slipping: Obama has done nothing much on Iraq except screw up a couple of appointments there and break a...

Carbon dioxide: good for you, good for the planet

by Alex Evans | Sep 28, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxCQHn-w0Bw[/youtube]

President Obama’s statement on Iran at Pittsburgh G20

by Michael Harvey | Sep 25, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcW6o9BdSNY[/youtube]

Gaddafi’s rhetorical masterpiece: a sample

by Alex Evans | Sep 24, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQ6aFqprds[/youtube]

Aged 16, life w/o parole: killed rapist pimp

by David Steven | Sep 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR7mno6p9iQ&feature=related[/youtube]

Climate – Europe’s many voices

by David Steven | Sep 22, 2009

Today, Ban-Ki Moon, worried by fading prospects for a climate deal at Copenhagen, will try and knock heads (of state) together at his Summit on Climate...

Forget Copenhagen, the Greens are planning a ‘final solution’

by David Steven | Sep 19, 2009

Later on today, delegates at the Values Voter Summit will gather for a breakout session with Dr Calvin Beisner from the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship...

World Bank vs UNCTAD

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2009

Excerpt from the World Bank's just-published World Development Report 2010 (which this year takes climate change as its theme - overview pdf): Enshrining a...

White rage – Limbaugh style (updated x2)

by David Steven | Sep 16, 2009

Seems like America is having increasing trouble with the whole post-racial thing. Here’s Rush Limbaugh ginning up white rage following release of a video...

David Cameron: “I f**king hate politicians”

by Alex Evans | Sep 11, 2009

As UK political party leaders vie with each other in the wake of the expenses scandal to crack down on the cushy life that MPs are perceived to enjoy, Tom...

The moment of the Bali climate summit breakthrough, 2007

by Alex Evans | Sep 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-G1v--DONM[/youtube]

Momentum builds ahead of the Copenhagen climate deadline

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Sep 9, 2009

There have been many blips along the road in the nineteen months since the Bali Roadmap was launched, but with less than a hundred days to go before D-day -...

US military’s new resilience course

by Jules Evans | Sep 7, 2009

Just watched a rather depressing Dispatches programme about post-traumatic stress disorder in UK troops - guys coming home and expecting to be attacked at any...

Public relations fail

by Alex Evans | Sep 1, 2009

Public relations firm Edelman is very proud of its crisis management practice. As its website says: Companies must address parallel challenges which must be...

NGOs and climate change: shall we all just go home?

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2009

And so to TckTckTck.org, the most pointless NGO campaign of the year, upon whom I heaped ridicule earlier this month for their fabulously vague policy...

Scarcity as a non-traditional security threat

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2009

I spent yesterday morning presenting on scarcity issues - water, food, energy, land and climate security - to staff from the UN Department of Political...

Blue Helmets, Brown Leaves

by Richard Gowan | Aug 26, 2009

I recently blogged about UN peacekeepers' efforts to save the world by planting trees in places like Darfur and the Congo (I even featured on the New York...

That Norwegian UN memo in full

by Alex Evans | Aug 21, 2009

Lots of media coverage this morning about the leaking of the confidential memo written by Mona Juul, Norway's Deputy Ambassador to the UN, on Ban Ki-moon's...

Townhall latest: US right winger yells ‘Heil Hitler’ at Israeli man criticising US healthcare coverage

by Alex Evans | Aug 20, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVS4Zgjm8HE[/youtube]

Thought US healthcare opposition was bad? Just wait for the climate bill

by Alex Evans | Aug 17, 2009

Thought the populist right wing opposition to healthcare reform was bad? Just wait til you see what's in store on climate change... A leaked memo sent by an...

Obama to woo world with massive poker tournament

by Richard Gowan | Aug 13, 2009

Yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice gave a rather good speech at NYU on the Obama administration's multilateral agenda. The NYT has a good...

Facebook fail

by Alex Evans | Aug 10, 2009

As TheNextWeb so sagely observes, "note to self: don't 'friend' your boss on Facebook and then bitch about your job".

If international relations were a John Hughes movie

by Alex Evans | Aug 9, 2009

Dan Drezner sets it out: CLOSING SCENE OF "THE SECURITY COUNCIL CLUB": INT. SECURITY COUNCIL CHAMBER - DAY -- we see the U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL enter the...

Exposing the PR firms behind the fake “grassroots” anti-healthcare movement

by Alex Evans | Aug 7, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct--N3hJfxs[/youtube]

Blackwater founder implicated in murder

by Alex Evans | Aug 5, 2009

Okaay: A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in...

Cellphone fail

by Alex Evans | Aug 4, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRTZNVwQBM[/youtube]

ECB tight-lipped on ABS bail-out

by Jules Evans | Aug 3, 2009

As you probably know, one of the main causes of the huge debt bubble of the last few years was the fact banks created Special Investment Vehicles (SIVs) - or...

Ambassador Stages UN Coup, Issues Long List of Non-Binding Resolutions

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPfVkuPmpc8[/youtube]

Generation Change

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 30, 2009

Over on his Middle East Blog , Marc Lynch asks whether the Iraq war will change how scholars study the Middle East. It's a question he has been pondering for...

Global Leaders on Facebook

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 29, 2009

Spotted in The Atlantic h/t Ryan G. And others are joining in too... see RFE's This Week on Facebook

More unrest in Nigeria

by Mark Weston | Jul 27, 2009

The BBC reports that the weekend's violence in the city of Bauchi has spread to other parts of northern Nigeria, including the sleepy northeastern town of...

Global Dashboard drinks

by David Steven | Jul 24, 2009

Next Thursday (July 30th), we're holding Global Dashboard's first ever summer drinks - 5.30 onwards in Central London. If you're interested in coming, email...

Flu overload

by David Steven | Jul 23, 2009

Not a good start for the new UK National Pandemic Flu Service.

How to dismantle a nuclear bomb

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 22, 2009

Some knowledge of physics is, apparently, essential... more here

Zadari bans jokes about himself. World mocks him.

by David Steven | Jul 22, 2009

As we reported last week, Pakistan's governments is attempting to crack down on seditious texts and emails. Its attempt to avoid ridicule, however, is being...

Ban Ki-moon: top UN staff in anarchic briefing frenzy

by Richard Gowan | Jul 20, 2009

Over the last month or so, we've kept you up to date on the spate of attacks on Ban Ki-moon's leadership at the UN and his responses. Ban's willingness to...

Urban farming fantasies (survivalism gets hip)

by Richard Gowan | Jul 16, 2009

Yesterday, I visited Brooklyn's Rooftop Farms, one of the best ideas to come to fruition (literally) in recession-era New York. It's, er, a farm on a rooftop...

Ladies’ Ban

by Richard Gowan | Jul 15, 2009

It's the 15th Non-Aligned First Ladies Summit this week! (You knew that.) And guess which smooth-talker had this to say: I participated this morning in the...

On the web: Hillary’s big speech, water in the Middle East, British defence spending…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 15, 2009

- Over at Politico, Ben Smith has more news about the Secretary of State’s big foreign policy speech, to be delivered today at the Council on Foreign...

Light Up Nigeria! (updated x8)

by David Steven | Jul 14, 2009

Despite being oil rich, Nigeria is desperately energy poor. Per capita electricity consumption is half that of nearby Ghana and even this limited supply is...

Robert Gibbs lays down the law at White House press briefing in May

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMyOidMq2hY[/youtube]

David Goodhart: cap number of ministers from Parliament at 50

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2009

Prospect editor David Goodhart has an intriguing idea: Sweeping schemes for constitutional reform and global salvation abound. Not to be left out, Prospect...

Three years to go till World War III (max)

by Richard Gowan | Jul 13, 2009

Is Afghanistan just the prologue? The Times of India thinks so: A leading defence expert has projected that China will attack India by 2012 to divert the...

International Alert DG Dan Smith ‘connecting the dots’

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 13, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN-VeeE-FVc[/youtube]

Why Mark Malloch Brown quit…

by Alex Evans | Jul 12, 2009

The Sunday Times has a piece today on Mark Malloch Brown's reasons for standing down as a Foreign Office minister - based on detailed quotes from a...

Blunt speaking on Africa

by Alex Evans | Jul 10, 2009

I think part of what's hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance; that this was somehow the...

Peter Mandelson rendered speechess

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDCwRk2uJcw[/youtube]

G8: what the markets think

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2009

Never mind what the commentariat thinks: for the real take on how the G8's panning out, take a look at how the markets are reacting. John Authers: For...

Global Dashboard – an apology

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2009

Earlier this week, Global Dashboard contributor Richard Gowan spoke to the Guardian newspaper about the G8 summit, during which he made certain remarks about...

G8 gets off to a brilliant start

by Richard Gowan | Jul 8, 2009

Bugger: The world’s major industrial nations and emerging powers failed to agree Wednesday on significant cuts in heat-trapping gases by 2050, unraveling an...

On the web – the Whiz Kid departs, Af-Pak strategy and more…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 7, 2009

- With yesterday’s US-Russian pledge to reduce strategic nuclear arsenals came news of the death of Cold Warrior, Robert S. McNamara, former US defence...

Ban Ki-moon: subject of a Jewish plot? (No.)

by Richard Gowan | Jul 6, 2009

Last month, I gave a quick overview of media coverage of Ban Ki-moon as he reached the half-way point in his term at the UN. There've been positive pieces...

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t: Ban Ki-moon’s trip to Burma

by Alex Evans | Jul 6, 2009

Many development and humanitarian NGOs already regard their human rights brethren with a degree of exasperation for their no-compromise stance on Darfur and...

Italy’s G8: from bad to worse

by Alex Evans | Jul 5, 2009

Folk close to preparations for Italy's G8 next week have been rolling eyes, shruggling shoulders and wringing hands for some months now about the train wreck...

2009 Failed States Index: Britain’s security apparatus worse than UAE’s, apparently

by Alex Evans | Jul 3, 2009

Here in the UK, there's much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about the fact that it's even conceivable that we might lose our triple-A credit rating....

Killer (probably not) in the rain

by Richard Gowan | Jul 2, 2009

Raymond Chandler got it wrong: In fact, an analysis by The New York Times of rainfall and homicides for the last six years shows that when it rains...

Ants!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 1, 2009

From the BBC, something to make you feel a bit icky: A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered. Argentine ants...

RBS to go green?

by Jules Evans | Jun 30, 2009

News in the FT today that three environmental groups have filed a suit to make sure the Royal Bank of Scotland does more to promote renewable energy,...

“Spectre Force” – no managers need apply

by Peter Hodge | Jun 27, 2009

Six years ago I wrote a thriller, "Death Ground"*. Set in a dystopian 2019, the manuscript's protagonist was Jeff Strangford, a burnt out undercover operative...

Jackson tributes: Chavez, Marcos and 1,500 prancing prisoners

by Richard Gowan | Jun 26, 2009

Yesterday, David picked up on a fake tribute to the late Michael Jackson from "David Miliband". Here are some tributes, culled by the New York Times, that...

Party time for the US ethanol industry

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2009

Bismarck once noted that "laws are like sausages: it's better not to see them being made". Were he around today, he might add that both laws and sausages are,...

On Iran, Washington keeps its priorities straight

by David Steven | Jun 24, 2009

In Washington, Iran isn't about Mousavi, Khamenei or Neda, it's about Obama. It's a pincer movement. The establishment media behaves as if there's some Geneva...

Nokia: connecting people

by Alex Evans | Jun 23, 2009

...with the basiji, it turns out: Nokia Siemens Network has confirmed it supplied Iran with the technology needed to monitor, control, and read local...

21st century finance: too complex to exist?

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 22, 2009

As we push on through the recession, one thing that we haven't seen enough of is solid original thinking about the causes of the crisis and what can be done...

The US Navy’s answer to General Petraeus

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 21, 2009

Admiral James G. Stavridis PhD will soon take up his new post as commander of U.S. European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe. In an...

An expert speaks

by Alex Evans | Jun 18, 2009

Via Charlemagne at the Economist, this small gem: BBC News Online interviewed social networking expert Jonathan Zittrain at Harvard about the use of social...

Republicans give up on world

by David Steven | Jun 16, 2009

A few weeks ago, I nearly blogged about growing opposition to IMF funding in the US, but thought it was something of a fringe position. I was wrong. House...

Micro-credit scheme fast, simple and direct

by Peter Hodge | Jun 16, 2009

After reading Alex's post about Kiva, I decided to sign up with the web-based micro-credit lender. I lent money to a woman in the Philippines who wants to buy...

In Iran, Mousavi rallies his supporters

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2009

CNN reports: Too much Twitter

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEvSkQGXfs8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Iranian riot police beat women

by David Steven | Jun 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlu-qx8ohL8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Todd Stern in China – faux pas or change of tack?

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Jun 12, 2009

At the end of his three day visit to Beijing this week Todd Stern, the US Climate Change Envoy, held a press conference with the Chinese press at which he...

IMF funding faces the Capitol Hill merry-go-round

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 12, 2009

In the world of Bretton Woods watchers such as myself (and what a world that is), all eyes are on the US Congress, where lawmakers are deciding on the fate of...

Shell settles Saro-Wiwa case

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 10, 2009

After 13 years, Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million compensation to settle a court case over its alleged part in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa...

Europe’s retreat: about to speed up?

by Richard Gowan | Jun 8, 2009

In February, I published a piece entitled "Europe Retreats" arguing that, as the financial crisis bites, European countries will cut back on military...

Musharraf boosts Obama… and stuffed crust pizza

by Richard Gowan | Jun 7, 2009

Der Spiegel has a fascinating interview with Pakistan's former dictator statesman Pervez Musharraf: SPIEGEL: Are you disappointed by Obama? Musharraf: No, he...

Reax to Obama in Jerusalem – you’re a pussy

by David Steven | Jun 5, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxt9HwfPwPo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Obama totally flunks Sarkozy’s Egyptian style test

by Richard Gowan | Jun 4, 2009

OK, Barack Obama may have given the best speech of his presidency to date in Cairo. And fine, maybe it creates a new opening with the entire Muslim world. ...

Death in the desert

by Mark Weston | Jun 4, 2009

Back in February, I gave a talk on security in West Africa at a Demos leadership masterclass on International Security and Counter-Terrorism. Yesterday...

Kaplan on Kim Jong-il (or, what has Kaplan been smoking?)

by Peter Hodge | Jun 2, 2009

Oh dear, what has Robert D Kaplan been smoking? Here he is writing about Kim Jong-il, North Korea's recent aggressive actions and the strategic situation in...

Can the EU play Battleships?

by Richard Gowan | Jun 2, 2009

European security policy doesn't exactly inspire big new ideas every day. So hats off to James Rogers, who has a very big idea indeed: the EU has been...

The Dead Aid debate so far

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 1, 2009

Dambisa Moyo is rapidly becoming the bête noire of orthodox development circles. Her recent book, Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better...

Everything you need to know about black carbon in 3 mins

by Alex Evans | May 31, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBzmfPZ5Pxo[/youtube]

Miliband and Kilcullen

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2009

As regular readers will know, Global Dashboard is a hotbed of David Kilcullen fandom - so bravo to David Miliband for noting on his blog that Kilcullen's...

Pakistan’s beleaguered police

by Alex Evans | May 27, 2009

As Charlie noted here last week, counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen was pretty damning on US drone attacks during his recent visit to London. But...

Obama/Cheney – Duelling speeches

by David Steven | May 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqXDiqe-xY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Autotune the news: singalong with Ron Paul

by David Steven | May 20, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fngEnIkz44&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

Mona Sutphen (now White House deputy chief of staff) in early 2008

by Alex Evans | May 18, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO64dp5dORM[/youtube]

What’s your fair share of meat?

by Alex Evans | May 16, 2009

Food historian Tristram Stuart has a piece in the Guardian this morning asking the question: what's one person's fair share of meat consumption? After all,...

How UN consultants get laid

by Richard Gowan | May 14, 2009

Chris Blattman, a political scientist who moonlights as a UN consultant and blogger, is worried by the way international officials insist on flying business...

‘If you are watching this, I’m dead’

by Jules Evans | May 13, 2009

Watch this remarkable video from Guatemala, recorded by the lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, in which he accuses president Colom of ordering his murder. He was...

Best global warming video ever

by Alex Evans | May 13, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kRP5x2MsAw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Obama’s White House correspondents’ dinner speech

by Alex Evans | May 10, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1olxLwBWI[/youtube]

Should we believe the US Treasury’s stress tests?

by Jules Evans | May 8, 2009

The results of the US Treasury's stress tests of America's 19 biggest banks yesterday were less bad than many were expecting. Nine of the banks, including...

Swine flu – far from over

by Mark Weston | May 7, 2009

A worrying factoid from CNN (courtesy of Chris Blattman): In each of the four major pandemics since 1889, a spring wave of relatively mild illness was...

Decriminalisation of all drugs “a resounding success”

by Alex Evans | May 6, 2009

Something I didn't know: Portugal has way more liberal drug laws than the Netherlands. In fact, it's the first European country to have abolished all...

Not especially on-topic, admittedly, but: extreme shepherding!

by Alex Evans | May 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw[/youtube]

Labour takes battle with far right to new level

by Richard Gowan | May 5, 2009

There is growing concern that Labour party in-fighting may benefit the far right British National Party in forthcoming elections. So a media wrangler should...

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

by Richard Gowan | May 4, 2009

Kids say the funniest things! Condoleezza Rice faced another barrage of unmerciful student probing yesterday ... at the Jewish Primary Day School of the...

Republican attack ad on Obama’s 100 days

by Alex Evans | May 1, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKNbi-_Mxo8[/youtube]

The End of the American Century

by Jules Evans | May 1, 2009

Justin Webb at the BBC speculates whether this interesting article at Salon.com by Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations at Boston University,...

Queensday car attack (?) (graphic)

by David Steven | Apr 30, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_U17aqfjGs[/youtube]

100 days of not Sarah Palin

by Richard Gowan | Apr 29, 2009

Just think, if it had all gone a bit differently - well, a few million votes differently - we'd be celebrating 100 days of McCain/Palin. As it is, the...

#Swineflu: Networked Comms

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 29, 2009

In Resilient Nation (pdf) I suggest that the main concern with how government's approach risk communication is not always what they say but how they say it....

Swine flu vs. the Black Death

by Alex Evans | Apr 29, 2009

Paul Kedrosky has dug up this interesting map of the spread of the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century - a process that took place gradually, over a...

Elite capture and financial crisis: is America the new Russia?

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Apr 28, 2009

This is the provocative question that Martin Wolf poses in a recent commentary in the FT, reflecting on an essay by former IMF Chief Economist, Simon Johnson,...

National Security ’09: On your marks, get set…

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 27, 2009

More trees than the Amazon rainforest are going to have to be chopped down in the next few months to keep up with the rash of reports set to be launched this...

Ready to be depressed?

by David Steven | Apr 25, 2009

In the US, Republicans and independents are becoming steadily more sceptical about climate change.

Durban II: not awful but pointless?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 24, 2009

Further to David's post on right-wing reactions to the UN's "Durban II" conference on racism, what's the real verdict on the last week's diplomacy in Geneva? ...

Pirates, drugs, gay marriage – in perfect harmony

by David Steven | Apr 23, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBb4cjjj1gI[/youtube]

Should America torture? Seems to be a live debate

by David Steven | Apr 23, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCWN9UWtWkc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Mark Steyn’s greatest hits – with love from his reader of the day

by David Steven | Apr 21, 2009

I'm honoured to be Mark Steyn's reader of the day, chosen for pointing out that he "delights in weaving a sick fantasy for his audience"! Steyn is author of...

CNN vs the Teabaggers

by David Steven | Apr 20, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjAOrNn36Ns&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

#Smeargate

by Jules Evans | Apr 17, 2009

The smeargate story rumbles on, though the reporting on it is patchy. I thought the Evening Standard, on Tuesday evening, got right to the heart of it,...

Now it IS an offence to film the police

by Alex Evans | Apr 16, 2009

Back in January, David posted a video of two police officers asking a man to stop filming them, telling him it was an offence to do so. The man stood his...

Gitmo detainee gets permission to call relatives, calls Al Jazeera instead

by Alex Evans | Apr 15, 2009

Mohammed al Qurani, a young Chadian inmate of Guantanamo who's been detained there for the last seven years, got permission to call a relative earlier this...

K’Naan on Somali pirates: “coast guards of the country”

by David Steven | Apr 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrwgiprDBtA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Berlusconi: His greatest gaffes*

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 14, 2009

He's done it again. Berlusconi's gaffe's just keep on coming. His latest comes as he went on a walkabout in the Abruzzo earthquake zone. Turning to one...

If the Independent ran the country…

by David Steven | Apr 14, 2009

Prime Minister warned by journalist - doesn't listen. (shock, horror). Andy McSmith - a 'senior reporter' at the Independent writes: McBride is a man of...

After McBride: “The election is lost”

by David Steven | Apr 12, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrBqrNhdGU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Yeah, yeah, it’s off topic. Whatever. Elmo meets Gervais on Sesame Street

by Alex Evans | Apr 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr9_5uZn6ds[/youtube]

“A more violent crowd in uniform than the crowd demonstrating”

by Alex Evans | Apr 9, 2009

The story of Ian Tomlinson's death following an assault by a police officer during the G20 riots continues to develop: last night Channel 4 News found new...

MEPs signing on for their daily allowance. And then leaving.

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 8, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnMtc_QJ4-E&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Obama: from grand tour to grand strategy?

by Richard Gowan | Apr 7, 2009

President Obama's grand tour of Europe may rank as one of the most remarkable diplomatic forays since Nixon's trip to China, but David Sanger of the New York...

Is Geithner breaking the law?

by Jules Evans | Apr 6, 2009

Just adding to my post below, there's an excellent interview by Bill Moyers at PBS with William Black, an American academic expert in fraud, and one of the...

We’re all teenagers again

by Alex Evans | Apr 4, 2009

Cute story from the Obama visit: a few Foreign Office staffers picked up that Obama and Brown were going to do their joint press conference on Wednesday in...

Banks: utilities or casinos?

by Jules Evans | Apr 3, 2009

I was at a very interesting little conference at the Liberal Club yesterday, on the 'future of the financial industry'. The first speaker was Vince Cable, who...

Obama the summit veteran

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

This post from Evening Standard political editor Paul Waugh is a must-read: Much ink will be spilled tonight and tomorrow about Gordon Brown personally...

Outcomes: a first cut

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

So: the outcome. Here's the communique - and three thoughts from me. First, the biggest winner from today is the IMF. This is an organisation which looked...

G20 protesters just like child molesters

by David Steven | Apr 2, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T245HbanjpQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

More Chinese big ideas

by Alex Evans | Apr 1, 2009

Earlier this week, I did a post on Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan's essay calling for the replacement of the dollar as the world's reserve...

Stiglitz / Stern / Roubini / Buiter / El-Erian / O’Neill: climate is central to G20

by Alex Evans | Apr 1, 2009

A veritable flotilla of economists has written a letter to the FT this morning, setting out four key targets for the G20. Among them are Nick Stern (of Stern...

Wall Street on Ice

by Jules Evans | Mar 31, 2009

In the latest Vanity Fair, a brilliant article by Michael Lewis (author of Liar's Poker) on Iceland. It's a sad, funny and surreal story: An entire nation...

Japan begins to take climate change seriously

by Jules Evans | Mar 31, 2009

In the last few weeks, Japan has spent just under $1bn buying carbon emission rights from Ukraine and the Czech Republic, as it scrambles to meet its Kyoto...

Damn it, I really miss Dick Cheney

by Richard Gowan | Mar 31, 2009

Tid-bits for nostalgists from an excellent new piece by Seymour Hersh (still the greatest journalist ever) in the New Yorker on Israeli-Syrian relations: As...

Jeff Dunham – Achmed the Dead Terrorist

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 28, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go&feature=related[/youtube]

CONTEST 2: Spot the difference

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 27, 2009

CONTEST 2 has been launched in both wonk version (172 pages) and, for those who want a brief overview of the strategy, a slim 13 pages (You Tube Video is here...

Sanctions-busting

by Richard Gowan | Mar 26, 2009

An enjoyable new policy proposal from the Christian Science Monitor: At a time when the United States is faced with its largest economic crisis since the...

The Put People First march

by Jules Evans | Mar 25, 2009

People in the City are muttering about being invaded by a horde of Swampies this weekend, for the Put People First march. There's sure to be a lot of angry...

Academics in agony (but still going to the Big Easy)

by Richard Gowan | Mar 24, 2009

Exactly how hard can you wring your hands? This question arises from a pained debate afoot within the International Studies Association. Once a year, ISA...

What kind of carbon trading system for the US?

by Jules Evans | Mar 23, 2009

There looks likely to be another acrimonious debate in the US over President Obama's plan to auction 100% of the carbon permits generated if the US signs up...

No, YOU don’t get it

by Alex Evans | Mar 22, 2009

Yesterday's FT front cover was a beautiful moment-in-time snapshot of the meme war now underway in the credit crunch arena. The banner headline was "Banker...

Obama’s video message to the Iranian people

by Alex Evans | Mar 21, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY_utC-hrjI[/youtube]

Which newspapers people read in the US

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2009

Can't remember where I saw this table this week, but it was interesting enough to track down the original Audit Bureau of Circulation stats. Some of the data...

How green is your stimulus?

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2009

Nick Robins at HSBC has just sent over a copy of their excellent report A Climate for Recovery, which compares the green element of economic recovery plans...

Finance goes medieval

by Jules Evans | Mar 18, 2009

I think we're going through a commercial revolution in reverse. In the 12th - 14th century, finance gradually worked its way free of ecclesiastical limits,...

Climate change protest this Thursday

by Jules Evans | Mar 17, 2009

There's a climate change protest in Coventry this Thursday lunchtime, led by NASA scientist James Hansen, and organised by Christian Aid. It is partly...

Can the Pakistani Diaspora Save Pakistan?

by Daniel Korski | Mar 15, 2009

The Sunday newspapers have lots of stories about how the man behind anti-war protest targeting British soldiers in Luton -- Anjem Choudary –- has encouraged...

Thinking the unthinkable

by Alex Evans | Mar 12, 2009

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something...

The security burden

by David Steven | Mar 8, 2009

In Small Wars Journal, Sergeant Michael Hanson laments the weight of the equipment that a US marine carries to keep himself safe. 40 pounds of body armour,...

Peak emissions now – the right choice for Obama

by David Steven | Mar 5, 2009

Yesterday, I put some words into Barack Obama's mouth - re-jigging JFK's famous 'man on the moon' speech as a call for an immediate peak to global emissions....

“Britain is planning to blow up the world.”

by Richard Gowan | Mar 4, 2009

Now that President Bashir of Sudan has been indicted by the ICC, we can safely assume that a whole lot of speculative punditry is coming our way. But few...

Nepal: running out of rebels?

by Richard Gowan | Mar 3, 2009

While the rest of the world faces job losses, Nepal's Maoists are hiring: A former Maoist rebel commander said on Tuesday the group plans to recruit thousands...

Who did it?

by Mark Weston | Mar 2, 2009

Just a final word at the end of a turbulent day on the assassination of Guinea-Bissau's two most powerful men, the President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the army...

Guinea-Bissau’s president assassinated

by Mark Weston | Mar 2, 2009

Shocking news from Guinea-Bissau, where president Joao Bernardo Vieira and his army's chief-of-staff have both been assassinated. The two men were thought to...

Joe the Plumber: Political traitors should be shot

by David Steven | Feb 28, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xXSKCH7oJE&[/youtube]

Kraken Wakes – climate calamity

by David Steven | Feb 27, 2009

The first signs of disaster are noticed by only a few doomsayers. Newspapers profess themselves 'distressed by the calamities that have befallen certain...

Remote Control Warriors

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 27, 2009

I have a short piece in this month's Prospect Magazine on the role of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in 21st century warfare. The intro: A British Reaper...

EU fails to appoint Bosnia envoy – again

by Daniel Korski | Feb 26, 2009

The EU’s attempts at finding a replacement for the bloc’s envoy in Bosnia has moved from drama to tragedy, with Emyr Jones Perry rejected alongside the latest...

The peacekeeping crisis in numbers

by Richard Gowan | Feb 24, 2009

What happens when you authorise peacekeeping missions – but don’t have the troops to deliver.

Keyes on Obama: an abomination

by David Steven | Feb 23, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqkMfToY9Pk[/youtube]

Irrational Exuberance Lives On

by Daniel Korski | Feb 20, 2009

Irrational exuberance is alive and well. Spawned by Obama’s candidature and sustained despite his recent setbacks, many people still seem to believe that all...

European surge (of policy papers) for Iraq

by Richard Gowan | Feb 19, 2009

Long-standing readers may recall that, about a year ago, I wrote a couple of posts about the need for the EU to get involved in stabilizing Iraq in the window...

The Dangerous Demographics of West Africa

by Mark Weston | Feb 18, 2009

I gave a talk to senior civil servants at the Home Office last week, as part of Demos's Leadership Masterclass on International Challenges and...

IAEA helps food task force, provides mutant banana strains (no, really)

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2009

I shouldn't laugh, as clearly it behoves all right-thinking people to applaud examples of UN agencies 'delivering as one' wherever we may find them. But...

Bring on the envoys

by Daniel Korski | Feb 16, 2009

Richard Holbrooke (the new US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan) and Sherard Cowper-Coles (his British counterpart) did not have South Asia to themselves for...

AFRICOM: “Throwing a rock at a hive of bees”

by Mark Weston | Feb 16, 2009

The US's new Africa Command (AFRICOM) has made a promising start: its strategic advice to the Ugandan army for its recent offensive against the Lord's...

Sri Lanka rejects Des Browne

by Daniel Korski | Feb 13, 2009

So Sri Lanka has now rejected Gordon Brown's appointment of Des Browne as a special envoy to the island. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the appointment was...

Andrew Mwenda: let’s take a new look at African aid

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfobLjsj230[/youtube]

Stimulus package: you’re doing it wrong

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2009

Tom Friedman has a radical new approach in mind to saving the US economy: Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate...

Dashboard Broke the News

by Daniel Korski | Feb 12, 2009

You will be pleased to know that this blog is now not only good for analysis, but is also sometimes first with the news... Earlier today, Gordon Brown...

Cheerful thoughts for the day

by Alex Evans | Feb 12, 2009

In a dying civilization, political prestige is the reward not of the shrewdest diagnostician but of the man with the best bedside manner. - Eric Ambler Since...

Welsh diplomat may head to Bosnia

by Daniel Korski | Feb 11, 2009

Since Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak resigned as High Representative and EU special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there has been a mad scramble...

Envoys galore

by Daniel Korski | Feb 10, 2009

For many years, the US has influenced UK national security thinking and vice versa. The 1947 National Security Act, pushed through by Harry Truman, was in...

Gordon Brown talks about the London Summit at Lancaster House, 9 Feb

by Alex Evans | Feb 10, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAU3qLFaJN4[/youtube]

New coalition on international justice: Britain + Sudan [NB: THIS IS ERRONEOUS RUBBISH.]

by Richard Gowan | Feb 9, 2009

Having heard from people who were at this conference, I'm now convinced that the UK speaker's remarks are misrepresented (or taken completely out of context)...

Hoekstra on Twitter: I’m in Iraq, come get me

by David Steven | Feb 7, 2009

"A congressional trip to Iraq this weekend was supposed to be a secret," reports Congressional Quarterly. "But the cat’s out of the bag now, thanks to a...

AQ Khan’s website

by David Steven | Feb 6, 2009

With AQ Khan - the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb - released from house arrest, what better day to savour some highlights from the scientist's own website?...

The pensions (!) apartheid

by David Steven | Feb 5, 2009

Apartheid - described by Nelson Mandela as an 'evil system' - is thought by many to have ended in 1994 when twenty million South Africans voted in the...

A heard of Tory GOATS?

by Daniel Korski | Feb 4, 2009

Something odd is happening. Though the Tories are cruising for electoral success, many sympathisers are worried that the party has neither the policies nor...

Buzz Holling, father of resilience theory, wins 2008 Volvo Prize

by Alex Evans | Feb 3, 2009

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XX5qJaJDjSs[/youtube]

Wen Jiabao shoe protest

by David Steven | Feb 3, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPQM47rqUNE[/youtube]

China – still dodging on climate

by David Steven | Feb 3, 2009

In an interview with the FT yesterday, Wen Jiabao sets out China's negotiating position in the run up to the Copenhagen climate negotiation. Three main...

China to weather economic storm

by David Steven | Feb 2, 2009

Civilianise ESDP

by Daniel Korski | Feb 2, 2009

Earlier in the week, Charlie talked about the Tories’ weakness on foreign and defense policy. In many ways, he gave voice to a view felt across the British...

The Conservative Party’s Achilles’ Heel: National Security and Defence

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 1, 2009

National security is now the Tory Party’s weakest policy area – outmoded, fragmented and bereft of original thinking. Its a gap that David Cameron badly needs to address.

Could Nouriel Roubini love himself any more?

by David Steven | Jan 31, 2009

Considering Nouriel Roubini has so many fans these days, it's reassuring to know he's still his biggest one: Time on Twitter: 11 days Number of tweets: 36...

A Tale of Two Cities

by David Steven | Jan 30, 2009

Assume a robust global deal on climate and the world's cities will have to transform their infrastructure, economies and societies in little more than a...

Davos summed up

by Alex Evans | Jan 30, 2009

Jeff Jarvis in Davos: Where’s the plan? I haven’t seen it here. I’m talking with other people who are getting more depressed as the day goes on and here, I...

What are the odds the eurozone will collapse?

by Jules Evans | Jan 29, 2009

About 10-20%, if you believe the bond markets. Spreads on the debt of southern European sovereigns like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy have now widened to...

Eat like you’ve never heard of Alex Evans!

by Richard Gowan | Jan 28, 2009

Alex has got a good deal of media attention for his excellent new Chatham House report on future of food crises but the Daily Telegraph got the real scoop -...

A classic viral moment

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2009

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kica8hmSdAM&feature=related] This video interview shows Derick Ashong, an Obama supporter, getting approached by a...

Like the liberation of Paris: the moment Hillary arrived at State

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2009

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cyunLLKXJV8[/youtube]

Never a good time for a climate deal

by David Steven | Jan 27, 2009

Over at (the truly excellent) Clusterstock, Jay Yarrow notes that US car-markers are complaining bitterly about being forced to cut their fleet's emissions....

US greens rebrand themselves as ‘Reality’. Smart.

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2009

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PdHuB7Ovl2o[/youtube]

Climate’s new Stern

by David Steven | Jan 26, 2009

Nick Stern isn't going to like this, but there's a new Stern on the climate block: Todd Stern , who is set to be announced as the US's new climate envoy....

The Feeding of the Nine Billion

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2009

How scarcity issues will shape the outlook for global food production, and the actions that policymakers need to take at the international level and in developing countries to ensure food security in the 21st century

Anne-Marie Slaughter interviewed

by David Steven | Jan 25, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtwi_KPBGLQ[/youtube]

Buchanan’s mag calls me a Nazi and a racist!

by Mark Weston | Jan 23, 2009

Pat Buchanan's American Conservative magazine has taken issue with my posts on using cash incentives to prevent HIV infection. The idea of giving people money...

Get us out of this mess…

by David Steven | Jan 21, 2009

New paper on international institution reform – setting the agenda for the London G20 summit in April…

Obama’s inauguration speech

by David Steven | Jan 21, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4[/youtube]

Markets punish UK for saving markets

by David Steven | Jan 20, 2009

It's been another terrible day for the pound as markets punish the British government for stepping in to prop up... the markets: Analysts said the [latest...

The moment the plane went down (2.01 mins in)

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2009

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AYNQ-QtF0LM[/youtube]

“Abolish the media” – Plumber

by David Steven | Jan 17, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJYCxj8KXjQ&eurl[/youtube]

Vanity Fair attempts to stoke feud between Bhutto Clan and Puff Daddy

by Richard Gowan | Jan 17, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RxgiLARd5I&eurl[/youtube]

Privatise all the banks?

by David Steven | Jan 17, 2009

So it looks like we're getting close to an announcement of a 'bad bank' here in the UK, with signs that this move has been co-ordinated with the new US...

More on cash incentives for AIDS prevention

by Mark Weston | Jan 15, 2009

Last May I wrote about a World Bank scheme to pay Tanzanians to test negative for sexually transmitted infections (a proxy for HIV/AIDS), and about the...

187 years of immigration to the US

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 14, 2009

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2424744[/vimeo]

The wonder of being Sarkozy

by Alex Evans | Jan 13, 2009

Not sure who's writing the Economist's Charlemagne column on Europe these days, but this observation in an article on Nicolas Sarkozy made me laugh out loud:...

The Bush administration finally finds a treaty it likes

by Richard Gowan | Jan 12, 2009

From the State Department (with some explanatory notes added by GD): Statement by Secretary Condoleezza Rice Washington, DC January 9, 2009 January 11 marks...

The genius of Larry Kudlow

by David Steven | Jan 10, 2009

Optimism is in short supply at the moment, so I was psyched to read that Larry Kudlow - the National Review's economics editor and (in his owns words) "a...

To arm the Afghan tribes or not?

by Daniel Korski | Jan 7, 2009

One of the presumed parts of Obama’s Afghan strategy will be to look at ways of coopting the country’s various tribes, much like General David Petraeus did it...

“We are simultaneously menaced by the wave, and exist as elements of the wave”

by Alex Evans | Jan 6, 2009

James Meek's meditation in G2 yesterday on how the credit crunch was born was a tour de force, both fresh and considered. Definitely worth a look if you...

Dennis Blair Right Choice for U.S Spy Chief

by Daniel Korski | Jan 5, 2009

Retired Navy Admiral and former commander of U.S. Pacific forces, Dennis C Blair, has reportedly been chosen as Barack Obama’s next Director of National...

“The undeclared war on Pakistan”

by Alex Evans | Jan 3, 2009

With just over a couple of weeks to the inauguration, it's finally sinking in: Barack Obama's Presidency is going to imply some pretty fundamental changes to...

The IDF’s new weapons of war: Twitter and You Tube

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 31, 2008

Two of my favourite blogs, MountainRunner and Danger Room highlight the IDF's attempt to win over the blogosphere using Twitter and You Tube. Why? Because...

Global Dashboard’s books of the year

by Alex Evans | Dec 30, 2008

Here's what we enjoyed reading this year: David Steven - Philip Bobbitt's Terror and Consent: the Wars for the Twenty-First Century is a long book written by...

Brown 2008

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 26, 2008

Courtesy of the indispensable Peter Brookes @ The Times

How Duran Duran helped build the Large Hadron Collider

by Alex Evans | Dec 19, 2008

Enchanting fact of the week: Brian Cox, who used to be in the pop band D-Ream (they of "Things Can Only Get Better", Labour's 1997 election anthem) is now an...

Biochar – better than burning sheep

by David Steven | Dec 15, 2008

A while ago, a few beers drunk, I became embroiled in speculating about decidedly unconventional ways of controlling greenhouse gases. Two ideas lodged firmly...

Airtraffic: Mapping 24 hours of flying

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 13, 2008

The video shows the flight path of every commercial flight in the world over a 24-hour period. Hat tip: Wired

Democracy in Thailand – response to comments

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Dec 12, 2008

This is a response to some thoughtful reactions to my earlier post on democracy in Thailand, and to arguments made in last week's Economist about the...

Farewell, Detroit

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2008

H/t Polymeme

Saturday’s test: Awareness

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 11, 2008

What concurrency?

by Daniel Korski | Dec 10, 2008

In a letter to Robert Gates, cleverly disguised as an op-ed in The Times, soldier-author Allan Mallinson asks a very simple question: “Why, for example, are...

Greek riots

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 8, 2008

The shooting of a teenager by police has sparked a wave of violent protests across Greece. In the past couple of days hundreds of hooded and helmeted...

Securing Kabul

by Daniel Korski | Dec 8, 2008

A year ago when I was helping prepare Lord Ashdown for his (ultimately aborted) Afghan appointment, I wrote to a senior U.S official with my concerns about...

ISAF’s supply lines through Pakistan

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2008

News is emerging this morning of a militant attack on NATO supply containers in Pakistan, where they were awaiting onward shipment to Afghanistan. CNN has...

Disaster behaviour: how people acted in Mumbai

by Alex Evans | Dec 6, 2008

Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable (which I've just started and which is shaping up to be very good) has an interesting observation on her blog about...

India-Pak – wouldn’t it be fun to have a war?

by David Steven | Dec 6, 2008

In an extraordinary twist to the Mumbai attrocities, Pakistan's Dawn News is reporting that Pakistan prepared for war after their President - Asif Ali...

Australian National Security: When hope meets frustration

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 5, 2008

National Security Strategies, it seems, are like London Buses: You wait for ages for one and then three turn up at once. In March of this year the UK...

Piracy or taxation?

by Mark Weston | Dec 5, 2008

In a short but fascinating interview with the Guardian, a Somali pirate explains how he began his career: I started to hijack these fishing boats in 1998. I...

Thabo Mbeki: guilty of manslaughter

by Mark Weston | Dec 3, 2008

Manslaughter: The unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought (Oxford English Dictionary). Some commentators think Thabo Mbeki's decision...

Democracy in Thailand

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Dec 2, 2008

With my wedding in Bangkok fast approaching, I have been watching the events unfolding there closely and with trepidation. I am dismayed at the blinkered and...

What goes around doesn’t come around

by David Steven | Dec 2, 2008

Marc Ambinder writes: So where does Hillary Clinton's foreign policy cabinet hang its hat for the next four years? Her main team consists of: Richard...

The climate can wait

by Mark Weston | Dec 1, 2008

Today, the UK Government's Committee on Climate Change will release a 500-page report telling us all we need to slash our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and...

Karachi burns

by David Steven | Nov 29, 2008

Poor old Karachi. Pakistan's economy is yet again on the slide - with an IMF bailout threatening more hard times ahead (3 million job losses predicted)....

Ctrl.Alt.Shift: new departures in NGO messaging

by Alex Evans | Nov 28, 2008

Ooh, look at Christian Aid. They've launched a new site called Ctrl.Alt.Shift, which describes itself as "a community for passionate and outspoken...

Via Twitter: Mumbai rocked by shootings

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 26, 2008

If you need emergency information, try the Mumbai Help blog - it has a consolidated list of contact numbers. British nationals in Mumbai should call +91 11...

Britain sells Tibet?

by David Steven | Nov 26, 2008

That's what the New York Times thinks: As Western powers struggle with the huge scale of the measures needed to revive their economies, they have turned...

Food prices: what next?

by Alex Evans | Nov 25, 2008

Speech by Alex Evans at the Tomorrow Network (25 November 2008)

Old-fashioned nonsensical spy drama!

by Richard Gowan | Nov 25, 2008

In these days of spies having to roam around the Middle East trying to communicate in Arabic, Farsi, etc. it's nice to know that there is somewhere that...

What’s worse than a bad bank?

by David Steven | Nov 24, 2008

The Citibank rescue is being described as a 'good bank/bad bank' deal. Not so, says Paul Kedrosky: Here is the gist: Citi will carve out $300-billion in...

ObInt

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 21, 2008

Neat chart on Obama's campaign working group on intelligence: Hat tip Intellibriefs

South Korea’s Madagascar land lease: it gets worse – much worse

by Alex Evans | Nov 20, 2008

Yesterday I did a post linking to a piece by Javier Blas in the FT, who had learned that Madagascar had agreed to lease half of its arable land - an area half...

South Korea leases half of Madagascar’s arable land

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2008

Blimey. I've written here before about the growing importance of security of supply concerns in agricultural trade, and the fact that some countries -...

Give Defense to Clinton, not State

by Daniel Korski | Nov 17, 2008

The rumour that Barack Obama may appoint Hilary Clinton as his top diplomat has filled the Sunday papers. Personally, I think she would be a better Defense...

The long road

by David Steven | Nov 15, 2008

In our paper on Bretton Woods II (pdf), Alex and I provide rather a gloomy assessment of financial crisis - which we suggest is going to last longer than many...

Cato’s airy certainty

by David Steven | Nov 14, 2008

Here's Cato's Jerry Taylor on why only extremely low carbon taxes can be justified: So, are the benefits that might flow from a carbon tax (defined...

Should the British be thinking of leaving Basra so soon?

