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foreign affairs in strategic context
Browsing All Posts filed under »democracy«
Can democracy save us from Pakistan?
December 14, 2011
British policy in Central and South Asia is in a bit of a bind. We want stability in Afghanistan, a special relationship with India, and have signed up to a strategic partnership with Pakistan. The problem for us in achieving our goals in the region is that the latter two see a stable Afghanistan as […]
Younes, smugness and the future of Libya
August 2, 2011
I have been smug about Libya for a while now. This afternoon, at lunch, a friend of mine complained that I seem to use Twitter simply to express smug satisfaction about this ill-considered war. “Facebook, too,” I added, with a smirk. The killing of General Abdel Younes, a senior rebel commander, and the retributions going […]
Gaddafi, ‘threat’ and the art of seeing behind hills
April 1, 2011
I have kept quiet about Libya since the intervention began, as I felt it’d be better to wait for things to go pear-shaped and then sing the ‘I told you so!’ song. Facebook has been handy for venting my frustration, however, and last night I asked if there was any proof to the claim that […]
The risk of a Dolchstosslegende after Libya
March 16, 2011
Whenever arguing about intervention in Libya, I always ask interventionists how militarily viable the rebels were in the first place. I felt the answer was important because if the rebels were a lame horse from the start of the race, which seems to have been the case, then whatever equipment we sent them might fall […]
Comparing and contrasting Palmerston and Blair
September 29, 2010
My paper about Afghanistan and the British Conservative Party has led inevitably to Tony Blair, and there is a very good piece by Steven Haines looking at the extent to which the former prime minister influenced British defence policy. Throughout the piece, Haines poses a dichotomy between Blair and Lord Palmerston when it comes to […]
Copying America: The British Tea Party
September 18, 2010
I like freedom. I like democracy. I like choice. But as a conservative, I do not like agitation or disorder or any threats to the status quo. And as I have been trained as a historian, I cannot stand ignorance and myths taken at face value. One can imagine then that the idea of a […]
Remembering September 11th with guff
September 11, 2010
I have been working on a lengthy post for the last fortnight, which is why blogging has been slow, but I wanted to write something on the anniversary of September 11th. The impact of the attacks on New York and Washington nine years ago cannot be understated either on a personal level or on the […]
Sean Trend: Tourism and strategy in the Cold War
July 24, 2010
A guest post by Sean Trend looking at the co-opting of tourism for strategic purposes during the Cold War by the West.
December 20, 2011
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