A man wearing tracksuit bottoms, a hoodie and an untucked shirt slouches into a Tory Party conference. He is tall, balding and in his mid-forties. His every move is filmed or photographed by a platoon of cameramen as he’s followed by an entourage of loyal retainers. It’s a well-documented contemporary phenomenon that powerful men in…
Julian Assange, the founding editor of Wikileaks, is being detained in a British top-security prison indefinitely. But in the view of his distraught father, the incarceration of Assange has a deliberate purpose – to kill him. John Shipton flew to Britain from Sydney, Australia, earlier this month in the hope of seeing his 48-year-old son…
China gave Britain a stern warning this week that any naval maneuvers conducted with the US near its declared territories in the South China Sea will be met with a military response. Beijing rapped London further, telling it to dump its “colonial attitude” with regard to Hong Kong. However, the ultimate leverage, was the caustic…
During the dissolution of the USSR, France and Germany tried to maintain their place in the world by solving the problem of their size against the US giant. They decided to reunify the two Germanys and to merge together in a supranational state: the European Union. Armed with their experiences of inter-state cooperation, they thought…
Modern diplomacy can generally be traced back to the late 19th century and the intercession of professional diplomats in the foreign relations between major and minor powers of the era. International negotiations to resolve problems were primarily handled by diplomats prior to politicians giving their assent to peace treaties and compacts. The Congress of Berlin…
In the 1930s about 2% of young people in the United Kingdom went to university. That figure is now approaching 50%. In which era was it more of a distinction? It is patent that a degree has become declasse in both senses. I hear you say that only 2% of people went on to university…