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 13, 2008

The received wisdom within the British Government and the higher echelons of the Ministry of Defence’s Main Building is that the situation in Basra is safer...

Renegade

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 12, 2008

The US secret service has assigned Obama the code name 'Renegade'. The Chicago Tribune, Obama's hometown paper, reported that Obama's wife has been named...

When central banks lose control of interest rates

by Alex Evans | Nov 7, 2008

Just after the Bank of England's stunning 150 basis point cut yesterday, BBC business editor Robert Peston noticed an alarming signal of problems ahead. He...

Obama = Uncle Tom

by David Steven | Nov 5, 2008

From Ralph Nader - yes Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and the man who, in 2000, running to the left of Gore, did most to get Bush elected: To put it very...

China’s emissions….

by David Steven | Nov 3, 2008

According to Reuters, the new China Energy Report (produced by various state-run scientific institutes) predicts massive rises in the country's carbon...

On the ground

by David Steven | Nov 1, 2008

Obama's ground game continues to be where the action is - and it's taken him deep into some very red states: Almost as soon as Sen. Barack Obama declared that...

Where are the British body men?

by Daniel Korski | Oct 29, 2008

In today’s Guardian there is a story about Reggie Love, the so-called “man behind the man”, Barrack Obama’s aide and confidante. Or as the U.S media has...

Obama’s foreign policy team: a poll of pols

by Alex Evans | Oct 27, 2008

Since I've already renounced any and all claims to knowing anything about US politics, I'm happily unburdened by any pressure to predict the shape of an Obama...

Stoicism and Catastrophe

by Jules Evans | Oct 25, 2008

There's an interesting interview with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao by Fareed Jakaria on the CNN website. Wen again talks about his love of Marcus Aurelius'...

The future of the Royal Navy?

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 23, 2008

The UK defence budget is tight. Defence spending plans are tighter still. While Alex has posted on what the credit crunch will mean for development and...

You know you’re in a network when…

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 22, 2008

1. You arrive at a meeting and hear several other people in the room say they have the same title and/or role as you. 2. You land a new job with a clear...

Pathways to a Global Deal

by David Steven | Oct 21, 2008

In the summer, I gave a talk at the United Nations University G8 symposium on climate change, where I explored the threshold between conflict and cooperation...

The American right – gone batshit crazy

by David Steven | Oct 20, 2008

Andy McCarthy: Obama professes a love for this country. One needn’t doubt his sincerity to grasp that what he loves is a vision of America, not America as...

Lahde – dropping out

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2008

In case, you missed it - do read Andrew Lahde's glorious farewell to the world of high finance. Lahde - the man who once boasted that his hedge fund has the...

“No evidence of human-induced financial crisis”

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2008

Bernard Keane and David Howarth in Crikey: It’s disappointing that Crikey, like others in the liberal media, have fallen for the nonsensical line that the...

The party’s over – but not for Nouriel Roubini

by Richard Gowan | Oct 16, 2008

As the financial crisis has intensified, Alex has frequently pointed us to the thoughts of NYU's Nouriel Roubini, a long-time prophet of economic doom (see...

McCain’s slide continues

by David Steven | Oct 14, 2008

More bad news for McCain. The Huffington Post leads with an article on links between the head of his transition team and Saddam Hussein: William Timmons, the...

Now that we own the banks

by Alex Evans | Oct 14, 2008

My erstwhile DFID colleague Owen Barder knows a thing or two about finance and financial services (he has, after all, been a private secretary to the...

Gordon leaves Number 10

by Alex Evans | Oct 14, 2008

Benedict Brogan notes this from George Pascoe-Watson in today's Sun: The PM has decided to set up an open plan “war room” operation and is moving the heart of...

The most useless UN document ever?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 13, 2008

I have read some useless UN documents in my time. Few, if any, match "The Crocodile Threat in Timor-Leste", prepared by the Joint Mission Analysis Cell (the...

“That could never happen. Impossible.”

by Alex Evans | Oct 13, 2008

Nils Gilman at Small Precautions: Six months ago (specifically: March 8, before even Bear Stearns had collapsed) I undertook a scenario planning exercise with...

Developing countries are not shielded from the global financial crisis

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Oct 12, 2008

So far, many observers and experts point out, developing countries seem to be holding out quite well amidst the global financial turmoil. In reality the...

How wrong can you be?

by Alex Evans | Oct 10, 2008

It's official: I relinquish any and all claims to knowing anything whatsoever about US politics. This - I blush - is me, back in January: It may be pushing...

What the credit crunch means for development

by Alex Evans | Oct 10, 2008

Although there's no consensus on whether we're heading for a 2-3 year recession or a much longer period of deflation a la Japan in the 1990s (c.f. Nouriel...

The diminishing returns on bailout attempts

by Alex Evans | Oct 10, 2008

Nouriel Roubini summarises how successively larger and larger bailouts seem to be having less and less effect: - When Bear Stearns' creditors were bailed out...

‘My fellow prisoners’

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 9, 2008

McCain: "You and I together will confront the $10 trillion debt the federal government has run up and balance the federal budget by the end of my term in...

George Parr explains the financial collapse

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 8, 2008

The financial collapse explained by George Parr, the UK's leading financial expert. The short video includes Spanish subtitles for our growing fan base in...

Manic Monday, toxic Tuesday – can we weather Wednesday?

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 7, 2008

Axis of Oil

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 6, 2008

Last week Fox News interviewed CIA Director Michael Hayden on which countries the next US administration should focus their attention on. In summary: North...

Hutton and the new defence agenda

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 3, 2008

As news of Hutton's new role as Defence Secretary travels across Politics Home, Twitter and email a few quick thoughts: Next week John Hutton will face his...

Governor Palin, you’re no Dan Quayle

by Richard Gowan | Oct 2, 2008

As we await the world-historical Palin vs. Biden clash, a quick reminder of the Gold Standard in vice-presidential debates. It's hard to beat "you're no Jack...

Meltdown update: go long on gold, canned food, guns

by Alex Evans | Oct 1, 2008

Oh, so you thought that the torrent of criticism directed at US Congressmen for voting 'no' on the bail-out meant that Senators would be more likely to vote...

Good riddance

by Mark Weston | Sep 30, 2008

Some rare good news in difficult times, as South Africa's Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is sacked. She it was who promoted beetroot, garlic and...

Vulnerable to attack

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 26, 2008

The Hollowmen are back with a close-to-the-bone episode on terrorism. This is 27 minutes and 46 seconds of brilliance, there never has been a more important...

Letterman declares war on McCain

by Alex Evans | Sep 26, 2008

David Letterman not happy about McCain cancelling an appearance on the Late Show. Blimey. Watch the whole thing, or fast forward to 6:35 for the killer......

Alaskan and Afghan naming customs compared

by Richard Gowan | Sep 24, 2008

In New York, Sarah Palin found something to talk about with Hamid Karzai: While being photographed, they could be overheard discussing the Afghan leader's...

Henry Kissinger keeps a photo of him meeting the Pope

by Richard Gowan | Sep 23, 2008

In a new twist in our occasional series of the fashion and gadget choices of the powerful, we are pleased to note that Mr Kissinger gives pride of place to a...

The rising cost of end of the world insurance

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2008

Donald Mackenzie in the LRB back in May: Last November, I spent several days in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, in banks’ headquarters in the City and in the...

Monday’s list

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 22, 2008

Picture the scene: It's Labour Party Conference 2008, Geoff Hoon is busy in interviews saying the Cabinet is totally united. While James Purnell argues that...

Bad luck, Spain

by David Steven | Sep 18, 2008

One way or another, it's bad news for Spain if John McCain makes it to President. Either he doesn't know where the country is, or he's going to refuse to meet...

Chuck Norris fact #09

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 15, 2008

LARRY KING: The question about the money spent on Iraq was a fair question, Chuck. Isn't that a lot of money? CHUCK NORRIS: ... we can debate the question of...

The (closed) open source center

by David Steven | Sep 11, 2008

Don't, please don't, click on this link for the US government's Open Source Center. If you do, awful things could happen to you... You have reached a United...

British forces in Iraq. Who knew?

by Daniel Korski | Sep 9, 2008

British defense officials must be squirming. While it is common knowledge that parts of the US establishment government are unhappy about Britain’s role in...

Whoa!

by Richard Gowan | Sep 3, 2008

There's brave. Then there's Alaska brave: The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice...

A bear with a sore head

by Mark Weston | Sep 1, 2008

Turkey has been drawn in to the Georgia crisis. Because the country allowed US aid ships to sail through the Bosphorus to Georgia, Russia has tightened border...

Hurricane Gustav

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 30, 2008

Hurricane Gustav has already swept through Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. After Cuba, its projected path will take it over the Gulf of Mexico,...

Shaking up Australian national security

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 29, 2008

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister he hit the ground reviewing. From education to health, welfare to security no policy area was too large or small. One...

Straight Intta Compton: Wu-Tang Clan expand their thinking on the Democratic agenda

by Richard Gowan | Aug 28, 2008

Readers have welcomed my decision to eschew the NYT op-ed page in favor of RZA's commentary on the election, but it turns out that the Wu-Tang Clan is a...

Team Miliband

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 28, 2008

The gossip-laden public affairs magazine Pr Week, which caught our attention some months ago, is back with a focus on Miliband. One article leads with news...

Climate, McCain and the Republican Convention

by David Steven | Aug 27, 2008

Uniting the Republican Party and John McCain on climate change is a fiendishly difficult task, as a fascinating article by Stephen Spruiell shows. By the time...

Wu-Tang Clan nail political analysis: “Rambo was crazy!”

by Richard Gowan | Aug 25, 2008

Enough with the NYT op-ed page! My main point of reference in the U.S. election will be the Wu-Tang Clan. In an interview with New York magazine's Denver...

The Future of War Reporting

by Daniel Korski | Aug 24, 2008

Since the Russian invasion of Georgia there has been a lot of discussion about the media war and who won it. The Guardian's Peter Wilby, like many others,...

Saakashvili chews over his next move

by Jules Evans | Aug 22, 2008

'OK...we call it a tie, then?'

Return of the Proxy War?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 21, 2008

In 2006 the U.S national security establishment “re-discovered” counter-insurgency, as General David Petraeus fresh from having published the Army/Marine COIN...

Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

by Richard Gowan | Aug 21, 2008

A story, and telling statistic, from Afghanistan: According to a report in the Rheinische Post on Thursday, a German patrol was attacked late on Tuesday night...

After state-building: the new UN minimalism?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 20, 2008

In early August, Daniel wrote a punchy post entitled "After state-building". Looking at American debate about what to do in Afghanistan and Iraq, he...

Buyer’s Regret in London?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 20, 2008

You know when you have bought something you weren't sure you needed, but you were tempted beyond control? And anyway, the thing it was meant to replace -...

Will Britain learn from China?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 20, 2008

With the Beijing Olympics about to be declared a success, attention will turn to London. One question is on everyone’s minds: can London 2012 match the power...

Disasters via Twitter

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 19, 2008

A couple of weeks ago a propane factory exploded in Toronto. Within seconds the explosion was being reported via twitter. When Jeremiah Owyang tweeted that...

Iran likes Georgia more than Chris de Burgh

by Richard Gowan | Aug 18, 2008

Daniel noted a few days ago that, while the EU has ramped up aid to Georgia, U.S. efforts have got much more publicity. But there are others in the aid game:...

British Police seize War On Terror board game

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 18, 2008

A War On Terror board game has been seized by police who claim the balaclava in the set could be used in a criminal act. The board game was confiscated from...

European and Russian troops: can you spot the difference? (CLUE: there are no combat penguins in South Ossetia).

by Richard Gowan | Aug 15, 2008

Earlier this week, I wondered if we might soon see European personnel under Russian command in Georgia to help keep (well, keep an eye on) the peace. But...

Tamara Urushadze is one very brave woman

by Richard Gowan | Aug 14, 2008

Alex is keeping us up-to-date on the British media's efforts to tell us what is really going on around the Olympics, but here's some even braver journalism. ...

EU troops under Russian command?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 13, 2008

The idea that EU personnel should help keep the peace in Georgia - noted here yesterday but in the air since last week - is gaining traction. Today, the...

Georgian peacekeeping: the Rwanda connection

by Richard Gowan | Aug 12, 2008

So the war in Georgia is over for now (or as Finnish FM Alex Stubb nicely puts it "traditionally, we will see a few skirmishes, but frontal attacks and...

The view from Russia

by Jules Evans | Aug 11, 2008

This is the perspective from my Russian friend, Konstantin, with whom I have had many a foreign policy discussion in the bars of Moscow. He is an educated,...

The US blogosphere on Georgia

by Alex Evans | Aug 10, 2008

Taking a quick tally of where some of my favourite US blogs stack up on the Russian / Georgian conflict, there are some interesting perspectives. Steve...

Will Georgia copy Israel or Hezbollah?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 9, 2008

Following the Georgian War from the Tel Aviv beaches lends a different perspective. The $ 22 million in military exports from Israel to Georgia belie a much...

Georgia dashboard

by David Steven | Aug 8, 2008

Bemused by events in Georgia? Help is at hand - head over to Global Dashboard's netvibe page where you'll find a digest of news, blogs, tweets, images and...

Olympian thought

by Richard Gowan | Aug 8, 2008

For those who, like me, find their attention wandering somewhere between the coxless fours and the javelin, there's some good news. John Fox, one of ECFR's...

The global fertiliser crisis

by Alex Evans | Aug 8, 2008

Although all the attention lately has been on food prices and the effect of their sharp rise for inflation, development and security, the rises seen on food...

How Prepared Are You if Disaster Strikes?

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 6, 2008

The Wednesday quiz is back* Tara Parker-Pope, the health guru at the New York Times has created a quiz based on the brilliant book The Unthinkable by Amanda...

After state-building

by Daniel Korski | Aug 5, 2008

Partly to deflect criticism of his call for a withdrawal from Iraq, Senator Barack Obama has said the U.S “should seize the moment” to build up its presence...

In Pakistan, my advice to the US – RTFM

by David Steven | Aug 4, 2008

So...The US is hassling Pakistan to crack down on its border regions. But it wants the Pakistanis to use the same tactics that it failed with in Afghanistan...

Joined-up community security strategy results in punch to head

by Richard Gowan | Aug 2, 2008

We are all for joined-up, cross-sectoral security. And we can talk the talk. Track back through Global Dashboard, and you'll soon be au fait with the language...

Closing the helicopter gap (on paper)

by Richard Gowan | Aug 1, 2008

In January, I enjoyed 15 seconds of fame commenting on the shortage of helicopters for peace operations in The Economist (I'd already raised the issue on this...

Supply or demand? Which way to fight drugs?

by Daniel Korski | Aug 1, 2008

That cheeky discusser Alex seems to be both praising me and taking me to tasks for believing that a supply-side approach to the Afghan drugs trade will make a...

Death of a peace operation

by Richard Gowan | Jul 31, 2008

So, farewell then the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), born after the two countries ended a massive war in 2000 and gently put down by a sorrowful...

Sanity returns to Turkey

by Mark Weston | Jul 31, 2008

I am delighted to report that, unlike the prescient Daniel, my prediction that Turkey's governing AK Party was on its way out has proved almost totally wrong....

Harman for PM!

by Jules Evans | Jul 30, 2008

These are testing times, my friends. Testing, troubling, traumatic times. We need a steady hand on the tiller, a good head on the shoulders, a top steerer in...

Europe: Stand up and Fight

by Daniel Korski | Jul 30, 2008

Yesterday, my colleague and former senior MoD official Nick Witney pushed out a report on the future of European security and defense cooperation. Few people...

Probably the most important speech by a Defense Secretary?

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 29, 2008

The new PNSR report reminds me of a recent speech by Robert Gates on the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign. From his speech: To do all these things, to truly...

Food crisis: Mud Cakes only 1.3p each

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 29, 2008

This is shocking. Mud is fast becoming a staple part of Haiti's poor in one of Port-au-Prince's worst slums. Clay-based food is now a major income earner as...

Not your usual political fact-finding visit to Africa

by Alex Evans | Jul 28, 2008

Flying politicians out to developing countries to see poverty at first hand - and what aid programmes are doing to tackle it - is pretty standard fare for...

Do Obama and McCain live in Zakaria’s world?

by Daniel Korski | Jul 27, 2008

Bill Emmott, the former editor of The Economist, has a great – if glibly-titled – piece in The Times today, articulating what I have thought for a while (OK –...

Like watching a train wreck in… slow… motion…

by Richard Gowan | Jul 25, 2008

Just when you thought it couldn't look much bleaker for peacekeeping, a reminder that it can: Sudan has again warned it cannot guarantee the safety of UN and...

Après moi, le déluge: Guéhenno looks ahead

by Richard Gowan | Jul 24, 2008

So, it's not only me and my fellow-wonks who are worried about the state of peacekeeping. Jean-Marie Guéhenno, outgoing head of peace ops at the UN, pops up...

Soviet-style silly season scare story squished, still starts spat

by Richard Gowan | Jul 24, 2008

While we while away the summer musing on fantasy cabinets, someone has more daring fantasies up their sleeve. A report in Izvestia that Russia wants to...

The value of democracy?

by Mark Weston | Jul 23, 2008

I was doing a little research for my upcoming book on West Africa yesterday, and came up with the following factoid: since 1960, the top five countries on the...

Development – now with added politics

by Alex Evans | Jul 22, 2008

I'm currently immersed in writing the main pamphlet for my project on food prices with Chatham House (hence not much posting for the last few days) - but I...

Midnight Juggernauts: the sound of Global Dashboard? *

by Richard Gowan | Jul 21, 2008

It's a sad fact of life that very few rock bands address the sort of issues that we write about on this blog. The future of UN reform? With the admittedly...

Hurrah! Karadzic arrested

by Richard Gowan | Jul 21, 2008

Serbia has arrested Radovan Karadzic. Just as it was starting to look like the hunt for the former Yugoslavia's worst was going to peter out unfulfilled (and...

Q&A

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 21, 2008

The most recent suicide bombing in the US was carried out by: a) a foreign Muslim terrorist b) a native non-Muslim terrorist c) a foreign non- Muslim...

Sunday fashion special: electoral style!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 20, 2008

Having blogged about American political TV adverts past and present, I'm now excited by some really alternative media: kerchiefs and light summer dresses. The...

Obama machines, past and present

by Richard Gowan | Jul 18, 2008

People who like Global Dashboard also tend to like proposals to streamline foreign ministries and sort out national security systems. Most probably rather...

Globalisation and the death of the hot pot

by Richard Gowan | Jul 17, 2008

Having just returned home to the U.S. after a long trip to Britain, I am naturally consoling myself with frequent readings of the expat section of the Daily...

U.S Civilian Response Corps: good, but not enough

by Daniel Korski | Jul 17, 2008

After several years, the U.S government finally unveiled a new personnel cadre - the Civilian Response Corps of the United States of America – who will...

Bush, Obama and McCain on Afghanistan

by Daniel Korski | Jul 16, 2008

Bush, Obama and McCain have in the last few days all talked about Pakistan and Afghanistan. In my view all three shirk the need for 1) a new political...

Pakistan – chaos and more chaos

by David Steven | Jul 15, 2008

I'm back in Pakistan where the economic picture continues to worsen, as inflation hits 21.53%. Delve into the detail and you can see the impact of ordinary...

Life after the flood

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2008

Cory at BoingBoing and Alex at WorldChanging sat down for a coffee together last week and started brainstorming about life after the apocalpyse. Cory says: I...

Launching a new approach to public diplomacy

by David Steven | Jul 11, 2008

Last night, I was on Capitol Hill for the launch of the FCO's new book on public diplomacy. As Alex noted earlier, we have a chapter in the book on public...

The Foreign Office’s new theory of influence

by Alex Evans | Jul 11, 2008

This week, the Foreign Office published a new collection of essays and case studies on public diplomacy edited by Europe Minister Jim Murphy. The FT had an...

Yet another wake up call

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2008

Gideon Rachman's feeling a bit down in the mouth. He had been planning, he says, to write his column this week on the obvious subject - the G8 - but then he...

Age of continents?

by Daniel Korski | Jul 8, 2008

Having just read Alex and David’s new paper, I wonder whether the we have not moved away from an Age of Nation-States to an Age of Continents? I don’t mean...

New Middle East peace envoy takes radically different approach

by Alex Evans | Jul 8, 2008

Those of you who follow Middle East politics will be aware of the endless succession of peace envoys who head to the region to try their hand (latterly our...

Privatize an embassy. I dare you

by Daniel Korski | Jul 7, 2008

The privatization of diplomacy is nothing new. Large lobbying firms function in many respects like diplomatic services. Hill and Knowlton, for example,...

Chad: triple word score!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 6, 2008

Seasoned readers may recall that I got quite worked up about events in Chad a few weeks back when (depending on who you believe) Irish EU peacekeepers either...

The EU should embrace the Gulf

by Daniel Korski | Jul 4, 2008

A once-in-a-generation power shift is taking place in the Middle East with the rise of Iran. As the U.S is temporarily distracted in the run-up to the...

Happy Birthday, natural selection

by Jules Evans | Jul 2, 2008

Yesterday, 150 years ago, two papers were read out at the Linnean Society in London, one by Alfred Russell Wallace and the other by Charles Darwin, which...

A plague on both your houses

by Alex Evans | Jul 1, 2008

What a depressing spectacle it is to watch the Church of England sinking into meme warfare with itself. On Sunday came the news that conservative...

Japan’s G8: a week to go

by Alex Evans | Jun 30, 2008

So, with a week to go until Japan's G8 in Hokkaido, how are things looking? If you want the comprehensive answer, you should head straight for Jenilee...

Farewell, suburbia?

by Alex Evans | Jun 28, 2008

First things first: bookmark this link. It points to the Economics and Strategy page at CIBC World Markets, the Canadian investment bank whose research team...

It’s official – Mandela soon not to be a terrorist

by David Steven | Jun 27, 2008

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...

100 WEF CEOs argue per capita convergence ahead of G8

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2008

WEF has just published a statement on climate change ahead of the G8 from what appears more or less all of the world's CEOs (A is for ABB, Abercrombie &...

Torture you? That’s a good idea. I like that.

by David Steven | Jun 24, 2008

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...

How the Puerto Ricans stumped Saddam

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 23, 2008

You have to hand it to three US intelligence amigos: Donald Kerr , Tom Fingar and Mike McConnell. They don't just subscribe to the concepts of need to share...

“I know they could kill me, but the cost of filling my tank in the US is just too much”

by Alex Evans | Jun 22, 2008

From Reuters via John Robb: U.S. motorists are risking rampant drug violence in Mexico to drive over the border and fill their tanks with cheap Mexican fuel,...

Respecting the Irish ‘no’

by Alex Evans | Jun 21, 2008

Robert Shrimsley offers this take on attitudes in Brussels towards the Irish 'no' vote (hat-tip: Jim Pickard): The great figures of Europe met in the wake of...

A nuclear error

by Richard Gowan | Jun 20, 2008

At the start of the month, I tried to write a wry and whimsical post about signs of scarcity in Putnam County, a beautiful bit of hill country north of New...

Bush’s war crimes

by David Steven | Jun 19, 2008

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...

Bid now!

by Alex Evans | Jun 19, 2008

Exciting news: the DC-based Young Professionals in Foreign Policy network is organising a silent auction for charity, in which you can buy yourself a hot...

On the benefits of failure

by Alex Evans | Jun 18, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pucdJHjZaqs] If you do nothing else this week, watch this - JK Rowling's superb commencement address to Harvard's...

“The Uses of American Power”: 2008 = 1977

by Richard Gowan | Jun 17, 2008

Doing some Google "research" this morning, I dug up this 1977 Foreign Affairs piece by Stanley Hoffmann on "The Uses of American Power". You wouldn't need to...

Think like a Hurricane

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 17, 2008

This is the University of Maryland's scale model of New Orleans where they are in the process of recreating Katrina's floodwaters. After the hurricane,...

Chadian rebels ? Irish neutralism

by Richard Gowan | Jun 16, 2008

On Saturday, just after Ireland tipped the EU into crisis by rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, Irish forces serving with the EU in Chad found themselves caught in...

Britain’s badly configured air force

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2008

It's not often that you expect clothes shopping in Covent Garden to turn into a lesson on defence procurement. But as I emerged from Reiss feeling pleased...

Summit sleights of hand on oil and climate

by Alex Evans | Jun 13, 2008

Ahead of this weekend's G8 Finance Ministers' meeting, the treasury secretaries of Japan, the US and the UK have launched a call for G8 countries to commit...

McCain: how many suicide attacks does he want?

by David Steven | Jun 13, 2008

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

by David Steven | Jun 12, 2008

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...

Panic buying 101

by Alex Evans | Jun 12, 2008

Here in the UK, it looks like next week will see a major strike by the tanker drivers who keep Shell petrol stations fuelled up - catalysing fears of a...

I’m shocked, shocked to find corruption

by Daniel Korski | Jun 9, 2008

Audit results of Iraq’s 2007 oil sales and revenue flow conducted by Ernst & Young questioned 13.8 million barrels of oil produced but unaccounted for...

Intervention Blues

by Daniel Korski | Jun 9, 2008

Simon Jenkins has a good piece in the Sunday Times about the decreasing willingness to contemplate humanitarian intervention. The humanitarian creed, he...

EU Treaty under threat

by Daniel Korski | Jun 6, 2008

“It’s deja vu all over again”, as the famous U.S baseball player Yogi Berra said. The latest polls show Irish voters' getting ready to reject the Lisbon...

EU anti-terrorism plan: Seat cameras on airplanes

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 6, 2008

From the Register via Bruce Schneier: The EU is testing an airplane-seat camera system that tries to detect terrorists before they leap up and carry out their...

Ending Afghanistan’s drug fix

by Daniel Korski | Jun 4, 2008

A few weeks ago, Charlie suggested that Afghanistan's opium economy might benefit from skyrocketing food prices. But the trajectory is unlikely to change, as...

Food summit: what’s the story?

by Alex Evans | Jun 3, 2008

One of the catches with this week's UN food summit is that it's not immediately clear just what deal the various heads of state and ministers assembled here...

Scarcity in small town America

by Richard Gowan | Jun 2, 2008

I was recently hiking in Putnam County, NY, a charming slice of hill country on the Hudson made famous by a musical about a Spelling Bee. I picked up the...

Danish Embassy bombed

by David Steven | Jun 2, 2008

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...

The dark side of flash mobs

by Alex Evans | Jun 1, 2008

Back in February, I wrote a couple of posts comparing the potential effects of social networking technologies. One referred to a talk by Clay Shirky which...

60 years of keeping the peace

by Richard Gowan | May 29, 2008

From greenwash to cornwash

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2008

You've heard of greenwash. Now: cornwash! A firm called Abengoa Bioenergy has a full page advertisement in today's FT, which begins thus: Manipulation:...

Development NGOs and the search for a new story on trade

by Alex Evans | May 28, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post noting that the global food prices debate was hallmarked by three competing schools of thought on trade contesting food...

Virtual Iraq

by Jules Evans | May 22, 2008

There's a great article in this week's New Yorker about a new form of therapy designed to treat the estimated 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are...

As good as it gets

by Alex Evans | May 22, 2008

Not long ago, readers will recall, Richard wrote a downcast post explaining why think tank reports are often condemned to live out their lives in a dusty...

It’s appeasement all over again!

by Alex Evans | May 21, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1wSZBTAXRs] So says Kevin James, a right wing radio host, of Barack Obama. Problem is, as the news anchor...

Group Think

by Charlie Edwards | May 20, 2008

I've just been sent an invitation from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) to their Land Warfare Conference (VIII). It strikes me (an idea not the...

Oh, did we forget to say we wanted the money back?

by Alex Evans | May 19, 2008

What can you do but shake your head in wonderment at the debacle over the UK government's £800m Environmental Transformation Fund? As John Vidal reported in...

FCO’s new website

by Alex Evans | May 18, 2008

Oooh... aaah... bow your heads in reverence before the Foreign Office's brand new website. Especially nice: this Google maps mashup showing FCO activities...

Safe sex for money

by Mark Weston | May 16, 2008

A post I wrote last week described a "push" approach to AIDS prevention - circumcise men, tell people to use condoms, encourage them not to sleep around too...

Food security in Britain: time to head for the hills?

by Alex Evans | May 15, 2008

How much should people in Britain worry about food security? Here's a starter for ten, taken from a recent Guardian article by Harriet Green: For three...

No, Minister

by Daniel Korski | May 14, 2008

Last night I had dinner with a group of security experts and sat next to Chatham House's Robin Niblett . We got to talking about the role of Ministers and how...

Iran file re-activated

by Daniel Korski | May 13, 2008

After a period of silence on the “Iran file”, the P5+1 will present Tehran with a new incentive package to convince the Iranians to suspend their enrichment...

Medvedev builds his authority

by Jules Evans | May 12, 2008

President Putin built up his authority by promoting mates of his from KGB to senior posts in the government and economy. Now president Medvedev is doing the...

Total financial meltdown: you wouldn’t credit it

by Richard Gowan | May 11, 2008

From a piece on the credit crunch in the current London Review of Books, the sort of opening that you find yourself reading more than once... Last November, I...

Climate: after the euphoria

by David Steven | May 10, 2008

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...

Cyclone Nargis – Burma

by Charlie Edwards | May 7, 2008

Before After (The red square denotes the capital -...

Civil war and mass murder: “difficult”

by Richard Gowan | May 2, 2008

It's utter hypocrisy time in the Balkans. With Serbia's elections less than a fortnight away, everyone feels obliged to be nice to Belgrade in the hope that...

The globalization of media

by Jules Evans | May 1, 2008

One of the trends we've seen in investment banking over the last two or three years is what PWC calls the 'global war for talent'. Local banks in rich...

Following the United States

by David Steven | Apr 30, 2008

I am at the Diplomatic Academy of London for a conference on ‘transformational public diplomacy' (programme- pdf). As the title suggests, the launch pad for...

New Afghan strategy needed

by Daniel Korski | Apr 30, 2008

Prince William, the second in line to the British throne, just finished a trip to Afghanistan, which probably happened at the same time as Taliban gunmen...

Organised crime: Out of sight. Out of mind?

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 29, 2008

Last year I held a seminar at Demos on Silent Risks Tackling organised crime in the 21st century. A central argument put forward by the panel of experts was...

No COIN please, we’re British

by Daniel Korski | Apr 29, 2008

Despite having practically invented modern counter-insurgency, today Britain is woefully ill-equipped for this kind of complex, mosaic-style warfare. The...

Labour in disarray vs. Democrats in disarray

by Richard Gowan | Apr 28, 2008

Would you rather be a member of the liberal left on the western or eastern side of the Atlantic right now? Not easy. Labour's in free-fall. The Democrats...

Kosovo: can’t live with the UN, can’t live without it…

by Richard Gowan | Apr 26, 2008

The UN Mission in Kosovo is starting to look like that tedious guest at the end of your dinner party that just won't leave. Except, in this case, the guest...

The problem of an independent civil service

by Alex Evans | Apr 26, 2008

For English policy wonks walking along Massachusetts Avenue in Washington DC, the experience is invariably bittersweet. On one hand, they are (they must...

National security reform, U.S-style

by Daniel Korski | Apr 25, 2008

Yesterday, Congress heard testimony from James Locher III – the head of the Project on National Security Reform and the organisational genius behind the 1986...

CNN interview on food prices

by Alex Evans | Apr 24, 2008

Here's a CNN interview I did at an unholy hour this morning on rising food prices. Some of the cutaway footage they've spliced in is truly random. One shot...

General merry-go-round

by Daniel Korski | Apr 23, 2008

Today American Defence Secretary Robert Gates recommended that General David Petraeus be appointed head of US Central Command. Until Admiral William Fallon...

Australia: not just anyone

by Alex Evans | Apr 23, 2008

Amidst the general swooning over Kevin Rudd (to which even we at Global Dashboard are not immune), the latest convert is David Miliband, who last week penned...

An SMS Shakesperean tragedy

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2008

From Gizmodo, a terrible tale of technology, misunderstanding and revenge. Our story begins in Turkey, where Emine and Ramazan are in the process of...

Why Doha progress would mean even higher food prices

by Alex Evans | Apr 21, 2008

So far, most of the consensus on what to do about food prices is (as you might expect) strongly focused on the short term: measures like spending more cash on...

Building Resilience – RUSI

by David Steven | Apr 17, 2008

Today, I gave the closing address at the RUSI conference, Protecting the Critical Infrastructure, in a session introduced by RUSI's head of risk and...

A new Anglo-American relationship

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 16, 2008

Brown’s in the US and is promising a new Atlantic relationship. Unlike his predecessors Brown has not yet launched into a new Anglo-American security or...

Re: Ways in which we are screwed #94

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2008

A propos of David's post, here's what's scaring me witless this weekend: The Ug99 strain of the killer wheat fungus (stem rust), which recently infected wheat...

Ways in which we are screwed #94

by David Steven | Apr 11, 2008

It's been a long day, so excuse the bad mood. But, really: is it possible to read an article like this without falling further into deep despair? Ira Winkler...

Progressive Governance talk

by David Steven | Apr 10, 2008

Below the jump, Alex and my talk at last weekend's Progressive Governance summit - it's a four minute summary of our paper on multilateralism and global...

The superclass

by David Steven | Apr 8, 2008

In our Progressive Governance paper, Alex and I argued that ad hoc ‘shared platforms' are a vital part of the management of a globalised world, particularly...

Why people aren’t reading your think-tank’s latest report

by Richard Gowan | Apr 7, 2008

There isn't a think-tank, policy institute or academic department anywhere in the world that doesn't have a cupboard or entire room given over to hoarding...

Headlines of our times

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 7, 2008

Soaring corn prices hit ethanol profits (The Times) Darling accused of failing to spot credit danger (The Times) IMF head calls for global action on turmoil...

Bentham in Brooklyn: “You may call it a Glass Doughnut, sir, I call it a Panopticon!”

by Richard Gowan | Apr 6, 2008

Utilitarian philosopher (and celebrity corpse) Jeremy Bentham famously proposed a "Panopticon" design for a prison: a circular building, with the warder sat...

Shooting the Rapids: multilateralism and global risks

by David Steven | Apr 5, 2008

Paper by Alex Evans and David Steven, commissioned by Gordon Brown and presented to heads of state at the Progressive Governance Summit (April 2008).

Progressive Governance summit paper on multilateral reform

by Alex Evans | Apr 4, 2008

As David mentioned yesterday, Downing Street's asked us to prepare a paper on reform of international institutions and present it to various heads of state...

EU troops in Africa: more bad news

by Richard Gowan | Apr 3, 2008

While the EU is still recovering from its series of set-backs in Chad over the last two months, it's been hit by bad news from an earlier mission. In 2003,...

I wrote it myself

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2008

Most politician bloggers are somewhat half-arsed, but when Barack Obama posted for the first time on uber-leftie group blog, Daily Kos, back in 2005, his post...

Just what we need – another moron

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2008

A few weeks back, John McCain was asked whether taxpayers should fund contraception to combat AIDS. Here's the response: Mr. McCain: "I haven’t thought about...

Taliban for you on line 2

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2008

Barney Rubin does know how to start a blog post: Last week I was at a meeting in Madrid to discuss a "Political Solution" to the conflict in Afghanistan....

A tussle in Turkey

by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2008

The latest move in the long game between Turkey's hardline secularists and its moderate Islamist government is perhaps the most worrying yet. The chief...

Beyond a Zero-Sum Game on Climate Change

by David Steven | Mar 30, 2008

Chapter by Alex Evans and David Steven, as part of the British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020 book ‘Talking Trans-Atlantic’ (March 2008).

West Africa’s new resource curse

by Mark Weston | Mar 28, 2008

A few weeks back the Guardian noted the transformation of Guinea-Bissau, a tiny, jungly and desperately poor country on the tip of West Africa, into the...

Frank Furedi’s apocalypse now

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2008

Frank Furedi on Spiked earlier this year: From global warming to obesity, bird flu to terrorism: 2007 was the year when the threat of an apocalypse became an...

Meanwhile, in southern Iraq…

by Alex Evans | Mar 26, 2008

...you may have noticed that all is not well. The British troops in Basra (both of them) are needless to say staying out of the way. But as the Yorskhire...

And now for the good news

by Alex Evans | Mar 25, 2008

° The number of armed conflicts around the world has declined by more than 40% since the early 1990s. ° Between 1991 (the high point for the post–World War II...

A very British revolution: The UK’s National Security Strategy

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 23, 2008

Last week Gordon Brown announced the publication of the UK’s first national security strategy in a statement to the House of Commons. Most analysts and...

National Security: The media’s turgid and ill-informed commentary

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 20, 2008

Having read this morning's press and their pretty feeble attempts to explain what the national security strategy is, I plan to wait until the dust settles...

A Tsar is born?

by Jules Evans | Mar 19, 2008

The foreign banks active in Russia tend to have a far more informed and less cliched view of Russian politics than foreign policy analysts in Washington or...

The end of unfettered capitalism (or is it?)

by Jules Evans | Mar 18, 2008

Back in September 2002, I wrote a cover story for Euromoney called 'The End of Unfettered Capitalism'. I interviewed various wise sages of finance (Joseph...

And a round of applause, please…

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

...as the eurozone overtakes the United States of America. FRANKFURT (AFP) — The dollar's plunge has made the eurozone the world's biggest economy by one...

Bad time to be pegged to the dollar

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

As you watch the ongoing tailspin in the dollar's value and ponder to yourself whether Ben Bernanke is really going to reduce interest rates by a whole...

The Dalai Lama: violent terrorist and probably a Nazi

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

While China is blocking websites in the hope of preventing news of security force brutality from seeping out, Xinhua is busy denouncing the Dalai Lama as a...

On sofa government

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

Ian Katz's Observer interview with Jonathan Powell - chief of staff to Tony Blair throughout his time at Downing Street - was definitely worth a read, if for...

TB is go!

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2008

You just can't keep a good man down. You might think he'd want a rest after a decade as Prime Minister. You might suppose he'd have his hands full sorting...

NY’s new governor: “the only whores I know are lobbyists”

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2008

Foreign Policy points us towards this delightful gem from NY's new governor as of a day ago, carried in New York magazine: David Paterson just gave his first...

Ban Ki-moon on food prices

by Alex Evans | Mar 12, 2008

As if to prove the point I made back in January about Ban being the 'scarcity SG', given his interest in climate change and water scarcity, here's a piece of...

Fallon’s resignation

by Alex Evans | Mar 12, 2008

Now that Admiral William Fallon, head of CENTCOM, has resigned, the blogosphere is, naturally, shifting into overdrive. Best one-stop summary of comment so...

Clinton as manager

by David Steven | Mar 10, 2008

Here comes 'experience': For all her years on the public stage, Mrs. Clinton has never come close to assembling and running an enterprise like the 700-person,...

The Obama NAFTA leak: was it Stephen Harper’s chief of staff?

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

As you pity Samantha Power for having to resign for calling Hillary a 'monster', the story of the week's other Obama leak is still developing. As readers...

Inflation furrows brows in China

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

Meanwhile, on the Time magazine blog, Simon Elegant has been sitting in on Wen Jiabao's 'work report' to delegates at the National People's Congress. It took...

“An entirely new No 10 operation”

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

The Spectator's Fraser Nelson has an excellent comparison of the effectiveness of Brown's and Cameron's inner circles (hit-tip: Red Box). As Nelson reports,...

Kosovo: right, that’s it, this probably means World War

by Richard Gowan | Mar 5, 2008

Exciting news from Kosovo. As I reported on Monday, Serbia tried to strengthen its claim to to the province by "reclaiming" a railway there - i.e. it...

Don’t underestimate Medvedev

by Jules Evans | Mar 5, 2008

Am back in Moscow for a week, working on a story. The impression I get from my meetings so far is that the West has underestimated the extent to which a new...

Inspiration

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 4, 2008

Quite.

Bethnal Green Tube Disaster

by David Steven | Mar 2, 2008

Today is the 65th anniversary of the Bethnal Green Tube disaster: On that day [in 1943], hurrying for shelter from an air raid, 173 people were killed on this...

America the resilient

by Alex Evans | Mar 1, 2008

Stephen Flynn, the Senior Fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an oustanding essay - America the Resilient - in the...

re: Rocks for Brains

by David Steven | Feb 29, 2008

Jules's remarks that "senior figures in Parliament should certainly be able to understand the basic principles of securitization". My understanding is that...

One night stand?

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 28, 2008

Courtesy of The Times. We will be posting more on the UK Government's CT legislation in the future.

Sign of the times

by Alex Evans | Feb 27, 2008

From Bruce Schneier, this irresistible reflection of the interesting times in which we live: a Playmobil security checkpoint. One of the commenters on...

Where’s the break point on the oil price?

by Alex Evans | Feb 27, 2008

Ed Crooks, writing on the FT's energy blog, flags up some new work from Cambridge Energy Research Associates on how we got to $100 oil - and how much higher...

Do assassinations work?

by Alex Evans | Feb 26, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoZeZprXnDg] A propos of David's recent posts on lax security surrounding Barack Obama, American voters can at least...

Free Kosovo, Week 1: Albanians winning on points

by Richard Gowan | Feb 23, 2008

While everyone still seems to be aghast that Kosovo's declaration of independence somehow hasn't resulted in unrestrained Sweetness and Light flooding across...

A tortured competition

by David Steven | Feb 23, 2008

The New Scientist has an interesting interview with Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Democracy. Rejali identifies a competitive dynamic which, he...

Failed state tourism

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2008

Starting to think about booking that summer holiday? Looking for something a bit different? Look no further than the Strategist: We're familiar with tours...

The Truth Meme

by David Steven | Feb 21, 2008

If you've never been cornered by a 911 truther then you should definitely read Paul Constant's excellent profile of the movement for the Utne Reader. Key...

Don’t mess with social network analysts

by Alex Evans | Feb 20, 2008

And so to Network Weaving, a blog by and for people who use network mapping tools. Network mapping folk like nothing better than to, y'know, network, and so...

‘At war with a peacetime mentality’

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 19, 2008

I was planning to write a more comprehensive analysis of RUSI’s journal article yesterday. I didn’t, which was fortunate, because Michael White has an...

On love, hate and the internet’s capacity to amplify both

by Alex Evans | Feb 18, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1TZaElTAs] Here's an excellent video with which to while away the next nine minutes and thirteen seconds. The...

Slouching towards Bethlehem?

by Alex Evans | Feb 16, 2008

As Charlie noted here yesterday, lots of people are having a grand old time fulminating about the Gwyn Prins / Robert Salisbury article in the new RUSI...

British Government a ‘soft touch’ says RUSI

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 15, 2008

A short qualification in respect to my last post. I've had a couple of emails reminding me there are at least three excellent contributions to the current...

Dissing Michael O’Hanlon

by Alex Evans | Feb 15, 2008

Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber is wondering who counts as the "foreign policy community": Given the vagueness of boundaries, the best definition I’ve been...

Mapping human destruction in the world’s oceans

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 15, 2008

A new study in the Science Journal shows human activity has left a mark on nearly every square kilometer of sea, severely compromising ecosystems in more than...

Mapping migration flows

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 13, 2008

Useful map for presentations.

Why oh why didn’t the financial markets listen to me

by Jules Evans | Feb 12, 2008

As the unshakeable solidity of the world's financial markets turns out to be a castle in the sky, we all wish someone had warned us about collateralized debt...

Which straw is the last one?

by David Steven | Feb 11, 2008

On Saturday, I wrote about the black mood that's gripping Pakistan, with many here asking whether the country faces a descent into chaos. So, how serious is...

Financial meltdown: your 12 step guide

by Alex Evans | Feb 11, 2008

Time to remind ourselves that while we've all been cooing over Obama and fretting over NATO cohesion, the small matter of the security of the world's...

The resilience agenda

by David Steven | Feb 10, 2008

In his recent speech to the Fabian Society (covered by my co-editor Alex Evans here), British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband spoke of the need for a new...

Keeping them busy

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2008

Pakistan’s election will be held on the 18th – Monday week – and the campaign has already proved a violent one. “Gujrat is a district where violence and...

Rice and Miliband in Afghanistan

by Alex Evans | Feb 8, 2008

Gideon Rachman was with the dynamic duo as they touched down in Kabul. He reports that the security was so tight that it would have been impossible for the...

