Gavinsblog.com

Category: International Relations

  • EU signals movement on China arms ban

    It is looking like by early next year the EU will have lifted arms sanctions with China, imposed after Tiananmen. France seems to be the major proponent of lifting the ban. A code is being considered: The EU is drawing up a tighter code of conduct, which Europeans believe will be enough to govern arms…

  • Russia tests anti-missile system

    Putin has been busy – but I would imagine there is still quite a way to go before the technology is perfected. Russia has successfully tested a modernised anti-ballistic missile at a range in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, its defence ministry says. The A-135 missile is said to have successfully hit a training…

  • The Guardian have published an edited version of a speech Hans Blix gave last week at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. The full text can be found here. His criticism of the American right is telling: We also see an intense and large-scale campaign of vilification, depicting the…

  • Will Iran Be Next?

    James Fallows in the Atlantic asks the question posed on here not so long ago – will Iran be next in line? A subscription is required for this lengthy piece…

  • Radek Sikorski interviews Paul Wolfowitz

    Prospect has an interesting interview with uber-hawk, Paul Wolfowitz. He makes some curious remarks. Go have a look.

  • What is this 'European Union'?

    Anne-Marie Slaughter in the IHT, with a piece on the EU. She cites the number of times both George Bush and John Kerry have referred to the European Union – and it’s not often. This bit is good: Suppose the citizens of Ohio or Oregon or Alabama understood that the EU has a larger population…

  • Nicholas D. Kristof: Our least efforts save thousands of lives

    Nick Kristof praises the US president for his action on Darfur, but laments the tardy and inadequate response to the overall situation. He pointedly asks if a mediocre effort saved so many lives, how many lives could a full and immediate international response have saved? And to those out there who seem to either dislike…

  • Sanctions worked: George Lopez, David Cortright

    George A. Lopez, Director of Policy Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and David Cortright, President of the Fourth Freedom Forum and Research Fellow at the Kroc Institute, argue in favour of the sanctions regime in Iraq during the 1990’s. Writing in Foreign Affairs,…

  • Plotting Europe's eastern border

    Viktor Yushchenko, candidate in the upcoming Ukrainian presidential elections, makes some interesting points about the future of the Ukraine, and worries concerning the expanded European Union. He states: While welcoming the enlargement of the European Union, Ukrainians are anxious about European integration halting at our western frontier and in fact creating a new dividing line.…

  • EU plays a strong role on Darfur

    Bernard Bot, minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands and the current president of the EU Council of Ministers writes about Europe’s efforts in relation to Darfur. If the European Union talks to the rebels, we will declare a unilateral cease-fire,â€? said Vice President Ali Osman Taha of Sudan after his meeting with a Dutch…