Category: International Relations

Martin Jacques argues that the war in Iraq has revealed the likely limits to American imperial power. Following 9/11, we have witnessed the birth of a new American unilateralism and self-interest to which every country in the world has been, and is being, obliged to respond and relate. Iraq is the first true test of…

If anything gets buried in the news this week it will be the story about Japan’s missile defence. This decision has massive implications for the region, most especially China and North Korea. Japan buying missile defence technology from the US and deploying it in Asia could have huge consequences. Do not underestimate China, it will…

Breaking News… Libya have admitted they sought long range missile and WMD’s. Libya approached the UK in March. Libya is abandoning its WMD program. For the last 9 months negotiations were happening between the UK and Libya, and no one knew about it. Until we know what they had, or what they were planning to…

I was following this story over the last while, Dave emailed me to try and highlight the position. It is a curious argument that has developed. Anne Bayefsky started with writing an article in the Wall Street Journal last week. She then was interviewed on RTE’s Five Seven Live. The former Irish Minister for Foreign…

Brilliant article in the IHT today, on the rise of Chinese economy. Most strikingly, China’s share of the global economic output has doubled since 1991, fast approaching EU output. It seems like it might be China’s century, followed closely by huge growth rates in China. For decades, the United States was the world’s only significant…

This phrase I have come across on a number of occassions. I first came across the phrase in this article in the Atlantic, by Charles Kupchan. I can’t remember now but I did come across the phrase again in another article, and now in this article in the Guardian, used in a different context. Martin…

Kofi Annan on the future of the United Nations: We have come to a decisive moment in history. The great threat of nuclear confrontation between rival superpowers is now behind us. But a new and diverse constellation of threats has arisen in its place. We need to look again at the machinery of international relations.…

Jonathan Power has a good piece in today’S IHT. We have to stop looking at terrorism as if it is the end of the world. It is for the people who die from it. But the rest of us have aduty to ourselves and to the equilibrium of our countries to keep it in perspective.

Bob Herbert from the Times has a good article in the Herald Tribune – The United States has tried again and again to get help from the United Nations as a way of legitimizing its tragic misadventure in Iraq. But the UN, which was founded in 1945 to foster international cooperation as a way of…

I popped along to the WNA Annual Symposium in London yesterday to try and find out more information on nuclear waste. Low and behold who did I meet only former UN Chief Weapons Inspector, Dr. Hans Blix. And no, no exclusive interview, just a polite and softly spoken – “Sorry I am not doing interviews”.…