Sharia law in UK ‘inevitable’ – Archbishop of Canterbury

by Alex Evans | Feb 7, 2008

Rowan Williams has just been on The World At One to say that in his view, sharia law will become inevitable in parts of the UK. The interview is in advance...

Inside Fortress Cameron

by Alex Evans | Feb 7, 2008

Following up on the unhappy tales of life inside the Brown bunker, Sue Cameron now gives an insight into life inside Fortress Cameron. And, she reports,...

Need to know

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 6, 2008

Politicians and the media are up in arms about the bugging scandal involving a Labour MP. But, Fans of Yes, Prime Minister will remember the episode where the...

FCO’s new strategic framework

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2008

The Foreign Office launched its new Strategic Framework yesterday. It seems rather a grand title for a leaflet that stretches to two pages of A4, but perhaps...

More on the cut internet cables

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2008

Further to David's previous posts on this, John Robb is working the problem too. Three observations from him: Vulnerability. All of the same network...

Fourth cable cut

by David Steven | Feb 4, 2008

Last week, I posted on a strange sequence of severed undersea coms cables. Well, now a fourth cable has been cut and there are disturbing - but I'd stress...

Neat video

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 3, 2008

NATO feels the strain

by Alex Evans | Feb 2, 2008

Tempers are fraying in NATO. Following Canadian PM Stephen Harper's threat to withdraw its troops from Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan if other NATO...

Surely not

by Alex Evans | Feb 1, 2008

This is what we are contemplating. Something new. Something big. Something bold. Something that works. Something that will prod young and old alike. To join...

No love lost in the post-Soviet commonwealth

by Alex Evans | Feb 1, 2008

In the margins of Wilton Park’s conference on European security in 2020, a timely reminder that for some of the delegates here – who, collectively, represent...

Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

by David Steven | Feb 1, 2008

US democrats are trying to take out John McCain by suggesting that, underneath all the Republican bluster, he's really one of them...

22,419

by Richard Gowan | Feb 1, 2008

That is the number of people who voted for Fred Thompson in the Florida primary, in spite of the slightly inconvenient facts that (i) he had pulled out of the...

This’ll shake things up…

by David Steven | Jan 30, 2008

You've probably heard that John Edwards is out of the Democrat race - but this new entrant is really going to shake things up...

How binding targets drive technology

by Alex Evans | Jan 30, 2008

Blake Hounshell at ForeignPolicy.com has a succinct answer to people who don't think binding targets are necessary in climate policy: this graph, which shows...

How much of Slovenia’s EU Presidency has been scripted in Washington?

by Alex Evans | Jan 30, 2008

News is breaking of the resignation yesterday of a senior Slovenian diplomat who, press reports in Slovenia claim, had taken orders from the US about...

Veiligheid

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 29, 2008

The morning sessions were quite good, but the problem the old school (sitting behind and to the left of me) had was that most of the presentations were just...

Commercial secrets

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 29, 2008

I'm not allowed to blog about the session I am currently in for reasons of commercial confidentiality (which raises a point about how we share information on...

This year’s big issue at Davos

by Alex Evans | Jan 29, 2008

Last year's big issue at Davos was climate change - unsurprisingly, given that it was the first time the WEF crowd had convened since the Stern Review was...

Why food is the new oil, part 94

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2008

And so to a new report on soft (i.e. agricultural) commodities from Bidwells, the agribusiness property consultancy, noteworthy for its observations about...

What if the Europeans had a proper debate about Iraq?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 26, 2008

British journalist Jonathan Steele has been getting a good deal of coverage for Defeat, his account of the Iraq war (if nothing else, he deserves a prize for...

The World Social Forum. Yawn.

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2008

Continuing my mini-series on what happened to the anti-globalisation movement: if some of them became the Yes Men, some of them remain very firmly as the No...

Sshh! European Defence is back on the agenda

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 25, 2008

In the heady days of the late 1990s, European defence was the subject of choice for journalists, academics and think tanks. Then in 2002 it all went phut. No...

A soundbite of tortured syntax and logic

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 24, 2008

Benedict Brogan on Jacqui Smith's experience on the Today Programme this morning (listen): Carolyn Quinn can't have been the only person who burst out...

Who gets to be the utilities on the global Monopoly board?

by Alex Evans | Jan 24, 2008

From Der Spiegel via Matt Yglesias: Hasbro is planning to launch the first global version of Monopoly, and they're canvassing votes for which cities should be...

Re: Can you see a black swan? OA can.

by Alex Evans | Jan 24, 2008

A propos of Charlie's post about Oxford Analytica's spanking new Global Stress Points Matrix, reassuring to see that they rank "increasing climate regulation"...

Home Office Minister: Britain faces ‘two or three 9/11s’

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 23, 2008

Tomorrow the British Government will publish its Counter-Terrorism Bill. Ministers are already trying to persuade MPs that a key component of the Bill - the...

Is Brown getting behind Merkel on a convergence-based climate policy?

by Alex Evans | Jan 23, 2008

Interesting to see this little nugget included in the UK / Indian communique resulting from Gordon Brown's talks with Manmohan Singh: Long-term convergence...

+++ Barroso threatens carbon tariffs on US +++

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2008

Roger Harrabin has the story over at BBC News: The president of the European Commmission has threatened to impose carbon tariffs on imports unless the US...

Mummy’s boy

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 21, 2008

The Huffington Post features some of the 900 plus questions put to Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in an online interview. They range from the...

Guerrilla infrastructure hacking

by Alex Evans | Jan 21, 2008

John Robb notices an AP story on a trend he predicted in his book Brave New War: guerrilla entrepreneurs. Here's more: Hackers literally turned out the...

Michael Chertoff heads major new US plan to halt climate change

by Alex Evans | Jan 18, 2008

Krishna Kumar at Foreign Policy has the details: On December 10, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his top-secret plan for saving the...

The new public diplomacy: new Demos project

by Alex Evans | Jan 18, 2008

David and I will be working with Demos on a new project over the spring, called The New Public Diplomacy. Here's the project outline: Public diplomacy –...

Indonesian govt takes emergency steps on food prices after protests in Jakarta

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2008

The FT reports on friction over rising soyabean prices in Indonesia this morning, in what it's calling "the biggest food-related protests since last year's...

Eyewitness account of the Serena Hotel bombing in Kabul

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2008

Barney Rubin's friend Naser Shahalemi was in the Serena Hotel in Kabul when suicide bombers shot their way in and blew themselves up: I look through the glass...

The erection theory of foreign policy

by Alex Evans | Jan 15, 2008

Gideon Rachman caused me to laugh out loud on a crowded Northern Line tube train earlier this morning, causing startled glances from my fellow passengers. ...

Troops deployed to guard grain stores in Pakistan

by Alex Evans | Jan 14, 2008

Charlie Edwards at Demos points us towards news from the BBC: The authorities in Pakistan have deployed paramilitary troops to guard wheat supplies around the...

What if… Spain began to think about leaving the eurozone?

by Alex Evans | Jan 12, 2008

That's the scenario posited by in an article today by John Dizard, who's toying with scenarios in which gold would do well. His reasoning goes like this:...

WEF’s latest Global Risks report

by Alex Evans | Jan 10, 2008

The latest report of the Global Risks Network at the World Economic Forum is just out - here it is if you fancy a look. The report begins with the words:...

In defence of climate sceptics

by Alex Evans | Jan 9, 2008

David and I have an article on the Guardian's Comment is Free site this morning. Here's a taster: As we move from discussing the problem of climate change to...

A world full of walls

by Mark Weston | Jan 8, 2008

Iran has taken a leaf out of its sworn enemies' book by building a wall to keep out the PJAK, the PKK's Iranian wing whose emergence I mentioned on here a...

Political line of the year

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2008

Yeah, yeah, we're a week in. But Obama's surgical rebuttal today of Hillary's 'false hopes' line is going to take some beating: “I have been teased and even...

The Situation Room dismantled

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2008

Chances are good that last time you found yourself channel-surfing in the US, you will have happened across a rather fatuous news show called The Situation...

Europe: “defensive, introspective, decadent, tired”

by Alex Evans | Jan 4, 2008

Now that the European Constitution Treaty has been agreed, all the usual froth about Europe's place in the world can be expected to redouble. Groan. So it...

How resilience works

by Alex Evans | Jan 3, 2008

I've been reading the Harvard Business Review's excellent book on resilience. One of the best articles in it is How Resilience Works by HBR senior editor...

Hurrah for ethanol (not)

by Alex Evans | Jan 2, 2008

Hal Weitzman is with Barack Obama in Iowa. Barack Obama loves ethanol. When the last presidential caucus was held in 2004, Iowa produced 860m gallons of...

Looking ahead: foreign policy reform in 2008

by Alex Evans | Dec 21, 2007

The last working day before Christmas. Time to brave the streets and get those last few presents? Bah! Here at Global Dashboard we're made of sterner...

Can Poland deliver?

by Alex Evans | Dec 20, 2007

I spoke at a conference organised by the Institute for Environmental Security in Brussels earlier this week. (Here's the speech I gave, which updates the...

Sir Richard Mottram on global risks

by Alex Evans | Dec 17, 2007

From yesterday's Observer: Britian's outgoing intelligence chief believes there is a danger of exaggerating the threat posed by al-Qaeda at the expense of...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2007

We do, according to this ABC News piece (courtesy of Bruce Schneier): A teen suspect's snap decision to secretly record his interrogation with an MP3 player...

Russia’s new president (probably)

by Jules Evans | Dec 10, 2007

For a oil-glutted, stagnant dictatorship, Russian politics has more twists and turns than a bad Jackie Collins novel. When it looked like Putin was going to make himself prime minister and some old crony the president, as of today it looks very likely that his young deputy prime-minister, Dmitri Medvedev, will be handed the heavy burden of the presidency. Attached is an exclusive interview that Medvedev gave to me and a few other hundred journalists last year, and my impressions of the man about to stride onto the world stage.

On the interesting relationship between panic and resilience

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2007

While we're thinking about infectious disease: how I love the complexity theory boffins at the Santa Fe Institute. This month they've been thinking about the...

Indian demographics

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2007

FT Asia Editor Victor Mallett's analysis piece on India yesterday is a worth a look. Scarcity issues are slowly assuming centre stage: It is slowly dawning...

Foreign policy as a form of denial

by Richard Gowan | Dec 5, 2007

Like most people who buy newspapers as a source of information rather than merely a cheap way to wrap fish, I have spent the last day admiring the bravado...

Why aren’t oil prices falling following the NIE on Iran?

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007

Daniel Drezner has a pertinent question. Following the US National Intelligence Estimate that Iran's nuclear program has been frozen since 2003, you'd expect...

…but maybe that’s a good thing?

by Richard Gowan | Dec 4, 2007

As Alex notes, awareness of the crunch in peacekeeping is spreading. There's news today of an MIT report arguing that the proposed EU force in Chad would be...

Semantic and puerile fun from war zones

by Richard Gowan | Dec 3, 2007

Having previously suggested that the academic community should explore the semantics of the Italian Defense Minister's description of Afghanistan as "stable...

Airport security: a reality check

by Alex Evans | Dec 3, 2007

Saturday's Guardian magazine had an excellent article about airport security, quoting Bruce Schneier (whose blog should be on your must-read list): The...

“A really inconvenient truth”

by Alex Evans | Dec 1, 2007

Wonkette has been pondering the just-out McKinsey study on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The study, she says... ...kinda found that the biggest...

Now that’s a job description

by Alex Evans | Nov 30, 2007

The Land Registry is looking for a special kind of candidate: Senior Problem Manager: Responsible for managing all problems recorded in the Problem Management...

Human Terrain Teams

by Alex Evans | Nov 29, 2007

Wired brings news of the latest counter-insurgency innovation from the US Army - 'Human Terrain Teams'. Some creative thinking about influence is underway:...

Limbering up for the Olympics

by Alex Evans | Nov 29, 2007

Moises Naim is ruminating in this month's Foreign Policy that "It’s fair to say that the Chinese government probably had no idea what it was getting into when...

New report on climate and conflict

by Alex Evans | Nov 28, 2007

International Alert have published an excellent new report (funded in part by CIC) entitled A Climate of Conflict: the links between climate change, peace and...

How to get ahead in foreign policy

by Alex Evans | Nov 22, 2007

Dan Drezner is pondering how to answer all the people who ask him "how do you successfully pursue a career in foreign policy?". He finds that Peter Singer at...

Incompetence at UNAIDS (2)

by David Steven | Nov 21, 2007

Yesterday, while railing against UNAIDS for its failure to provide accurate estimates of the number of people with HIV/AIDS, I was casting around for the...

Incompetence at UNAIDS

by David Steven | Nov 20, 2007

In 2002, UNAIDS reported that: There are 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS world-wide. 38.6 million of these are adults, 19.2 million are women and 3.2...

Art in a time of genocide

by David Steven | Nov 17, 2007

In 1978, Cambodian artist, Vann Nath was locked up by the Khmer Rouge in the S-21 prison. "We were all in one room," he recalls. "We lay naked down on the...

The world’s energy outlook

by Alex Evans | Nov 16, 2007

I was about to pull together some of the main threads in the IEA's 2007 World Energy Outlook (executive summary here), but Martin Wolf beat me to it in...

This one goes out to all my peeps on the 38th floor

by Alex Evans | Nov 15, 2007

My CIC colleague Vicki di Domenico brings to our attention the following important message from UN Secretary-General, His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon: "My man...

Hack of the year

by David Steven | Nov 15, 2007

In the National Review, Grover G. Norquist (slogan: "Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives") wonders why Warren Buffet opposes the...

28 days (or later)

by Alex Evans | Nov 14, 2007

Unreal. On this morning's Today programme, Security minister Lord West said: I want to have absolute evidence that we actually need longer than 28 days. I...

Condi’s frustration with Gordon

by Alex Evans | Nov 11, 2007

An unnamed senior State Dept official has been briefing the Sunday Telegraph about Condi's frustration with Gordon Brown, it seems: Allies of Condoleezza...

Torture as a presidential qualification

by David Steven | Nov 9, 2007

Over at the National Review, the magazine’s editor, Andy McCarthy, wonders whether “those posturing over waterboarding [are] serious enough to be trusted with...

New diplomacy update

by Alex Evans | Nov 7, 2007

Gideon Rachman's been off to Ditchley for the weekend. Signs of the "new diplomacy" that we've been promised by David Miliband appear to have been thin on...

Being Tayyip

by Mark Weston | Nov 6, 2007

If you ever have to choose a country for your worst enemy to run, you should strongly consider Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, the current Turkish Prime...

Paul watch

by David Steven | Nov 5, 2007

In the US, it's only 8.30 in the morning on the east coast, but Ron Paul has already raised nearly $800k. Over at Foreign Policy, Mike Boyer says enough is...

From the jaws of defeat

by David Steven | Nov 3, 2007

The Sunday Times in its lead editorial: Is no news good news or bad news? In Iraq, it seems good news is deemed no news.... The instinct of too many people is...

Wargaming an energy crunch

by Alex Evans | Nov 2, 2007

Reuters and AFP are both carrying the intriguing story of a wargame / simulation exercise held in Washington yesterday to explore how the National Security...

Iraq’s oil

by Alex Evans | Nov 1, 2007

At last, enough time to blog about Jim Holt's terrific article on Iraq's oil in the 18 October edition of the London Review of Books. Here's how he begins:...

The renaissance of British sea power (if only)

by Alex Evans | Oct 31, 2007

William Lind has been ruminating about the renewed importance of sea power in a less secure world. We [the US] need naval supremacy because in a world where...

re: Climate sensitivity – must-read paper in Science

by David Steven | Oct 28, 2007

One addendum to Alex's discussion of the new paper from Gerard Roe and Marcia Baker, which argues that we will never really know how much warming we are...

Love thy neighbour

by Mark Weston | Oct 26, 2007

Most commentators on the Congressional resolution commemorating the Armenian genocide have adopted a US-centric view. Andrew Sullivan describes the move as...

That Republican Facebook site in full

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2007

(Hat tip: techpresident.com)

Brand Bhutto

by David Steven | Oct 22, 2007

How many other developing country opposition leaders can take to the FT when they need to rally support? I did not come this far in life to be intimidated by...

Limbaugh 10, Reid 1

by Alex Evans | Oct 20, 2007

Much sniggering on the US right as shock jock Rush Limbaugh executes an expert piece of political aikido on his political opponents. The story goes like this:...

Romney UN boycott plan

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2007

Talking Points Memo: Mitt Romney pulled off an interesting bit of U.N.-bashing today, calling upon the United States to withdraw from a United Nations...

Tanker emissions

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2007

From new (or seemingly, half-done) research: Global emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping are twice the level of aviation, one of the maritime industry's...

Small government resilience

by David Steven | Oct 16, 2007

A month or so back, I posted four stories of community resilience - health workers in the Congo; Vietnamese immigrants and a school superintendent after...

Hu Jintao’s speech to the Communist Party Congress

by Alex Evans | Oct 15, 2007

Tomorrow's New York Times has a helpful and comprehensive summary of goings-on during day one of the 17th Communist Party Congress in Beijing. Among the...

Stop funding democracy.

by David Steven | Oct 13, 2007

Washington Post: More than two dozen Iranian American and human rights groups have launched an appeal to Congress to reduce or eliminate new financial support...

The bad boys of Blackwater

by Alex Evans | Oct 12, 2007

From Wired.com: former US infantry officer Robert Bateman has an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune today, which has some interesting insights into Blackwater's...

Events, events

by Alex Evans | Oct 12, 2007

I'm wading through Bob Woodward's outstanding State of Denial. The first few chapters are almost entirely devoted to a detailed discussion of the early years...

Of ant colonies and sleeper cells

by Alex Evans | Oct 11, 2007

John Robb has a hair raising post about a new generation of computer worm called the 'Storm Worm'. "What makes it special", he writes, is that "he Storm...

Influencing Burma

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2007

At ForeignPolicy.com, Blake's been doing some research into the standard media assumption that China is Burma's biggest trading partner. While China is indeed...

A new European Council on Foreign Relations

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2007

David Miliband's blog links to something I missed in the FT last week: the formation of a new European Council on Foreign Relations, as a complement /...

Those foreign policy advisers in full (but where are the women?)

by Alex Evans | Oct 5, 2007

The Washington Post has helpfully published a comprehensive list of who is advising which Presidential candidates on foreign policy. Quite how policy...

Our man in Kabul

by Alex Evans | Oct 3, 2007

It's like buses: you wait months for David Miliband to resume his blog, and then no less than six officially sanctioned FCO bloggers come along at once -...

Dani Rodrik on food prices

by Alex Evans | Oct 1, 2007

Hurrah - Dani Rodrik has a blog. Rodrik is a great international development thinker and a co-author - together with Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian -...

Down with Hillary

by Alex Evans | Sep 29, 2007

From Wired: Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton dominates the airwaves, the Sunday political talk shows and the polls. And it turns out...

Under the hammer

by David Steven | Sep 26, 2007

Fancy taking control of a highly desirable online property? Well, get moving because there's only just over a day left to run in the auction for iraq.com. The...

Training programs a la Blackwater

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2007

Blackwater doesn't only provide protection for US State Dept staff in Iraq and elsewhere: they also run numerous training programs in VIP protection and other...

Plot thickens

by David Steven | Sep 21, 2007

The Washington Post has more on the mysterious Israeli raid on Syria that may or may not have been aimed at a nuclear installation that may or may not have...

Iran: drifting to war?

by Alex Evans | Sep 19, 2007

So let's catch up with things on Iran since our last couple of posts (mine, David's). In Europe on Sunday night, French foreign minister (and founder of...

Art, meet life

by David Steven | Sep 18, 2007

The filming of Kite Runner is causing trouble in Afghanistan... Ahmad Jaan [father of an actor whose character is raped in the film] says his fears are...

Greenspanic

by David Steven | Sep 17, 2007

It's one thing for an ex-newspaper editor to engage in panic-for-publicity (see Alex's post below), another for the ex-head of the US Federal Reserve to do...

The state he’s in

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2007

Given the obvious risk of self-fulfilling prophecy when terms like 'bank run' start being bandied about in the midst of a low level consumer panic, sensible...

Hotmapping London (well Haringey anyway)

by David Steven | Sep 12, 2007

An interactive map of which houses in the London Borough of Haringey waste most heat: Thermal images of homes have been taken by a light aircraft fitted with...

Security to partnering to overwatch (ugh)

by David Steven | Sep 10, 2007

Watching General Petraeus’s powerhouse testimony today (wasn't Crocker a crock in contrast?), I could think of two reasons for doubting the rosy message he...

Standoff.

by David Steven | Sep 10, 2007

As passengers begin to disembark flight PK-786, Nawaz Sharif, his entourage and a few journalists are said to remain on board. Security officials have joined...

Mismatched risk perceptions – again

by Alex Evans | Sep 7, 2007

At the time of last winter's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, and at meetings of the WEF Global Risk Network (of which I'm a member) over the following...

Four tales of community resilience.

by David Steven | Sep 5, 2007

First, the Economist on the role 'amateur' health care workers can play in building public health systems: The idea is to harness people's existing culture of...

Rape in the Corner.

by David Steven | Sep 4, 2007

Over at National Review's The Corner, John Podhoretz links approvingly to a review of Brian De Palma's new anti-war film: Redacted. Redacted is, putting it...

A new paradigm.

by David Steven | Sep 3, 2007

When a member of the Bush administration tried to persuade me that her boss was a 'thought leader' on climate change, my first thought was that I was being...

One to watch: Iran coverage this week

by Alex Evans | Sep 2, 2007

George Packer in the New Yorker has a blog post up today quoting my CIC colleague Barney Rubin: If there were a threat level on the possibility of war with...

Greece aflame

by Alex Evans | Aug 29, 2007

Greece from space (hat-tip: NASA). Meanwhile, John Robb at 4GW blog Global Guerrillas is saying that ...according to my Greek sources, most of the fires have...

Iran and her periphery: a region without a name

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2007

View Larger Map Back when the US chaired the 2004 Sea Island G8, George Bush’s flagship proposal centred on the idea of a Greater Middle East Initiative, or...

A Weimar moment on Iraq?

by Alex Evans | Aug 23, 2007

Writing in the Washington Post today, George Will poses a question that I've been wondering about lately: if political pressure on the Bush Administration...

Congressional oversight kills Americans shock

by Alex Evans | Aug 23, 2007

Talking Points Memo has this: last week, US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was giving an interview to a Texas newspaper, and when asked...

A coup in Iraq?

by David Steven | Aug 21, 2007

Despite the feverish speculation, Nibras Kazimi isn't buying it. His take: These are the usual amateurish stunts that US diplomats and spooks resort to when...

That Giuliani foreign policy in full

by Alex Evans | Aug 16, 2007

With the new edition of Foreign Affairs now out, we can gorge ourselves on the feast that is Rudy Giuliani's essay about his national security priorities. And...

Passport disaster.

by David Steven | Aug 14, 2007

In case you've ever wondered why only 20% of Americans have passports, Bruce Reed has at least part of the answer...

Climate decider

by David Steven | Aug 9, 2007

Some few months ago, I had dinner with a State official who tried to convince me that George Bush was a 'thought leader' on climate change - yes really. Time...

Question Time questions David Dimbleby is unlikely to ask…

by Alex Evans | Aug 3, 2007

Meanwhile, James Wolcott alerts us to lively goings-on at the snappily titled blog 'John Cole's Balloon Juice', where the combined intellectual might of the...

Climate-driven sea level rise: whole metres this century?

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2007

Celebrated climate scientist James Hansen has blunt tidings in the last edition of New Scientist: "I find it almost inconceivable that 'business as usual'...

The AP6 climate partnership: some way to go…

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2007

As the US-EU bidding war hots up over what should replace Kyoto when it expires in 2012, expect to hear plenty more about the 'AP6' - or, to give it its full...

The full, crazy plan

by David Steven | Jul 30, 2007

According to Wesley Clark, in the weeks following 9/11, Donald Rumsfeld was hoping to "take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then...

Sandy Berger and Bill Lind on Iraq

by Alex Evans | Jul 26, 2007

We haven't tended to engage much with Iraq on GlobalDashboard, in my case largely because I'm not sure I have much to add - though I've long felt that...

The underground lake in Darfur: a blessing or a curse?

by Alex Evans | Jul 23, 2007

Lots of hopeful coverage last week about the find, made by Boston University researchers, of a massive underground lake in Darfur. The Independent was pretty...

Miliband’s first speech

by Alex Evans | Jul 20, 2007

David Miliband's first speech as Foreign Secretary, given at Chatham House earlier today, is worth watching (transcript on the FCO website here). He's...

“Oil crunch in five years” – IEA

by Alex Evans | Jul 10, 2007

Usually when you see phrases like "oil crunch in five years", you assume that you're being addressed by a peak-oiler who is about to go on to explain to you...

The US’s clueless (and now outsourced) intelligence system

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2007

Two great pieces on intelligence in the Washington Post over the weekend. RJ Hillhouse is worried that the US's national security is being outsourced: Over...

Iraq, Iran… next stop China.

by David Steven | Jul 7, 2007

These days, the American right - sinking ever-deeper into a paranoid, unreasoning funk - is mostly obsessed with Islam abroad and immigrants at home. But...

New voices…

by David Steven | Jun 27, 2007

Over the last couple of days, we’ve been blogging from the Chatham House conference – Climate Change: Politics versus Economics. As the conference made clear,...

A goal – or not

by David Steven | Jun 26, 2007

Chris Dodwell, a senior climate change official at the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, supports a long-term stabilisation goal. A...

How to set a stabilisation target

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2007

David’s right below about the lack of specifics on stabilisation levels. But it’s worth remembering the lessons of Ken Livingstone’s Congestion Charge in...

No renewables in my back yard

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

Paul Golby, CEO of power major, E:ON, is hot under the collar about the lumbering nature of the British planning system. Case-in-point: the London Array, an...

A tale of two narratives

by Alex Evans | Jun 25, 2007

From my old colleague Nick Mabey's presentation: a comparison of two competing narratives about future action. The Stern Review is in no doubt that the cost...

How bad? Whose burden?

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

Interesting differences of opinion about how serious a problem we’re facing… Potted Bert Metz: To avoid dangerous climate change (a 2 degree increase in mean...

Beyond the conventional wisdom…

by David Steven | Jun 25, 2007

So we’re off, with a promise from Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, that the conference is going to take us beyond the conventional wisdom on the...

Quote of the week

by Jules Evans | Jun 7, 2007

Last week actually, but still top of the charts: DER SPIEGEL: Mr President, former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called you a 'pure democrat'. Do you...

Game Theory

by David Steven | May 22, 2007

Adolescents who spend more time playing online strategy games than concentrating on their studies may be making better choices for the future than their...

Phone economics

by David Steven | May 14, 2007

A neat study reveals the economic benefits of mobile phones in developing countries: "As phone coverage [in Kerala] spread between 1997 and 2000, fishermen...

UN not joined up on biofuels

by Alex Evans | May 9, 2007

A gaggle of UN agencies have just published a report on biofuels, says the Guardian this morning (see also previous Global Dashboard posts on biofuels)....

Open source spying

by Alex Evans | May 4, 2007

The NY Times magazine published a piece last December [free log-on required] describing how web 2.0 applications are revolutionising information sharing in...

Can donors build effective states?

by Alex Evans | May 2, 2007

US chat show presenter Jon Stewart's recent interview with Senator John McCain (here) is interesting for what it says about US perceptions of statebuilding...

Fixing the UK’s Foreign Policy Apparatus: A Memo to Gordon Brown

by Alex Evans | Apr 30, 2007

Note by Alex Evans and David Steven about how to restructure the UK’s foreign policy system in order to manage trans-boundary global risks better (April 2007).

You couldn’t make it up

by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2007

Heard the one about the World Bank President who launched a personal crusade against corruption in developing countries, only for the world to learn that he...

Don’t touch me – I’m Karl Rove…

by David Steven | Apr 26, 2007

Laurie David and Sheryl Crowe question Karl Rove about climate change... We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in...

Raising a valedictory glass to Boris

by Alex Evans | Apr 24, 2007

Farewell, then, to the late, great Boris Yeltsin. And by way of a last raising of the glass, here's the story of when he visited John Major at Chequers (the...

WMD found in Iraq…

by David Steven | Apr 23, 2007

Yes, really, it's true...

On the Draft Manual for 4GW (2): Eliminating the Blob

by David Steven | Apr 18, 2007

For Lind et al (writing in their draft field manual), 4th generation warfare is about fighting an idea rather than fighting for territory (in Afghanistan, the...

Wolfie watch

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2007

For those of you following Wolfowitz's woes, World Bank President has full coverage, including this response, from a World Bank retiree, to the President's...

Iran hostages: a last word…

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2007

In case Jules and David's outraged posts on the handling of the hostage crisis in Iran have left you still wanting more, let's give the last word on the...

The sentimentalization of the armed forces

by Jules Evans | Apr 11, 2007

I'm glad the government is finally realizing how badly it has played the Iran hostage crisis. It reacted in a typical New Labour way, just like Tony Blair...

De-radicalisation? It’s the networks, stupid

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2007

Roula Khalaf has a great piece leading today's FT about a new rehabilitation program underway in Saudi Arabia for former jihadis. One beneficiary of the...

Vandergriff: 4th generation leadership (3)

by David Steven | Mar 31, 2007

Major Donald E. Vandergriff (US army retired) - see previous posts (1, 2) - describes a model for educating adaptive leaders, with the aim of producing a...

Evaluation and the New Public Diplomacy

by David Steven | Mar 30, 2007

Talk given by David Steven at the Wilton Park conference: The Future of Public Diplomacy. Focuses on strategies to drive public diplomacy to the heart of the foreign policy armoury (March 2007).

The Power of Nightmares redux

by Alex Evans | Mar 28, 2007

Jimmy Carter's NSA Zbigniew Brzezinski makes a strong critique in the Washington Post of the way the 'war on terror' has been framed. He writes: The culture...

A Long Peace

by David Steven | Mar 27, 2007

In 2003, I wrote 'A Long Peace', a pamphlet on Northern Ireland with Unionist politician Trevor Ringland and nationalist writer Mick Fealty (founder of...

Coercive persuasion

by David Steven | Mar 26, 2007

In 1953, during the Korean War, Ed Schein was ordered to Travis Air Force Base to interview returning prisoners of war, some of whom were thought to have...

Bin Laden’s reading list

by David Steven | Mar 21, 2007

Back in 1989, William Lind and co-authors wondered how terrorists could metamorphose from an irritant into 4th generation warriors. Three elements were needed...

State of play

by Alex Evans | Mar 20, 2007

Amidst the predictable froth about 'strategic plans', 'program evaluations', 'senior reviews' and 'departmental performance plans' in the US State Dept's 2006...

Chris Chyba on biosecurity

by Alex Evans | Mar 19, 2007

Just back from a seminar on national security issues at Stanford University, where Chris Chyba gave an outstanding presentation on biosecurity. (Chyba's...

A consumer’s guide to microcredit…

by David Steven | Mar 18, 2007

Slate rates six microlenders that allow the rich to lend money directly to developing world entrepreneurs...

Biofuels and food prices

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2007

As the general enthusiasm for biofuels continues to accelerate unabated (most recently with the climate change deal secured at the EU Council of Ministers by...

Vandergriff: 4th generation leadership

by David Steven | Mar 17, 2007

William Lind rates John Boyd protégée, Major Donald E Vandergriff, almost as greatly as he despairs of the US army's ability to change: I would like to think...

Urban planning: top down or bottom up?

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2007

Three new exhibitions have opened up in New York about the controversial urban planner Robert Moses. Moses was the architect of the New York World's Fair in...

An emerging ministers of justice movement

by Sam Muller | Oct 28, 2020

Since April, we have been calling for justice leaders of the world to get out of their national cubby holes and come together to share fears, failures, successes, and strategies, just like public health minister are doing. The COVID-19 crisis is too big and too unprecedented to deal with on your own national level. On 20 October, 22 ministers of justice did just that at the Justice for All in a Global Emergency meeting convened by Minister of Justice for Canada, David Lametti. It was a significant moment. For 90 minutes, they shared their experiences in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. This is what I took away from it….

We can’t rely on any leader to pull us out of the inequality crisis. It’s up to us.

by Ben Phillips | Sep 18, 2020

My new book, How to Fight Inequality, is published today. I look back at when inequality had been beaten before, and found that inequality was never beaten through the grace of saviour leaders, but was instead beaten by people power. Here, I discuss what it will take beat inequality and to organise that people power once again.

Effective Activism in a Time of Coronavirus: what are we learning six months in?

by Kirsty McNeill | Jul 8, 2020

Leading in difficult times is unbelievably hard, but we will all be better at it if we share what we’re learning and invite others to challenge our thinking and contribute their own. In that spirit, here are the four things that I think are emerging as lessons about effective activism in a time of coronavirus.

COVID-19 – Five lessons for improving future economic and social resilience

by Thomas Tanner, Ulrich Volz | Jun 26, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis is another timely reminder of the need for building resilience into our social, economic, and financial systems – locally, nationally, and globally. It has exposed the vulnerability of our societies, of our health systems, but also the susceptibility of supply chains and the gig economy. Financial systems have held up relatively well, thanks to stricter capital requirements introduced after the 2008 crisis and decisive intervention by central banks, but are now also starting to show cracks. Increasing resilience needs to be one of the main guiding principles to ensure we are better prepared to withstand future pandemics.

Freedom and Justice Week Round Up

by Rachel Locke | Jun 23, 2020

Over the course of Freedom and Justice Week, our authors have provided glimpses into how racism has penetrated their communities, their workplaces, their schools, and their countries. What these articles demonstrate is that, while country contexts may vary, humanity has a problem with racism and bigotry that knows no borders and that is pervasive, toxic, and dehumanising. For people asking “what can I do?” our authors did not disappoint. Across the board, they call for action – from institutions and individuals, and all points in between. This series offers a place to start and a challenge to be honest, ambitious, and practical.

I’m black. I’m a peacebuilder. I want your help.

by Jessica Murrey | Jun 21, 2020

We’re living in a painful time in America’s story. It sucks. That being said, we also have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to finish the chapter. To write history. To shape the future in a momentous way. To build a world where my now three-year-old son can walk the streets safely and confidently with your son. We can get there.

Public Service Leadership: lessons from #BlackLivesMatter

by Kathryn Perera, Zarah Mowhabuth | Jun 19, 2020

Two NHS leaders from different generations, and different points of the institutional hierarchy, reflect on the impact of the Black Lives Matter resurgence within the NHS and offer three reflections for public service leaders.

The Freedom to Change – great power requires greater responsibility

by María Dolores Hernández Montoya | Jun 17, 2020

Global society is in a moment that history books will recount well into the future. We have entered an era that was foreseen, but also emerged with the intensity of a slap to the face. The time for serious change has arrived. People invented the systems and the rules that we live under, and people have the power to change them.

A World in Which Many Worlds Fit

by Aarathi Krishnan, Rahul Chandran | Jun 16, 2020

In our dreams for a post-COVID world, what should we demand of our international relations and international public good institutions? What does it mean to de-colonise and transform development and humanitarian enterprise so that it is anti-racist within and without? We want to offer some thoughts.

Freedom and Justice Week – “tell me how we change”

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Jun 15, 2020

Welcome to our Freedom and Justice Week series, in response to the wave of protest that was triggered by the murder of George Floyd. Our aim is to provide a platform for a diversity of voices to explore how we respond to the protests.

Local Week Article Summary

by David Steven, Alex Evans | Jun 11, 2020

Following our Local Week on Global Dashboard, we have collated all the articles into one easy to read flipbook

The Fall of the Big Men

by Rachel Briggs | Jun 5, 2020

We have known for generations that our old models of leadership are not fit for purpose. A once in a multi-generation pandemic offers a global leadership control experiment and we’ve seen what we like, and what we don’t. The winners are rising to the top – the losers are showing the limitations of their Big Men style.

2030: Which Path Will We Take?

by The Red Button Club | Jun 3, 2020

Scenarios for our post-COVID future kept coming up in discussions over at the Red Button Club. So we teleported ourselves into the year 2030 and took a seat at the desk of a recently retired foreign secretary, getting ready to pour his/her heart into an honest end of the year op-ed.

Scenarios Week on Global Dashboard

by Alex Evans, David Steven | Jun 1, 2020

Today, we’re kicking off Scenarios Week, a week of articles from leading thinkers who have formed their own responses to the Long Crisis Scenarios, perspectives on what our world might soon look like, or insights on how we can prepare for an uncertain future.

Protecting our Critical Global Infrastructure

by Alex Evans, David Steven | May 21, 2020

In the final section of our Shooting the Rapids report, we present a plan for collective action with four elements. In this post, we’re focusing on one in particular: protecting critical global infrastructure.

The Debts We Now Owe Each Other – and How to Pay Them Back

by George Graham | May 7, 2020

In Our Other National Debt, we have tried to make practical proposals for how to start turning gratitude or warm sentiment into real-world action that will make a meaningful difference. Nothing about this is easy, but it’s nonetheless profoundly important. How can we encourage good things to flourish even in rough and damaged soil?

This Too Shall Pass: Mourning Collective Loss in the Age of COVID-19

by Alex Evans, Casper ter Kuile, Ivor Williams | May 4, 2020

The nature of this crisis goes right to the core of how we live – and die – as social beings, and forces us to look our unease with death squarely in the face. We are experiencing widespread loss, and this inevitably leads to the need to grieve. As such, we recognise that grieving well and collectively will be essential.

High Five: Building Back Better Children’s Services

by Dr Emma Hannay, Victoria Collis | Apr 30, 2020

We have previously highlighted the enormous sacrifice the world’s children are being asked to make to help protect the most vulnerable from COVID-19. Now, we’re outlining five actions we should start working on today to ensure children’s services are back up and running as soon as possible, and that they return strengthened and improved.

Resources for Tackling the Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19

by Mark Weston | Apr 28, 2020

Before the spread of the coronavirus, almost 600 million people worldwide were estimated to be suffering from anxiety or depression. Suicide took the lives of 800,000 people a year, and was the second leading cause of death among those aged 15–29. These figures are now likely to rise.

Unnoticed, people are dying on the home front

by Dr David E. Bloom, David Steven | Apr 24, 2020

People are infected with and dying from COVID-19 in three settings. In hospitals. In residential care facilities and other non-medical institutions such as prisons. And at home.

Typologies of Change

by Elle Dodd | Apr 22, 2020

As we begin to look forward to the world that emerges out of this crisis, there are three types of changes to consider. Each will need to be approached in a different way, using different tools and techniques.

Enlisting Community Leaders to Overcome COVID-19 in Africa

by Mark Weston | Apr 17, 2020

A response led by the community and supported by outsiders is likely to be the most effective means of controlling COVID-19 in slums.

From Peril to Promise: Our Debt to Children

by Victoria Collis, Dr Emma Hannay | Apr 14, 2020

In the long run, the world must commit to paying back the debt to children that is mounting up during this global emergency, just as it did after World War II.

Justice for All and the Public Health Emergency

by David Steven, Mark Weston | Apr 8, 2020

Last year, our Justice for All report noted that 1.5 billion people had a justice problem they could not resolve. Now, as we gear up to face a global...

The Virus and the Global Goals: What Could COVID-19 Mean for Sustainable Development?

by Sarah Mendelson | Apr 7, 2020

This virus has demonstrated just how much we are of one planet, and that concept—that we are all global citizens—is the bedrock of the SDGs.

Planning for the World After the Coronavirus Pandemic

by Alex Evans, David Steven | Apr 6, 2020

In an article written for the World Politics Review, Global Dashboard authors David Steven and Alex Evans call for a coordinated global action plan in...

COVID-19 Immunisation: Preparing for the Perfect Handoff

by Dr Emma Hannay, Victoria Collis | Apr 1, 2020

Every leg in this race is important, but it is typically the first that attracts the lion’s share of attention and resources.

This is a Love Story: thinking globally during COVID-19

by Kirsty McNeill | Mar 30, 2020

This is a love story. Forget what you’ve heard. It isn’t a war, it isn’t a fight. It isn’t a race, it isn’t a competition. This is a love story.

You’re Not Being Bold Enough

by Ben Phillips | Mar 25, 2020

You're not being bold enough. I don't mean that you should be going out. Stay at home, covidiots! I'm writing this from home in Italy - and just as it is said...

Too many powerful forces are driving division – here are the seven trends you need to know about if you want to democratise and depolarise our common life instead

by Kirsty McNeill | Sep 5, 2019

Lawyers, historians and constitutional experts will ultimately have the final say about whether last week’s decision to prorogue parliament is a democratic...

Public interest in the SDGs

by Alex Evans | May 13, 2019

I got curious about what’s happened to global interest in the SDGs since they were agreed in 2015, so I ran a Google Trends analysis on it. Top line: turns...

Myths for an age of political polarisation

by Alex Evans | Aug 9, 2018

Want to change the world? Then what you need most isn’t facts; it’s a really great story. So I argued in a book called The Myth Gap (summary here), which came...

Remembering Brian Matyila, Fees Must Fall Young Lion

by Ben Phillips | Mar 12, 2018

When you meet your heroes, you wonder what they will be like in person. When they are really as special as they seemed from afar, that's inspirational....

The future of the UN is revealed!

by Richard Gowan | Jan 2, 2018

Each year, the Austrian Ministry of Defense publishes a collection of predictions by various experts on upcoming international developments. This year, I...

How can technology help the UN improve its effectiveness and reputation?

by Ryan Gawn | Sep 27, 2017

Ryan Gawn looks at a new report on how emerging technology can help the United Nations reform The September gathering of world leaders has come and gone, and...

Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies – HLPF version

by David Steven | Jul 18, 2017

The roadmap identifies three transformative strategies that will make a cross-cutting contribution to the delivery of the sustainable development agenda. It sets out catalytic actions where there is strong potential to accelerate delivery, and underlines the need for a strategic approach to data and evidence, exchange and learning, finance, and advocacy and movement-building.

Elites claim we’ve persuaded them to fight inequality, but it’s only activism that can make them do it

by Ben Phillips | May 18, 2017

The words we never thought they'd say have recently turned from a trickle into a mighty river. The very building block of any decent society, commitment to...

Meeting Martin McGuinness

by Ben Phillips | Mar 21, 2017

"Ben, Martin, I have to introduce you to each other," said an Irish writer who knew us both. It was Dublin March 2016, and we were there to commemorate...

Austerity economics has just been smashed. By the IMF.

by Ben Phillips | Jan 26, 2017

A powerful new report finally kills off any remaining intellectual veil for a broken economics that is breaking society. Sometimes an ideology is so...

Honouring Jo Cox by supporting women in politics

by Kirsty McNeill | Oct 20, 2016

Jo Cox only used one qualifier when asked what kind of feminist she was. "Massive". She believed in politics and the rightful role of women at the centre of...

What happens when you take up Bridge on their call to visit their schools?

by Ben Phillips | Sep 19, 2016

It is said that one difference between British English and American English is that when Americans say "you really must visit us sometime" they hope and...

International aid – a way to show post-Brexit Britain hasn’t turned its back on the world

by Alistair Burnett | Aug 1, 2016

On his last day in Downing Street, David Cameron said one of his proudest achievements was to honour the commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on...

After Brexit. Time to organise.

by Ben Phillips | Jun 24, 2016

Britain has brexited. What next? The pound and the PM are freefalling, but that's not the big thing even now. The big thing is the rejection of almost the...

Vote remain – winning the home front

by Alex Evans | Jun 15, 2016

I've been posting a ton of stuff in favour of remaining in the EU on Facebook and Twitter in recent weeks. So have most of us, given that we're young(ish) and...

Commemorating Ireland’s Easter Rising 100 years on, and the promise of equality

by Ben Phillips | Apr 24, 2016

[Transcript of Ben Phillips's address at the Irish Embassy in Kenya's commemoration of the Easter Rising on 24th April 2016] I’ve been asked to share...

Austerity’s defendent turns witness for the prosecution. The turning of Iain Duncan Smith

by Ben Phillips | Mar 21, 2016

The media and political classes in Britain are in shock at the dramatic resignation of the minister in charge of welfare, Iain Duncan Smith. He had been seen...

