The recent mass protests in Burma raise one of the most important questions in international affairs: when is intervention in the domestic affairs of other states justified? And if so, what form should it take? Russia and China (and more haltingly India) have taken the view that the troubles in Burma are a purely internal … Continue reading Burma and the case for intervention
Category: Journalism
Extradite Lugovoi? What were the British thinking…
When will the children grow up? Britain and Russia have been squaring up like surly adolescents. The Cold War is over, but both sides are addicted to Cold War games which have no purpose except to show that their testosterone is pumping powerfully. The present quarrel started last November with the assassination by polonium poisoning … Continue reading Extradite Lugovoi? What were the British thinking…
Making sense of the EU
I have not written much about the EU in these columns because it’s hard to know what to make of it. On one hand, it’s the most important political invention since the second world war-an experiment in voluntary union which transcends the old conflict between nation-state and empire, and serves as a model for a … Continue reading Making sense of the EU
Prime Ministers and Presidents
Almost all countries require their political leaders to relinquish power before they are ready to. Different political systems have different exit requirements. Tony Blair, who stepped down yesterday after ten years as British prime minister, was under no constitutional obligation to leave. Formally, a British prime minister exercises power on behalf of the Queen, who … Continue reading Prime Ministers and Presidents
Channelling Energy in the Wrong Direction
Russia’s integration into the world economy has been based on energy. Energy is predominant both in its domestic economy and foreign trade. In 2006, oil and gas made up 40 percent of gross domestic product and 60 percent of exports. Since 2000, rising oil export revenues have been the main driver of growth, as the … Continue reading Channelling Energy in the Wrong Direction
What are the chances of another world depression?
What are the chances of another world depression? Even to ask the question might seem mischievous. Everything is going marvellously well. We have discovered the secret of everlasting growth. Don’t ruin it with inconvenient scepticism. Yet in 2001, after the Wall Street bubble burst (and only four years after the global 1998 crisis, which severely … Continue reading What are the chances of another world depression?
How Russia became doubly delusional
THE LITVINENKO AFFAIR gives a human dimension to what we in the West find most disturbing about modern Russia. It leaves the impression of rogue elements of the Russian State murdering enemies with impunity, at home and abroad. Add to this Andrei Lugovoy’s surreal claim that MI6 had a hand in the murder and Russia’s … Continue reading How Russia became doubly delusional
Winning a Gamble with Communism
By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey by János Kornai MIT Press, 461 pp., $40.00 The Hungarian János Kornai is the most famous, and certainly the most influential, economist to have emerged from postwar Communist Europe.[1] His reputation is based on three books, Overcentralization, Economics of Shortage, and The Socialist System, which … Continue reading Winning a Gamble with Communism
‘Liberal Empire’ vs. ‘Sovereign Democracy’
In my last column, I talked about how Russia’s great power illusion clashed with the facts of American power. I argued that, in present circumstances, its foreign policy should be designed to conciliate and please, not threaten and annoy. This is not the way Russia’s policy makers see things. Today I want to unpick two … Continue reading ‘Liberal Empire’ vs. ‘Sovereign Democracy’
Russia must tread more softly
Old men who have lost their potency comfort themselves with the thought that they can ‘still do it’. So do collapsed great powers. The outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair fantasised that his country’s ‘special relationship’ with the United States gave him unique influence over President George W. Bush. The European Union, having lost its … Continue reading Russia must tread more softly
Robert Skidelsky 