Review of Absent Minds by Stefan Collini Oxford University Press, £25 This ambitious work is about British attitudes to intellectuals. Specifically, it is about why the British have been so reluctant to admit that they have intellectuals. Collini calls it the "denial" or "absence" or "exceptionalist" thesis. The claim to immunity from intellectual influences is … Continue reading Book Review: John Bull’s Small Ideas

I had been plotting my return to China for about a year, and now an invitation from Lanxin Xiang, author of a book on the Boxer rebellion, to lecture in Shanghai in September 2005 made it possible. I say "return," because the last time I had been on the mainland was in 1948, when I … Continue reading Essay: A Chinese Homecoming

In recent years there has been a revival of war as a policy of choice. Since the collapse of communism, the US and its allies have attacked Iraq (twice), Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. With "hot war" released from its cold war constraints, it is important to consider the conditions under which resort to war is justifiable, … Continue reading The Just War Tradition

What did Gordon Brown think of the Iraq war? "We stand full-square with the American government and people in fighting terrorism and will continue to do so," he declared in 2001. But his support for the prime minister's Iraq policy was scanty. According to Anthony Seldon, Brown had "serious misgivings." Had he made his disagreement … Continue reading Essay: A Patient Politician, on Gordon Brown

The system of international relations we have known since the second world war has broken down. The reasons given for the Anglo-American attack on Iraq were largely fraudulent. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction turned out to be weapons of mass distraction. It is straining at a gnat to argue that UN security council resolution 678, … Continue reading Essay: The American Contract

Dear Robert 8th January 2003 In 1991, in order to enforce UN security council resolution 678, which called for the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait, coalition forces invaded Iraq. After an initial bombardment and battle, no effective opposition lay between them and Baghdad. But for reasons that seemed persuasive at the time, the advance was … Continue reading Debate: Is Regime Change in Iraq Necessary? Bobbitt vs. Skidelsky

Everyone expected Labour to win in 1997, though not by such a large margin. An identically big victory in 2001, pointing to three or even four consecutive terms of office, suggests that a watershed has occurred in British politics, with Labour poised to take command of the 21st century as the Conservatives did of the … Continue reading Essay: Five Years Labour

We must confront our past, not continue it," Tony Blair announced in his Romanes lecture on education (Prospect, February). His history of education is one of state neglect with occasional exceptions (Balfour's 1902 Act, Butler's 1944 Act) until Jim Callaghan's Ruskin speech in 1976. There was then a little progress under the Tories, but basically … Continue reading Opinion: No, Prime Minister

Is military intervention over Kosovo justified? Dear Michael 3rd May 1999 I have been instinctively against Nato's bombing of Serbia from the day it started on 24th March. I was-I dare say like you and many others-incredulous that Nato seemed to have no military strategy except to bomb Serbia to smithereens. I could not believe … Continue reading Debate: Is Military Intervention over Kosovo Justified? Skidelsky vs. Ignatieff

Friday 27th March Edward (my son) and I board the flight to Moscow at Terminal 4, Heathrow. I am to take part in a conference at Perm, organised by the Moscow School of Political Studies. Perm is on the edge of Siberia; a city of more than 1m people with a cultural past (Diaghilev was … Continue reading Diary: Gulag Baden-Baden