Lessons from global HIV / AIDS campaigning

by Kirsty McNeill | Dec 21, 2015

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl7gxiqJYAU[/youtube] Guest post from Jack Wilson, campaigner at Save the Children, reflecting on a talk by...

Paris tears: inequality vs people power at the #COP21 climate talks

by Ben Phillips | Dec 7, 2015

Right in front of us, the chair of the Paris climate talks burst into tears.Her tears were the most appropriate summary of the summary of the draft deal. The...

Life in a Town called Coal

by Ben Phillips | Nov 17, 2015

The Town called Coal In the town centre the austere concrete municipal building is still inscribed with the old Apartheid-era name name Witbank, but the town...

Investing in our soft power assets – the BBC World Service & the Spending Review

by Ryan Gawn | Nov 8, 2015

This is the third in a series of blogs on the upcoming Spending Review, and how Britain maximises its influence and soft power across the world at a time of...

People Power – What Progress on Fighting Inequality Would Look Like

by Ben Phillips | Oct 13, 2015

Movements overcome injustices not just by bearing witness to the wrongs of the time, but by enabling people to envision a better future. Martin Luther King...

The struggle over inequality: What to expect as world leaders meet in New York this week

by Ben Phillips | Sep 23, 2015

If you're in New York this week, you're in good company, as world leaders congregate at the United Nations to mark the end of the old Millennium Development...

10 thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn’s win

by Alex Evans | Sep 15, 2015

1.Whatever you think about Jeremy Corbyn, it is kind of astonishing to see a party leader who goes straight from being elected to participating in a march for...

A bold Beeb – ambitious plans for the BBC World Service

by Ryan Gawn | Sep 6, 2015

The BBC World Service is often seen as one of the UK's great soft power assets. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan agrees, describing the world's largest...

Are we neglecting our soft power assets?

by Ryan Gawn | Jul 22, 2015

Last week saw the launch of a new global #softpower report, ranking the UK at the top of a 30-country index. Compiled by Portland, Facebook and ComRes, the...

A great generation: Make Poverty History ten years on

by Kirsty McNeill | Jul 8, 2015

In 2005 some of us thought white bands and rock bands could change the world. We were right. Make Poverty History was an unprecedented popular mobilisation on...

The end of the defence of widening inequality, and the beginnings of a coalition to address it

by Ben Phillips | Jun 7, 2015

Were it not for the amusing stunts mocking the G7 leaders, the world might not even know the G7 was happening. (What they most fear, I reckon, is that people...

Every Child Deserves a Childhood

by David Steven | May 19, 2015

Continuing with our work on the Time to Deliver theme, focusing on the core promises that should be made to children, this report explores the potential for...

Bill, Melinda, and the SDGs

by Alex Evans | May 12, 2015

About a week ago, the Humanosphere blog caused something of a stir in development circles with a piece on the UN's draft Sustainable Development Goals...

A larger us

by Alex Evans | Apr 21, 2015

(H/t Shulem Stern)

So what could a Global Partnership on Development Data do for us?

by Claire Melamed | Apr 13, 2015

As my regular post-2015 update from the invaluable Rachel Quint at the Hewlett foundation reminded me today, there have been (at least) six separate proposals...

A Long Peace

by David Steven | Mar 29, 2015

Written in 2003, this report on the Future of Unionism in Northern Ireland argues that a functioning democracy in Northern Ireland is the only way to...

What’s mined is yours

by Ben Phillips | Feb 20, 2015

They call it an "indaba" - a word in several African languages for a gathering where a community gets together to resolve the problems that affect them all....

Is US-led campaign against IS making much progress?

by Alistair Burnett | Feb 4, 2015

The recent defeat of Islamic State (IS) forces in the Syrian border town of Kobane has been greeted by the US-led coalition fighting the group as a...

What can be done about women’s economic inequality?

by Anna Thomas | Jan 28, 2015

Alongside last week’s Davos meeting has been a welcome focus on global economic inequality – but much less on gender inequality. Everyone agrees that women’s...

The Great Acceleration

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2015

Great Acceleration 2015 from International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme A set of slides from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, who've just published their...

New Boy: What they said to me on my first day at ActionAid

by Ben Phillips | Jan 14, 2015

“So how do you think we should use EAGLES to apply the HRBA and SO2 to IHART?” “That’s the one sentence version. And here is the 265 page version. Hey, you’ve...

On Andrew Lansley as the UK’s candidate for UN Emergency Relief Coordinator

by Alex Evans | Nov 28, 2014

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J_5CRaXNko[/youtube] A pretty good summary, one imagines, of how the UN Secretary-General's team reacted when David...

How about this as a headline outcome from the Addis FFD summit?

by Alex Evans | Nov 10, 2014

Here's a conundrum if you like riddles: how on earth is next summer's Finance For Development summit in Addis Ababa supposed to take account of the vexed...

Towards a Just and Sustainable Economy?

by Alex Evans | Nov 5, 2014

Think piece prepared as a background paper for two Tearfund seminars exploring what it would look like to shift to a just and sustainable economy and how we...

In post-2015, as in life – it’s safety first

by Leah Kreitzman | Oct 21, 2014

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai is exceptional. She fearlessly brought the campaign for girls’ education to the centre of the world stage. There is...

The best climate change movie yet

by Alex Evans | Oct 1, 2014

Here's the trailer for the new climate film Disruption, which came out earlier this month. As Upworthy summarise, "he sat down in a cold, grey room and...

The political deal on post-2015 ‘means of implementation’

by Alex Evans | Sep 19, 2014

The post-2015 agenda is at a turning point, with the intense discussions of the last year about Goals and targets giving way to a new focus on how the world...

Bruce Jackson: the man who took NATO east

by Jules Evans | Sep 4, 2014

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.

Inequality and the dangerous radicals

by Ben Phillips | Aug 25, 2014

As is well-known, critiquing the market can lead to dangerous radicalism, and I've recently come across some particularly troubling examples of such radicals....

With Glasgow Govan’s gentle hard men

by Ben Phillips | Jul 14, 2014

In Govan, one of Glasgow's toughest post-industrial neighbourhoods, a big burly man with a tattoo, a history of drug abuse, huge arms and a large hammer,...

The Unquiet: Challenging Inequality in Pakistan

by Ben Phillips | Jun 21, 2014

They were brought up to be quiet. But they insist upon raising their voice. At a gathering in Lahore of women grassroots activists from different parts of...

Data revolution, meet deforestation

by Alex Evans | Jun 6, 2014

You will need: Some satellites. Google Maps. Trees. People. Some money. Method: Grab satellite data on forest cover. Make it super hi-resolution - all the...

North-South, South-South, Triangular Cooperation, and ICT for Development to the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda

by David Steven | May 29, 2014

Presentation by David Steven to the High-Level Event of the United Nations General Assembly on Contributions of North-South, South-South, Triangular...

Ending poverty through climate action in the Post-2015 development agenda

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | May 15, 2014

The post-2015 development agenda offers an extraordinary opportunity to tackle the world’s two most pressing challenges—poverty and climate change. A recent...

Playing with fire in the Ukraine

by Alex Evans | May 14, 2014

Back in 1989, William Lind was one of the team that first coined the term 'fourth generation warfare' - referring to low-intensity conflicts involving highly...

Implementing the Post-2015 Development Agenda in the United States

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | May 12, 2014

In a new report from the Center for American Progress, we explore the implications of implementing the post-2015 development agenda in the United States....

Pakistan’s Next Generation: Insecure Lives, Untold Stories

by David Steven | May 8, 2014

I’m in Lahore launching the third report from Pakistan’s Next Generation Task Force – I’m the Task Force’s director of research. In the first report, we...

New Book on Poverty and Development in Fragile States

by Seth Kaplan | May 1, 2014

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book on fragile states — Betrayed: Politics, Power and Prosperity (Palgrave Macmillan). The book focuses on...

Fueling a New Order? The New Geopolitical and Security Consequences of Energy

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2014

Paper by David Steven, Bruce Jones and Emily O'Brien that examines impacts of the major transformation in international energy markets that has begun. The...

Sustainable development goals, targets and…clusters?

by Molly Elgin-Cossart | Mar 25, 2014

The UN’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) will meet next week to discuss potential goals and targets to replace the Millennium...

The gun-nuts ready to fight Obama’s Commie agenda need Commie ammunition

by Richard Gowan | Mar 11, 2014

So, it turns out that all those hard-right National Rifle Association libertarians preparing for guerrilla warfare against Obama's socialist seizure of...

Development Dilemmas

by Kirsty McNeill | Feb 25, 2014

In our development dilemmas piece we consider what progressives should do now the split between foreign and development policy no longer exists: Should aid be...

The paranoids versus the Pollyannas: what is driving Labour’s foreign policy?

by Kirsty McNeill | Feb 7, 2014

The Fabian Society has a new pamphlet out this week which lays bare some of the big strategic fights underlying Labour's emerging foreign policy. I've...

On ending the war and building the peace in Colombia

by Ben Phillips | Jan 27, 2014

The flowers adorning the green hills of Cauca in Colombia made me think of paradise. But, unsure whether that would translate culturally, I remarked merely...

I ? Vaclav Smil

by Alex Evans | Jan 21, 2014

Vaclav Smil is Bill Gates' favourite author, and he's interviewed in this month's Wired. The whole thing's a treat, but I especially liked this passage:...

Peacemaking’s silly season

by Richard Gowan | Jan 13, 2014

I have an especially dour article over at World Politics Review about the state of crisis diplomacy today, which kicks off like this: Since the conflict in...

Why the struggle against inequality is a transformational campaign we can win

by Ben Phillips | Jan 5, 2014

There are three types of campaigns: the lost causes, the just a little bits, and the transformational. The lost causes can be great to begin with -...

Can Cities Change the Politics of Fragile States?

by Seth Kaplan | Dec 15, 2013

Discussions about how to fix fragile states usually start and end with national level politics and institutions. But what if the key to improving their...

Saudi Arabia’s national shame

by Alex Evans | Dec 13, 2013

A couple of weeks back I posted about Saudia Arabia’s mass deportation of Ethiopian migrant labourers. Now, with 7,000 migrants returning on flights back to...

Has lead poisoning driven Pakistan’s epidemic of violence? (updated)

by David Steven | Dec 9, 2013

Lead permanently damages young brains The impact of lead poisoning is devastating, especially just before and after birth: The nervous system of the fetus and...

Nelson Mandela RIP

by David Steven | Dec 5, 2013

"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love."

A Global Partnership for the post-2015 Agenda

by Alex Evans | Nov 23, 2013

Debate about what new Goals should succeed the Millennium Development Goals after their 2015 deadline is now well underway. But there has so far been much...

Why can’t politicians ‘cut through’ on climate?

by David Steven | Nov 22, 2013

In the Guardian, Hugh Muir complains that the Daily Mail has “helped erode trust in the probity of the political establishment to the extent that politicians...

China – not yet a global power

by Alistair Burnett | Nov 15, 2013

China has been taking flak for its relatively small contribution to the international aid effort in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan. It's pledged...

How to defuse the twin climate finance / post-2015 finance for development timebombs (updated)

by Alex Evans | Nov 14, 2013

Whether it's at the climate summit currently underway in Warsaw (from where I'm writing this post) or at two key meetings happening in NYC next month on the...

ODI calls for VAT hike on energy bills (updated: ODI fights back)

by David Steven | Nov 7, 2013

In a brave move, the Overseas Development Institute – which bills itself as the UK’s leading international development think tank – has called for George...

US sets out big statement of global climate policy. Don’t hold your breath

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2013

US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern's speech at Chatham House a couple of days ago is worth a look if you follow climate change. But don't expect...

Justine Greening’s interesting new core messages

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2013

Justine Greening has done a big interview with the Daily Mail, which concludes as follows: Greening, to her credit, does not seek to back away from what she...

Legitimacy in a time of deadlock

by Kirsty McNeill | Oct 16, 2013

Latest piece in our #progressivedilemmas series, on whether a foreign policy is legitimised by public consent, global rules, international consensus or moral...

A Fox News EXCLUSIVE on post-2015

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2013

This just in from Fox News: EXCLUSIVE: The United Nations is planning to create a sweeping new set of “sustainable development goals” Um... and we'll have...

Why US conservatives aren’t for turning

by Alex Evans | Oct 3, 2013

Ross Douthat in the NYT today is worth a read for a good discussion of US conservatives' motivations in taking the US to the brink on debt. He starts by...

Why Russia might favor humanitarian corridors into Syria

by Richard Gowan | Oct 1, 2013

Here's more exciting Syrian news from the Security Council after last week's chemical weapons resolution: The president of the U.N. Security Council said...

The UN’s struggle for moral authority

by Richard Gowan | Sep 26, 2013

I have a 3,000 word essay in Aeon, the online magazine of ideas, on the United Nations and morality. Here's the opening... 'We will integrate human rights...

Labour’s next election attack lines on the Conservatives’ development record

by Alex Evans | Sep 25, 2013

This piece is published this morning on the Guardian development blog (under the rather fabulous headline "Will international development be the undoing of...

Did climate change help cause Syria’s civil war?

by Alex Evans | Sep 5, 2013

Did climate change and a multi-year drought help to create the conditions in which Syria’s civil war caught fire?

Emerging economies’ dangerous game on the post-2015 development agenda

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2013

The internal dynamics of the G77 group of developing countries are shifting rapidly on both climate change and the post-2015 international development agenda,...

Labour and Uncle Sam

by Kirsty McNeill | Aug 21, 2013

Should Britain expect more from the Special Relationship with the United States than managed decline? What price should progressives be willing to pay for...

On course for 3.6 – 5.3 degrees Celsius

by Alex Evans | Aug 12, 2013

A little earlier in the summer, the International Energy Agency published an excerpt from the forthcoming 2013 World Energy Outlook. Included in it was their...

It’s getting clearer and clearer we’re in an inequality crisis – so why am I optimistic?

by Ben Phillips | Aug 8, 2013

We are not living in an age of austerity. We are living in an age of brutal inequality. Millions struggle to feed themselves and their families - even in...

No apologies: the President of the UN General Assembly rocks with Bon Jovi

by Richard Gowan | Jul 30, 2013

Vuk Jeremic, a former foreign minister of Serbia, is coming to the end of a year in the very important job of President of the UN General Assembly. His...

Obama’s big shift on climate messaging

by Alex Evans | Jul 24, 2013

Chris Mooney picks up an interesting point about Obama's climate change speech last month: If you watched President Obama's major speech on climate change,...

We know why we were left to die

by Kirsty McNeill | Jul 18, 2013

The painful choices facing left interventionists, part of our series on #progressivedilemmas.

Are the g7+ and Donors Heading for a Clash?

by Seth Kaplan | Jun 27, 2013

The g7+ group of 18 fragile and conflict-affected states has joined together to share experiences and promote a new development framework in what are the most...

Miliband’s Three Big Europe Dilemmas

by Kirsty McNeill | Jun 23, 2013

Latest in our #progressivedilemmas series is now online – this time on the left and the European Union. You can see the introductory piece here.

People power has cracked the walls of tax secrecy – now we have to bring the walls down

by Ben Phillips | Jun 18, 2013

" "But our actions are perfectly legal, and what you are calling for is completely unrealistic", said the slave traders of the early Nineteenth Century....

What’s the $10 trillion question?

by Andy Sumner | Jun 14, 2013

Global consumption grew by $10 trillion from 1990 to 2010. So the $10 trillion question is who benefited and how much? In a new paper we explore who have been...

Monday’s* Map: A String of Chinese Pearls

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 11, 2013

From The Economist: "China’s port strategy is mainly motivated by commercial impulses. It is natural that a country of its clout has a global shipping and...

Is Hollande discovering it IS easier to get in than out?

by Alistair Burnett | Jun 9, 2013

France’s beleaguered President Francois Hollande has had some good news. He may have fallen out of the public’s affection faster than any previous French...

Greenpeace on shale. Really?

by David Steven | Jun 4, 2013

I have long been bemused by the politics of shale gas in the UK. It's hard to understand why a Conservative-led government is not trying to get the stuff out...

Brazil – can she be everybody’s friend?

by Alistair Burnett | May 31, 2013

Brazil’s diplomats must be quietly pleased with their week’s work. Last weekend, the country’s President, Dilma Rousseff, fresh from being named the world’s...

Are India & China really destined to rivalry?

by Alistair Burnett | May 25, 2013

China and India are the two giants of what are called the emerging powers – they are the ’I’ and ‘C’ in the BRICS – but despite their membership of that...

Nuclear war called off in Korea – time to relax?

by Alistair Burnett | May 17, 2013

Something quite significant happened this week– though you may have missed it. It seems the US military doesn’t think there will be nuclear war with North...

What is a progressive foreign policy anyway?

by Kirsty McNeill | May 16, 2013

Labour left office three years ago this month and may return to it just two years from now. That’s not a very long time in which to formulate a distinctive...

The African Exodus: A View from the Ground

by Mark Weston | May 7, 2013

Sunday's El País carried a surprising article detailing the increase in immigration from Africa to Spain in the past two years. Although Spain is in the...

Stuart Hall – The danger of anonymity for rape defendants

by David Steven | May 2, 2013

When the UK’s coalition government came to power, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats promised that they would increase ‘fairness in the justice system’ by...

The future of global poverty: What if there were multiple horizons for aid post-2015?

by Andy Sumner | Apr 30, 2013

A Brookings paper out this week (here) does something a set of papers have sought to do recently - that is make projections about the future of global...

A reply to Jeff Sachs and Johan Rockstrom on fair shares and planetary boundaries

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2013

Dear Jeff Sachs, Johan Rockstrom, Marcus Ohman and Guido Schmidt-Traub, I'm a long-standing admirer of your work, especially Johan's pioneering research on...

Have NGOs gone soft on the Government?

by Ben Phillips | Apr 22, 2013

"Non-Governmental Organisation" is a foolproof reminder to us of the one thing we are not: the Government. "Remember, we don't work for them." We must ward...

Department of Homeland Security: “how to survive an active shooter event”

by Alex Evans | Apr 9, 2013

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0&list=PLUra6uw6CXK9SNLZeddcLIufDY5OfnMpU&index=1[/youtube]

Being wrong, wrong wrong about migration: David Goodhart in the Guardian

by Claire Melamed | Apr 1, 2013

Migration is a notoriously divisive issue. Maybe David Goodhart, writing in the Guardian last week, should be commended for trying to say something new on the...

Now why would David Miliband be leaving for New York?

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2013

Honestly, the Westminster village can be so up itself in its sheer self-referentiality. More or less every piece I've read today on why David Miliband might...

10 things we missed or got wrong 5 years ago at the height of the credit crunch and food/fuel spike

by Alex Evans | Mar 22, 2013

This summer will mark five years since 2008, the year of both the first flush of the global financial crisis, and of the peak of the combined food and fuel...

Can Obama bend it like Bono?

by Andy Sumner | Mar 5, 2013

What do Obama and Bono have in common? Both have proposed that the world should seek to end extreme poverty over the next twenty years or so. Obama said so in...

Tony Blair Saves Africa!

by Mark Weston | Mar 4, 2013

When I was young, naive and ignorant both of humanity's complexity and my own limitations, I believed I would one day save the world. Once I reached...

NGOs at their absolute worst

by Alex Evans | Feb 20, 2013

Now this campaign really annoys me. A gaggle of NGOs have joined forces to launch a declaration demanding that the European Union scrap its emissions trading...

President Obama wants to eradicate extreme poverty

by Claire Melamed | Feb 15, 2013

This was the development bit in President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night: We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of...

What do people want a post-2015 agenda to do for them?

by Claire Melamed | Feb 5, 2013

Here, my post-2015 friends, is the very beginnings of an answer. The 'MY World' survey, available through the internet, by mobile phone, and in the...

Goals in a Post-2015 Development Framework

by David Steven | Jan 31, 2013

An options brief by David Steven, published by New York University's Center on International Cooperation and funded by the UN Foundation, on the role that...

Open borders: the great taboo

by Mark Weston | Jan 28, 2013

Matthew Yglesias in Slate has worked out some of what would happen if the United States opened up its borders: According to Gallup there are 150 million...

Discordant Development – Can Progress Increase Instability?

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 16, 2013

Samuel Huntington argued in his 1968 classic Political Order in Changing Societies that rapid development could be highly destabilizing: Social and economic...

How to do facipulation

by Alex Evans | Jan 11, 2013

In plenary and group feedback time, use the “there’s just so much participation going on I can’t capture it all!” trick to ignore or skip over what you don’t...

Things they don’t teach you at business school: Grow Facial Hair

by Mark Weston | Jan 9, 2013

The New Year brings news of a boom in facial hair implants in Istanbul. Follically-challenged men are coming from all corners of the Middle East to bolster...

Was the Washington Consensus right?

by Mark Weston | Dec 10, 2012

Michael Clemens and co-authors have just won this year's Royal Economic Society Prize for a paper on aid's role in pushing economic growth (ungated version...

The Problem with Fossil Fuel ‘Subsidies’

by David Steven | Dec 4, 2012

Like all right-thinking people, I am passionately opposed to fossil fuel subsidies. What could be worse than paying people to accelerate the rate at which we...

Did the world just get simpler?

by Claire Melamed | Nov 23, 2012

Among our many neuroses, we right on development types like to agonise about what words to use to describe countries. Low, middle and high income? Bit...

Question Time

by Jules Evans | Nov 19, 2012

I feel for 'the sweaty man in the third row'. We'll all been there. [youtube]http://youtu.be/p3tUqRBiMVo[/youtube]

Europe and Obama: no miracles ahead

by Richard Gowan | Nov 16, 2012

ECFR has just published a brief multi-authored paper looking at what President Obama's re-election means for Europe (I was one of the contributors). The...

Politicians quick to take advantage of Ghana’s oil windfall

by Mark Weston | Nov 13, 2012

In The Ringtone and the Drum, my recently published book on West Africa, I described how diamonds have proved a curse rather than a blessing to Sierra...

Thoughts from the post-2015 High-Level panel meeting in London

by Claire Melamed | Nov 5, 2012

Just in case anyone missed it (but how...), last week was the second meeting of the UN Secretary General's High Level Panel on the Post-2015 agenda. This is...

Let’s Drive a Lot More

by David Steven | Oct 25, 2012

In The Economist, Schumpeter extols the benefits of driverless cars: When people are no longer in control of their cars they will not need driver insurance—so...

Banks screwing with price discovery mechanisms: water’s next

by Alex Evans | Oct 25, 2012

Frederick Kaufman in the current edition of Nature: Making money come out of the tap means that fresh water must be given a price anywhere it is traded — a...

Mark Lynas on planetary boundaries

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac9dDnR8ghw[/youtube]

Ending poverty – can it be done?

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2012

Global Dashboard, November 2011: But let’s go back to the poverty MDG. In 1990, there were 1.8 billion poor people (in a world of 5.3bn people). If the...

Freudian tweet of the day

by Alex Evans | Oct 18, 2012

An intriguing tweet from EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs: I realised I made a mistake in my tweet. I meant 'living' not 'leaving' obviously. As I...

Coca Cola – active healthy living

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2012

Here in Addis Ababa, last weekend saw the Coca-Cola Road Race, an annual 7km race. The strapline for the event was "active healthy living". Um, really?...

Are gay rights a development issue?

by Kirsty McNeill | Sep 28, 2012

Next week I am speaking at an event jointly organised by LGBT groups and development campaigners to consider whether legal reform drives social change. While...

Diplomacy vs. interior design

by Richard Gowan | Sep 24, 2012

From Vogue: H/T Rebecca Katz.

The failure of the green movement and the neo-medieval rustic apocalypse

by Richard Gowan | Sep 17, 2012

Aeon, a new online magazine focusing on ethics and aesthetics, launches this week. Managing Editor Ed Lake (an old friend, I should disclose) gets it off to...

Can Foreign Aid Improve Pakistan ’s Political Economy?

by Seth Kaplan | Sep 5, 2012

Like many struggling countries, Pakistan’s two most critical problems are feckless leaders and a feeble state. Can donors do anything to help get such...

Why the UN won’t invade Texas: it would lose

by Richard Gowan | Aug 25, 2012

There has been much hilarity this week over comments by Tom Head, a Texan judge who predicts that President Obama is going to authorize a United Nations...

What about the deserving rich?

by Kirsty McNeill | Aug 20, 2012

In 1988, the majority of Britons couldn’t name their MP – but a staggering 92% of the population knew the name of an ANC leader imprisoned 6000 miles away in...

Would you ever ask a man that question?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 14, 2012

Here's a great Hillary Clinton moment: Interviewer: Okay. Which designers do you prefer? Hillary Clinton: What designers of clothes? Interviewer: Yes. Hillary...

Greenpeace’s Executive Director replies (sort of) to my post on why they’re part of the problem on global climate policy

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2012

Last week, I published a post here arguing that Greenpeace is (and has been for a long time) part of the problem on global climate policy - in a nutshell,...

Osborne just doesn’t make the cut

by Ryan Gawn | Jul 27, 2012

As Chancellor George Osborne thanks the London Olympics for taking him off the front pages, he might want to take advantage of the breathing space to have an...

Let’s be Norway (part 3)

by Alex Evans | Jul 24, 2012

Continuing an occasional series about why the UK could take a leaf out of Norway's foreign policy book on, well, pretty much every front (previous instalments...

Promoting Human Rights in Less Developed Countries

by Seth Kaplan | Jul 9, 2012

A key challenge faced by those engaged in international human rights policy and practice is adopting an effective framework for protecting and promoting human...

LIBOR: more outrage, please

by Alex Evans | Jul 4, 2012

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone: To me what’s missing from all of this is the “Holy Fucking Shit!” factor. This story is so outrageous that it shocks even the...

Procrastination…

by Claire Melamed | Jul 2, 2012

I have something very urgent to do, but instead I have found this, which kind of proves the point in a satisfyingly circular way. From Aaron Ausland's blog,...

Antifragility

by Alex Evans | Jun 28, 2012

Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. Likewise with randomness, uncertainty, chaos: you want to use them, not hide from them. You want to be the fire...

Collected Sorkinisms

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI[/youtube]

Communicating with the public on aid and development spending: we need a better story

by Alex Glennie | Jun 25, 2012

The comprehensive Data report released today by the One campaign reveals that the flow of aid from Europe to developing countries fell by €700 million in...

Don’t blame the economists

by Claire Melamed | Jun 22, 2012

What is it about economists that make people so cross? Some of my best friends are economists and they are perfectly nice, reasonable people - some of them...

Great moments in development communication, part 94

by Alex Evans | Jun 20, 2012

It's always fun when development practitioners decide to attempt to communicate with actual members of the public, and this large billboard, which I drive...

Vice interviews Karachi contract killer

by David Steven | Jun 13, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJHFXenOPi4[/youtube]

Managing common pool resources – Elinor Ostrom

by Alex Evans | Jun 13, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1xwV2UDPAg[/youtube]

Chill Out: Why Cooperation is Balancing Conflict Among Major Powers in the New Arctic

by David Steven | Jun 7, 2012

This report addresses the Arctic’s growing strategic relevance and conflict dynamic; offers background on, and assessment of, the existing institutions, and examines ongoing risks. Ultimately, the report concludes that the prospects for cooperation outstrip the potential for conflict, and that the Arctic offers lessons for tackling evolving challenges in other regions.

“Cool UN”: multilateralism gets hot and sweaty

by Richard Gowan | May 29, 2012

The following email was circulated to UN staff in New York today. As summer approaches in the Northern Hemisphere and the mercury rises, it is time again to...

Goldman Sachs’s three scenarios for Greece

by Alex Evans | May 28, 2012

From a GS research note published this morning: Scenario #1: Muddling through In the most likely scenario, the new Greek government emerging from the June 17...

Nick Clegg and the deformed parsnips

by Richard Gowan | May 24, 2012

Nick Clegg spoke at the British embassy in Berlin today. The audience was impressed by his fluent German. But why on earth did the Foreign Office decorate the...

Latest data on emissions

by Alex Evans | May 24, 2012

2 sets of new emissions data out yesterday. First, the overview, courtesy of the Worldwatch Institute's new Vital Signs Online project: Although global...

What Switzerland Can Teach Us About Development

by Seth Kaplan | May 21, 2012

International efforts to help developing countries start with a mental model of how government should be structured. It is based on the most common European...

Syria: Annan’s dilemma

by Richard Gowan | May 19, 2012

Kofi Annan's efforts to pacify Syria face growing criticism. Violence continues and few hope that real peace talks can happen soon. Diplomats are...

Underpants bombs – what next for airport security?

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | May 17, 2012

Reading about the underpants bomb episode reminded me of a funny rant on airport security penned by Shashi Tharoor in the FT a few years back when airport...

Open Letter to the Co-Chairs of the UN High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda

by David Steven | May 14, 2012

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced on Wednesday that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and British...

Chairs of UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on post-MDGs announced

by Claire Melamed | May 9, 2012

We've known for a while that David Cameron will be one of the co-chairs of the UN Secretary-General's panel on what comes after the MDGs, when they...

When NATO was cool

by Richard Gowan | May 7, 2012

Robert Silvers is best-known for editing the New York Review of Books since its foundation, but he started out at The Paris Review, the classic "little...

Cash still counts

by Claire Melamed | May 4, 2012

Even though we're all excited about mobile money these days, it's useful to be reminded that cash still matters. A recent evaluation study in Kenya run by...

Oceans: The Story Of Hope For Rio+20?

by Casper ter Kuile | May 1, 2012

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQa1cyvHXE] With six weeks to go before the Rio+20 circus arrives in town, negotiators are working the corridors of...

Christmas tree, jigsaw or bullseye? A rough guide to post-2015 frameworks

by Claire Melamed | Apr 25, 2012

The last week or so has been truly post-2015-tastic, not least here on GD. There are so many ideas flying around that it’s hard to untangle what people are...

Beyond the MDGs – our new Brookings Institution paper

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2012

In posts over the last couple of weeks, David and I have been previewing some of the ideas set out in a paper we did for the Brookings Institution in advance...

It’s only ten days to UN Jazz Day!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 20, 2012

Jazz has inspired some great writing. And this. In November 2011, during the UNESCO General Conference, the international community proclaimed 30 April as...

Why I love the New Yorker

by Alex Evans | Apr 18, 2012

Via Michael Anderson. More New Yorker cartoons here.

Who should be on the post-2015 Panel?

by Alex Evans | Apr 17, 2012

And now for the fun part of thinking about the UN's forthcoming High Level Panel on the post-2015 agenda: who should feature on its membership? As well as...

After the MDGs: what kind of goals?

by Alex Evans | Apr 16, 2012

The five key questions that will shape the development and sustainability agenda after 2015 – and the different outcomes that the answers to them lead to.

Highlights from the 2012 Kazakhstan-China-Russia Table Tennis Friendship Tournament

by Richard Gowan | Apr 15, 2012

The Washington Diplomat, a magazine focusing on diplomats in Washington, brings us exciting sporting news: On Feb. 25, Asia's time-honored tradition of...

Do World Bank Country Classifications Hurt the Poor?

by Seth Kaplan | Apr 12, 2012

As the competition for president of the World Bank approaches its final stages, it is worth considering what changes ought to be brought in by the new person....

David Cameron to chair new UN Panel on what happens after the MDGs

by Alex Evans | Apr 12, 2012

News in the Guardian today: David Cameron has been asked by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to chair a new UN committee tasked with establishing a new...

Great NGO moments, part 394

by Alex Evans | Apr 10, 2012

A particularly special moment in NGO campaigns strategy yesterday, for connoisseurs of the genre: Jubilee Debt Campaign arguing that Britain should forgive...

The West’s warlord fetish

by Richard Gowan | Apr 9, 2012

The debate about Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" campaign has been impassioned, but there haven't been many efforts to put it in a proper historical...

Why more Islam not less is good for the Middle East (and democracy)

by Seth Kaplan | Apr 2, 2012

Religion has played an important part in the Arab Spring, either as a ideological influence behind calls for change or, more recently, as a major force in...

The Economist scythes through all the nonsense about the World Bank

by Richard Gowan | Mar 30, 2012

The Economist favors Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to take over at the World Bank. In takes just four paragraphs (one of them mildly brutal, one of them...

Balkan gangstas kill Serbian prime minister, eat each other

by Jules Evans | Mar 24, 2012

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...

Is the US focus on Asia a first step away from being a global power?

by Alistair Burnett | Mar 22, 2012

This is my first post for a while as I've been off 'fighting ' cancer though for a lot of the time 'enduring ' would have been a more appropriate way of...

The state of peacekeeping: NATO retreats, the UN hangs tough and the African Union advances

by Richard Gowan | Mar 14, 2012

There's been talk of speeding up the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan this week. France is hurrying for the exit. On a recent visit to Brussels, I found...

Putting inequality into the post-2015 picture

by Claire Melamed | Mar 12, 2012

There’s a growing consensus among the countries, UN agencies and civil society organisations involved in discussions on the post-2015 development agenda that...

Is Corruption Always Bad?

by Seth Kaplan | Mar 9, 2012

Corruption is generally vilified as an unmitigated evil. It disenfranchises the poor, weakens public services, reduces investment, and holds back whole...

Somalia Conference Wrap Up

by Seth Kaplan | Feb 27, 2012

In the aftermath of the conference in London on Somalia, I offer a wrap-up of the best articles and books to read on the country. In the past week, there has...

Newt Gingrich’s Declaration of Energy Independence – Beyond Peak Oil

by David Steven | Feb 22, 2012

Newt Gingrich has just released a half-hour lecture on US energy policy. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOImnCrKPZ8[/youtube] To say, the ex-speaker...

Heartland: Hacked Off (updated)

by David Steven | Feb 16, 2012

I am hacked off by almost everything about the breathless exposé of Heartland's (purported) internal strategic documents. Here's Think Progress's measured...

Blundering down a humanitarian corridor into Syria?

by Richard Gowan | Feb 15, 2012

At the start of December, I wrote a piece for Foreign Policy reviewing proposals for "humanitarian corridors" into Syria and/or the creation of a buffer...

Should we give up on girls? Or how misrepresenting evidence can set back gender equality

by Mark Weston | Feb 10, 2012

Earlier this week I argued on here for men to be brought into discussions and policy-making on gender and development. I did not expect to be arguing just two...

Agenda 21 is Evil

by David Steven | Feb 6, 2012

The Agenda 21 conspiracy theory is back in the media, thanks to a New York Times report on Tea Party opposition to bike lanes, smart meters, public parks and...

10 February: an exciting day for Europhile New Yorkers

by Richard Gowan | Feb 1, 2012

With apologies to Global Dashboard readers who don't live in New York (bad luck you!) here's an invitation to an event at NYU next week. On Friday 10...

Syria and the Security Council: what do the Europeans think they are doing?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 30, 2012

Tuesday should be a dramatic day in the UN Security Council. Hillary Clinton, William Hague and Alan Juppé are all jetting in for a debate on Syria and the...

“He Doesn’t Steal, But Money Sticks to Him”

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 26, 2012

Mexico, like many places around the world, has numerous immensely imaginative one-liners to characterize corruption. Here is a sample: "El que no transa, no...

Does the IAEA have a subscription to Playboy?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 25, 2012

Our colleague and friend WPS Sidhu has written a thought-provoking column about recent revelations of nuclear proliferation - from a most unusual source:...

Arguments about Aid and the Welfare Bill

by Claire Melamed | Jan 23, 2012

Listening to the debates on the UK's Welfare Bill this morning, I was struck by the similarities between this debate and the endless arguments about whether...

Does the EU really want to hurt you, Iran?

by Richard Gowan | Jan 23, 2012

European ministers are meeting today to discuss an oil embargo on Iran. The run-up to the meeting has been dogged by reports that some impoverished EU...

The “fifth BRIC” motors along

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 20, 2012

Indonesia, sometimes known as the "fifth BRIC" (after Brazil Russia India China) because of its population size and growth potential, now has debt rated at...

South Sudan: time for the UN to take a stand

by Richard Gowan | Jan 17, 2012

The situation in South Sudan is very bad and getting worse, as the New York Times underlined in a lengthy and blunt analysis last week: South Sudan, born six...

The UN: ready for action, 24/7/365

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2012

Equal parts diplomat and advocate, civil servant and CEO, the Secretary-General is a symbol of United Nations ideals and a spokesman for the interests of the...

Trickle Down Piracy

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 15, 2012

Readers could make a real contribution to the people of Somalia by taking their yachts over to the Horn of Africa: Piracy off the coast of Somalia may be a...

Popular rage meets cute small animals

by Richard Gowan | Jan 12, 2012

After all last year's excitement about social media's role in the Arab revolutions ("Think what Trotsky could have done if only he'd had a twitter feed rather...

What can Southeast Asia teach Africa about development?

by Seth Kaplan | Jan 9, 2012

Southeast Asia has consistently outperformed Sub-Saharan Africa in income growth. As the below chart indicates, its inhabitants were much poorer than Africans...

Armenians in Turkey: an unextinguished light

by Mark Weston | Jan 1, 2012

To find out how world peace was coming along I rose early this morning (not easy after a New Year's Eve engaged in one of the marathon rak? and cards sessions...

The Security Council’s family Christmas from hell

by Richard Gowan | Dec 24, 2011

And it's tidings of comfort and joy... but not for the Security Council. On Thursday, Russia proposed an investigation into the casualties of NATO's Libyan...

Herman Van Rompuy is thinking positive

by Jules Evans | Dec 19, 2011

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...

David Carr And Danah Boyd Share Insights

by Casper ter Kuile | Dec 19, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNFBVp3gyHg&feature=g-u&context=G2aeb7c2FUAAAAAAAOAA[/youtube]

The Overview Effect

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2011

“As the Declaration of Independence laid the groundwork for the [US] Constitution, so the commission’s report lays the foundation for the constitution of a...

Inequality: What’s the policy narrative?

by Andy Sumner | Dec 10, 2011

Inequality has got much more on the radar of policy wonks over the last year (see for example the usual inequality interest at UNICEF and UNDP but also the...

Inequality, my grandparents and my children

by Claire Melamed | Dec 8, 2011

So I try to be very professional and only blog about numbers and Big Global Issues and the like. But, you know, I do have a life too and sometimes it...

How big is the Congo? Very big!

by Richard Gowan | Dec 6, 2011

Few journalistic cliches are as irritating as the trope of describing some war-ridden country as "the size of Texas" or "three times the size of France". I...

The DRC: is there a better way?

by Seth Kaplan | Dec 5, 2011

What can you do with US$1.2 billion? Treat over one million HIV/AIDS patients in Africa for one year. Build 200 new university campuses in places such as...

WHAM is back! And it really does Win Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan

by Ryan Gawn | Dec 1, 2011

Remember that “terrible phrase”, Winning Hearts And Minds (WHAM)? Using development programs as a tool for counterinsurgency? PRTs and Money as a Weapons...

Was the boom worth it? The global view

by Mark Weston | Nov 30, 2011

Doug Saunders of Canada's Globe and Mail has an interesting post on whether the economic boom that lasted from the early 1990s to the late 2000s was worth it....

What happens if / when the eurozone collapses?

by Jules Evans | Nov 28, 2011

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...

The perils of regime change in Syria

by Seth Kaplan | Nov 22, 2011

Many Western leaders have called for regime change in Syria. As Barack Obama said in August: We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a...

Has Will Hutton gone mad?

by David Steven | Nov 15, 2011

Over the weekend, Will Hutton offered a 'modest proposal' so bizarre that it must have left his colleagues at the Observer fearing for his sanity. David...

Presidential debate fail

by Alex Evans | Nov 10, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G9p7Z0C6w8[/youtube]

The G20 and the EU: a failed relationship?

by Richard Gowan | Nov 4, 2011

The G20 summit in Cannes is over. Here's a grumpy little post about it that I first published on the ECFR blog this morning: There’s something a little...

US carbon emissions down 7% in 4 years; UK material consumption in decline since 2001

by Alex Evans | Nov 3, 2011

Surprising news from the US via Lester Brown: Between 2007 and 2011, carbon emissions from coal use in the United States dropped 10 percent. During the same...

“Freeing the entire human race from want”

by David Steven | Nov 1, 2011

The MDGs are so over Having just been rude about one World Bank report, here’s a positive review of another – the Global Monitoring Report 2011, which the...

Let the Little Boys Die II – WHO cares?

by David Steven | Oct 31, 2011

It’s not just the World Bank which believes that the health of baby boys matters less than girls. Here’s the World Health Organisation: “While women and men...

UN DAY SPECIAL: Ban Ki-moon is not a zombie!

by Richard Gowan | Oct 24, 2011

It's UN day! I always forget it. Ban Ki-moon remembered and celebrated by giving a speech to a group of ninth-graders at a school in New York. He got off...

Sloppy journalism time

by Alex Evans | Oct 23, 2011

Oh dear. From today's Observer (for non-Brits, that's the Sunday edition of the Guardian): The United Nations will warn this week that the...

Take a risk on the rule of law in Kashmir

by Richard Gowan | Oct 21, 2011

President Obama has announced that American troops will pull out of Iraq by the year's end. Why? The United States had earlier agreed to exit Iraq by the end...

What is catalytic foreign aid?

by Andy Sumner | Oct 13, 2011

Is ‘aid exit’ or 'catalytic aid' a new development strategy for poor countries? You might think so judging by comments buzzing around about 'catalytic...

Ban Ki-moon nails the alphabet

by Richard Gowan | Oct 12, 2011

At a meeting on Global Green Growth in Denmark yesterday, Ban Ki-moon went on an alphabetical rampage: The three Gs of Global Green Growth must respond to...

Hobbes in New Delhi

by Richard Gowan | Oct 7, 2011

He's back! How does the world look to New Delhi's top policy-makers? Hobbesian, according to a speech this week by Indian National Security Adviser Shiv...

Politics, hunger and the muppets

by Andy Sumner | Oct 7, 2011

Sesame Street is addressing head on the issues of 50m Americans living with hunger (see Alex post here on the staggering data in the Economist recently) by...

Syria: the Security Council in flux

by Richard Gowan | Oct 4, 2011

It now looks like the Security Council will vote on a (still too weak) resolution demanding the end of the Syrian crackdown today or tomorrow. Russia is...

Does the UN suck? And if so, how badly? An in-depth report…

by Richard Gowan | Sep 27, 2011

Trying to navigate around the special security cordon for the UN General Assembly last week, I got stuck behind a fellow with closely-cropped hair, a massive...

What is resilience?

by Andy Sumner | Sep 24, 2011

Just back from a lot of discussion on scarcity, resilience and crises at a conference convened by the Development Studies Association and European Association...

Kissinger finally has Europe’s phone number

by Richard Gowan | Sep 23, 2011

EU President Herman Van Rompuy has managed to pull off a nice little joke by giving Henry Kissinger his phone number. Get it?

“In the event of moon disaster…”

by Alex Evans | Sep 18, 2011

To: H. R. Haldeman From: Bill Safire In the event of moon disaster Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the...

Highbrow analysis on Sky News

by Alex Evans | Sep 15, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HzYM_qLEnQ[/youtube]

Has the green jobs argument been lost?

by Alex Evans | Sep 7, 2011

With Obama about to attempt to get back on the front foot with a major speech on jobs to both houses of Congress on Thursday, it's dispiriting to see the...

The most boring peacekeeping debate ever?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 29, 2011

Last Thursday, I published a grumpy post over on the blog of the Takshashila Institution, an excellent Indian think-tank. Why was I in a bad mood? On Friday,...

The crises of capitalism

by Alex Evans | Aug 25, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0[/youtube]

The EU can’t even stop you drinking yourself to death

by Richard Gowan | Aug 23, 2011

Readers of academic journal Addiction will have become rampant eurosceptics after perusing a recent article by Rebecca Gordon and Peter Anderson entitled...

Why academics aren’t politicians

by Richard Gowan | Aug 21, 2011

The New York Times has done a series of mini-interviews with "leaders in fields other than politics", asking them what they would do if they were President. ...

Jeff Sachs on how OECD countries can get their act together

by Alex Evans | Aug 18, 2011

Jeff Sachs in the FT on how OECD countries could finally get their acts together: An improved fiscal policy in the transatlantic economies would therefore be...

Quote of the month

by Alex Evans | Aug 17, 2011

Philip Zelikow nails it in the FT: In the past foreign policy mainly consisted of adjusting relations between states – what they will do with or to each...

Could Iranian peacekeepers survive in Liverpool?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 12, 2011

Iran has made a generous proposal to the people of Britain: Commander of Iran's Basij Force says it is ready to deploy peacekeeper forces in London as the...

Time-lapse footage of Tottenham’s skyline during the riots

by Alex Evans | Aug 8, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc6_ov6GK68[/youtube]

The one book you must read over the summer

by Alex Evans | Aug 3, 2011

Mark Lynas’s new book The God Species is a must-read for environmentalists

Huge US cuts to US State Dept and foreign aid budgets on the way

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2011

Details from Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy: The House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops subcommittee, led by Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), unveiled its fiscal...

Brits think resource scarcity is a bigger deal than climate or development – survey

by Alex Evans | Jul 25, 2011

Chatham House and YouGov published their annual survey of British attitudes on UK international priorities last week, and it's worth a look. The survey covers...

The MIFFs – a whole new kind of country?

by Andy Sumner | Jul 21, 2011

There’s a good piece (here) in the Economist on a whole new kind of country – the MIFFs (middle-income, failed or fragile states) picking up on a Global...

Resource Scarcity, Fair Shares and Development

by Alex Evans | Jul 20, 2011

Why resource scarcity will be a game changer for global justice agendas, and what aid donors, NGOs and other development opinion formers need to do about it. WWF / Oxfam report by Alex Evans.

Global hub fail

by Alex Evans | Jul 18, 2011

OK, that's it. We are officially no longer a serious country: The prime minister, who found out that Stephenson was resigning just over an hour into his...

News of the World? Tick. Fox News…?

by Alex Evans | Jul 15, 2011

While we Brits have been enjoying this week's takedown of the Murdoch imperium's UK satrapy, yesterday's edition of Popbitch offered up an even more...

Yes but who does the laundry? The World Bank on women and domestic work

by Claire Melamed | Jul 11, 2011

The World Bank's 'Development Impact' blog has a fascinating post on the relationship between low-skilled migration and high-skilled women's work. Increasing...

Spontaneity fail

by Alex Evans | Jul 2, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZtVm8wtyFI[/youtube]

What’s really happening to inequality?

by Andy Sumner | Jul 1, 2011

It’s evident within-country inequality is back on the radar of some of the major international organisations including UNICEF and UNDP who are leading the...

So what exactly was the point of the IEA’s emergency stocks release?

by Alex Evans | Jun 30, 2011

Oil prices rallied more than $3 a barrel on Wednesday, recovering all the losses triggered by last week’s decision by rich consuming nations to release...

No honeymoon for Ban Ki-moon

by Richard Gowan | Jun 28, 2011

As Colum Lynch notes, Ban Ki-moon has been showered with "glowing plaudits" since he won a second term as UN Secretary-General last week. In a short memo to...

Kazakhs cross about crossword

by Richard Gowan | Jun 24, 2011

And this week's prize for healthy democratic debate goes to... Kazakhstan! A Kazakh weekly newspaper is facing calls for its closure over a crossword clue...

Is the ‘mobile phone revolution’ in Africa really for everybody?

by Claire Melamed | Jun 22, 2011

On Monday I gave a talk at 'Africa Gathering' - a great event full of serious mobile communications geeks (in a good way). I'm as much of a technological...

How not to tell a joke to the Dalai Lama

by Alex Evans | Jun 15, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlIrI80og8c[/youtube]

Conan O’Brien delivers the Dartmouth College 2011 commencement address

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmDYXaaT9sA[/youtube]

Top new inequality facts from UNICEF

by Claire Melamed | Jun 10, 2011

UNICEF have been doing some great work on inequality recently, and have just released a new report with lots of numbers on global and regional inequality...

This week’s CDM project: shooting camels from helicopters

by Alex Evans | Jun 9, 2011

I've seen some pretty bizarre ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in my time, but this must set some sort of record: Australia is considering awarding...

The Multilateral Milk Man

by Richard Gowan | Jun 6, 2011

While everyone is asking who will be the next boss of the IMF, another top international job is becoming vacant. The current Economist contains an ad for a...

New CIC paper on the Rio 2012 summit

by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2011

What’s actually happening in Yemen?

by Casper ter Kuile | Jun 1, 2011

Watching news reports like the one below, it's easy to get confused about what's happening in Yemen - peaceful protest for democracy? Tribal uprising? Civil...

Did the G8 really just make a comeback?

by Richard Gowan | May 31, 2011

Over on "The Internationalist", a welcome new blog from CFR, Stewart Patrick argues that the G8 is back after a few years in the doldrums. His post is...

Governance for a Resilient Food System

by Alex Evans | May 31, 2011

How national and international governance systems need to be reconfigured to meet the challenges of food security in a world of tighter supply and demand balances and increasing volatility. Report for Oxfam’s new Grow campaign by Alex Evans. (May 2011)

What’s good for girls is good for global finance

by Claire Melamed | May 25, 2011

Horrific new data released by the latest census in India and analysed on the Guardian's development blog shows that things are getting worse for girls. The...

Mandy for the IMF? Seriously?

by David Steven | May 19, 2011

From Martin Kettle in the Guardian, the eye-catching - and bizarre - idea that the Chinese are rooting for Peter Mandelson to take over at the IMF: A more...

Separated at birth?

by Alex Evans | May 18, 2011

H/t the Village Voice, via Vinay Gupta.

The most dangerous idea in the world

by Alex Evans | May 17, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo[/youtube] Have a look at this 2 minute video about bitcoins, a new peer-to-peer online currency. Seems...

Strauss-Kahn arrested!

by Richard Gowan | May 15, 2011

Read the less than family-friendly details here.

The G20 gets interesting on biofuels and food security

by Alex Evans | May 13, 2011

This year's French-chaired G20 has food security as one of its key priorities. Agriculture ministers will be meeting for a summit in mid-June, and their...

Libya strains NATO

by Alistair Burnett | May 12, 2011

I've done a piece for YaleGlobal about the implications for NATO of its operation in Libya With Operation Unified Protector in Libya, NATO enters war for the...

What do we really know about poverty and inequality?

by Claire Melamed | May 10, 2011

There's an iron rule of development research which says that when two or more researchers are gathered together at some point they'll start complaining about...

Ignatieff’s endearing farewell

by Richard Gowan | May 6, 2011

So, it wasn't a great week for Michael Ignatieff, what with the catastrophic Liberal performance in Canada's elections. But he's got a new job at the...

Running out of everything: how scarcity drives crisis in Pakistan

by David Steven | May 4, 2011

Article on scarcity of resources in Pakistan and what it means for the country.

Eli Pariser on how the internet is filtering what you know about

by Alex Evans | May 2, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG4BA7b6ORo[/youtube]

First Twitter news of Bin Ladens death? (updated)

by David Steven | May 2, 2011

@reallyvirtual - "An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops" - found himself in the midst of things today:...

To MDG or not to MDG?

by Claire Melamed | Apr 28, 2011

Which is the title of a presentation I've just given at a conference on global health and the MDGs in Copenhagen. The powerpoint's not up yet, but the main...

Reserves, Foreign Relations and Risk in the 4-speed world

by Andy Sumner | Apr 24, 2011

I've been struck by a lot of thought provoking stuff in the Economist over the last couple weeks on China suggesting greater global risks in the near future...

Some job losses that may not trouble you all that much

by Alex Evans | Apr 19, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW37sEkXMMc[/youtube]

Europe as ‘fat prey’

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2011

A tweet to warm Richard Gowan's heart: The links is to Richard's article on 'the scramble for Europe'...

Where are the Arab Mandelas?

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2011

Tom Friedman in the NYT today: Syria, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, countries fractured by tribal, ethnic and religious divisions, would have been ideal for...

Economist humour

by Alex Evans | Apr 11, 2011

An economist joke: Bono and Jeff Sachs are meeting in Harvard to talk about world poverty. After a while, they decide to head out to a Harvard Square eaterie...

Economics for a world with limits

by Alex Evans | Apr 10, 2011

Text of speech by Alex Evans to Institute for New Economic Thinking annual conference at Bretton Woods; the YouTube video is here. (April 2011) Download...

The right mix for humanitarian intervention

by Alistair Burnett | Apr 7, 2011

I've posted a piece on the BBC Editors' Blog about Libya, Ivory Coast and humanitarian intervention. Since the foreign military intervention began in Libya in...

Any volunteers for peacekeeping in Libya? (No, Richard Gowan, No!)

by Richard Gowan | Apr 5, 2011

Yesterday, I published a piece on "securing a peaceful resolution to the Libyan crisis" for World Politics Review. It starts from some pretty uncontroversial...

The International Community is Dead

by David Steven | Apr 3, 2011

Sometimes an argument is simply so powerful that, at one stroke, it slays a hundred years of delusion and misperception. That is what happened earlier today,...

Aid – what is it good for (and at)?

by Claire Melamed | Mar 31, 2011

Just because something, like improving political systems, for example, is important to development, does that mean it's the business of development...

Future activism

by Alex Evans | Mar 30, 2011

Prepare for some downbeat news: People in the UK understand and relate to global poverty no differently now than they did in the 1980s. This is the case...

Wall Street continues to reward failure as Moody’s chief gets 69% pay rise

by Mark Weston | Mar 28, 2011

A depressing piece in yesterday's El País reports that Raymond McDaniel, CEO of the disgraced ratings agency Moody's, who presided over the company's...

Forecasting the unforecastable in West Africa

by Mark Weston | Mar 24, 2011

A man from the British government rang me up the other day and asked what I thought would happen in the next five years in West Africa (the advantage of being...

Position vacant

by Alex Evans | Mar 23, 2011

As Mother Jones says, "You should, like, strongly consider applying to work for this guy:" We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune...

La coopération militaire avec la France: your cut-out-and-keep guide

by Alex Evans | Mar 22, 2011

“As we got closer and closer to closing the deal at Nato, France suddenly blocked everything, which confused us at first … But then it became clear – Sarkozy...

Battle-proof wind farms

by Alex Evans | Mar 18, 2011

So with simultaneous crises underway on both nuclear (meltdown risk at six reactors) and oil (spiking at $115), you may be wondering what other options are...

Tahrir Square equals Potsdamer Platz; or maybe not just yet

by Arjan van Houwelingen | Mar 15, 2011

As the once so secure Arab regimes appeared to be falling like dominoes in the face of popular demands for regime change (read: freedom and democracy), the...

What Fukushima means for energy policy

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2011

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan have important implications for energy policy - partly, of course for nuclear, but also for oil, gas and coal too. Three...

Maybe if we just make stuff up about climate change instead?

by Alex Evans | Mar 9, 2011

From the Boston Globe: In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly...

Monogrammed initials on your shirts are so entry level

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2011

So says Hosni Mubarak (h/t Business Insider).

The UN: replacing bureaucrats with experts

by Richard Gowan | Mar 6, 2011

A year ago, I blogged about the launch of a big UN review of how the organization deploys civilian experts to post-conflict countries. As I said then, this...

How to make a successful transition from autocracy to democracy

by Alex Evans | Mar 4, 2011

International Crisis Group's deputy president Nick Grono made an excellent speech recently on 'challenges for conflict prevention and resolution over the next...

A technocratic solution to a spiritual question

by Jules Evans | Mar 2, 2011

There is a danger that we have become not just trapped in the ‘prison of GDP’, but trapped in the prison of statistics. We have become trapped in the idea...

Into a new oil spike

by Alex Evans | Feb 25, 2011

Ever heard of spare capacity theory? It's defined by Gregor Macdonald as: the assumption among western bankers, policy makers, economists, and stock markets...

What it’s like to work for Donald Rumsfeld

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2011

Via Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic (who still have yet to send me a copy of their magazine two months after the subscription was paid for...). Update:...

Poverty, Inequality and Revolution: Who’s next?

by Andy Sumner | Feb 20, 2011

Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain. Who's next? Yemen or Libya or... Sudan, or Angola? The race is on for a small set of numbers to predict major upheavals. Violence...

Aid, India and the billion pound peanuts (again)

by Andy Sumner | Feb 17, 2011

UK aid to India is in the news again following a speech on emerging powers by UK Aid's Secretary of State, Andrew Mitchell at Chatham House which was carried...

Now that’s what I call policy coherence

by Alex Evans | Feb 16, 2011

Sure, everyone talks about policy coherence, joined-up thinking, connecting the dots, overcoming silos and all the rest of it. But if you want to see the...

Are you ready for MDGs 2.0?

by Andy Sumner | Feb 15, 2011

The UN this week announced a June MDG review meeting in Tokyo. This is the conference that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan at the MDGs Summit proposed that Japan convene in 2011 (see page 4, paragraph 1 of his speech here).

One thing it probably won’t discuss (yet) is what might replace the MDGs in 2015 which is likely to be one of the big global development policy debate of the next few years.

At the MDG summit last September the outcome document requested the President of the UN general assembly to organise a ‘special event’ in 2013 ‘to follow up on efforts made’. However, it is not yet clear exactly what this will mean. The outcome document also mandated the UN Secretary General to initiate a consultation process of what would come after 2015, and to recommend in his annual reports ‘further steps to advance the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015’.

It is possible though that there will be neither an agreement on any post-2015 framework nor an extension of the current MDGs.

Not surprisingly, the subject of what a new global framework might look like in detail is really starting to bubble up in debates.

This is 3D printing (see Economist cover story this week)

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7h09dTVkdw[/youtube]

Open City

by Richard Gowan | Feb 9, 2011

Readers of this blog tend to be interested in things like transnational identities, the state of America and life in 21st century cities. So here's some good...

Cost-cutting we all can dig

by David Steven | Feb 8, 2011

Important - and exciting news from the UK Foreign Office - the BBC World Service is being closed down. Newsbiscuit has the scoop: The BBC World Service is to...

International development: yesterday’s news?

by Alex Evans | Feb 7, 2011

Over at the World Bank blog, Adam Wagstaff's been playing with Google Trends data from 2004 to today, to try to determine whether anyone's actually paying any...

“Temporary deglobalization” as a resilience strategy on high / volatile food prices

by Alex Evans | Feb 3, 2011

Edward Carr has an arresting thought on the impact of high food prices in developing countries (which hit yet another new record on yesterday's monthly FAO...

Egypt: cash gets scarce as banks stay closed

by Alex Evans | Feb 3, 2011

As the protesters battle it out against the hired thugs in Tahir Square, it's worth keeping half an eye on the rapid deterioration of the Egyptian economy,...

Signs of panic buying in global food markets

by Alex Evans | Jan 31, 2011

The last food price spike, which peaked in 2008, was a play in two acts. During Act One - until mid to late-2007 or thereabouts - rising prices were largely...

2020 Development Futures

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2011

Eight critical uncertainties for development over the next decade, and ten recommendations for what ActionAid – who commissioned this report – should do to prepare for them

Egypt’s Tiananmen moment (1:30 in)

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWr6MypZ-JU[/youtube]

Global poverty fell 30% between 2005 and 2010, says new Brookings analysis

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2011

Over at Brookings, Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz have just published an interesting new paper (pdf) on the state of global poverty. Among its generally...

Quote of the week

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2011

The opening lines of a Business Week article from 12 June 2006: On the 31st floor of a skyscraper overlooking Times Square one recent spring day, a dozen or...

Is it April 1st already?

by Alex Evans | Jan 24, 2011

Over at the Elysee Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy has just finished his press briefing on France's plans for the G8 and G20 this year. Going through the readout...

Bombing schools

by David Steven | Jan 20, 2011

Most of us, I think, have an utterly skewed view of the impact of terrorism - weighted heavily towards (very rare) attacks on Western cities or the murder of...

Zardari’s Goats

by David Steven | Jan 19, 2011

Recently, I wrote about the devastating – and largely unreported – impact that resource scarcity is having on Pakistan’s fragile economy and society. Barely a...

Russia’s dirty little secret on Cote d’Ivoire

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2011

A propos of Richard's post on how the French used to behave in Cote d'Ivoire, let's not forget how another member of the Security Council P5 - Russia - is...

American Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty

by David Steven | Jan 14, 2011

Article published in World Politics Review on current American foreign policy

Food price shock moves another step closer

by Alex Evans | Jan 13, 2011

So much for my observation a week ago that the new record high on the FAO Food Price Index hadn't led to widespread unrest yet - almost immediately...

Kosovo re-assessed?

by Alistair Burnett | Jan 12, 2011

I've written on the BBC Editors site about whether the Kosovo intervention is being reassessed in the light of allegations against Prime Minister Thaci Kosovo...

Getting our priorities right

by David Steven | Jan 10, 2011

I am hugely reassured to hear that, in this era of global crisis, British diplomats are focusing on the really important issues: An agreement has been signed...

Aid, India and Peanuts

by Andy Sumner | Jan 6, 2011

Why would India accept peanuts?

Man up, Ban Ki-moon!

by Richard Gowan | Jan 5, 2011

On 22 December, I published an op-ed over at World Politics Review (now behind a paywall, but also available for free via ECFR) about Ban Ki-moon's overloaded...

Illiteracy in Nigeria: the Facebook solution

by Mark Weston | Dec 31, 2010

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has hit upon an innovative idea for tackling illiteracy in Africa: publish a book of Facebook chats. His Facebook chats....

Er… ahem.

by Alex Evans | Dec 15, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVIJBxZruz8[/youtube]

How not to do media relations

by Alex Evans | Dec 14, 2010

This is Reuters photographer Jorge Silva being detained by UN security guards at the Cancun summit last week. He'd been covering the expulsion of a group of...

Desperate Housewives as public diplomacy

by Alex Evans | Dec 8, 2010

A Wikileaked cable from the US Embassy in Riyadh has some home truths about what works and what doesn't in public diplomacy: 11. (S) XXXXXXXXXXXX said the...

Very bad news for the UN…

by Richard Gowan | Dec 7, 2010

A breaking story from the BBC: UN peacekeepers were the most likely source of the cholera epidemic sweeping Haiti, according to a leaked report by a French...

The converging world

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo[/youtube] A particularly fine Hans Rosling presentation, courtesy of Chris Blattman via Duncan Green.

Incitement to Murder

by David Steven | Dec 4, 2010

This is not about religion. Aasia Bibi, sentenced to hang for blasphemy after an argument with her neighbours, may be Christian, but she is also poor and a...

Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking

by Alex Evans | Dec 1, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg[/youtube]

THAT bad?

by Alex Evans | Nov 30, 2010

Never mind the bond yield graphs. If you really want to know how bad things have got for the Euro, have a look at where Roger Cohen is at in the NYT this...

UK in extreme weather alert

by Alex Evans | Nov 26, 2010

Newsflash just in from the Daily Mash: BRITAIN ground to a standstill today after the heaviest November global warming bullshit in more than a decade. Across...

US airport rage: an alternative perspective

by Alex Evans | Nov 25, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBL3ux1o0tM[/youtube]

A long way from lofty Lisbon

by Ryan Gawn | Nov 20, 2010

Here in Lisbon at the 2010 NATO summit, President Karzai and NATO leaders today agreed a transition plan that will transfer security responsibility to...

The young generation’s message to the United Nations

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2010

H/t Chris Blattman.

Food spike 2.0

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2010

Cameron to abolish Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit

by Alex Evans | Nov 17, 2010

Alex Barker at the FT Westminster blog has the details: The plans are not quite finalised. But it looks like the Strategy Unit — which is staffed by a few...

2010’s World Energy Outlook

by Alex Evans | Nov 15, 2010

The International Energy Agency published this year's magnum opus a week or so ago - here's the Executive Summary (pdf). Key points: - The Outlook sets out...

Another new blog to watch: ECFR

by Richard Gowan | Nov 12, 2010

The European Council on Foreign Relations has a new blog. I'll be contributing to it occasionally while maintaining my undying loyalty to Global Dashboard...

Signs of movement on CAP reform in France (well, sort of)

by Alex Evans | Nov 11, 2010

This from ICTSD in Geneva: Days after calling for a dramatic reorientation of European farm subsidies towards environmental protection, the French ministry...

The rather different foreign policy worries of publics and elites

by Alex Evans | Nov 8, 2010

Back in July, Chatham House and YouGov, the polling organisation, published some data on UK attitudes on foreign policy (pdf). There's lots of interesting...

The best placard at the Rally to Restore Sanity

by Alex Evans | Nov 6, 2010

H/t Owen Barder. More placards here.

When life hands you lemons …

by Alex Evans | Oct 29, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpkvBtda3vY[/youtube]

Oh s***, we forgot UN Day!

by Richard Gowan | Oct 24, 2010

24 October was UN Day. We totally forgot. Despite being multilateralists and all. How could we? We are so sorry.

UK Spending Review 2010 – live blog

by David Steven | Oct 20, 2010

I am at Sky News for on a panel of experts (find some of them on Twitter here), covering the international beat (diplomacy, development, any fallout from...

Age of Uncertainty

by David Steven | Oct 18, 2010

Evans and Steven, Chatham House, June 2010: UK National Security Strategy, HMG, October 2010:

Landgrabs – a view from the ground

by Alex Evans | Oct 11, 2010

Following up on recent coverage of agricultural resource access deals (so-called 'landgrabs') on Global Dashboard: two GD readers, Nathan Yaffe and Laura...

The world according to Michael Ancram

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2010

I've just been reading a new pamphlet on foreign policy by Michael Ancram - a Tory grandee who was Deputy Leader of the Party and Shadow Defence Secretary...

The UN can’t stop the hip-hop

by Richard Gowan | Oct 7, 2010

Abu Dhabi's The National brings us this story straight outta Jordan: Six young men are standing around a pair of CD decks on a Friday afternoon in...

Is Wen Jiabao Spiderman?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 7, 2010

Here's a slightly odd bit of news from Wednesday's testy EU-China summit: In a gentle jab, [European Commission President Jose Manuel] Barroso told [Chinese...

Why governance matters for natural resources

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2010

Guess what this is? Answer after the jump. Yup, it's the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti, sans effective state - and, as you see, also...

Can I take my gun to the pub?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 4, 2010

Here's a striking graphic from a story in yesterday's New York Times - turns out that, living in NYC, I am not specifically forbidden to takea firearm into a...

Is Obama using the UN to launch a coup in Canada?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 30, 2010

Don't Barack Obama and Canadian opposition chief Michael Ignatieff look like a natural pair of left-leaning, book-writing fans of global governance? The...

When’s the next oil price spike?

by Alex Evans | Sep 28, 2010

Back in 2008, just as the oil price started to plummet after hitting its all-time high of $147 a barrel, I did a post pondering whether the drop was "the...

Going ballistic: how China can deter the U.S.

by Richard Gowan | Sep 28, 2010

Foreign Affairs has just published a fascinating short essay by Seth Cropsey online: While visiting Japan in late August, Admiral Robert Willard, the leader...

What Ron Paul thinks of the World Bank

by Alex Evans | Sep 27, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQruuwuJnKE[/youtube]

“These diplomats are absolute scum.”

by Richard Gowan | Sep 24, 2010

The New York Post has by far the best story of UN week in NYC: New York cops found themselves in the middle of an international incident Thursday night after...

The world’s poor aren’t where we think they are

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2010

New research from the Institute of Development Studies finds most of the world’s poor are in middle income countries – with far-reaching implications for how the UK should allocate its aid

The new facebook phenomenon: the Center on International Cooperation

by Richard Gowan | Sep 21, 2010

NYU's Center on International Cooperation - where I'm an associate director and Alex and David are fellows - has launched a facebook page. Access it here for...

Andrew Mitchell’s insight about aid

by Richard Gowan | Sep 16, 2010

Having quickly blogged about UK development minister Andrew Mitchell's speech about conflict and development earlier today, I've caught up on responses from...

Turkey – turning away from the West or rebalancing its priorities?

by Alistair Burnett | Sep 15, 2010

Turkish voters approved a new constitution this weekend, greeted in Brussels - if not Paris and Berlin - as a key step on the road to EU membership. But...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the UN…

by Richard Gowan | Sep 13, 2010

It's time, the Associated Press reports, for multilateralism with teeth: UNITED NATIONS — They have the scars and missing limbs that make it hard to forgive,...

The Mosque at Ground Zero

by David Steven | Sep 11, 2010

No - not the planned Islamic Community Centre in Park Place - but the prayer room on the 51st floor of World Trade Center's South Tower, where some of the...

Do resource scarcity and climate change cause violent conflict?

by Alex Evans | Sep 10, 2010

New World Bank paper by Alex Evans, which says that the answer’s “yes, but usually as threat multipliers rather than as stand-alone drivers of conflict”

Austere peacekeeping

by Richard Gowan | Sep 9, 2010

It's been a rough couple of weeks for UN peacekeeping, with (i) the fall-out of the DRC mass rape story; (ii) Rwanda's threat to pull troops out of Darfur in...

The return of good old-fashioned diplomacy?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 3, 2010

Earlier this week, Alex linked to a blog-post by Tyler Cowen on why diplomacy is a "a stressful and unrewarding profession." I'm afraid I found much of the...

Peak coal – by 2011?

by Alex Evans | Sep 3, 2010

That's the rather arresting finding of new research from the University of Texas, published in the journal Energy (which should be behind a paywall, but...

Is MI6 running a smear operation on Gareth Williams?

by Alex Evans | Aug 29, 2010

If you missed it, Channel 4 News ran an exclusive last night that seems to put Metropolitan Police accounts of the circumstances of Gareth Williams's death at...

SEAL: ‘we get a little crazy’

by Jules Evans | Aug 27, 2010

I've been looking into a curriculum subject introduced by New Labour in 2003, called Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL). It began as a voluntary...

Can we still believe in peacekeepers?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 25, 2010

This is my 300th post on Global Dashboard. My first, posted on 15 November 2007, was about how peacekeeping was in a troubled state, with senior UN officials...

Desert Storm

by Mark Weston | Aug 23, 2010

Back in March of this year, I spent a couple of weeks in the far north of Burkina Faso. I slept under the stars on the edge of the Sahara, was offered a live...

Weekend quiz: who left Iraq when?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 21, 2010

In the week the U.S. withdrew its last combat troops from Iraq (leaving a mere 50,000 who probably could do bit of fighting if required) here's a small quiz. ...

Recipe corner: Macedonian bean bonanza

by Richard Gowan | Aug 20, 2010

Wondering what to cook this weekend? How about beans? If you like beans, Macedonia is the place to be. The small village of Sarchievo, with only four houses...

The two kinds of agriculture

by Alex Evans | Aug 19, 2010

Over at the Archdruid Report, John Michael Greer - one of the best thinkers out there on what happens after oil production peaks (see also the excellent...

Darfur: the UN digs in. Literally.

by Richard Gowan | Aug 17, 2010

At the weekend, I noted increased tensions in Darfur after violence in a huge IDP camp near the town of Nyala. Today, good news: the Sudanese government has...

‘Restrepo’ – trailer

by Alex Evans | Aug 16, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvUdruvbdmI[/youtube]

Beyond Liberalism

by Jules Evans | Aug 15, 2010

One way to understand the modern politics of wellbeing - by which I mean the introduction of policies by governments aimed at cultivating the ‘wellbeing’,...

Peacekeeping: fun for all ages!

by Richard Gowan | Aug 13, 2010

How do you get your kids out of baby blue bonnets and into manly blue helmets? Send them to summer camp in Harrietsville, Ontario, that's how: The rope...

“Competitive strategic engagement”

by Richard Gowan | Aug 7, 2010

Daniel Drezner is rightly intrigued by a new essay by Thomas Wright of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on shifts in the U.S. approach to China. Wright...

Russian bear hugs the West tighter?

by Alistair Burnett | Aug 5, 2010

Two years ago, Georgian forces shelled the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia hitting the base of Russian peacekeepers as well as civilian...

UK National Security Adviser resigning – 2 months in?

by Alex Evans | Aug 2, 2010

That's what the Mail has this morning, at least: Sir Peter Ricketts, who was givent the newly created role just after Cameron took office, has made the...

On the web: China at home and abroad, Cameron’s foreign policy, and sustainable development…

by Michael Harvey | Jul 30, 2010

- Over at The Diplomat, Thomas Wright explores how China’s self-confidence in initial relations with the Obama administration may prove the “catalyst for a...

Global Dashboard Drinks 2010

by David Steven | Jul 23, 2010

And a great time was had by all... Thanks so much to ace photographer, Brent Jones, for taking the pics... (Head here for the full size slideshow.)

US Supreme Court: peacebuilding is illegal

by Alex Evans | Jul 22, 2010

Tht's pretty much the gist of a US Supreme Court ruling last month, according to the 3D Security Initiative, who say the Court upheld a contentious US...

Obama and Cameron: we’re all Palmerstonians now

by Richard Gowan | Jul 21, 2010

Speaking together at the White House today, Barack Obama and David Cameron had a lot to say about the "special relationship" between the U.S. and UK. But...

100% of Global Dashboard editors called Alex think Frank Luntz is an idiot

by Alex Evans | Jul 15, 2010

Lest any GD readers are labouring under the misapprehension that Frank Luntz is actually a serious pollster (unlikely, I know), feast your eyes on this...

Conflict prevention: it’s the politics, stupid

by Richard Gowan | Jul 13, 2010

Bruce Jones and I have just published a new paper called Back to Basics: The UN and crisis diplomacy in an age of strategic uncertainty. We've set out to...

Hope in a Changing Climate

by Alex Evans | Jul 6, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-dMwJ7e3Uw[/youtube]

Whatever happened to interdependence?

by Alex Evans | Jun 29, 2010

A battle is shaping up between advocates of a morally based foreign policy and cheerleaders for ‘the national interest’. But how come no-one talks about interdependence anymore?

McChrystal overruns the civilians (updated)

by David Steven | Jun 22, 2010

The McChrystal Rolling Stone article is a fascinating read. Sure, there are plenty of insults - the piece opens with the General being forced to dine with a...

The woman who would be President

by David Steven | Jun 20, 2010

Dinosaur alert

by Alex Evans | Jun 18, 2010

Over at Guido Fawkes... Word reaches Guido that a certain new MP is ruffling a few old guard feathers with his arrogance and brutal determination to climb the...

Obama’s Oval Office address

by Alex Evans | Jun 16, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh76oepKFc8[/youtube]

Light comedy, North Korean style

by Richard Gowan | Jun 15, 2010

North Korea's team put up a creditable performance against Brazil in their World Cup game today. I've been keeping an eye on the North Korean news agency to...

Public opinion and climate change

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2010

One of the many strands of discussion at a Ditchley Foundation conference on climate change last week was the vexed question of how public opinion shapes the...

The UN’s Saigon moment – with added apes!

by Richard Gowan | Jun 7, 2010

This is how some international interventions end: What if you add in a gorilla? The beleaguered UN mission in the Congo - which David Axe and I have been...

Organizing for Influence: UK Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty

by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2010

Chatham House report on how the UK’s new coalition government should upgrade and reform the way Britain conducts foreign policy

So now we’re crap at colonialism too?

by Richard Gowan | May 31, 2010

Sweet God, can Britain be trusted with anything these days? Britain is facing a revolt against its rule of a group of Caribbean islands, amidst a gathering...

Clinton: it’s a “race between the forces of integration and the forces of disintegration”

by Richard Gowan | May 27, 2010

Hillary Clinton just spoke on the new U.S. National Security Strategy at Brookings. Having been in the audience, the bits that stick in my mind are: Clinton...

North Korea: the peace operation from hell

by Richard Gowan | May 26, 2010

With things looking very bad on the Korean peninsula - and quite a few experts wondering whether the Pyongyang's aggressive behavior is a sign that the regime...

Why Catherine Ashton needs a good crisis

by Richard Gowan | May 25, 2010

Over at E!Sharp, I've just published a piece arguing that Catherine Ashton's tenure as the EU's foreign policy chief could be defined by a crisis somewhere:...

Will the gay rights movement crash Canada’s G20?

by Richard Gowan | May 21, 2010

Question: what does the following sorry tale have to do with the G20? Two gay men in Malawi, convicted this week of unnatural acts and gross indecency, were...

Finance for development: is 1 the magic number?

by Alex Evans | May 17, 2010

Over at Philanthocapitalism, Mike Green and Matthew Bishop are arguing that The current 0.7% target [for aid spending] was the product of a different age...

US and EU: Others must fail

by David Steven | May 15, 2010

When I took part in a wash-up after Copenhagen with a group of American policy makers, I was struck by the sense that, although the summit had been tough for...

The naffest agency in government

by Alex Evans | May 14, 2010

We're not exactly fans of SOCA - the Serious Organised Crime Agency - around here. But our generally downbeat opinion of them has hit a new low now that we've...

Annals of astonishing reportage

by Richard Gowan | May 13, 2010

From the NYT (emphasis added)... A renegade Thai general was shot in Bangkok on Thursday as the military prepared to encircle the barricaded encampment of...

LibCon Agreement – constitutional coup or cock-up? (updated x8)

by David Steven | May 12, 2010

Key foreign policy elements of the coalition agreement between David Cameron's Conservatives and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats include: A Strategic Security...

Europe: don’t look to us when sterling collapses

by David Steven | May 11, 2010

UK reluctance to help with the Euro bailout has not gone down well at all: Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the head of the French markets regulator, said sterling was...

After the vote – what if we’re snookered?

by David Steven | May 10, 2010

A week ago, when I tried to map the outcomes that would follow a close UK general election, I found it hard to find any easy path to the Lib Dems getting...

Europe’s zombie countries

by David Steven | May 10, 2010

It was a momentous weekend in Brussels, as the European Union struggled to get to grips with the latest episode in the long financial crisis. Fascinating to...

After the vote – time for Democracy Day?

by David Steven | May 7, 2010

Given the chaos in voting during the General Election, here's how to do it better, while making elections a more televisual, social media-friendly experience....

After the vote – politics in an age of uncertainty

by David Steven | May 6, 2010

It’s a fitting end to the British general election. We have had thirty years of entrenched majorities – as a dominant party defined the terms of the debate,...

After the vote: the Tories and Europe

by David Steven | May 5, 2010

Early today, I pointed out some of the difficulties Europe could cause David Cameron in his early months as PM (should he form either a minority government,...

The bomb that wasn’t (updated)

by David Steven | May 4, 2010

For a while today, Twitter lit up with speculation about a couple of bombs in Aldgate, East London - rumours that swirled around long after the Metropolitan...

After Eyjafjallajökull – time to end NATS secrecy

by David Steven | May 3, 2010

I had always assumed that NATS – the UK’s air traffic control organisation, which was at the heart of the volcanic ash crisis – would be covered by Freedom of...

After the vote: how would coalition negotiations work? (updated)

by Alex Evans | May 3, 2010

So we've looked at the composition of a potential coalition government, how a coalition might change policymaking in Whitehall, and what it might mean for...

Baroness Ashton to resign? (updated)

by David Steven | Apr 30, 2010

And for the EU's latest foreign policy disaster (and one that reflects enormously badly on Gordon Brown if the story is true), the Telegraph claims that...

UK election debate – the housing crisis

by David Steven | Apr 29, 2010

If the BBC leaders’ debate tonight devotes more time to bigotgate than to housing, I am going to dedicate the rest of my days to working for the Corporation’s...

Europe in unable-to-get-sh*t-together shock

by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2010

To anyone who's been following Europe's inability to co-ordinate itself in climate talks or the G8 or G20, Alan Beattie's commentary on Europe's approach to...

Popegate – the gays and foreigners did it

by David Steven | Apr 27, 2010

Today, the Telegraph plumbs new depths in its vendetta against the FCO over Popegate. Yesterday, after quoting an anonymous threat from the Vatican to cancel...

The Foreign Policy Debate – Live

by David Steven | Apr 22, 2010

No advantages to Europe Cameron: “In Europe, but not run by Europe.” Clegg: “I want to lead in the European Union.” Brown: “Never let us be an empty chair...

Six (wonky) things I’ll be looking for in tonight’s foreign policy debate…

by David Steven | Apr 22, 2010

Which leader is best able to talk convincingly about the global risks the UK faces? In the past decade, all the key game changers have been international:...

Eyjafjallajökull – finally (we hope) farce

by David Steven | Apr 21, 2010

So the UK's airspace is open again after the Civil Aviation Authority issued this rather plaintive statement: The CAA has drawn together many of the world’s...

Eyjafjallajökull: What happens after airspace re-opens? (updated x2)

by David Steven | Apr 19, 2010

My take (1, 2, 3) on complex emergencies such as the Eyjafjallajökull crisis is that governments have to get ahead of the curve, or be steadily choked by...

Eyjafjallajökull from space

by David Steven | Apr 18, 2010

Superb photo from NASA: The MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an Ash plume from Eyjafjallajokull Volcano over the North Atlantic at 13:20 UTC...

The Cameron Girls

by David Steven | Apr 17, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkuWCgutaqc[/youtube]

Lord Monckton is a birther

by David Steven | Apr 16, 2010

Apparently, the BBC is trailing Lord Monckton around the United States for a documentary on the Lord's climate scepticism (a superb use of license fee money)....

Daniel Hannan watches the Wire

by David Steven | Apr 14, 2010

Daniel Hannan - Euro MP and the most influential politician on the Internet - has been finding the election campaign pretty stressful. Fortunately, he's an...

Set Research Free

by David Steven | Apr 11, 2010

The absurd price of online access to academic journals is a scandal. It costs $15 to look at this paper I co-wrote for Science on HIV/AIDS (for just 24...

On the web: revolution in Kyrgyzstan, the UK election and policy discourse, and a picture of sartorial elegance…

by Michael Harvey | Apr 9, 2010

- From the streets of Bishkek, Standpoint's Ben Judah offers an eyewitness account of the uprising in Kyrgyzstan. The Boston Globe has photos here. Alexey...

Alan Greenspan: “I was right 70% of the time”

by Michael Harvey | Apr 8, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Ayqu3UJQU[/youtube]

Indian peacekeepers need better PR – and big picture thinking too

by Richard Gowan | Apr 2, 2010

Eighteen months ago, I wrote a post for GD asking whether India was about to pull its troops out of UN missions. This was inspired by two very good Indian...

The Long Crisis Seminar

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2010

Introductory remarks by David Steven at a Brookings Institution seminar on risk and resilience in the global system (March 2010)

Losing the Fight for Food Security

by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2010

Business is slow at Dori's spectacular weekly livestock market. The crowds of turbaned Fulani nomads and bejewelled Bella and Tuareg are as dense and...

Turn a bic lighter into a laser burner

by David Steven | Mar 29, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5erjj6aS5Ws[/youtube]

Obama announces new US-Russia nuclear arms reduction treaty

by Michael Harvey | Mar 26, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wGxK1Thco[/youtube]

Liam Fox speaks to Army Rumour Service

by David Steven | Mar 24, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UxlFEBSZM[/youtube]

Shocking scenes of violence in the White House

by David Steven | Mar 23, 2010

The President has clearly been led astray by Gordon Brown... On Twitter, @omairzahid comments: "Quite gloriously captured by the timorous and positively...

Merton sings to Chatroulette – the original

by David Steven | Mar 21, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60[/youtube]

Telegraph: Impeach Obama (update x3)

by David Steven | Mar 20, 2010

Writing for the Telegraph, Gerald Warner argues that President Obama could face impeachment if he signs the healthcare bill: The nasty car crash that is...

Public event, Brookings, Wednesday 24 March: can the UN and NATO be reformed?

by Richard Gowan | Mar 19, 2010

As a service to readers in Washington DC - if we have any - I'm pleased to announce that I'll be speaking at a public event at Brookings on UN and NATO reform...

The UN, EU and civilian peace ops

by Richard Gowan | Mar 18, 2010

The EU needs an independent review to get a grip of its civilian peacekeeping efforts.

Incompetent multilateralism?

by Richard Gowan | Mar 15, 2010

The Economist's David Rennie asked a disturbing question last week: if Obama's America can't make soft power work, what hope does Europe have? His thesis is...

On the web: London’s global financial standing, EU security and defence policy, China and the West…

by Michael Harvey | Mar 12, 2010

- The FT has news that London’s position as the dominant global financial hub is slipping, with the UK capital now tied with New York for top spot in the...

Daily Mail ‘shops war hero

by David Steven | Mar 11, 2010

Just to press on with the Daily Mail vendetta for a tad longer, the superb Will Tooke has caught the 'newspaper' in another piece of fakery. This time, taking...

Ingham on Europe

by David Steven | Mar 10, 2010

In today's FT, William Hague underlines (again) that a new Conservative government will see the European Union as a platform for achieving progress on global...

Natalia Shakhova: permafrost failing

by David Steven | Mar 6, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD8hU-lbqpE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

How Britain ended apartheid (updated)

by David Steven | Mar 4, 2010

More disgraceful drivel from Con Coughlin, who is still employed by the Telegraph as its "executive foreign editor" (yep, there's a story behind that job...

How British government worked on 9/11

by Alex Evans | Mar 4, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ8OYtQjoL8[/youtube] Among the many, many gems in Andrew Rawnsley's gripping new book on Labour's last two terms of...

Poor poor me

by David Steven | Mar 3, 2010

Just how did this ridiculous competition between right and left to pose as a victim become so tediously commonplace? Take this pathetic drivel from Iain...

Jesus wants you for a (multilateralist) sunbeam

by Richard Gowan | Mar 2, 2010

We at GD like to fret about examples of badly joined-up global governance wherever we can find them. Climate change, security, trade... and now religion. ...

Foreign Office leads EU coup

by David Steven | Mar 1, 2010

It's taken as a given here in the UK that Brits wield little influence in Europe. But apparently - not. According to the Guardian, an FCO-led coup is under...

BASIC puts forward its candidate to replace Yvo de Boer at UNFCCC

by Alex Evans | Mar 1, 2010

A small but potentially rather significant exchange in the UN Secretary-General's spokesman's press briefing on Thursday last week: Question: India has said...

How intelligence clearance turns you into a moron

by Alex Evans | Feb 28, 2010

Daniel Ellsberg, in 1968, speaking to Henry Kissinger, who was just entering government for the first time: "Henry, there's something I would like to tell...

Hague the Bear (updated)

by David Steven | Feb 27, 2010

I am rather taken aback by William Hague's claim, reported by Iain Dale, that the UK is forecast to be only the world's 11th largest economy by 2015. Given...

Best reference book ever!

by Richard Gowan | Feb 25, 2010

The fifth edition of the Center on International Cooperation's Annual Review of Global Peace Operations is out today. Is it any good? Let's ask an expert:...

Academic precision and the destruction of knowledge

by Richard Gowan | Feb 24, 2010

The New Yorker has a long profile of Paul Krugman that's worth a look. The passage that has stuck with me is not really about Krugman but one of his...

What it means to forget

by David Steven | Feb 23, 2010

Yesterday, a British police dog handler was found guilty of animal cruelty after leaving his two Alsatians in the back of a boiling car. His defence?...

Finally, the answer to Kissinger’s question

by Alex Evans | Feb 22, 2010

Proving again why he should be on everyone's must-read list of foreign policy blogs, the Economist's Charlemagne has news of even more clamouring from...

Bloodless Diamonds?

by Mark Weston | Feb 20, 2010

"It's not diamonds that are the problem," says Ali, a Lebanese diamond dealer in eastern Sierra Leone. "Diamonds are just stones. It's people that are the...

Dong… dong…

by Alex Evans | Feb 19, 2010

Ask not for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for the UK, as Jennifer Hughes has it... A UK newspaper is said to have once run the headline “Fog over Channel,...

Overton Windows, and why you should be worried about them

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2010

Right, hands up if you know what an Overton Window is. No? According to Wikipedia: The Overton window is a concept in political theory, named after its...

Red snippets

by Richard Gowan | Feb 14, 2010

I don't like cell phones. Never have, never will. Reading this, I like them even less: You're not supposed to send dirty jokes by mobile phone in China, but...

On the web: hung parliaments, Iran, the Euro’s plight, and the Queen as horizon scanner…

by Michael Harvey | Feb 12, 2010

- With the UK election campaign under way in all but name, the FT’s Martin Wolf explains why he doesn’t fear a hung parliament – arguing that it might be just...

The World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report

by Alex Evans | Feb 12, 2010

Blogs hosted by large institutions can often be a bit hit-and-miss, but the World Bank's blog on conflict and development is an exception to the rule. The...

Transboundary water: your cut-out-and-keep guide

by Alex Evans | Feb 9, 2010

And so to a veritable treasure chest for scarcity nerds everywhere: the Atlas of International Freshwater Agreements, brought to you by Oregon State...

IPCC – it was the bloggers wot done it

by Alex Evans | Feb 9, 2010

While we're on the subject of the IPCC, this Spectator piece by Matt Ridley, which flags up the role of bloggers in all this, is worth a look (h/t Clive Crook...

A mobile world

by Mark Weston | Feb 8, 2010

Mobile phones are spreading through Sierra Leone like a cholera epidemic. Everyone either has one or aspires to one. Phone theft is common (my own lasted a...

And the big winner of the downturn is…

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2010

USA Today this morning: The recession has battered the U.S. economy, but the lobbying industry is humming along in the nation's capital, even for companies...

Recession hits the world’s poorest

by Mark Weston | Feb 4, 2010

Of course, traditional banks like Ecobank look down on microfinance as a small-fry, over-risky industry. In Freetown I met SB, who heads a...

A Guide to the BASIC Coalition – climate after Copenhagen

by David Steven | Feb 2, 2010

One of the most significant developments at Copenhagen was the emergence of the BASIC coalition – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – which negotiated the...

Time to Stop Betting the House: a response to the FSA

by David Steven | Feb 1, 2010

Report by David Steven in response to the FSA’s Mortgage Market Review

Charlie Brooker explains the news

by Alex Evans | Jan 29, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4[/youtube]

Making the news

by David Steven | Jan 26, 2010

Time Magazine's Jay Newton-Small: It's been frustrating then, to watch foreign, especially U.S., news crews pull up to Cite Soleil and start walking down the...

How “global governance” works

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2010

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We said – a couple of us start to walk up to the room where the multilat is because we had sent advance to look at the room,...

We can forget about cap and trade now

by David Steven | Jan 20, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aQCiRjvZY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Calling Colleen Graffy

by David Steven | Jan 19, 2010

I was once on the receiving end of Colleen Graffy's attempts to spin conditions at Guantánamo. At the time, Graffy was the US's Assistant Secretary of State...

FBI: Bin Laden cunningly disguised as Bin Laden

by Richard Gowan | Jan 15, 2010

The big problem with catching Osama bin Laden is that everyone has forgotten what he looks like. That, or he's hiding in an ungoverned quarter of Pakistan. ...

Beat the recession (Punch it! Kick it!!)

by Richard Gowan | Jan 11, 2010

New York State's constantly-on-the-ropes Governor David Paterson has just come up with an excellent plan to boost economic recovery: Gov. Paterson is pushing...

Travelling in style

by Mark Weston | Jan 10, 2010

We achieved the record for a 'sept places' (seven-seater) the other day. This is considered the most luxurious form of transport in this part of West Africa....

Adieu Guinea-Bissau

by Mark Weston | Jan 7, 2010

And so we move on from Guinea-Bissau. The journey to Ziguinchor in the Casamance region of Senegal passed without incident, although reports of the road from...

The best news on climate change for months. Maybe.

by Alex Evans | Jan 4, 2010

Bono endorses contraction and convergence – potentially kicking off a major (and long overdue) strategic rethink on climate change among NGOs and civil society

Paxman resists the weather

by Alex Evans | Jan 2, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMAt8ZXqtbc[/youtube]

Peak oil, peak water… peak Christmas!

by Alex Evans | Dec 24, 2009

As regular readers will know, we're always on the lookout for the latest emerging scarcity trend - so, in keeping with the seasonal mood, here's why your...

Nauru: cut the crap!

by Richard Gowan | Dec 21, 2009

A tragic tale from the Khaleej Times of the UAE: At long last there is a foreign minister on the international scene with ice-cold blood in his veins and an...

Copenfailure: a first analysis

by Alex Evans | Dec 19, 2009

A very rough first analysis of the Copenhagen Outcome, two hours after the summit finished.

Another Lord Monckton classic

by Alex Evans | Dec 18, 2009

This just in from Andrew Ward: Environmental groups have complained about heavy-handed tactics by Danish police throughout the conference. But they can be...

A rough guide to Copenfailure: conclusion

by Alex Evans | Dec 18, 2009

In the first three parts of this series (1, 2, 3), David and I have explored how Copenhagen might fail; what might lead it to do so; and why some kinds of...

Ban Ki-moon: signed, sealed, delivered!

by Richard Gowan | Dec 16, 2009

It's Stevie Wonder with one of his biggest fans!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

by Alex Evans | Dec 15, 2009

... but I think I have just discovered the greatest quotation of all time. It is 1987. Mike Tyson is harrassing a little-known model called Naomi Campbell at...

Scandinavian efficiency goes AWOL

by Alex Evans | Dec 14, 2009

ChinaDialogue's Isabel Hilton on how to make a critical situation desperate: Step 1: Take the most ambitious and important world summit ever, invite the...

“Just then, the state of British domestic political debate looked a bit shameful”

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2009

Last time we caught up with Charlemagne over at the EU heads' meeting in Brussels, he and his fellow hacks were sniggering about some unfortunate new...

How climate change will affect hunger: new report on the state of the science

by Alex Evans | Dec 9, 2009

The World Food Programme has just published a new report (pdf; also Reuters coverage here) on how climate change will affect hunger, which both summarises the...

Mental sickness and the welfare state

by Jules Evans | Dec 7, 2009

It's interesting the way British public policy is beginning to bring together unemployment policy with mental health policy. The British government today...

Space-based solar plant gets go-ahead

by Alex Evans | Dec 4, 2009

From the NYT's Green Inc blog: California regulators on Thursday went where no regulators have gone before — approving a utility contract for the nation’s...

A rough guide to Copenfailure (part 1)

by Alex Evans | Dec 3, 2009

With three days to go until Copenhagen begins, there's increasing awareness that the likeliest scenario is that Copenhagen will fail to produce a robust deal...

Obama Speaks (in numbers)!

by Richard Gowan | Dec 2, 2009

So, we have the speech on Afghanistan. The official text was, according to my computer, about 4,600 words. How many times did certain words appear?...

A new war in Africa – part 2

by Mark Weston | Nov 30, 2009

The UN is pessimistic about the situation in Guinea. In Tambacounda last night, in the south-eastern wastes of Senegal, I met a World Food Programme employee...

Blackwater’s secret war in Pakistan

by Alex Evans | Nov 25, 2009

We've covered Blackwater a few times in the past here on GD, and when the founder of the firm was implicated in murder in two sworn depositions back in...

You lost us at hello

by Alex Evans | Nov 24, 2009

The FT's Lex Column last week: Like leaf blowers, commodity analysts seem pointless and full of hot air. Investors might have at least expected some respite...

Sarah Palin’s army

by David Steven | Nov 23, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKKgua7wQk[/youtube]

China’s stimulus: after the binge, the hangover?

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Nov 23, 2009

China won much praise (and prestige) for its prompt and bold response to the unfolding global financial crisis, announcing a fiscal stimulus package worth 14%...

Wham! Ban (Ki-moon)! I Am A Man!

by Richard Gowan | Nov 19, 2009

From the UN, news of another respectable initiative with a rubbish name... Network of Men Leaders The engagement of men and boys is integral to achieving an...

24 hours to go to the EU top jobs summit…

by Alex Evans | Nov 19, 2009

...and things are turning nasty, according to the Economist's Charlemagne: To my surprise, a dominant mood in this final stretch is one of hostility towards...

On the web: Obama’s Asia tour, the EU’s world role, and Pakistan’s nuclear security…

by Michael Harvey | Nov 12, 2009

- With President Obama embarking on his visit to Asia, John Plender examines the nature of China’s challenge to US dominance. Cheng Li and Jordan Lee suggest...

Defence Secretary Gates on Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy

by Michael Harvey | Nov 11, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB4A4wg_a38[/youtube]

The UN University wants to be anarchy

by Richard Gowan | Nov 9, 2009

The United Nations University Office in New York sends us an invite: The United Nations University Office at the UN, New York(UNU-ONY) is organizing a panel...

The moment healthcare passed the House

by Alex Evans | Nov 8, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOQ-Iw6_wTA[/youtube]

On the web: grumbling about world politics, Europe, the US economy, and Palin’s speeches…

by Michael Harvey | Nov 5, 2009

- The former British Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, explains why he's not grumpy about the current state of international politics - perhaps an outside...

The Jedi approach to antisocial behaviour

by Alex Evans | Nov 3, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfuXJfmS0Us[/youtube]

Tribal politics

by David Steven | Oct 30, 2009

The Tory blogosphere is convinced climate change is a scam (its party leader thinks differently). This morning, Conservative Home is leading with the claim...

Osborne to wise up? The city should sod off.

by David Steven | Oct 27, 2009

The top headline on Ft.com this morning was: "City tells Osborne to 'wise up' on bonuses - backlash after call for emergency controls on pay-outs." Wise up?...

Andy McNab on the BNP

by Alex Evans | Oct 25, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LAaIfk48iI[/youtube]

The BBC’s BNP triumph

by David Steven | Oct 23, 2009

Hats off to the BBC. It could have announced that Nick Griffin was appearing on Question Time a couple of days ago, and then hoped the whole thing would pass...

On the web: the EU’s global influence, Obama’s leadership, and inside the financial crisis…

by Michael Harvey | Oct 21, 2009

- With Czech ratification of the Lisbon Treaty now looking increasingly likely, attention shifts to the implications for the EU's global influence. Benita...

Parliament: more global, less local (part 2)

by David Steven | Oct 20, 2009

In a post yesterday, I discussed the failure of either Iain Dale or Rory Stewart to get selected for the Bracknell parliamentary seat, arguing that we need to...

Party like it’s 1999 (posts)!

by Richard Gowan | Oct 16, 2009

This is the 1,999th post ever on Global Dashboard. We'll leave #2,000 to David and Alex to mess up with some tedious factoid about how we're all about to die...

Defending the UK’s most successful industry

by David Steven | Oct 15, 2009

You have to love the Bruges Group, whose response to the financial crisis seems to be to pretend it never happened. I've just been invited to one of their...

Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom: “Beyond the tragedy of the commons”

by Michael Harvey | Oct 13, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByXM47Ri1Kc[/youtube]

Correction- it’s the EU that’s the climate deadweight

by David Steven | Oct 12, 2009

Interesting to compare my post from earlier ("anger at America's free pass") with Kevin Grandia's take. Writing from the Bangkok talks, he points an accusing...

Obama’s December: deity or damaged goods?

by David Steven | Oct 9, 2009

While I still hope Obama's team will tell him to turn down the Nobel Peace Prize (see my earlier post), that now looks unlikely.His initial reaction doesn't...

Secret plots to replace the dollar as global reserve currency: AlJazeera talks to Robert Fisk

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBDPGkW6SCU[/youtube]

EU in Africa: triumph of the bean-counters

by Richard Gowan | Oct 9, 2009

OK, here's the EU's strategy for Somalia: (1) pay our African allies to put their troops in the line of fire; (2) cut off the money over accounting issues;...

The G7’s last gasp?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 6, 2009

So you thought that the Pittsburgh G20 summit had buried the G7/G8? Not quite yet... Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chairs meetings...

Is the Atlantic widening again?

by Richard Gowan | Oct 5, 2009

There's recently been a small flurry of pieces warning that transatlantic relations are starting to sour (again). First up, the Economist: A “flashing yellow...

Stop Blair? No thanks.

by Alex Evans | Oct 4, 2009

Now that ratification of Lisbon has moved a big step closer (not only with the Irish yes, but also the news that Czech President Vaclav Klaus is likely to bow...

Chicago is out? Chicago is out?

by David Steven | Oct 2, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuE60mq0r1Q[/youtube]

Kill human rights workers

by Mark Weston | Oct 1, 2009

More depressing news from West Africa - surely the world's most unstable region - as Gambia's Big Man president Yahya Jammeh declares he wants to kill human...

U.S. Army to topple Obama?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 30, 2009

John L. Perry, a right-wing columnist, knows things most of us don't: There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a...

Africa’s new Big Man shows his true colours

by Mark Weston | Sep 29, 2009

Back in December, when Moussa "Dadis" Camara seized power in Guinea in a bloodless coup, he promised to hold elections and return his country to democracy...

Nuclear Cat and Mouse

by Chris Abbott | Sep 29, 2009

Last week the leaders of the US, UK and France made public the discovery of a second, secret, Iranian enrichment facility near Qom. However, this was not a...

If you’re from Hollywood – rape who you like (updatedx2)

by David Steven | Sep 28, 2009

It amazes me how dramatically the left loses its moral compass whenever controversy surrounds someone artistic 'genius' they want to suck up to. Take Joan Z...

On the web: a Pittsburgh G20 special

by Michael Harvey | Sep 24, 2009

As the spotlight shifts from the UN General Assembly and world leaders converge on Pittsburgh for the G20, there’s been much debate about the prospects for...

Is the UN still relevant?

by Alex Evans | Sep 24, 2009

CNN discussion on Lou Dobbs's show a couple of nights ago - featuring CIC's Director Bruce Jones.

Best protest signs of the year: my top three

by Alex Evans | Sep 22, 2009

From a set of 20 to choose from over at Huffington Post...

Why Obama should put a climate-sceptical Senator on the Copenhagen delegation

by Alex Evans | Sep 21, 2009

With Senate climate legislation set to be introduced within a week, it's gradually sinking in fully around the rest of the world that however loved-up we may...

Policing the interracial divide

by David Steven | Sep 18, 2009

From a Jerusalem Post article on Eish L'Yahadut (Fire for Judaism) - a group that exists to break up relationships between Arab men and Jewish girls: Every...

Ask Me Anything!

by David Steven | Sep 17, 2009

Have a question for a heroin addict, acne sufferer, or bank robber? Then head over to Reddit’s IaMa ("I am a...") community, where this past week has seen...

On the web: Lehman’s legacy, the Irish referendum on Lisbon, transatlantic trends and more…

by Michael Harvey | Sep 15, 2009

- With the anniversary of Lehman Brother’s demise, the FT recalls the events of that fateful weekend last September. The NYT has reflections of three former...

Support for suicide bombing in freefall among Muslim publics

by Alex Evans | Sep 11, 2009

From the Pew Global Attitudes project: Eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Pew Global...

The sound of pennies dropping

by Alex Evans | Sep 9, 2009

It's long been a source of frustration to me that developing countries don't come out and demand quantified emissions targets, based on an equal per capita...

Africa’s stall at Copenhagen

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Sep 9, 2009

A significant but little reported event occurred last Thursday. The Africa Partnership Forum held a Special Session on Climate Change on 3 September 2009 at...

The Lisbon Treaty – why the Irish should vote ‘yes’

by David Steven | Sep 4, 2009

Over at Slugger O Toole, I have an essay in a series on the Irish Lisbon referendum. My conclusion: we need a 'yes' vote so that the EU can begin the process...

Environmental extremists are trying to destroy your jobs

by Alex Evans | Sep 1, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiAc5IVXI7g[/youtube]

Shag camp

by Jules Evans | Aug 28, 2009

I went to the Climate Camp yesterday, on Blackheath, next to Greenwich Park, a brick’s throw from the Royal Observatory. The camp is maybe a 150m-diamater...

John Prescott still doesn’t get it

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2009

He didn't get it at Kyoto - and he doesn't get it now. John Prescott - former British Deputy PM, and its lead negotiator at the 1997 Kyoto climate summit - is...

On the web: Bernanke’s reappointment, al-Megrahi’s release, foreign policy realism, the “perfect storm”, and more…

by Michael Harvey | Aug 25, 2009

- With the news that President Obama has nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term, over at the New Republic Noam Scheiber assesses the merits of continuity at...

Greenpeace fail

by Alex Evans | Aug 21, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC7bE9jopXE[/youtube]

Town hall crazies: Barney Frank shows us how it’s done

by Alex Evans | Aug 19, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

On the web: Libyan relations, FEMA’s new head, the power of communication, and Afghanistan past and present…

by Michael Harvey | Aug 14, 2009

- With the fortieth anniversary of Muammar Qaddafi’s rule fast approaching, Chatham House’s Molly Tarhuni takes a look (pdf) at Libya’s gradual reemergence...

Secretary Clinton, I presume?

by Michael Harvey | Aug 11, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgF_PZg3EwY[/youtube]

Jeff Rubin on why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller

by Alex Evans | Aug 10, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UydbV531e0Q[/youtube]

Moo hoo

by Alex Evans | Aug 8, 2009

I've just been having another look at FAO's seminal 2006 report about the environmental impact of meat consumption, Livestock's Long Shadow. I figured I knew...

“The new look of Pyongyang”: beer commercial North Korean style

by Michael Harvey | Aug 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67BYwNHU440[/youtube]

New media good for thinking, not tweeting

by Richard Gowan | Aug 4, 2009

New York magazine offers some hope for people who like a sensible discussion, in a new profile of Barack Obama: Despite his agility in skipping from topic to...

On the web: rumbles in the Caucasus, the QDR, land grabbing, Sarko on climate change and British declinism…

by Michael Harvey | Aug 4, 2009

- In the week leading up to the first anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict, the FT reports on the lingering regional tensions still apparent, while...

Palestinian factions adopt Israeli tactics

by Elizabeth Sellwood | Aug 1, 2009

Palestinian President Abbas and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority face regular criticism that they are being "more Israeli than the Israelis" in their...

Tweets from the summit table

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2009

Sweden took over the rotating EU presidency in July, and has already raised eyebrows by its decision to allow Twittering during meetings of senior eurocrats....

Stewart Brand: 4 environmental heresies

by Alex Evans | Jul 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxwiVFgghE[/youtube]

Female force keeps Diyala secure in Iraq

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4dEyhSjTZ8[/youtube]

The Monday Map

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 27, 2009

What Mark Malloch-Brown actually said: we need more foot patrols

by Richard Gowan | Jul 23, 2009

In an obviously-rather-useful contribution to the ongoing controversy over what Lord Malloch-Brown told the Daily Telegraph about UK helicopters (or the lack...

Modern Piracy – No One Say Arrr

by Alanna Shaikh | Jul 23, 2009

I was all set to write a doom and gloom report on ocean freight for my first Global Dashboard post. After all, fuel is getting more expensive, and piracy is...

Bad luck Washington, Franklin and Lafayette! Britain once again rules DC!!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 22, 2009

Or, more specifically, we own DC's two Congress-obsessed all-politics papers: The Economist Group, which owns Roll Call, just bought Congressional Quarterly....

Graph of the day

by David Steven | Jul 22, 2009

North Korea’s secret weapon!

by Richard Gowan | Jul 20, 2009

Who do you think wrote this poem? "My Ideal World." It begins: "If I had my ideal world I would not allow weapons and atom bombs anymore. I would destroy all...

So is Tony Blair running for President of Europe?

by Alex Evans | Jul 16, 2009

The British media are having a field day this morning about the idea of Tony Blair as President of the European Union, following remarks yesterday by Glenys...

Ban Ki-moon under fire – Al-Jazeera

by Alex Evans | Jul 15, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AlX7vVdo_o[/youtube]

In Pakistan – let’s screw the youth

by David Steven | Jul 14, 2009

Pakistan, the observant among you will have noticed, has been having a tough time the past few years. This graph sums it up for me (March 2009, Pakistan...

D’oh

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzrAht2Ob1o[/youtube]

MEND leader Henry Okah released

by Alex Evans | Jul 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ds0ppu791w[/youtube]

A new war in Africa? Or just a new political ploy?

by Mark Weston | Jul 14, 2009

Cross-border wars in Sub-Saharan Africa have been few and far between since the end of the colonial period. Instead, the continent's disaffected have fought...

Polls apart

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 13, 2009

Interesting. 55 per cent of Chatham House members (and, one assumes, visitors to the website) believe the conflict in Afghanistan will become 'another Vietnam'.

Afghanistan: What the leaders think

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 13, 2009

184 service personnel have died in Afghanistan since 2001. The tragic deaths of eight men who died last week in a single 24-hour period has brought the...

Murdoch grilled by Fox (not)

by David Steven | Jul 11, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD4SjmtQRzM[/youtube]

At last – coherent international policy on Israeli settlements?

by Elizabeth Sellwood | Jul 10, 2009

The Obama administration's Middle East policy is under construction. Despite Obama's new tone, it is still too early to see specific policy changes on most of...

Online real-time public reactions to PMQs (size of focus group: over a thousand)

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab94V3VmlR8[/youtube]

G8 update: Sarkozy, Berlusconi seize Medvedev and drag him to jail, 1930s-style

by Richard Gowan | Jul 9, 2009

What on earth is going on here? The only reasonable interpretation is that our leaders are attempting to re-enact a scene from Michael Mann's excellent 1930s...

World leaders change. Clichés endure.

by Richard Gowan | Jul 8, 2009

Ban Ki-moon has come out fighting against recent criticism in a pretty strong interview with AP. But I'd hoped not to hear this cliché about leading the UN...

NYC’s climate counter

by Jules Evans | Jul 7, 2009

Deutsche Bank Asset Management, which is one of the leading investors in renewable energy, last month put up a 50 foot electronic counter in Times Square,...

The green shoots of reform?

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 7, 2009

Following on from Alex's post on DFID's new white paper , the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced that it will be kicking off a root and branch review of...

Two trade scenarios from the UK Government’s horizon scanning centre

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x4yMn44aJc[/youtube]

Rep Michele Bachmann on US climate bill: “we choose liberty, or we choose tyranny”

by Alex Evans | Jul 5, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJmef3sWBdY[/youtube]

Sarah Palin quits as Alaska governor

by Alex Evans | Jul 3, 2009

KTUU - 'Alaska's news source' - has the [few] details: Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her...

Paul Krugman: climate sceptics in Congress are guilty of treason

by Alex Evans | Jul 3, 2009

Paul Krugman's NYT column on Monday didn't pull any punches as far as the 212 Congresspeople who voted 'no' on the Waxman-Markey climate bill were concerned:...

How not to write a newspaper headline

by Richard Gowan | Jul 2, 2009

From the Press Association, a headline to thrill the dullest reader: UN chief to attend committee

Our broken economic system

by Jules Evans | Jun 30, 2009

I enjoyed Andrew's post below, though I'd dispute the assertion that Adam Smith and the other 'great theorists' of capitalism thought it was amoral. That's...

Maoism’s big future in the 21st century

by Peter Hodge | Jun 30, 2009

We're so obsessed with Islamic insurgency - see Kilcullen's The Accidental Guerrilla - that we risk ignoring other types of insurgency. Like the Naxalite...

Ban Ki-moon: “noodge” or gambler?

by Richard Gowan | Jun 26, 2009

Next week, Ban Ki-moon reaches the halfway point in his term as UN Secretary-General. There's been a trickle of negative stories of late about his...

The Thriller video – in Lego

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MThEoxSWURA[/youtube]

Vote time for the US climate bill

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2009

The Waxman-Markey Bill will go to the floor of the House today or tomorrow, so Obama and Pelosi are on a determined bid to round up the few remaining...

Iran: looking ahead

by Alex Evans | Jun 24, 2009

In today's NY Times, Roger Cohen observes that "Iran's 1979 revolution took full year to gestate", and suggests that "the volatility ushered in by the June...

In case of fire

by Alex Evans | Jun 23, 2009

Via Amanda Ripley.

The new protectionism

by Alex Evans | Jun 22, 2009

Leaders’ pledges not to go protectionist may be true as far as tariffs and quotas go – but take finance into account, and the rhetoric is harder to square with the reality

Purple Intelligence

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 21, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbgQ1V2BLEs[/youtube]

Fool’s gold

by Andrew Pickering | Jun 17, 2009

It's well known that in times of crisis, people fall back on the certainties of old. Among these is that gold is a good investment, for gold always holds its...

Rise of the BRICs – shift to a multipolar world

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Jun 16, 2009

The meeting today of the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India and China (aka the ‘BRIC’s) in Yekaterinburg represents far more than the triumph of labeling...

Islamism’s Animal Farm moment

by Jules Evans | Jun 15, 2009

The post-election crackdown in Iran is a frosty ending for what had been a genuinely exciting and optimistic spring in Middle Eastern politics. Consider: in...

Iranians rally to protest stolen vote

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey9Kgf-cB40&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Todd Stern: what the US wants from China on climate

by David Steven | Jun 15, 2009

US climate envoy, Todd Stern has tried to clarify exactly what the Obama administration wants from China on climate at Copenhagen (see post from Leo and me on...

Those Iranian election results in full

by Alex Evans | Jun 13, 2009

Andrew Sullivan provides a helpful graph plotting the ratio of Ahmadinejad to Moussavi votes in six different counts. That ratio proves to be remarkably...

On climate, US gives China a free pass (or not) – updated

by David Steven | Jun 12, 2009

The Guardian headline was unequivocal: "The US will exempt China from binding greenhouse gas targets." Guardian environment correspondent, David Adam, had had...

Fox News: we’re getting freaked out by the right wing email

by David Steven | Jun 11, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxvunbIWNyI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Criminal gangs and counterinsurgency

by Peter Hodge | Jun 10, 2009

I love a gritty internet takedown. At Travels with Shiloh, Dean tears apart a Small Wars Journal article by John P Sullivan on 'criminal insurgencies and...

The worst academic conference ever (Stalinist division)

by Richard Gowan | Jun 8, 2009

I received an unexpected invitation by e-mail this morning: We are glad to inform You that Academy of Strategic Research, Information and High Tech,...

Obama Beach?

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RNqD-gO9w[/youtube]

Kilcullen on Islamic radicalization in Europe

by Peter Hodge | Jun 5, 2009

Last week Alex mentioned that Global Dashboard is a "hotbed of David Kilcullen fandom". Bravo! I'm a fan too, and I've been reading Kilcullen's The Accidental...

Reaction of the day

by Alex Evans | Jun 4, 2009

Amid the torrent of reaction and commentary on Obama's Cairo speech, this excerpt from Al Jazeera's coverage will doubtless elicit a few double-takes: Ahmad...

A global risk of a cocktail

by Richard Gowan | Jun 3, 2009

It's summer and that means cocktails! I've been searching for a tipple that reflects the cosmopolitan character of Global Dashboard (excluding, of course,...

Pakistan, Kilcullen, Evans – a reply to David Miliband

by David Steven | Jun 2, 2009

Do we know what we’re trying to achieve in Pakistan?

Telegraph vs Obama

by David Steven | Jun 2, 2009

Rumours have long been floating around that the Abu Ghraib photos that Barack Obama has been battling to keep secret are much more graphic than anything yet...

“Airstrip One” of the Asia Pacific

by Peter Hodge | Jun 1, 2009

For the last 15 years I've studied strategic developments in the Asia Pacific region. But until fairly recently North Korea has been something of a...

Hans Blix on DPRK’s nuclear test

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH3mnv8Y8BU[/youtube]

Will the real leaders’ summit process please stand up?

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2009

For those of us who love nothing better than a global governance nerd-out, this year is turning out to be a feast. As I noted back in April, the London Summit...

US Interrogator takes on Cheney on torture

by David Steven | May 27, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfYov5o5_2s&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

How to slash global warming AND save 1.6 million lives a year

by Alex Evans | May 21, 2009

A while back, David did a post extolling the virtues of biochar as a potentially important - but widely overlooked - element of the response to climate...

Those secret US / China climate talks in full

by Alex Evans | May 19, 2009

Today's Guardian has a big splash announcing that "China and US held secret climate talks". According to Suzanne Goldberg, A high-powered group of senior...

Kilcullen: Drone strikes make Af-Pak strategy harder, not easier.

by Charlie Edwards | May 18, 2009

Last week Demos hosted David Kilcullen, the counter-insurgency guru and former adviser to General Petraeus in Iraq. In his speech (audio available soon) he...

Taliban reportedly waterboarding captured US soldiers

by Alex Evans | May 15, 2009

Can't confirm the accuracy of this report, but over at Balkinization, Brian Tamanaha has this: According to reports out of Kabul, the Taliban announced that...

Scramble for the Arctic

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | May 14, 2009

Yesterday, May 13th, was a momentous - if little noticed - milestone in 21 century geopolitics: it marked the UN deadline for countries to submit their claims...

SOCA: Disappointment all round

by Charlie Edwards | May 13, 2009

SOCA's recent claim (see Alex's post ) that the world cocaine market is in retreat is looking more and more like a failed attempt to distract us from the news...

This is SOCA’s idea of success?

by Alex Evans | May 12, 2009

The Serious Organised Crime Agency has been trumpeting to the BBC that the international cocaine market is "in retreat" after a year of successful operations...

New report on international institutions and climate change

by Alex Evans | May 10, 2009

New report by Alex Evans and David Steven exploring the future international institutional requirements for managing climate change.

Russia’s government goes street

by Mark Weston | May 7, 2009

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has launched a video blog, in which he appears in shirt and jeans (none of Gordon Brown's ill-fitting jackets and terrifying...

Piracy hits the Middle East

by Mark Weston | May 7, 2009

Two major cruise lines - Fred Olsen and MSC Cruises - have announced that they are dropping their Indian Ocean routes to avoid Somali pirates. From now on,...

China’s backing for Sri Lanka

by Alex Evans | May 6, 2009

As Sri Lanka's assault on the Tamil Tigers continues, Kotare has an interesting observation on an angle of the conflict that I'd missed: While the US is...

FLU TIPS: raise your pork-barrel spending

by Richard Gowan | May 5, 2009

From Indrani Sen at the NYT: Swine flu, or H1N1 flu, cannot be transmitted through pork or pork products, experts and public health officials have repeatedly...

The Mafia goes green

by Jules Evans | May 5, 2009

The FT has an interesting story today about an investigation into Mafia involvement in multi-million-euro wind farm deals in Sicily. Italian and EU subsidies...

Lego: It’s torture

by Charlie Edwards | May 4, 2009

Once upon a time Dad could only buy junior the Playmobil Security Check Point (btw - read loosnut's review) but now the creative Legofesto has gone one step...

Misplaced optimism?

by Alex Evans | May 1, 2009

John Authers has an interesting observation this morning: For years, a global influenza epidemic was at or near the top of the list of geopolitical risks that...

The ‘Buy Iraq’ conference

by Jules Evans | May 1, 2009

I was at the Invest in Iraq conference yesterday, being heralded by Lord Mandelson as a "new chapter" in Iraq's history. I wondered if the timing was planned...

Advice to Exxon – please don’t whine

by David Steven | Apr 29, 2009

Avaaz must be delighted with this spoof of Exxon's climate change ads....

Shhh… don’t tell anyone (hopefully they won’t notice)

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 29, 2009

Obama has apologised, so too have officials. It's still not clear why US agencies acceded to an FAA request to keep details about the photo op in which a...

1976 Swine Flu Public Health Ads

by David Steven | Apr 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASibLqwVbsk[/youtube]

Retrospective scenario planning

by Alex Evans | Apr 29, 2009

Heh heh. Jamais Cascio was at an Institute for the Future scenario planning workshop last week, where he gave a presentation on IFTF's three Fifty Year...

Landgrab deals: actually water grabs

by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2009

We've been posting regularly here about the various 'landgrab' third party food supply deals that have been such a feature of the last year or two (see the...

UAE, an oasis of cosmopolitanism…

by Jules Evans | Apr 27, 2009

More bad PR for the United Arab Emirates, which has attempted to paint itself as an oasis of cosmopolitanism and entrepreneurialism in the Arab world. First,...

One day, these animals will save you from anthrax

by Richard Gowan | Apr 24, 2009

No, really: Llama blood may one day be able to help soldiers, scientists and city officials set up an early-warning system against the tiniest weapons of...

Vote for Harry Potter!

by Richard Gowan | Apr 24, 2009

A poster for candidates from Iceland's Citizen's Party in Reykjavik, or so says Reuters:

The self-resilient society

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 23, 2009

In a brittle society, we need radical action to build a “Resilient Nation” – so argues a new pamphlet for Demos, by Charlie Edwards.

Waterboarding: the mildly amusing song

by Richard Gowan | Apr 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJSXbA9j0Js[/youtube]

Minister – jolly glad about G20 policing

by David Steven | Apr 21, 2009

The Rt. Hon. The Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC - a junior Home Office minister responsible for counter-terrorism and security - has waded into the debate on...

Ahmadinejad – the walk out

by David Steven | Apr 20, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hlxvMYu28Y[/youtube]

Russia takes advantage of Obama’s detente

by Daniel Korski | Apr 16, 2009

Russia is now demanding that NATO halt its planned military exercises in Georgia. On a visit to Armenia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that...

India votes amid uncertainty

by Daniel Korski | Apr 16, 2009

From today until May 13 the world’s largest democracy will be heading to the polls. India's voters will be electing 543 members of parliament in the country’s...

Water cap and trade

by Jules Evans | Apr 15, 2009

Just did an interesting interview with Neil Eckert, the CEO of Climate Exchange PLC. They're the private company that owns the European Climate Exchange,...

Obama: leading the low carbon revolution

by David Steven | Apr 14, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O791QM00Hwk[/youtube]

Homeland Security warns on right wing extremism

by Alex Evans | Apr 14, 2009

The US Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis apparently issued an assessment to US law enforcement agencies last week, warning...

Some pirates are better than others

by Mark Weston | Apr 14, 2009

The International Maritime Bureau's live piracy map is worth a look. In 2005 (see here for 2005 map), there were many more attacks in South East Asia than off...

Death by blog

by Jules Evans | Apr 11, 2009

The blogosphere can be fairly brutal. This weekend, it is busy consuming the political careers of two New Labour apparatchiks - Derek Draper, who runs the...

‘Oh Dear’-ism

by Jules Evans | Apr 9, 2009

The highlight of last night's Newswipe - Charlie Brooker's rather weak British answer to the Daily Show in the US - was a brief video by Adam Curtis, the...

Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 8, 2009

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has a comment piece in today's FT outlining 10 principles that might bring 'economic life closer to our biological environment: smaller...

The Downing Street hand-shake

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 8, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68THqDqPKc[/youtube]

The Twitter Revolution

by Daniel Korski | Apr 7, 2009

In the Moldovan capital, Chisinau protesters have stormed the parliament and the presidential palace denouncing Sunday's Communist election victory and...

Another bank scam?

by Jules Evans | Apr 6, 2009

Schroders' head of ABS, Chris Ames, thinks the Public-Private Investment Programme (PPIP) set up by US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner is in danger of being...

The Queen ticks off Berlusconi

by Alex Evans | Apr 4, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFgCthVSUwo[/youtube]

Does Karzai read Global Dashboard?

by Daniel Korski | Apr 3, 2009

Afghan President Hamid Karzai provoked international outrage with draconian restrictions on women and laws that explicitly sanction marital rape. A leaked...

Green stimulus – fine words, little action

by David Steven | Apr 2, 2009

I have long thought that we'll live to regret our failure to use the current crisis to nudge the global economy onto a greener trajectory. A WWF/E3G report,...

State of play at lunchtime

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

OK, just had chats with a couple of senior UK officials, and here's where things are at inside the negotiations: - Lots of discussion about SDRs and...

Leaders chill out

by Alex Evans | Apr 2, 2009

Alex Barker at the FT's Westminster blog: This is my first dispatch from the G20 media hangar, which has so far proved to be full of journalists and free of...

Crap placard awards (now open)

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 1, 2009

Please do send your crap placards to the team here at Global Dashboard. Some placards - like make love not leverage raised smiles - most, however, were...

G20: Careless Talk [could] Costs Lives (updated)

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 31, 2009

While Alex blogs live from inside I will be doing my best to follow events outside - via Twitter, Flickr and SMS. But is it safe to go outside? The 'experts'...

Spot la différence

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2009

Evening Standard, this afternoon: France today laughed off a claim that Nicolas Sarkozy had threatened to "walk out" of the G20 summit. They said a report...

G20: great expectations?

by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2009

Two days to go, and it's probably time to start thinking through what to expect from the London Summit. (If you haven't already seen it, check out our special...

Europe’s Afghan Test

by Daniel Korski | Mar 30, 2009

Now that President Obama has laid down his AfPak strategy, it is time for European governments to follow suit. As I show in this new ECFR brief, they have not...

The FT in 2020

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2009

From FT2020, via Andrew at From Davos to Seattle.

Madagascar land grab: how the South Koreans see it

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2009

Earlier this week, I noted that the Daewoo land lease deal in Madagascar - under which the South Korean conglomerate secured the lease to one half of...

Come on, NGOs, raise your game!

by Alex Evans | Mar 26, 2009

In comments on Jules's post on the Put People First march, the Bretton Woods Project's Peter Chowla takes me to task for what he argued was a sloppy and...

Google Grids

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 25, 2009

What do you get when you mash up images from Google Earth, stats from the electric grid and power grid behaviour modelling and simulation? A real-time status...

From landgrab to coup d’etat

by Alex Evans | Mar 24, 2009

Back in November last year, I blogged on the land lease deal agreed between Daewoo, the South Korean company, and the government of Madagascar, under which...

CONTEST 2: Content is fine – communication is key

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 22, 2009

I am watching a video clip of Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary on the Politics Show . It is one of the worst interviews the Home Secretary has ever done. I am...

New footage emerges of Chinese brutality in Tibet

by Alex Evans | Mar 22, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVf1tbkHCNw[/youtube]

6 years ago: Bush announces invasion of Iraq

by David Steven | Mar 20, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkOCIfNQXP0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

US to world – sod off

by David Steven | Mar 19, 2009

The world may be in deep trouble, but Barack Obama is still stumbling around trying to staff up his government - testimony to a crazy appointment system and a...

That bonus – we’re not giving it back

by David Steven | Mar 18, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZjh5Vb41mw[/youtube]

Keep Calm and Carry On

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 18, 2009

Jon Henley @ The Guardian draws our attention to the Keep Calm And Carry On poster that seems to have gone viral and is being spotted in homes, pubs and...

Science and society: the need for openness

by Mark Weston | Mar 17, 2009

The think tank 2020health has just released my report on UK vaccination policy. 'Not immune: UK vaccination policy in a changing world' was written in...

How to get politicians to take global warming seriously

by Jules Evans | Mar 14, 2009

Political leaders are driven by a desire for power. They will tend to follow whatever is politically expedient in order to gain power. Right now, it is...

Marshalling Mayhem and Chaos

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 11, 2009

Andrew Marshall is the 87 year old Director of the Office for Net Assessment. This is how Wired described him back in 2003: Known as Yoda in defense circles,...

Global Dashboard needs your help

by Alex Evans | Mar 6, 2009

White Band Action, the website of the Global Call to Action against Poverty, has some goodies to dish out: it's got 50 places for bloggers at the G20 London...

Are we helping Pakistan?

by David Steven | Mar 4, 2009

I've been visiting Pakistan on and off for a couple of years now - and each time things have got much, much worse (see this bleak assessment from 12 months...

Obama: global emissions must never rise again

by David Steven | Mar 4, 2009

Extracts From Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs President Barack Obama Delivered in person before a joint session of Congress May 25,...

What will the world be like, 4°C warmer?

by Jules Evans | Mar 3, 2009

Fairly sobering cover story in New Scientist this week, by the aptly-named Gaia Vince, a freelance journalist who apparently is 'wandering the world', like a...

Joao Bernardo Vieira – a turbulent life in a turbulent country

by Mark Weston | Mar 2, 2009

The life of Joao Bernardo Vieira, the President of Guinea-Bissau who was assassinated this morning, was a microcosm of the post-independence history of his...

Enlist the old (and why being libertarian is not enough)

by David Steven | Mar 2, 2009

Over at The Interpreter, Sam Roggeveen objects to Jules's call for national service to be used to toughen up the youth in the face of a changing climate. This...

Bringing back National Service

by Jules Evans | Feb 28, 2009

Just thinking through how our society copes with climate change. One way might be to bring back national service. Why? 1) We need to train a generation of...

John Bolton: Nuke Chicago, hah hah

by David Steven | Feb 27, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylI02kvViZA[/youtube]

Ciudad Juárez

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 26, 2009

At the end of last year I offered ten foreign policy predictions for 2009. The first prediction was about Mexico: The world’s leading narco state will,...

Tough at the top

by Mark Weston | Feb 25, 2009

The UN has just published an update to its Human Development Index (HDI), the league table that compares living standards in all the world's countries. At the...

Congo: the irony of peacemaking

by Richard Gowan | Feb 23, 2009

At last, some good news from the Congo: Negotiators for the Congolese government and a rebel group in the country's east have reached a preliminary agreement,...

Reach for the Sky

by Daniel Korski | Feb 21, 2009

In the Times today there is a story about one of the greatest British counter-insurgents, Emma Sky. Military commanders describe the Arabic-speaking, British...

Twitter’s urban roots

by David Steven | Feb 20, 2009

Jack Dorsey has been talking to the LA Times about his early sketch (from 2000) for STATUS, a service that would eventually be launched as Twitter. What's...

FCO’s YouTube channel has 163 videos. This is the most viewed by miles

by Alex Evans | Feb 18, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDlFL8jIeys[/youtube]

CNN on politicians caught drunk at the microphone

by Alex Evans | Feb 18, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2IaKWyl4Lc&NR=1[/youtube]

Risks and Resilience in the New Global Era – new journal article

by Alex Evans | Feb 17, 2009

Article by Alex Evans and David Steven exploring resilience as a political agenda – part of a special edition of Renewal on the transformation of foreign policy (February 2009)

Lost in translation: another John McHugh short from Afghanistan

by Alex Evans | Feb 16, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzxkE72vkA&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

Ray Kurzweil on the singularity

by Alex Evans | Feb 16, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfbOyw3CT6A[/youtube]

Labour takes the fight online (and loses)

by Jules Evans | Feb 13, 2009

Last month saw the launch of several new online initiatives by Labour, as it desperately tries to find a strategy to beat the Tories in the coming election....

Dead aid?

by Alex Evans | Feb 13, 2009

Former Goldman Sachs economist Dambisa Moyo has just published a new book entitled Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa....

U.S.: the economy is a security issue, stupid!

by Richard Gowan | Feb 12, 2009

Major league economic crisis trumps minor league terrorists: Sounding more like an economist than the war-fighting Navy commander he once was, National...

Joseph Tainter, author of ‘The Collapse of Complex Societies’

by Alex Evans | Feb 12, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9FO15CHO4[/youtube]

Oh yeah, we’ve invented a death ray too

by Alex Evans | Feb 12, 2009

A press release emerged yesterday from USJFCOM (that is to say, United States Joint Forces Command, one of 9 Commands in the Dept. of Defense and the one...

What next for Chimerica?

by Jules Evans | Feb 11, 2009

What next for 'Chimerica', as Niall Ferguson calls the unholy alliance of Chinese capital and US debt that has grown up over the last decade. China is...

Crew account of the Hudson river crash landing

by Alex Evans | Feb 10, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzHAkhStvHs[/youtube]

Australian bush fire survivors

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2IdDUSrZbE[/youtube]

How to look good on top of a tank

by Richard Gowan | Feb 7, 2009

In January, I reproduced a fine picture of Nicolas Sarkozy atop a French tank in Lebanon. Today, the NYT opens a profile of new U.S. Afghanistan-Pakistan...

Democrats caused the global meltdown

by David Steven | Feb 6, 2009

You have to admire his chutzpah, but former Global Dashboard Hack of the Year, Grover Norquist has concluded (okay, okay - is pretending he believes) that the...

AQ Khan’s retracted confession

by David Steven | Feb 6, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2I0uGR_ZVI[/youtube]

More on the UN’s Gaza ‘lie’

by David Steven | Feb 4, 2009

A few hours ago, Daniel Korski suggested on Global Dashboard that the United Nations lied about the shelling of one of its schools - with the UN Secretary...

Export-led growth: not so resilient

by Alex Evans | Feb 4, 2009

As David just noted, this morning's Lex column in the FT is relatively upbeat about the dangers of protectionism, arguing that "the disaggregation of global...

The horror! The horror!

by David Steven | Feb 3, 2009

Prepare to heave at this New York Times screed on how tough life is for bankers these days. "Nobody in the investment banking world is expecting pity, or even...

Twitter: your partner in panic facilitation

by Alex Evans | Feb 3, 2009

The vast potential of social networking technologies to aggregate people and effects is something that we've been interested in for a while now here at Global...

High noon in Darfur

by Richard Gowan | Feb 2, 2009

UN officials always describe their nightmare scenario as "another Srebrenica": peacekeepers standing by as civilians are massacred. Their dream scenario is,...

Russky Standard

by Jules Evans | Feb 2, 2009

I see my first ever boss, Geordie Greig, has been nominated as the editor of the London Evening Standard by the new owner of the paper, playboy oligarch and...

G20 prospects – lessons from the 1930s

by David Steven | Feb 2, 2009

The G20 London Summit in April will be Barack Obama's first trip to Europe. The Canadians get him first (apparently this is traditional), while the Japanese...

Davos: Is Emissions Trading the Carbon Solution?

by David Steven | Jan 31, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyeTqrSrLQ0&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

The more ruthless Obama gets, the more I admire him

by Richard Gowan | Jan 30, 2009

From New York magazine's blog: During the election season we heard a lot about "60" — that magic number of Senate seats that would allow the Democrats to...

A Tale of Two Cities

by David Steven | Jan 30, 2009

Climate and cities think piece, co-authored by David Steven and the British Council’s Peter Upton (29 January 2009)

Erdogan storms out of Davos

by David Steven | Jan 29, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q8Mn_jTlsM[/youtube]

The EU has closed down

by Richard Gowan | Jan 29, 2009

OK, it's only NYC East Village Gastropub "EU" - but it makes for a snappy photo: What went wrong? The original review from New York magazine rings a...

Central Europe versus Russia

by Jules Evans | Jan 28, 2009

Last week, I saw the leader of the Hungarian opposition, Viktor Orban, call for a new central European security alliance against Russia. Orban warned that the...

Kaiser Wilhelm II adds his two pfennig-worth to UK National Security Strategy horizon scanning

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2009

A few days ago, I did a post on the UK government's current horizon scanning exercise - part of the process leading up to its second National Security...

Ideas and foreign policy

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2009

Two trends that should be welcomed and encouraged: (1) the rising amount of time that foreign ministry policy planning teams from different countries are...

Saudi Arabia’s warning to the US

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2009

If you missed Turki al-Faisal's op-ed in the FT last week, then take a look. Entitled "Saudi Arabia's patience is running out", the language of the former...

Israel, YouTube and public diplomacy

by David Steven | Jan 27, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LGubwghyEw&eurl=http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Iceland riots – PM mobbed

by David Steven | Jan 26, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UABxqNIuyYc[/youtube]

Throwing yoghurt, and other responses to the credit crunch

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2009

A year or so ago, I did a post wondering what had happened to the anti-globalisation movement. Well, something looking very like it now certainly seems to be...

Clarke to Cameron – Get Real

by David Steven | Jan 25, 2009

David Cameron thinks an IMF bailout for the UK is on the cards: If we continue on Labour's path of fiscal irresponsibility, at some point - and it could be...

“African ownership”: an African critique

by Richard Gowan | Jan 21, 2009

Last year, I wrote a couple of posts (here and here) warning of a rift between African countries and the West over how to administer peace and justice on the...

Britain was the enemy in the inauguration speech

by Alex Evans | Jan 21, 2009

Various of the UK political blogerati have been reflecting on the fact that "the enemy" referred to in President Obama's inauguration speech yesterday was,...

Whitehouse.gov – change has come

by David Steven | Jan 21, 2009

Before and after:

Thinking like an engineer

by Alex Evans | Jan 20, 2009

Chris Blattman is experiencing a moment of epiphany. As he notes, Africa suffers from the fact that much of its road and rail infrastructure was built during...

Krugman agrees with Buiter on bank nationalisation

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2009

As David noted on Saturday, all the signs are that we're now about to do some kind of 'bad bank' arrangement here in the UK. As he says, Valuation remains...

Bretton Woods II – let’s remember the last time

by David Steven | Jan 17, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzr1QU6K1o&eurl[/youtube]

Niall Ferguson’s retrospective of 2009

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyMZhkITPWE&eurl[/youtube]

A very modern rescue

by David Steven | Jan 16, 2009

Via the excellent Dealbreaker...

Flattering crap banks

by David Steven | Jan 14, 2009

According to the Telegraph, the government is considering setting up a 'bad bank' to take on the toxic assets that continue to drag down the UK's financial...

John Robb on resilience

by Mark Weston | Jan 14, 2009

A few weeks back I interviewed John Robb, the military futurist and author of 'Brave New War.' We discussed the irruption of Latin American drug gangs into...

“Abolish the media” – Plumber

by David Steven | Jan 12, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJYCxj8KXjQ[/youtube] Joe the Plumber's made it to Israel and has come to a rapid conclusion: war reporting should be...

Bretton Woods II – let’s remember the last time

by David Steven | Jan 11, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzr1QU6K1o[/youtube] In last month's New Atlantic, James Fallows had a fascinating interview with Gao Xiqing, Chief...

Multilateral comings and goings

by Alex Evans | Jan 9, 2009

While everyone else is amusing themselves speculating about Obama's picks for his Cabinet, here in New York everyone's focused on a different question: what...

Vanity Fair attempts to stoke feud between Bhutto Clan and Puff Daddy. Yes really.

by Richard Gowan | Jan 6, 2009

So, Benazir Bhutto's daughter has released a rap video lamenting the loss of her mother just over a year ago:...

The case for piracy

by Mark Weston | Jan 5, 2009

As the US responds to Somali piracy the only way it knows how - through force - Johann Hari in the Independent reveals that it is not just illegal foreign...

The Invisible Rope

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 4, 2009

Predictions for 2009: we count our chickens before they’re hatched. Literally.

by Richard Gowan | Jan 3, 2009

Charlie has got some debate going with his ten predictions for 2009, and I'm not going to try to rival it. But after a year of following food prices...

1978 versus 2008

by Alex Evans | Dec 31, 2008

Here in Britain, one Christmas present arrives a few days late each year: the declassification of Cabinet papers that are then made available to the National...

Ten foreign policy predictions for 2009*

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 29, 2008

Mexico: The world's leading narco state will, unnoticed, dissolve into total chaos destabilising the surrounding region. Middle East: February elections in...

All I want for Christmas: Better Oversight

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 22, 2008

Last year I argued that: a quadripartite parliamentary select committee on national security should be created – bringing together existing select committees...

A price band for oil? Why not just do a global deal on climate?

by Alex Evans | Dec 17, 2008

As oil continues its crazy gyrations (yesterday's price - $48), news is proliferating that investment in new exploration and production is falling off a...

Sock and Awe

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 15, 2008

Courtesy of the NYT

Zimbabwe: Bargains and Cholera galore

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 13, 2008

Nevermind the bargains at Woolies this week, Country Road Casual Wear in Harare is the place to go if you're a member of Zimbabwe's army - as Tom says to Nick...

Darth Merkel versus the climate ewoks

by Alex Evans | Dec 12, 2008

More top notch advocacy from Avaaz.org, who are busy making mischief at the UN climate negotiations in Poznan with this splash in the conference newspaper....

The people of Sark “reap what they sow” – democracy in action

by David Steven | Dec 11, 2008

The Barclay twins - billionaire owners of the UK's Telegraph newspapers and various other interests - are famously reclusive. So in the early 1990s, they...

What, indeed, is Security Diplomacy?

by Daniel Korski | Dec 11, 2008

A couple of posts ago, Charlie drew our attention to the fact that a new report would be recommending the appointment of a Minister for Security Diplomacy....

Look, it’s really not easy being a pirate, don’t make it any harder…

by Richard Gowan | Dec 9, 2008

From the BBC: Somali pirates say they have thwarted an apparent revolt by the crew of a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship, according to reports. An unnamed pirate...

The four stages of Afghan despair

by Daniel Korski | Dec 8, 2008

I recently came across the late Russian journalist Artyom Borovik, who saw and wrote about the Soviet War in Afghanistan. His book Hidden War, has this eerie...

Weekend roundup…

by David Steven | Dec 8, 2008

It was a very busy weekend on Global Dashboard. So in case you missed it: Charlie Edwards on the John Boyd conference 2008. Incoherence in Poznan. Trouble for...

What does a Hollow State look like?

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 6, 2008

According to John Robb a Hollow State has: The trappings of a modern nation-state but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services, and control of its historical...

The Boyd Conference 2008

by Charlie Edwards | Dec 6, 2008

46°14?00?N 63°09?00?W Prince Edward Island, Canada. I'm taking part in a roundtable on community resilience, 4&5GW and the decline of the state. The aim...

Follow me

by David Steven | Dec 6, 2008

If you're bemused by Twitter, here's what it's really about. And part two's here. H/T Luke Pollard. (Oh and by the way - you can follow Alex and...

The Indian Ocean bubble

by Mark Weston | Dec 5, 2008

Somalia's piracy is not just good news for the pirates themselves. Whole industries are springing up or expanding to take advantage of the bonanza. In the...

Blueprint for a Tory National Security Reform

by Daniel Korski | Dec 5, 2008

As President Elect Obama and his new foreign policy team contemplate how to deal with the growing number of security challenges that will confront them on...

When Ethiopia ruled the world

by David Steven | Dec 3, 2008

Christmas 2006 and Santa brings the American right an unexpected Christmas present - the invasion of (nasty, Islamic) Somalia by (nice, Christian) Ethiopia....

Rahm Emanuel on moments of crisis

by Alex Evans | Dec 2, 2008

As regular readers will know (since I post this quote about once a month), I'm a fan of Milton Friedman's sage advice to his fellow monetarists when they were...

Bad bear – plus Buffet blows

by David Steven | Dec 1, 2008

Doug Short has put together this depressing chart comparing three previous bear markets, with the current financial meltdown. Have a look at the grey (1929...

Innovation Map

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 30, 2008

I love mah legacy

by David Steven | Nov 29, 2008

George Bush - he liberated the downtrodden, helped the sick and gave succour to the old. Yes, those are the fond thoughts the 43rd President hopes we'll have...

Follow the money

by Alex Evans | Nov 28, 2008

Not a lot of comment needed on this one, really: Via Duncan Green.

Never mind the bailout details – what were they eating?

by Alex Evans | Nov 26, 2008

Bloomberg has a major exclusive: Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The deal to rescue the world's best- known bank was pieced together by regulators over Domino's pizza...

“24” rings death-knell for UN peacekeeping

by Richard Gowan | Nov 25, 2008

Like the UN didn't have enough problems already... After Darfur and Congo, the blue helmets have to take on Jack Bauer. The two-hour prequel to the new series...

Quote of the day

by Mark Weston | Nov 25, 2008

A city acquaintance of mine on Facebook "certainly didn't expect to be at home today and for the foreseeable future." Grim times.

Monday’s map returns

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 24, 2008

Land Grab. From the Guardian: Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of...

Man with plan

by David Steven | Nov 22, 2008

Obama floats his stimulus plan: There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before...

New National Intelligence Council report on global trends to 2025

by Alex Evans | Nov 21, 2008

The US National Intelligence Council - which supports the Director of National Intelligence and is the centre for long-range analysis in the US intelligence...

Key word for this winter

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 19, 2008

The key word you need in your vocabulary this Winter: Reboot. As in: 'We need to reboot the global economic system'. 'Cameron attempts to reboot party image...

Climate change – the President elect speaks

by David Steven | Nov 18, 2008

Obama has made his first speech on climate, via video to US governors... He had this message for those who will shortly be heading to Poznan: Let me also say...

Iraq 2011

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 16, 2008

The web-comic Shooting Wars, hit people's screens in May 2006. It followed a young journalist named Jimmy Burns, who found himself video-blogging across the...

A Bretton Woods II Worthy of the Name

by David Steven | Nov 15, 2008

Paper by Alex Evans and David Steven on financial reform and wider multilateralism, published ahead of the G20 ‘Bretton Woods II’ Summit (November 2008).

Flash

by Charlie Edwards | Nov 14, 2008

Via Alex Barker @ the FT. Alex is right. This has got way out of hand.

Maldives to relocate to India?

by Alex Evans | Nov 13, 2008

It's a while since stories started to emerge about the possible evacuation to New Zealand of the population of Tuvalu, a Pacific small island state, as rising...

Does Europe matter?

by Richard Gowan | Nov 12, 2008

This year’s World Energy Outlook

by Alex Evans | Nov 6, 2008

Next week sees the publication of the International Energy Agency's latest flagship World Energy Outlook, which has been heavily leaked to the Financial...

WHO knows?

by Mark Weston | Nov 5, 2008

How many malaria cases does Nigeria have every year? And how many deaths? You would think the obvious place to find out would be the World Health...

FDI shoots up in West Africa

by Mark Weston | Nov 3, 2008

Defying the global financial crisis, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea have recorded sharp rises in foreign direct investment in recent months. Trouble is,...

How supermarkets are worsening the credit crunch

by Alex Evans | Oct 31, 2008

Take note of the important signal of problems in store on the front of today's FT. Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer goods manufacturer, has broken ranks to...

European politicians, No European demos

by Daniel Korski | Oct 28, 2008

A couple of weeks a go I ran into Geoffrey Nice QC, a former prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague. The British barrister told me why he...

More proof of team Obama’s internet supremacy

by Alex Evans | Oct 26, 2008

...as if any were needed: this just in from MoveOn.org (thanks to Dan Smith for forwarding). You can generate a video with your own name (or those of...

Summits, Panels everywhere – but to what end?

by Alex Evans | Oct 24, 2008

We are now officially beginning some sort of post-credit crunch global governance feeding frenzy. We now have the following to look forward to: - The report...

Pirates and the future of 4GW

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 22, 2008

William S Lind suggests that beyond Afghanistan, the Fourth Generation future belongs neither to al Qaeda nor to the Taliban but to two more sophisticated...

The Chatham House Rule is for lightweights

by Alex Evans | Oct 22, 2008

Never mind the Chatham House Rule (which goes like this: "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use...

Preparing for the apocalypse

by David Steven | Oct 21, 2008

A snip at just $84.99 from Costco - a 275-serving, emergency food supply. Only problem: "Due to overwhelming response, this item will be delivered in 10-15...

The 100 day assessment

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 20, 2008

The soldier-scholar General Petraeus is launching a major reassessment of U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and the surrounding region, the...

The real Presidential debate

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2008

Amid the general consensus that all three of the Presidential debates were notable principally for their tedium, it emerges that McCain and Obama just needed...

World Food Day

by Alex Evans | Oct 17, 2008

Yesterday was World Food Day, on which subject BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme did a piece asking whether the current steep falls in commodity prices...

Creating a NATO Military Advisory Force

by Daniel Korski | Oct 16, 2008

Developing effective indigenous forces has turned out to be one of the most important counter-insurgency tasks , whether in Afghanistan or Yemen. Yet it is a...

And a warm welcome to all our friends overseas

by Alex Evans | Oct 14, 2008

As regular readers will be aware, I've long admired the courageous approach to public diplomacy taken by the US Department of Homeland Security, particularly...

The ground game

by David Steven | Oct 14, 2008

In the US Presidential election, what you see in the media is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The real action is on the ground, where decades of...

Greasy palms in Turkey

by Mark Weston | Oct 14, 2008

My young brother-in-law, Tolga, had a hernia operation yesterday in a large state-run hospital in Istanbul. When his wealthy aunt found out that she knew the...

The world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game

by Alex Evans | Oct 13, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44tsI4IzGcg] ...just one of five global 'superthreats' that sit at the core of Superstruct, billed by its creators at...

Monday’s map: China’s 1.3 Billion people

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 13, 2008

Comparisons below: 1. Guangdong (113 million) Germany plus Uganda (3) 2. Henan (99 million) Mexico 3. Shandong (92 million) Philippines 4. Sichuan (87...

People whose views we don’t care about, #1

by Richard Gowan | Oct 12, 2008

In a new series, I will be introducing a series of commentators on international affairs whose views are (in my opinion) inherently redundant. First up,...

Martti Ahtisaari has an orange juice

by Richard Gowan | Oct 10, 2008

After some months of chronicling what one reader describes as "Sarko-bling", it is a pleasure to find that one world leader is keeping it simple, Nobel prize...

McCain’s next stunt?

by David Steven | Oct 10, 2008

Here's some idle speculation for Friday. Starting points: John McCain is now in deep trouble - pundits are talking about the election as a done deal. He...

You are on twitter – right?

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 9, 2008

I've just spent a day and half at a RUSI conference on resilience. Most of the sessions included some discussion about communication; either there still...

Oh dear

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2008

Krugman: The coordinated rate cut was the right thing to do. But I don’t expect much from it — because the relationship between Fed funds rates and the rates...

The Future of Resilience

by David Steven | Oct 8, 2008

Speech by David Steven to RUSI Conference on UK Resilience (8 October 2008)

A crisis of trust

by Alex Evans | Oct 6, 2008

Two excellent columns in the FT last week explored the extent to which the credit crunch is a crisis of trust - and not just in the obvious sense of whether...

Palin Poetry

by David Steven | Oct 5, 2008

"Challenge to a cynic" as recited to Charlie Gibson: You are a cynic. Because show me where I have ever said That there's absolute proof That nothing that...

Brown’s reshuffle

by Charlie Edwards | Oct 3, 2008

News is dripping in that Peter Mandelson will return to the Cabinet for a third time. Des Browne has been replaced by John Hutton as Secretary of State for...

Back to food prices

by Alex Evans | Oct 1, 2008

I'm speaking tonight at a Global Development Forum event on food prices; Peter Melchett from the Soil Association, Steve Wiggins from ODI and Andrew Coker...

Four helicopters too many?

by Richard Gowan | Sep 30, 2008

Readers will know that I have an unhealthy interest in the supply of helicopters for peace operations. There aren't enough of them, and those that do exist...

More than China’s Milk is Tainted

by Leo Horn Phathanothai | Sep 30, 2008

As a long-time resident of Beijing, concern about food and product-safety is almost a chronic neurosis. Over the past year alone, health scares have ranged...

A Ha, me hearties!

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 26, 2008

I know what you're thinking. What are pirates going to do with 30 Russian T72 tanks? Not much probably but the rest of the cargo, a mixture of RPGs and the...

What Gordon didn’t say about Africa (but Gowan did)

by Richard Gowan | Sep 25, 2008

Gordon Brown is getting a good write-up for his speech to the UN on Africa and development. It's short, sharp and effective. Here's the essential extract:...

Sarkozy’s financial summit proposal

by Alex Evans | Sep 24, 2008

Over at the UN in New York, where it's the annual jamboree that is the General Assembly, Nicolas Sarkozy has been calling on world leaders to hold a summit...

Labour Conference keynotes in times of meltdown

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2008

Listening to Gordon Brown's speech today, Philip Stephens notes that "Mr Brown kept his audience in its comfort zone": Though he set out the challenges...

Sarah Palin: ANWR is “God’s will”

by Alex Evans | Sep 23, 2008

Via Small Precautions, a vintage video of Sarah Palin in her natural element: [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k]

Observations on the meltdown

by Alex Evans | Sep 22, 2008

I'm not even going to try to form any kind of overview while things are moving so fast, but here are a few observations in no particular order: First, just...

The West versus the Rest: new map

by Richard Gowan | Sep 18, 2008

Yesterday, the European Council on Foreign Relations published a report I've co-authored on the EU's influence on human rights issues at the UN. I'll save...

Privacy for non-US persons

by David Steven | Sep 12, 2008

The DNI Open Source conference this morning saw a fascinating debate on the implications of the information explosion for privacy. As people live more of...

It’s not about information

by David Steven | Sep 11, 2008

At today's DNI Open Source conference here in Washington, we kicked off with a keynote speech from Glenn Gaffney. Gaffney's job is to co-ordinate the...

Making a splash

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 4, 2008

Swim like a dolphin. Hat tip - Noel Shachtman

Britain’s coolest politician?

by Mark Weston | Sep 2, 2008

In a rare display of normalcy from a politician, Andy Burnham, Britain's young Culture Secretary, has apparently told Q Magazine: "I would trade in the whole...

National Security Forum – who would you choose?

by Charlie Edwards | Sep 1, 2008

Back in July I wrote a post on who I thought would sit on the national security forum. The NSF would likely be a NDPB made up of 12 publicly appointed members...

Ex Africa semper aliquid novi

by Alex Evans | Aug 30, 2008

H/t Chris Blattman.

McCain’s VP on climate

by David Steven | Aug 29, 2008

All the buzz today is that Sarah Palin, Alaska's governor, will be McCain's vice president pick. Interesting to see how close she is to him on climate...

John McCain has a very large barbecue

by Alex Evans | Aug 28, 2008

At the start of the month, Richard pointed out the interesting fact that Nicolas Sarkozy has a very large television. The picture he supplied proved that...

The Caucasus crisis: Conspiracy theory #21

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 28, 2008

Numerous conspiracy theories on the Caucasus crisis are zipping round cyberspace. The latest from from Scott Lucas at Birmingham University: it turns out that...

The FCO’s failure over Russia

by Jules Evans | Aug 27, 2008

The typical criticism of the Foreign Office is the one eloquently expressed in John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener - that they are pitiless practitioners of...

Texting rebels

by Alex Evans | Aug 25, 2008

From BBC Focus on Africa, via the excellent Chris Blattman: Each morning the 36-year-old powers up a small United Nations radio transmitter and starts...

Oil prices are going to go back up

by Alex Evans | Aug 24, 2008

I've been banging on about this, I know, but two more signals pointing in that direction from last week are worth noting. One was an FT piece by Nick Butler...

Bernard Kouchner looks rugged yet spiritual

by Richard Gowan | Aug 22, 2008

No new photographic highlights of M. Sarkozy's style choices this week, but Bernard Kouchner steps into the breach, looking good to honor the Dalai Lama:

Who is winning the Olympics? Part 74: the Empire

by Richard Gowan | Aug 21, 2008

Further to David's posts on who is topping the Olympic medal table (the EU or the Queen?), Guido Fawkes points out that it is in fact, the Empire: This one...

MI5: Islamic terrorists “lack religious literacy and could be regarded as religious novices”

by Alex Evans | Aug 21, 2008

Today's Guardian leads with a restricted MI5 report they've seen on radicalisation. The standout finding: Far from being religious zealots, a large number of...

New mechanism for international dialogue: Hoff Space

by Richard Gowan | Aug 20, 2008

It's a cliché that our networked, wired world suffers from a dearth of true leaders - visionaries who know how to use new technologies to build virtual...

Are the Olympic games an elaborate trap?

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 20, 2008

While others are concerned about gold medals or what the Beijing Olympics means for us in 2012 there are real worries that the games are in fact an elaborate...

Virtual thirst

by Alex Evans | Aug 20, 2008

Full marks to WWF for their report on virtual water use today, which finds that when imports of virtual water - the water used to grow or manufacture goods...

The view from the U.S

by Daniel Korski | Aug 18, 2008

Jules did a piece about an ordinary Russian’s reaction to the Russo-Georgian War. To give some balance, here are the views of an ordinary American and friend...

Post-Musharraf, Pakistan needs help

by Daniel Korski | Aug 18, 2008

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is resigning, thus opening a new chapter in this country's history as the governing parties, PPP and PML-N, are bound to...

Rahr on war

by Jules Evans | Aug 18, 2008

A good source for comment on foreign policy in the former Soviet Union is the website of the Eurasia Heritage Foundation, in my opinion Russia's best...

Russo-Georgian Warfare: Tea and Medals

by Daniel Korski | Aug 15, 2008

At the risk of sounding morbid, it's now possible to designate winners and losers in the heats of what will hopefully not become a new Olympic discipline:...

The IOC on the spot

by Alex Evans | Aug 14, 2008

Looks like the British press corps in Beijing is pretty pissed off about the manhandling of ITN's China correspondent yesterday, at least if accounts of...

Omagh: the bomb that started the government’s CBT programme

by Jules Evans | Aug 13, 2008

Ten years ago last week, a bomb went off in a parked Vauxhall car on Market Street in Omagh, a market town with a population of 22,000 in County Tyrone,...

Counter-Jihad 2.0

by Daniel Korski | Aug 12, 2008

There you are, spotty-faced and filled with anti-Western rage. An Ed Hussein, pre-conversion, in search of a community of co-believers who, like you, want to...

Of tails and dogs: what if Georgia were in NATO?

by Alex Evans | Aug 11, 2008

Daniel may well be right that "The German and French governments need to reflect on how their veto of Georgia’s NATO membership at the Bucharest Summit in...

South Ossetia: who’s at fault?

by Alex Evans | Aug 10, 2008

In an age when media coverage is such a significant dimension of armed conflict, the question of who's cast as the goodie and who's the baddie is not a small...

Cyberattack on Georgia

by David Steven | Aug 8, 2008

In Georgia, official websites are being defaced with pictures comparing President Saakashvili to Hitler... The blog - I Love Bonnie - has this screenshot from...

Trouble on the BTC pipeline

by Alex Evans | Aug 8, 2008

As Jules's post on the sudden descent into a shooting war in Georgia implies, one of the West's principal reasons for being interested in Georgia is that the...

Labour’s Mili-tancy

by Daniel Korski | Aug 8, 2008

There are many things to say about the story that David Miliband and Alan Milburn, the former Health Secretary, would consider teaming up to run the Labour...

Stop panting, British intelligence will remain

by Daniel Korski | Aug 7, 2008

The Telegraph has another “EU-is-taking-over” story today about how moves to create a European intelligence service will jeopardise the work of British spies....

Policing terror

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 5, 2008

Police officials in Providence, Rhode Island, are beginning to express doubts about whether the imperative to protect domestic security from terrorism has...

HealthMap

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 4, 2008

It's been a while since we last had a map on GD. From Wired: HealthMap … creates machine-readable public health information from the text indexed by Google...

The Conservative Party’s summer reading list

by Charlie Edwards | Aug 3, 2008

I can’t be the only one scratching my head at the Conservative Party's summer holiday reading list. It's week 2 of silly season, I grant you, and journalists...

What if India gave up on the UN?

by Richard Gowan | Aug 1, 2008

My recent extended growl about the parlous state of peacekeeping has been cited as evidence in a fascinating online debate among Indian security analysts on...

China and humiliation

by Alex Evans | Aug 1, 2008

Over the past few months, China's given a few lessons in how not to do public diplomacy, whether it's nationalist students abroad or Party officials at home. ...

Live to fight another day

by David Steven | Aug 1, 2008

I think Jules gets it wrong in his analysis of the options facing David Miliband. Jules writes: If he doesn't make an outright challenge for the leadership...

Miliband’s folly

by Jules Evans | Jul 31, 2008

While I'm amused by Harriet Harman's apparent interest in the top job, I'm amazed by David Miliband's. I thought he was smart. It seems to me he can't help...

Miliband’s intentions

by Alex Evans | Jul 30, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpNcQLn_oHI] Even before his refusal to rule himself out of any leadership bid on the way to and during his press...

Resilience – what level?

by David Steven | Jul 30, 2008

Over at The Interpreter, Sam Roggeveen picks up on Alex's post on Doha to wonder whether a concern for resilience automatically leads to protectionism: On one...

The collapse of Doha

by Alex Evans | Jul 29, 2008

No-one quite wants to pronounce the patient dead just yet (US Trade Representative Susan Schwab: "This is not the time to talk about collapse ... the US...

Burn Up

by Alex Evans | Jul 29, 2008

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY__KBYJjMM] Freed from the nice-guy constraints of being Josh on the West Wing, Bradley Whitford was clearly having a...

“The whole world would fail”

by Richard Gowan | Jul 28, 2008

After Jean-Marie Guéhenno's comments last week on the perils of Darfur, here's more plain speaking from a senior peacekeeper - in this case the Darfur...

Obama: global emissions reduction of 80 per cent by 2050

by Alex Evans | Jul 28, 2008

It's been his campaign's policy since October last year, but in case you needed reassurance, here's what Obama's July 15 speech on foreign policy had to say...

Rocket Man

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 27, 2008

Next Tuesday the Martin Jetpack will be unveiled. It will be able to operate for up to 30-minutes and a total engine life of 1,000 hours. It's enough to make...

Wrong on Afghan drugs

by Daniel Korski | Jul 25, 2008

Thomas Schweich, previously the Bush administration’s Afghan drugs “czar” has made a big splash in the New York Times by claiming that President Hamid Karzai...

The US, Europe and the ‘coming crisis of high expectations’

by Alex Evans | Jul 24, 2008

Last year, while she was still working as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and chair of international security at West Point - and shortly...

National Security Top Trumps

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 23, 2008

A propos my post below - Brown has said that the NSF core group will be made up of 12 men and women. But who could they be? Join in the fun and send us your...

How safe is FDIC?

by Alex Evans | Jul 23, 2008

Lots of discussion in the US about whether FDIC - the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which makes sure depositors get their cash back if banks go bust...

Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?

by Richard Gowan | Jul 22, 2008

[Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiTpS4MK3D8&feature=related]

Peacekeeping in crisis: exactly how bad is it?

by Richard Gowan | Jul 21, 2008

The fact that I think UN (and quite a lot of non-UN) peacekeeping is in crisis will not come as news to regular readers. Indeed, a rapid search of my...

Seriously?

by Alex Evans | Jul 21, 2008

Sam Coates points us to this from the Sunday Times: [Obama] will have a 45-minute meeting on Saturday morning with Gordon Brown followed by a press...

Casus belli?

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 21, 2008

From the Guardian: An Israeli human rights group released video footage last night showing an Israeli soldier firing a rubber-coated bullet at close range at...

Pakistan’s only problem

by David Steven | Jul 19, 2008

There have been lots of suicide bombings in Pakistan lately, corruption is rife, and the education system is in a terrible state. But only 2% of Pakistanis...

No UK Civilian Reserve Corps?

by Daniel Korski | Jul 18, 2008

A new draft study is about to be presented to the British Prime Minister, which will suggest ways to improve what’s now being called “civilian effects” i.e....

Borat does public diplomacy

by Alex Evans | Jul 17, 2008

It's often said that Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat character was a source of frequent annoyance to the Kazakh government - and you can see why. But this makes...

Gangs – Karachi-style

by David Steven | Jul 17, 2008

Lyari is Karachi's most lawless district - with two warring gangs battling for territory. Outsiders never visit and residents struggle to survive. According...

The Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 15, 2008

Bodyguards for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo surely win the prize for best secret gadget: The unbreakable fighting umbrella. And customers are clearly satisfied: I...

What Global Dashboard has to learn from one of the most terrifying thinkers ever: a tribute to Herman Kahn

by Richard Gowan | Jul 14, 2008

You don't have to believe that the end of the world is nigh to enjoy this blog, but it helps. A scan of recent posts throws up Alex on "life after the...

Knife crime, shared awareness & counter-insurgency

by Daniel Korski | Jul 14, 2008

The recent spate of knife-killings in London and the British government’s response illustrates the continuing problems policy-makers face in dealing with...

The world according to Oxfam

by Alex Evans | Jul 11, 2008

Oxfam's head of research, Duncan Green, has published a new book called From Poverty to Power (and Duncan's started a blog, too, which is definitely worth...

Multilateralism for an Age of Scarcity

by Alex Evans | Jul 10, 2008

Draft report by Alex Evans exploring multilateral system reforms needed in order to manage resource scarcity issues more effectively. The final version will be published in early 2010 (July 2008)

Joining up the scarcity dots

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2008

Lots of people converging on the need for an integrated approach to food, climate and energy this week (funny how the same ideas often seem to sprout in...

Scarcity issues and conflict in Africa

by Alex Evans | Jul 8, 2008

Speech by Alex Evans at UK Parliament (8 July 2008)

Kicking Kyoto

by David Steven | Jul 8, 2008

Like Alex, I spoke at the United Nations University symposium on climate change and innovation on Friday - and one notable theme was the ferocious kicking...

Gordon opens up a new front on food prices

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2008

Gordon Brown's blunt call on Brits to stop wasting food marks an interesting moment in the food prices debate. So far, policymakers have concentrated almost...

What the G8 needs to do on climate change

by Alex Evans | Jul 6, 2008

Talking heads including James Hansen, Ted Nordhaus, David and me on what G8 leaders need to do on climate change next week - shot at last week's UNU climate...

A Low Carbon World – Pathways to a Global Deal

by David Steven | Jul 4, 2008

Speech by David Steven at the UNU G8 Symposium (4 July 2008)

Time for some EU military muscle

by Charlie Edwards | Jul 2, 2008

I'm in Vienna for a project on European security, drivers, and trends. You can read about Foresec's aims and objectives here. One of the more animated...

Europe’s next crisis

by Daniel Korski | Jul 1, 2008

Crisis is nothing new to the European Union. In fact, crises have made the EU’s foreign policy what it is, filling most of Javier Solana’s office hours. But...

G8 leaders make ready to drop aid commitments

by Alex Evans | Jun 30, 2008

Someone's leaked a copy of the draft G8 communique to the FT (or, more specifically, to their Berlin correspondent - presumably no prizes for guessing which...

MEPs at their trough

by David Steven | Jun 28, 2008

The kind of publicity the EU could do without, just now...

Should we tell them about the risk from flooding? Who’s them? Ah…

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 26, 2008

Should the Government publish details of reservoir flood plans for local residents and 'persons likely to be interested'? (Which I think is a reference to the...

Public diplomacy – or tomorrow’s diplomacy?

by Alex Evans | Jun 26, 2008

The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, which reports to President Bush, published a report yesterday on (you guessed it) public diplomacy...

Arc of ‘crisis’ or ‘instability’. You choose.

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 24, 2008

Over on ArmscontrolWonk they have been analysing the arc of crisis map from the recent French White paper on national security and defence. They've done a...

Gordon’s growing international credibility

by Alex Evans | Jun 22, 2008

An interesting signal in the ether today from Sky News's political editor Adam Boulton, who has this to say: It could be said that Tony Blair's domestic...

Back in Belgrade

by Daniel Korski | Jun 21, 2008

I’m back in Belgrade after seven years. Last time I was here, Milosevic had recently been overthrown and sent to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague;...

Texan political advertising at its best 2: 1960s nostalgia edition

by Richard Gowan | Jun 20, 2008

Yesterday, I offered up Texan senator John Cornyn's macho cowboy re-election video as "Texan political advertising at its best". But the enjoyably off-beat...

China is an island

by Alex Evans | Jun 20, 2008

So says Kevin Kelly on what is now my favourite blog. Here's why: China shares borders with more countries (14 in total) than any other country on earth....

Flame-grilled whopper

by David Steven | Jun 19, 2008

Remember Curveball? The intelligence ‘source' who supplied ‘virtually all of the [US] Intelligence Community's information on Iraq's alleged mobile biological...

Why the world trade system’s guns are pointing the wrong way

by Alex Evans | Jun 19, 2008

Not much respite in prospect on food export restrictions, if today's FT is anything to go by. Vietnam, the world's second largest exporter of rice, has...

Chadian lessons in peacekeeping, part 3: humanitarians are irritating but wars are worse

by Richard Gowan | Jun 18, 2008

The sense of chaos surrounding the EU Force in Chad grows by the day. After rebel groups praised an Irish contingent's refusal to get involved in fighting and...

Chadian lessons in peacekeeping, part 2: even the neutral have enemies

by Richard Gowan | Jun 17, 2008

Yesterday I recorded that Chadian rebels had congratulated Irish EU troops on their "courageous" and "neutral" (i.e. defensive) response to a firefight in the...

The oil-dollar feedback loop

by Alex Evans | Jun 16, 2008

We are now officially in Feedback Loop Territory. Earlier today, oil hit another all time record: this time $140 a barrel. Gordon says it's "the most...

Extreme weather trashes US midwest corn crop

by Alex Evans | Jun 16, 2008

Looks like lots of people (including me) may have spoken too soon in hoping for a near term easing of food prices. Notwithstanding recent causes for good...

Sarkozy latest convert to per capita convergence in climate policy?

by Alex Evans | Jun 14, 2008

Looks like Sarkozy's the latest European leader to start getting behind convergence of national emission entitlements to equal per capita levels as the...

Saving global Europe

by Daniel Korski | Jun 13, 2008

As predicted here, Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty. Over on the ECFR website I have tried to lay out what I think European leaders should now do: To keep...

42 days: it’s the whips that won it

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 12, 2008

It's not just the DUP who helped secure vote for the Counter-terrorism bill. From Revolts: Of the 49 Labour backbenchers who voted against the Government in...

Are our cities going feral?

by Daniel Korski | Jun 12, 2008

Reading Alex’s argument about the hollowing-out of governmental authority, I am reminded of Richard Norton’s term a “feral city”, something he defines as a...

Interventions work

by Daniel Korski | Jun 11, 2008

Do interventions work? With the vicissitudes of the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions and conflict returning to the Balkans, it is hard to answer in the...

The secret of great acting? It’s all about the timing

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 9, 2008

The tragic deaths of three paratroopers on patrol in Helmand on Sunday brings the number of British military casualties in Afghanistan to 100. A steady stream...

Treating Afghan men like boys

by David Steven | Jun 7, 2008

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...

How urban apathy can kill community resilience

by Charlie Edwards | Jun 6, 2008

By any estimation this is a shocking video. A hit and run case made worse because people walking along the pavement don't rush to the victim, or call 911 but...

BP in trouble in Russia

by Jules Evans | Jun 5, 2008

There's a great story in the FT today by Catherine Belton, who I've always rated as the best foreign journalist in Russia. She's something of a workaholic,...

The new public diplomacy and Afghanistan

by David Steven | Jun 4, 2008

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).

Ahmadinejad: erasing Israel is just for starters

by Alex Evans | Jun 3, 2008

As has been widely reported, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Rome in his usual style, saying that Israel would "soon disappear from the map". But a close...

West Africa: stuck in a food / fuel pincer movement

by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2008

I had a long chat with Pascal Fletcher at Reuters on Friday while he was writing this article on the effect of price rises for food and fuel in west Africa,...

Europeans who care about Iraq: slightly more voices in the wilderness than before

by Richard Gowan | Jun 1, 2008

On Saturday Bernard Kouchner showed why he's Europe's Coolest Foreign Minister by swooping into Nasiriya, Iraq, just after a shoot-out to offer reconstruction...

The UN’s summit on world food security

by Alex Evans | May 30, 2008

Next week, the UN is holding a major summit on food security in Rome - I'll be there throughout (and blogging regularly on what goes on). Ahead of the...

Oil prices close to peak?

by Alex Evans | May 29, 2008

Thta's the question lots of market analysts are starting to ask, according to Sarah O'Connor: French fishermen and British lorry drivers set up blockades in...

Gordon Brown’s new line on energy

by Alex Evans | May 28, 2008

No sooner do I finish my post this morning on high oil prices than I discover Gordon Brown in the Guardian, sharing our pain on energy prices ("...and I know...

Community Resilience via a black cab

by Charlie Edwards | May 27, 2008

Something I hadn't picked up until recently was the role of the black cab on 7/7. Anecdotal evidence suggests that on the day of the bombings black cabs...

Why terrorism fails

by Charlie Edwards | May 22, 2008

Noticed while browsing the ever insightful Kevin Drum: The graph, from the Human Security Report 2007 shows that as terrorist incidents have risen in...

Miliband and the politics of scarcity

by David Steven | May 21, 2008

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 art of not scoring own goals

by David Steven | May 20, 2008

I've been at the Brookings Institution in Washington today for its conference on the transatlantic relationship. In the chair, Daniel Benjamin, who runs...

The FT on peak oil

by Alex Evans | May 20, 2008

A whole page, no less (including transition towns, too). Not much new content here, but what's interesting is that the FT now reckon the concept of peak oil...

MoD Communications 1.0: Defend the news

by Charlie Edwards | May 18, 2008

Apropos of Alex's post on the FCO's new website, I've been checking out the MoD's aptly named media blog 'Defence News' which like a tin of Ronseal doesn't...

DNI conference in Washington

by Alex Evans | May 17, 2008

Want to hang out with spooks in DC for a couple of days in September? Well, now's your chance: the office of the Director of National Intelligence is holidng...

Viagra for the brain

by Alex Evans | May 16, 2008

Via Kevin Drum, this vignette from Johann Hari about his experience taking Provigil, which (we're told) college students describe as "viagra for the brain": I...

De Mello died, Bush lied

by David Steven | May 14, 2008

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

by David Steven | May 14, 2008

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...

Cause and effect

by Charlie Edwards | May 13, 2008

Is the global economic situation having an impact on poppy eradication in Afghanistan? Afghan farmers are capitalising on soaring food costs by growing wheat...

Americans: Anxious but increasingly savvy about world affairs

by Charlie Edwards | May 11, 2008

According to the latest Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index (CFPI), 60% of Americans say reducing energy dependence would strengthen their nation’s...

The UN’s dreadful May: Cassandra reports back

by Richard Gowan | May 11, 2008

Exactly how bad has the first half of this month been for the UN? Where does one start? You could choose Burma, where the international organization's ability...

The wrong approach to AIDS?

by Mark Weston | May 9, 2008

A new study published in Science claims that funds for HIV prevention (like most funds directed at Africa, cynics might argue) are being wasted. Telling...

The Advent of Geodiplomatics

by David Steven | May 7, 2008

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

by David Steven | May 2, 2008

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)....

Ukraine, land of black soil

by Jules Evans | Apr 30, 2008

I'm in Ukraine, land of black soil. Ukraine is already an important player in the global food crisis - it's a big exporter of wheat, and one of the reasons...

Technology and Public Diplomacy

by David Steven | Apr 30, 2008

Speech by David Steven to the University of Westminster Symposium on Transformational Public Diplomacy (30 April 2008).

Is suicide bombing rational?

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 30, 2008

Asks William Saletan over on Slate. Actually he raises a number of questions about whether suicide bombings are increasing around the world, why they might be...

In bed with a mosquito

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 29, 2008

I admit I have never heard this but will now shameless use it... in answer to a question about what impact an individual can really have on climate change:...

Geoff Hoon: the new Ben Affleck

by Alex Evans | Apr 29, 2008

Sam Coates at The Times reports from the White House Correspondents' Dinner in DC last week ("where the President and Washington press corps show Hollywood...

Viral in the Balkans

by Daniel Korski | Apr 28, 2008

Nothing is more viral than a political gaffe – just ask Hilary Clinton. But what about EU accession policy? Well, in the Balkans anything goes. Twenty days...

Kissinger calling

by Daniel Korski | Apr 26, 2008

For three weeks, Europe’s "big men" have been polishing off their CVs in the hope of getting one of the new top EU jobs to be created if the Lisbon Treaty...

How low can she go?

by David Steven | Apr 25, 2008

It's not just Australia that's been getting it in the neck this week, New Zealand's PM, Helen Clark, has been compared to a cockroach by Hilary Clinton, in...

Three foreign policy maxims

by Alex Evans | Apr 25, 2008

A diplomat who shall remain nameless offers three rules of thumb: Don't mistake activity for action Don't mistake access for influence Don't mistake...

Tory foreign affairs spokesman lost in Africa: Can you help him?

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 24, 2008

The Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague issued a press release on Tuesday calling on David Miliband, foreign secretary “to take urgent action...

Networked security and system vulnerability

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 23, 2008

Next week the Hudson Institute is holding a seminar on the future of the US defence industry. Before you stifle a yawn take a look at one of the scenarios...

New Chatham House briefing paper on food

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2008

I've just published a new Chatham House paper on why food prices are rising and what it means for development: download it here. One of the paper's main...

“We now have a full partner in Pakistan”

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2008

Barney Rubin has an excellent post updating on latest developments in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas. Start, he says, from a clear...

Brown in the US: the verdict

by Richard Gowan | Apr 20, 2008

I had meant to write something wildly insightful about Gordon Brown's visit to the U.S. and his rather good speech at the Kennedy Library on world order - a...

Great triumphs of Chinese public diplomacy, part 294

by Alex Evans | Apr 17, 2008

And now for the latest instalment of "how not to do public diplomacy". Last time, readers will recall, we observed with interest as Chinese government...

Beware new markets

by Jules Evans | Apr 15, 2008

We're now in the point-the-finger phase of the present financial crisis. The G7 says its all the banks' faults, and wants to increase their capital adequacy...

Charming China while criticising her human rights record: Kevin Rudd shows us how

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2008

Australia's PM Kevin Rudd - who as David noted is "surely the wonkiest head of state ever" - continues to charm the pants off everyone he comes across. While...

I spy

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 11, 2008

Currently zipping round cyber space is this picture of Dick Cheney: Vice President of the US of A, keen fisherman and a man who clearly enjoys the finer...

When relative inequality has absolute impacts

by Alex Evans | Apr 9, 2008

I'm a big fan of Foreign Policy editor Moises Naim - he was the first person to spot the potential for China's Olympics to become a debacle, for instance -...

Two models of campaigning

by Alex Evans | Apr 8, 2008

Over at NetworkWeaving, there's a bit of compare and contrast going on, between this sort of campaigning: ...and this sort: Worth a read.

FBI predicts AQ defeat in under 4 years

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 7, 2008

Robert Mueller the head of the FBI, believes the West can achieve victory over al-Qaeda within three-and-a-half years. In a speech to Chatham House Mueller...

Olympic torch relay… going…going…gone.

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 7, 2008

Istanbul London Paris

A new direction for Russia?

by Jules Evans | Apr 6, 2008

I recently interviewed Sergei Markov, who is a key spin-doctor to the Kremlin. He told me that the West had completely underestimated the extent to which...

The CIA’s assessment of the British Government’s role in Basra

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 4, 2008

Back in the middle of February I posted on the plight of the Iraqi people in Basra suggesting that while the the city was not in the media spotlight things...

Obama: “a nice light reddish amber color”

by Richard Gowan | Apr 3, 2008

Last month, Sixpoint Craft Ales - with which I share a Brooklyn zip code - launched "Hop Obama", an electoral ale. It'll be around until the Pennsylvania...

Progressive Governance Summit

by David Steven | Apr 3, 2008

On Saturday, Alex and I will be at the Progressive Governance Summit, where we'll be presenting a new paper on multilateralism and global risks to twenty or...

Google and intellipedia

by Charlie Edwards | Apr 1, 2008

Google is working with US intelligence agencies in a bid to connect the dots. Many of the contracts are for search appliances - servers for storing and...

Propaganda 2.0

by David Steven | Apr 1, 2008

The US military wonders whether it makes sense to co-opt bloggers: Since the start of the Iraq war, there's been a raucous debate in military circles over how...

Civil servants: ‘Our work is seriously challenging…’

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 31, 2008

Banned from discussing issues of national security with the media, officials and serving officers from the MoD have turned their attention to the internet....

The rough guide for migrants

by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2008

A useful travel guide for would-be migrants, from Foreign Policy magazine. My only quibble would be their listing of Spain as one of the best countries to...

Iran’s “Grand Bargain”: how the story disappeared

by Richard Gowan | Mar 29, 2008

The current edition of the Columbia Journalism Review should be required reading for foreign policy wonks as well as aspiring hacks. It has a great piece on...

Friday caption competition

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 28, 2008

Contagious memes

by Alex Evans | Mar 27, 2008

From Edge, via Mapping Strategy: It is customary to think about fashions in things like clothes or music as spreading in a social network. But it turns out...

Consultants and corruption in Afghanistan

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 26, 2008

A new report by the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (Acbar) says the international aid effort in Afghanistan is in large part "wasteful and...

Avaaz closes in on largest ever internet campaign

by Alex Evans | Mar 25, 2008

Avaaz's current petition, calling on China to begin "meaningful dialogue" with the Dalai Lama, looks set to pass has now passed the one million signature mark...

Kosovo: how to get it wrong now

by Richard Gowan | Mar 21, 2008

I'd dropped my plan to do weekly scorecards on events in Kosovo, not least because bigger and better-informed Balkan-watchers like ICG are on the case. But...

On to Somalia!

by Richard Gowan | Mar 20, 2008

For over a year, one of the biggest questions among officials in UN-land has been: will the Security Council make us go to Somalia? Back in November, I...

Who’s been talking to Sue Cameron?

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 19, 2008

So which political adviser and/or Whitehall official(s) have been talking with the FT's resident 'Rita Skeeter'? In her notebook today she despairs of the...

Number 10: how they are related

by Alex Evans | Mar 18, 2008

Red Box has found this in PR Week: an organogram of Downing Street's comms operation. The resolution's not very good (big version here), but one thing is...

Downtown Lhasa

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

The Economist's James Miles is the only foreign correspondent with official approval to be in Tibet. More photos here. Security is particularly intense in...

The UK’s National Security Strategy

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 17, 2008

This Wednesday the British Government will publish the UK's first ever National Security Strategy. This is a big moment for Gordon Brown and comes with great...

Has Chinese diplomacy been ‘hijacked’?

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2008

Interesting to read the argument made today that China's overseas diplomacy has in some cases - like Sudan - been "hijacked" by state-owned companies like...

New U.S. counterinsurgency tactics… inside its own detention centers?

by Richard Gowan | Mar 16, 2008

David Steven has recently reminded us of the horrors of Abu Ghraib, but an earnest story from DoD reveals that the U.S. is now running hearts and minds...

Nearly the weekend

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2008

...so here's one of the best moments from series 1 of The West Wing: [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Ni1vDb_u4]

James Carville springs to Samantha Power’s defence

by Alex Evans | Mar 14, 2008

When I saw the headline of James Carville's FT article today - "Time to halt America's political hara-kiri" - my heart sank. Surely, I thought, not another...

Inequality: falling between countries, rising within them

by Alex Evans | Mar 12, 2008

That's the headline conclusion of an IPS analysis piece by John Vandaele. Average GDP growth in developing countries today is 7 per cent, compared to 3 per...

Pop quiz

by Alex Evans | Mar 11, 2008

Who set out this admirable vision of decentralised policy coherence? Without democracy, you have no understanding of what is happening down below; the...

Northern exposure

by Alex Evans | Mar 10, 2008

This morning's Guardian has a leaked report from EU foreign policy chiefs Javier Solana and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, due to go to all 27 heads of government...

A new development paradigm?

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

Dani Rodrik is wondering whether we might be seeing a new paradigm in development economics: Until very recently, if you spent anytime thinking about...

Chinese government servers: what the hackers found…

by Alex Evans | Mar 7, 2008

The Cult of the Dead Cow, a noted hacker group, has just conducted some interesting research on government computer network security vulnerabilities (hat-tip:...

The tolerant, multi-ethnic Kosovo that very nearly was

by Richard Gowan | Mar 7, 2008

Now that it looks likely that Kosovo is heading for some sort of de facto partition, there's a sense of weary inevitability abroad. Of course this was...

On collision course: scarcity and African patronage systems

by Alex Evans | Mar 5, 2008

"If you see people throwing stones, it means if they had guns, they would have been shooting", observes Frederick, an economics grad who drives a motorcycle...

Afghanistan’s addiction

by Charlie Edwards | Mar 5, 2008

The International Narcotics Control Board has published its report on narcotics in Afghanistan. The increase in opium cultivation which is taking place in the...

FARC? Terrorists?

by Alex Evans | Mar 4, 2008

Richard Gott in the Guardian may well be right that the Colombian government's decision to bump off two FARC guerrilla leaders a mile inside Ecuadorian...

Interrogating terrorist suspects 101

by Alex Evans | Mar 2, 2008

ForeignPolicy.com has an excellent interview with Jack Cloonan, a former FBI interrogator who worked extensively on Al Qaeda. Here's the part where he's...

Third world debt (the sequel)

by Alex Evans | Mar 1, 2008

Lots of concerns lately about stagflation, given how commodity prices have continued their inexorable rise even as the US economy falters. Inevitably, some...

The ‘tube’ map to the future

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 29, 2008

The Global Strategy Institute at CSIS has published a map of trends and events up to 2012. For those who travel on the London underground the map may look...

Obama: tragic figure (and not in a good way)

by David Steven | Feb 28, 2008

Hilary Clinton's futile and self-defeating attacks on Barack Obama are obscuring a much more significant phenomenon. At the margins, a robust, effective and...

The European Parliament gets it right on Iraq

by Richard Gowan | Feb 27, 2008

Hurrah for the European Parliament. Not a phrase you hear very often, even from this blog's resident Europhile (me), but those MEPs get it right now and...

Rocks for brains?

by Jules Evans | Feb 26, 2008

'Clueless'. That's how the financial press is summing up our politicians' understanding of financial markets. The ignorance of most politicians about the...

Welcome to the ‘Doomsday Vault’

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 25, 2008

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is situated more than one hundred metres deep inside the mountain permafrost on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, some 620...

Thank goodness for Martin Kettle

by Richard Gowan | Feb 23, 2008

Further to my rant against the legion of poltroons who have made comments on Kosovo on the Guardian website, Martin Kettle has restored my faith that there's...

Daniel Korski and the hatred of idiots

by Richard Gowan | Feb 22, 2008

Our chum Daniel Korski has been good enough to cite my recent Dashboard post on Kosovo in a new article on the Guardian website. It's a typically tough piece...

Making a martyr…

by David Steven | Feb 22, 2008

Lax security has already given the world one political martyr this year - let's not have another one, eh? Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday...

+++ Miliband confirms rendition flights landed in UK +++

by Alex Evans | Feb 21, 2008

FCO has been briefing journalists in the last few minutes: here's the Times - David Miliband is expected to apologise to the Commons today as he discloses...

From ‘soft touch’ to ‘out of touch’

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 20, 2008

Two days, two very similar broadsheet leaders. Yesterday The Times called for a national security strategy that narrowly defined ‘security’ (read defence),...

Iraq the place and Iraq the abstraction

by Alex Evans | Feb 19, 2008

Over the past few years, the New Yorker's George Packer has provided some outstanding reporting from Iraq. (He was also the author of one of the best articles...

Wheat up 90% in a month; US bakers demand curb on foreign sales

by Alex Evans | Feb 18, 2008

Javier Blas at the FT has the details: Prices for top-quality spring wheat have jumped by 90 per cent in the past month and a half, boosted by a scramble by...

Palau seeks Security Council protection on climate change

by Alex Evans | Feb 16, 2008

The tiny Pacific small island state of Palau has just announced that it'll be formally requesting protection from the Security Council on climate change and...

How to tell if you’re becoming a tribalist

by Alex Evans | Feb 15, 2008

Shashank Bengali, a journo based in Nairobi, was looking for a mechanic the other day. He asked Thomas, his office's driver, who replied: "There is a man....

Reconstructing Afghanistan

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 15, 2008

The UK Parliament select committee on Development reports on the state of Afghanistan. You can read the report here. There are 50 recommendations – here are...

Bush, the Pentagon, and the battle over climate change

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 14, 2008

Excellent comment piece in today’s FT on how the Pentagon needs to plan for climate change. According to the authors there are five key areas in which...

Another political assasination in London?

by Jules Evans | Feb 13, 2008

Looks like another mate of Boris Berezovsky's might have been assassinated in London...This time it's Arkadi Patarkatsishvili, or Badri as he was more...

Mon Dieu! Où sont les Anglais?

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 12, 2008

Mary Dejevsky is beside herself in today's Independent. Apparently the UK is no longer punching above its weight on the international stage. Cast an eye over...

More staff changes at Number 10

by Alex Evans | Feb 11, 2008

Peter Riddell at the Times has the details: Further far-reaching changes in the running of 10 Downing Street are imminent ... The two big appointments so far...

Those Khalilzad / Karzai rumours, again

by Alex Evans | Feb 11, 2008

James Kirchik, writing in the New Republic, discusses the "admittedly bizarre rumor circulating at the United Nations and the State Department, where many are...

Muslims inbred – but did he say it?

by David Steven | Feb 10, 2008

The 'inbreeding' row, sparked by Environment Minister (!) Phil Woolas, is yet to reach Pakistan - but it will and the consequences are sure to be ugly. As far...

Pakistan’s Black Hole

by David Steven | Feb 9, 2008

These are dark days for Pakistan. Eighteen months ago, when I was first in Islamabad, Pakistanis could see a route that would take the country towards greater...

What drove Europe’s C19th rise to globalism?

by Alex Evans | Feb 8, 2008

Jared Diamond argued in Guns, Germs and Steel that it was to do with geography and biodiversity; David Landes, in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, that it...

FCO briefs against DFID. Sigh…

by Alex Evans | Feb 7, 2008

While we're on the subject of Sue Cameron's awesome Whitehall gossip network, note also her piece yesterday about DFID (or 'Difid' as she enchantingly calls...

Withdrawal symptons

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 6, 2008

I hope someone in Whitehall is working on a comms strategy. We are in for a bumpy ride.

Brown’s half year report card

by Alex Evans | Feb 6, 2008

A little over half a year in, George Parker and Alex Barker offered an in-depth report card on Brown's management of the Number 10 machine in yesterday's FT....

China’s winter storm

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2008

Tim Johnson's China Rises blog has this video of chaotic scenes outside a southern China rail station in the midst of China's winter storm. As Tim says,...

Wikileaking

by Alex Evans | Feb 5, 2008

Those of our readers in public service will be delighted to hear of a new project designed especially for you: Wikileaks. The short version is explained on...

Wind farms ‘a threat to national security’

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 4, 2008

From The Times: Senior Government Official*: I want to be very clear now about what I want the public to do. There are two requests here. We need the public's...

ISAF Locations

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 3, 2008

Context

He says ‘jump’. You say…

by Charlie Edwards | Feb 2, 2008

Americans have an innate ability to tell it like it is. And so I find myself listening intently to how NATO needs to meet 5 strategic challenges otherwise its...

Merde

by Richard Gowan | Feb 1, 2008

Late yesterday, I briefly speculated that the latest upsurge in violence in Chad is being stimulated by the prospect of the forthcoming EU deployment there....

Enemy action?

by David Steven | Feb 1, 2008

A third underwater data cable has now been severed: A submarine cable in the Middle East has been snapped, adding to global net problems caused by breaks in...

The resilient community

by Alex Evans | Feb 1, 2008

John Robb's thinking about resilient communities over at Global Guerrillas: It should be clear, as we watch the gyrations and excesses of global markets, that...

Wilton Park speech on scarcity and resilience

by Alex Evans | Jan 31, 2008

Charlie and I are both off to Wilton Park this afternoon for a conference on European security in 2020. I'm presenting on scarcity and resilience, and why...

It’s all pointless

by Richard Gowan | Jan 30, 2008

Kurt Andersen of New York nicely sums up the growing sense that the last nine months of American politics may actually have been a farrago of nonsense:...

From Bali to Copenhagen: towards an endgame for global climate policy?

by Alex Evans | Jan 30, 2008

Article by Alex Evans for the Environmental Policy & Law Journal (January 2008).

The Top 100 Terrorist Targets in the United States

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 30, 2008

Someone mentioned this list to me at the conference. It includes political, economic, ecological, educational targets, tourist and military targets - and a...

Turkey’s “deep state”

by Mark Weston | Jan 29, 2008

Mysterious goings on in Turkey, as a shadowy group of arch-nationalists with alarmingly close links to the army and government is arrested for conspiring to...

You Tube horror stories

by Alex Evans | Jan 29, 2008

By now, we've all read enough horror stories to know that we have to exercise restraint in what we post on Facebook or Friends Reunited. But are we...

On ketchup

by Alex Evans | Jan 28, 2008

Matt Yglesias says: Every once in a while, I come across a person who still hasn't read Malcolm Gladwell's definitive article on ketchup. Well, you should...

The bullshit index

by Alex Evans | Jan 27, 2008

Yale and Columbia universities have just published their 2008 Environmental Performance Index, which grades 149 countries on their sustainability. Here's the...

What do rising food prices mean for Africa?

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2008

The FT's consumer industries correspondent, Jenny Wiggins - who along with commodities correspondent Javier Blas deserves a medal (or at the very least a...

Nick Butler’s big idea for Europe: 100% tax credit on all emissions-reducing activity

by Alex Evans | Jan 26, 2008

Nick Butler - treasurer of the Fabian Society, chair of the Centre for European Reform's advisory board, erstwhile chief of staff to BP's former CEO John...

“A conscious decision to maintain civility in public life”

by Alex Evans | Jan 25, 2008

Reading Dominic Sandbrook's excellent Never Had It So Good - a history of Britain from Suez to the Beatles last night, I came across this interesting...

Who will watch the spooks?

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 24, 2008

Paul Murphy is to take over as Welsh Secretary from Peter Hain, who quit today after his deputy leadership campaign donations were referred to the police. Mr...

Bono and Gore

by Alex Evans | Jan 24, 2008

The BBC's Tim Weber is in Davos, listening to Al Gore and Bono search together for the Holy Grail - a policy framework that can integrate development and...

Crystal Balls

by Charlie Edwards | Jan 23, 2008

Staying with the futures theme - I've just come across a great looking project at CSIS called 7 Revolutions. The project's aim is to promote strategic...

Jeremy Heywood new “Permanent Secretary, 10 Downing St”

by Alex Evans | Jan 23, 2008

According to the Number 10 website, Downing Street today announced the appointment of Jeremy Heywood as Permanent Secretary, No.10 Downing Street. This is the...

Never mind the Davos

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2008

Given that today's FT included a special 16 page pull-out section on the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos (in which editor Lionel Barber describes the...

A new grand bargain for Afghanistan?

by Alex Evans | Jan 22, 2008

Dan Korski at ECFR has a new report out today entitled Afghanistan: Europe's forgotten war (summary; press release; full report). The EU doesn't come out of...

Shimon Peres: “in one decade, Israel will not need oil”

by Alex Evans | Jan 21, 2008

Israel is today announcing plans to set up a nationwide electric car network, involving half a million recharging and battery-swap points within 18 months,...

Surprising consensus

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2008

You'd think that Shami Chakrabarti and David Omand would disagree on quite a lot. But they don't. Here at the Fabian Society conference, Shami actually begins...

Miliband’s Fabian keynote

by Alex Evans | Jan 19, 2008

So here we are at the Fabians’ foreign policy conference, and we’ve just heard from Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Here, brutally distilled, is the gist...

Gordon’s weird trip to China

by Alex Evans | Jan 18, 2008

Benedict Brogan is off to China with the Prime Ministerial travelling circus, plus various business bigwigs including Richard Branson. But as a sequence of...

Former chairman of Northern Foods: ‘the return of Malthus’

by Alex Evans | Jan 17, 2008

Chris Haskins knows a bit about food. He's the former chairman of Northern Foods and Express Dairies, acted as Tony Blair's 'rural tsar', and he used to run...

Pope drops university visit amid protests on his views on Galileo and science

by Alex Evans | Jan 16, 2008

Blimey: Pope Benedict XVI last night called off a visit to Rome's main university in the face of hostility from some of its academics and students, who...

The best deal, ever?

by David Steven | Jan 15, 2008

It's Wikipedia's seventh birthday today - and we're being treated to all the usual statistics about how vast the site has become. Nine million articles. 250...

“Matthew knew he shouldn’t be taking his AK-47 to the 7-Eleven, but…”

by Alex Evans | Jan 15, 2008

The NY Times has this sorry tale: Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy...

Sterling in freefall; France now richer than Britain

by Alex Evans | Jan 14, 2008

Sterling's down nine per cent against the euro since November, which as the FT helpfully reminded us this morning is a rate of decline not far off that seen...

How did support for torture become a test of Republican fealty?

by Alex Evans | Jan 11, 2008

As Steve Benen noted yesterday on The Carpetbagger Report, "it's become a little too common for Republicans to use torture techniques as a litmus test for...

More on walls

by Mark Weston | Jan 10, 2008

A Dutch company has taken steps to address my complaint about the ugliness of Israel's West Bank wall. You pay the firm 30 Euros and it pays a Palestinian to...

Sarkozy “not the illegitimate son of Jacques Chirac” shock

by Alex Evans | Jan 9, 2008

Gordon Brown's new year relaunch has met with generally sullen reaction from the media, who seem less than enchanted with his rather dry emphasis on...

China suspends food exports to N Korea

by Alex Evans | Jan 8, 2008

Via Blake at ForeignPolicy.com, news of the latest casualty of rising food prices: detente with North Korea. Full details: Measures to stabilize soaring...

Back seat flying

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2008

Wired.com has arresting news: Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks that could...

Dowden on Kenya

by Alex Evans | Jan 7, 2008

Following on from my post last week on Kenya's bolt from the blue, which quoted Richard Dowden extensively, here's a link to an excellent piece he had in...

Americans: actually quite normal, sensible, nice

by Richard Gowan | Jan 3, 2008

So, Iowa is upon us and assuming that (at a minimum) it delivers a victory for either Mr. Huckabee or Mr. Romney, journalists everywhere will be churning out...

Solvency crunch may make 1929 look like “walk in park”

by Alex Evans | Jan 2, 2008

So says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph, so it must be true. He writes: "As the credit paralysis stretches through its fifth month, a chorus of...

Kenya’s bolt from the blue

by Alex Evans | Jan 2, 2008

With the death count now well into the hundreds, and the number of Internally Displaced People from the Rift Valley alone placed at 70,000 by the Kenyan Red...

US EUCOM: the real scarce resources will be food and water, not oil and gas

by Alex Evans | Dec 20, 2007

While we're on the subject of food, two interesting things to report from the Brussels conference that I mentioned a couple of posts ago: First, it looks as...

Climate Change: the State of the Debate

by Alex Evans | Dec 19, 2007

David and I are publishing a report today entitled "Climate Change: the State of the Debate". It’s essentially intended to catalyse a deeper discussion about...

The UN’s military month gets messy

by Richard Gowan | Dec 12, 2007

After the tragedy in Algiers, the UN hardly needs more bad news this week. But join the dots. In Lebanon, a senior general is murdered - while in the DR...

Comparing waterboarding stories

by Alex Evans | Dec 11, 2007

Like everyone else this morning, I've been reading the account of the torture of cpatured AQ operative Abu Zubaydah provided by retired CIA agent John...

Fallujah: “you’re probably safer here than you are in New York City”

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2007

Michael Totten is in Fallujah. "Nobody was shot last night in Fallujah. No American has been shot anywhere in Fallujah since the 3rd Battalion 5th Marine...

Ebola outbreak in Uganda

by Alex Evans | Dec 7, 2007

It should probably set alarm bells ringing automatically when you read stories that begin like this: A mysterious fever has killed 14 people and infected 37...

In Praise of Nassim Nicholas Taleb

by Alex Evans | Dec 6, 2007

I am reading The Black Swan. It is exquisite. How can you resist a book that begins like this? The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of...

Facebook = Big Brother

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007

So said Wired.com earlier this week in a piece today entitled 'Facebook is always watching you': Amid heightened concerns surrounding Facebook's new...

Two worlds colliding

by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007

Amid the torrent of news about (a) ongoing turmoil in financial markets and (b) rocketing prices in the real economy for energy and food, it's fascinating to...

More peacekeeping gloom…

by Alex Evans | Dec 4, 2007

Scott Paul at the Washington Note agrees with Richard about the outlook for UN peacekeeping: "Expectations for UN peacekeeping are sky high even though...

The Eden Project: episode 2

by Alex Evans | Dec 3, 2007

Those of our readers based in the UK (and many who aren't) will already know of the Eden Project: an extraordinary sustainable development centre built around...

US says it has right to “kidnap” British citizens wanted for prosecution in US

by Alex Evans | Dec 2, 2007

In another bold demonstration of their innovative approach to public diplomacy, senior lawyer for the US government has announced - in a British court, no...

The teddy bear incident: a triumph for moderates

by Alex Evans | Dec 1, 2007

The right wing blogosphere in the US is, needless to say, having a field day about the jailing of Gillian Gibbons over the teddy bear incident in Sudan - just...

Now that’s what I call peacekeeping

by Richard Gowan | Nov 29, 2007

Well, the UN may be down in the dumps about Darfur and the EU might be losing its bottle on Chad, but those NATO guys down in Kosovo don't do fear, even if...

Dazed and confused

by Alex Evans | Nov 29, 2007

The excellent Kevin Drum finds himself bewildered by the large gulf between his reaction to financial news and that of Wall Street: I will never understand...

A very hard question

by Richard Gowan | Nov 28, 2007

I'll spare readers further extended commentary on the grim outlook for peacekeeping (although, just to add to the fun, it's worth checking out the new piece...

Gang raping Israel

by David Steven | Nov 28, 2007

Classy commentary from Frank Gaffney Jr in the Washington Times: It is fitting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose the U.S. Naval Academy for the venue...

Desperate times call for desperate measures

by Mark Weston | Nov 22, 2007

You know you're in trouble when you need combat camels to save you. The latest masterstroke in the world's response to the genocide in Darfur is to import...

re: Australia to return to the Kyoto fold?

by David Steven | Nov 21, 2007

My response to Alex's post is - why wouldn't Kevin Rudd take Australia back into Kyoto? The country is already tracking its Kyoto target and is quite capable...

Gordon Brown’s first climate change speech

by Alex Evans | Nov 20, 2007

Last week it was Gordon Brown's first speech as PM on foreign policy; yesterday, his first on climate change and the environment. I went along to listen. An...

Who’s the fundamentalist now?

by Mark Weston | Nov 16, 2007

The humble headscarf has become a key symbol in the simmering debate over Turkey's secular future. In August this year it nearly brought down the government...

Jay-Z, the new Alan Greenspan

by Alex Evans | Nov 16, 2007

Further to yesterday's news about UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's big up to "my man Jay-Z", we now have news of currency markets being shaken by...

Avaaz video on Clash of Civilisations

by Alex Evans | Nov 15, 2007

Just spotted this Avaaz.org video from July, entitled 'Stop the Clash' [of civilisations]. It won this year's Progressive Source award for best...

Gordon Brown’s first foreign policy speech

by Alex Evans | Nov 15, 2007

Gordon Brown's first foreign policy speech, delivered on Monday evening at Mansion House, was nicely drafted, well argued and competently delivered. Its...

More Malloch Brown

by David Steven | Nov 14, 2007

The attacks on Malloch Brown continue - this time in the Evening Standard's diary (not online): The suggestion is that Gordon Brown did not want Malloch-Brown...

The Spectator’s attack on Mark Malloch Brown

by Alex Evans | Nov 10, 2007

This week's Spectator leads with a full scale assault on FCO minister and former UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown (also picked up in brief by...

Bringing a country to strife

by David Steven | Nov 7, 2007

A message from Asma Jahangir - a heroic defender of human rights in Pakistan. The situation in the country is uncertain. There is a strong crackdown on the...

Taking stock of the credit crunch

by Alex Evans | Nov 7, 2007

Time to take stock of the credit crunch. Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics and international business at NYU's Stern School of Business, is decidedly...

Hillary’s climate plan

by Alex Evans | Nov 6, 2007

Hillary Clinton made a big speech in Iowa yesterday on clean energy and climate change. Here's the FT coverage, here's the speech, and here's the 16 page...

Interoperability a la Curtis LeMay

by Alex Evans | Nov 5, 2007

The National Review's blog has this glorious tale of inter-agency cooperation as practised by the legendary USAF General, Curtis LeMay: He was being briefed...

Musharraf steps over the edge…

by David Steven | Nov 3, 2007

According to the BBC, the long-awaited state of emergency in Pakistan has finally arrived: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule...

Lunch with John Bolton

by Alex Evans | Nov 1, 2007

The FT's Edward Luce was dispatched to lunch with John Bolton at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington earlier this month, and reports back from the front line. ...

World Energy Outlook 2007 sneak preview

by Alex Evans | Oct 31, 2007

The International Energy Agency will publish this year's World Energy Outlook on 7 November - but in advance of then, executive director Nobuo Tanaka has been...

FAO chief calls world summit on food security

by Alex Evans | Oct 30, 2007

Regular readers will know that we've been watching food prices rise steadily over the last few months with increasing concern - see the Scarcity category of...

FEMA internal emergency (vol. 94)

by Alex Evans | Oct 28, 2007

From the Chicago Sun-Tribune, via Crooked Timber: The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s No. 2 official apologized Friday for leading a staged news...

Fight Islamists, fascists, leftists – all in a working week

by David Steven | Oct 24, 2007

As I am sure you are all aware its Islamo-Fascism awareness week on US campuses: By the way, the enemy is now climate change, not just Bin Laden: The purpose...

Anatomy of a panic: Atlanta running out of water

by Alex Evans | Oct 23, 2007

Here's a story that seems to have gone virtually unremarked outside the US. Atlanta is running out of water: not in some long term "by 2050" kind of way, but...

Pakistan: what now?

by Alex Evans | Oct 22, 2007

Amid the blizzard of coverage following the bombing on Benazir Bhutto's convoy in Karachi last week, two pieces that are worth a look: First, for a big...

Curious manoeuvrings on the UN Law of the Sea

by Alex Evans | Oct 20, 2007

Who'd have thought it? UNCLOS - the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, hardly the sexiest multilateral environmental agreement around - has...

Classy

by David Steven | Oct 19, 2007

130 people reported dead in Pakistan and Scrappleface - the right-wing answer to the Onion - sees an opportunity to use its wit to settle some political...

The per capita parliament

by David Steven | Oct 17, 2007

According to today's FT, the EU parliament is to endorse per capita shares of carbon emissions: The European parliament is expected on Monday to endorse a...

Hillary’s foreign policy

by Alex Evans | Oct 16, 2007

Hillary Clinton and John McCain both have essays about their visions for foreign policy in the new edition of Foreign Affairs. We'll do a proper commentary...

Bush on PMCs: “help…”

by Alex Evans | Oct 15, 2007

Ah, how those YouTube vids can come back to haunt you. Here, courtesy of Gregory at Belgravia Dispatch via ForeignPolicy.com, is GW taking a question from a...

Al Gore’s content-free climate franchise

by Alex Evans | Oct 13, 2007

Steven Clemons at the Washington Note has an interesting observation about Al Gore this morning: I think that Al Gore has just become the [McDonald's founder]...

Gore and IPCC share peace prize…

by David Steven | Oct 12, 2007

A UN body and a US Democrat - it's the reddest of red rags for the American right... Update: Breaking: Although former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel...

Climate – lost in a data fog

by David Steven | Oct 11, 2007

Is it just me or are good statistics on climate change ridiculously hard to get hold of? The natural point of comparison is with development indicators. Want...

New GBN energy scenarios

by Alex Evans | Oct 11, 2007

Remember Global Business Network, the California-based outfit of former Shell scenario planners that produced the widely-discussed report about abrupt climate...

Time for a war on deer

by Alex Evans | Oct 9, 2007

Gideon Rachman in the FT is concerned: In a recent book John Mueller, an American academic, notes that the number of his fellow-countrymen killed by...

The US’s increasing reliance on China

by Alex Evans | Oct 8, 2007

Yesterday's NY Times had an excellent piece about what it argues to be the US's increasing reliance on China in numerous matters diplomatic. The piece quotes...

Another Doha death rattle

by David Steven | Oct 4, 2007

Research out today shows that Republican voters in the US have swung solidly against free trade. 32% agree that "Foreign trade has been good for the U.S....

But tell us the good news…

by Alex Evans | Oct 3, 2007

William Lind is back from his summer holidays: If [the downward spiral of events in Europe before the First World War] reminds us of the Middle East today, it...

Who loses if the City slumps?

by Alex Evans | Oct 1, 2007

Chris Giles in the FT has a useful corrective to a commonplace nostrum that often does the rounds: namely, that the UK has become so dependent on strong...

Ban Ki-Moon’s UN climate summit

by Alex Evans | Sep 27, 2007

So, what to make of the UN Secretary-General's high level event on climate change in New York earlier this week? First, a few quick observations in no...

Online dissent, Buddhist style

by David Steven | Sep 26, 2007

The BBC on Burma's cyber-dissidents...

Naming Bin Laden

by David Steven | Sep 22, 2007

In the past few days, a vicious spat has broken out in the US counter-insurgency community. On one side, the architect of a new lexicon, inspired by Koranic...

Iran – yes, no, yes

by David Steven | Sep 20, 2007

Writing in Salon, Steve Clemons recalls a round table he organised 18 months ago on the prospects for war with Iran. Then an unnamed former official in the...

Rational voters

by David Steven | Sep 19, 2007

Research into voting patterns in Ghana: This article explores voting behavior in one of Africa’s new democracies. Recognizing that much of the literature...

Green shoots

by David Steven | Sep 18, 2007

Over at Foreign Policy, there's an interesting debate about Pakistan's army. Sameer Lalwani, a policy analyst at the New America Foundation (and a democracy...

Musharraf to quit army

by David Steven | Sep 17, 2007

For a couple of years now, one of the big questions in Pakistan has been whether Musharraf will doff his uniform before seeking re-election as President. It...

Michael Chertoff’s blog

by Alex Evans | Sep 17, 2007

As we wait for David Miliband's promised return to the blogosphere, the news arrives that none other than Michael Chertoff, the US Secretary for Homeland...

Citizen Gore

by Alex Evans | Sep 11, 2007

Michael Tomasky has a thoughtful piece about Al Gore in the current New York Review of Books. He doesn't reckon there's much prospect of Gore running: When...

Five hours in Pakistan

by David Steven | Sep 10, 2007

The Pakistan Spectator - a local blog - comments on Nawaz Sharif's brief trip home: The rationale of today's drama was that Nawaz Sharif hadnt got the...

Interesting times…

by David Steven | Sep 10, 2007

Here in Islamabad, the airport has been sealed off, mobile phones jammed, and demonstrators kept far far away as former-Pakistan premier, Nawaz Sharif,...

Safe hands?

by Alex Evans | Sep 7, 2007

Here's an alarming thought about the current turmoil in financial markets: what if the drivers of the crisis are so complicated that central bankers don't...

re: US Policy on Iran

by David Steven | Sep 4, 2007

Alex has written twice now about Barney Rubin's speculation that a determined campaign to soften up American opinion for war on Iran is now underway. Count me...

How Bush thinks.

by David Steven | Sep 4, 2007

A conversation with George Bush, as reported in Robert Draper's new book: "The job of the president," he continued, through an ample wad of bread and sausage,...

Angela Merkel proposes contraction and convergence

by Alex Evans | Sep 3, 2007

Here’s the chapter and verse from the German Chancellery website: According to Merkel’s proposal, CO2 emissions would be measured per capita. The maximum COs...

Who would the world elect?

by David Steven | Aug 30, 2007

Meaningless, but fun...

Fourth generation warfare on the Jon Stewart Show. No, really…

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2007

Unreal. On Thursday night's Jon Stewart show in the US, one of the guests was Lt. Col. John Nagl - one of the leading US military experts on...

Another record Afghan opium crop – but prices set to fall?

by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2007

The New York Times this morning has a leaked copy of a UN report due out on Monday, with news of another record opium crop in Afghanistan - "led by a...

David Bohm on system coherence

by Alex Evans | Aug 23, 2007

I'm reading David Bohm in spare moments this week. Bohm was a US-born quantum physicist who worked with Einstein and died in 1992. In his later career, he...

Not just a liquidity crisis

by Alex Evans | Aug 22, 2007

Gregory Djerejian at Belgravia Dispatch has a good tip if you're after an informed blog to decode recent happenings on the financial markets: Nouriel Robini's...

Who leaks?

by David Steven | Aug 17, 2007

Not the grass roots, seemingly... For years, the military has been warning that soldiers' blogs could pose a security threat by leaking sensitive wartime...

George Packer on Karl Rove’s departure

by Alex Evans | Aug 15, 2007

Over at the New Yorker's blog, George Packer (whose December 2006 piece played a big part in bringing counter-insurgency guru David Kilcullen to prominence)...

Summer reading: The Upside of Down

by Alex Evans | Aug 14, 2007

If you're off on holiday shortly and casting around for some readable tome, try Thomas Homer-Dixon's outstanding The Upside of Down. Homer-Dixon's 300 page...

How to be a terrorist.

by David Steven | Aug 9, 2007

Freakanomics author Steven Levitt has been... "...thinking about what I would do to maximize terror if I were a terrorist with limited resources. I’d start by...

4GW arrives at Number 10

by Alex Evans | Aug 2, 2007

Included in Matthew d'Ancona's highly readable report back from Gordon Brown's trip to the US - the excellent news that GB has become a devotee of leading 4GW...

Fighting the insatiable international bureaucrat…

by David Steven | Aug 1, 2007

In 2004, we had Howard Dean, until the 'I have a scream' speech gave the commentariat a chance to say, 'enough, already.' For the 2008 presidential election,...

Brown in the US

by Alex Evans | Jul 31, 2007

Most coverage this morning of the Bush-Brown summit at Camp David stresses the extent to which both men were at pains to defuse any perception of a bust-up....

Facebookzilla

by Alex Evans | Jul 27, 2007

WatchMojo.com has a useful analysis of the new Facebook Platform (the thing that's recently caused your Facebook newsfeed to be overrun with invitations to...

Statebuilding and the law of unintended consequences

by Alex Evans | Jul 26, 2007

Rachel Morarjee has a good feature in the FT today with gloomy news on Afghanistan. Especially alarming, she writes, is the decision by donor agencies...

HIV: doing the maths

by Alex Evans | Jul 23, 2007

Some blunt words from the US's new envoy on HIV and AIDS, Anthony Fauci, who says: "For every one person that you put in [antiretroviral] therapy, six new...

World Bank moving towards more participatory approach

by Alex Evans | Jul 13, 2007

Earlier this week I went to an event attended by various senior policymakers discussing global risks and the inadequacy of the international system to deal...

Miliband on the Foreign Office

by Alex Evans | Jul 9, 2007

The FT has a big interview with David Miliband this morning (stories here on Iran and here on Britain as a 'global hub'; transcript here). Most of the FT's...

Nestlé chairman: high food prices are here to stay

by Alex Evans | Jul 7, 2007

From the FT today: Food prices are set for a period of “significant and long-lasting” inflation because of demand from China and India and the use of crops...

Wet start…

by David Steven | Jun 29, 2007

Weighty analysis from the BBC which wonders whether what impact yesterday's so-so weather in London will have on Gordon Brown's premiership. You'll want to...

5 steps to conference nirvana

by Alex Evans | Jun 27, 2007

That was a pretty good conference. But here are five leftfield suggestions for how to make conferences even more fun - and get the speakers to perform. (Most...

Whose rights?

by David Steven | Jun 26, 2007

At Chatham House, this morning, DFID’s chief economist, Tony Venables gave a somewhat elusive presentation on what developing countries want from climate...

Shared vision…

by David Steven | Jun 26, 2007

Dr Per Stig Møller, Danish Foreign Minister, was Environment Minister in Rio in 1993. Now he’s looking forward to the big climate showdown in Copenhagen in...

What happened to energy services?

by Alex Evans | Jun 25, 2007

Emma Duncan, deputy editor of The Economist, has a nice graph showing the abatement costs of various different technology options. Over on the left hand side...

Where does the deal get done?

by Alex Evans | Jun 25, 2007

Quote of the day so far: Mutsuyoshi Nishimura, Japan's Ambassador for Global Environment, who opines that: "If [UNFCCC Conferences of Parties] were televised...

How much is a life worth?

by Alex Evans | Jun 25, 2007

Our second speaker: Bert Metz, the co-chair of the mitigation working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Metz regaled us with various...

Live blogging from Chatham House

by Alex Evans | Jun 25, 2007

Back from a brief radio silence (me on honeymoon, David doing public diplomacy stuff in Nigeria), we're off today and tomorrow to Chatham House's two day...

Quickfire business creation…

by David Steven | Jun 4, 2007

Guy Kawasaki on his Web 2.0 start-up, Truemors: 0. I wrote 0 business plans for it. The plan is simple: Get a site launched in a few months, see if people...

Modelling epidemics.

by David Steven | May 19, 2007

A talk by Joshua Epstein and Donald Burke on how agent-based modelling can help us "take advantage of the social structure to eliminate [an] epidemic...

Why not an auction?

by David Steven | May 12, 2007

All week, season ticket holders at Liverpool Football Club have been up in arms at a denial of their "right" to a ticket for next week's European Champions'...

Fixing the Foreign Office

by Alex Evans | May 8, 2007

When Gordon Brown takes over as PM, there will be no shortage of clouds on the international horizon. Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan will vie for his attention,...

Here be anthropomorphic dragons…

by David Steven | May 3, 2007

Map of online communities and related points of interest...

No more US army blogging?

by Alex Evans | May 2, 2007

Wired.com has a piece today saying that: The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first...

A bit more on van Creveld’s lessons

by Elizabeth Sellwood | Apr 29, 2007

People involved with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - particularly Brits - tend to get a bit anxious when one compares it with Northern Ireland. Having read...

Palestinian democracy

by Elizabeth Sellwood | Apr 27, 2007

Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with the Financial Times this week, was invited to reflect on the dilemmas of promoting democracy in the Middle East. Would...

Peer-to-peer microcredit

by Alex Evans | Apr 26, 2007

Fed up with just paying your Oxfam subscription and never seeing where it goes? Help is at hand! Kiva.org uses partnerships with micro-credit lenders all over...

Climate change and the Security Council

by Alex Evans | Apr 24, 2007

Last week's UK-sponsored debate on climate change in the Security Council this week was always going to be contentious, as the Guardian and the Times of India...

Disaster behaviour (2)

by Alex Evans | Apr 22, 2007

There's an excellent account of the flotilla of boats that converged on Lower Manhattan on September 11 2001 to assist with the evacuation of nearly half a...

Kiev and the paradox of the civilizing process

by Jules Evans | Apr 17, 2007

I’m in Kiev on a business trip. Kiev is great, actually. It’s sunny, it’s green, it’s full of beautiful women. It may actually have more beautiful women here than Moscow, and Moscow has a lot of beautiful women.

Yesterday I went to a conference by Concorde Capital, a local brokerage. In the day-time, fund managers ran around from meeting to meeting with local managers who want their capital.

Then in the night-time we were all taken to a club called Tsar, where we were greeted by ten women wearing only body-paint and a few feathers. They winked and gave us shots of evil-smelling liquor. Then we went into the main room, where more scantily-clad women were dancing on podiums.

This is usual fare for investment conferences in this part of the world. There are various reasons given to western investors to invest in the former Soviet Union: large populations, close to Europe, lots of oil. But one of the main reasons, which you’ll never find on any brochure, is the girls!

How people really behave in disasters

by Alex Evans | Apr 15, 2007

This weekend's light reading: Principles of Emergency Planning and Management, by one David Alexander of the University of Massachussetts. Amid chapters...

Malthus’s ghost

by Alex Evans | Apr 13, 2007

ForeignPolicy.com is running a list of predictions that didn't come true, including free atomic energy for all, global cooling, Japan ruling the world,...

Social networks and social anxiety

by Jules Evans | Apr 10, 2007

I’m writing a book at the moment about social anxiety. It’s an emotional disorder that makes you terrified of being negatively judged or humiliated by others....

Childhood: the key dividing line in UK politics?

by Alex Evans | Apr 1, 2007

Well, that's what Jenny McCartney argues in the Sunday Telegraph, anyway. McCartney argues that although stabbings of the kind that have dominated headlines...

On the Draft Manual for 4GW (1): Clans

by David Steven | Mar 31, 2007

For the authors of the draft field manual on Fourth Generation War (William Lind et al), 4GW is fuelled by the rising importance of non-state entities and the...

Human rights go viral

by David Steven | Mar 30, 2007

Slate on the YouTube defense...

Wired neighbourhoods

by Alex Evans | Mar 28, 2007

Wired has a story about a new technology being rolled out with the Police in Oakland, California: microphones have been dotted around a rough neighbourhood,...

Election 2.0

by David Steven | Mar 27, 2007

In the US, presidential candidates are struggling to get hip with the MySpace generation. ValueWiki has lots of links and a question: How will the web...

YouTube Changes the Climate

by David Steven | Mar 24, 2007

The days when a whole country watched the same programme at the same time are long gone - much to the chagrin of television executives. But there's a...

Which war?

by David Steven | Mar 20, 2007

Tory MP, Douglas Carswell has been in Afghanistan. He's come back optimistic, but believes the war-on-drugs is interfering with the war-on-terror: We are...

The swindle

by David Steven | Mar 20, 2007

"The ice is melting. The sea is rising. Hurricanes are blowing. And it's all your fault. Scared? Don't be. It's not true." You didn't need to see Channel 4's...

It’s not enough to be right

by David Steven | Mar 19, 2007

In the Sun - the UK's leading tabloid in a shrinking market - Jeremy Clarkson, professional motormouth and patron saint of petrolheads, is having fun....

Clans and open source intelligence…

by David Steven | Mar 18, 2007

Premise 1: "The end of the Cold War is ushering in a new world order of clans, tribes, and ethnic groups that have been smothered for generations under the...

Beyond the religious right…

by Alex Evans | Mar 17, 2007

The NY Times has a piece about an anti-war protest at the White House by thousands of Christians. John Pattison, 29, said he and his wife flew in from...

Googling Bin Laden…

by David Steven | Mar 16, 2007

Want to know where the CIA's looking for Bin Laden? According to Wired, Google Earth has the answer: After Google recently updated its satellite images of...

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