Latest posts
A European Monetary Fund
An objective of the Maastricht Treaty was EMU - Economic & Monetary Union. 16 countries have achieved monetary, but not economic, union. Indeed, even economic policy cooperation still leaves a lot to be desired. The original criticisms of the eur...
Van Rompuy at Bruges
The College of Europe has been addressed by many leading political figures and heard many important speeches. The speech of Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council (EurC), on 25 February 2010 is well worth reading. His theme was ̶...
Triangularity: China, EU and US go head to head
There has been much talk in the past about China and the European Union having more in common in a number of policy areas than either has with the United States. Thus Beijing saw the EU as a potential factor moderating US influence; Washington coul...
A common value
There is much talk about values and frequently comparisons between Western and Eastern values. There is at least universal agreement on one value, as spelt out below: Buddhism “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Uda...
Afghanistan in Sixteen Characters
“By May 1928 the basic principles of guerilla warfare…had already been evolved; that is, the sixteen-character formula: The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.”...
The Chinese Confucian Party?
Daniel Bell, in the Globe and Mail of 19 February 2010 wrote an interesting article about the revival of Confucianism. Only recently, the Chinese Communist Party approved a film about Confucius, starring the handsome leading man Chow Yun-Fat. Bell
European destructuring
Two items struck me in tonight’s newscasts. Lufthansa pilots are striking for four days, costing the company €100 million. They are demanding a 6% pay increase and that pilots in Lufthansa’s foreign subsidiaries be paid at their rates...
Appointment of EU ambassador to the US under fire
Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, wrote on 19 February to foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton complaining about the manner in which way Joao Vale de Almeida was recently appointed ambassador in Washington (see post dated 19 February). Bil...
China and India: Prospects for Peace
Reproduced below is the review in The Economist of 4 February 2010 of my BICCS colleague’s new book: China and India: Prospects for Peace. (Columbia University Press; 234 pages; $37.50 and £26. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk) FOR a bo...
Appointment of EU Ambassador to US: a bad practice continued
I have in previous blog posts, strongly disagreed with criticism of Baroness Ashton. The nomination of Joao Vale de Almeida to succeed John Bruton as EU ambassador in Washington is, however, worrying. I believed that Hermann Van Rompuy and Cather...
Ashton under attack
Further to the post of 25 January, Baroness Ashton is still under attack for not going to Haiti, notwithstanding that the UN had requested that dignataries do not visit the island, so as not to disrupt the emergency aid activities. She stated t...
EU external unity
The EU has failed its first test of external unity under the Lisbon Treaty. It is normal for governments to address messages of congratulation to heads of government/state after being democratically elected or confirmed. Such messages are usu...
We all need China to succeed and to start leading
With the above words, Peter Mandelson, former EU Trade Commissioner and now UK First Secretary of State, concludes a perceptive op-ed in today’s New York Times. Lord Mandelson identifies a mismatch between our expectations of China and China’s o...
China’s deteriorating international relations
China’s influence on the world stage steadily increases but European media reporting remains generally prejudiced against China. This is probably due to two main factors. First, bad news makes good news in the news world. Second, there are...
China’s Challenge to American hegemony
Chas W. Freeman Jr spoke to the Global Strategy Forum on 20 January 2010 on the mounting speculation about China’s emergence as a global hegemon to rival and, perhaps in time, surpass the United States. This is the thrust of what he said: The US
EU-US Summit: a surfeit of summitry
President Obama did the EU a favour by deciding not to attend the scheduled 24-25 May EU-US summit in Madrid, for two reasons. First, because he prevents Spain from ignoring the spirit of Lisbon. Second, it will force the EU to rethink the whole...
Chinese New Year Greeting
TO ALL CHINESE READERS This last year was an extremely difficult one for all of us. China has performed extraordinarily well economically in the global recession, which has helped see the acceleration of the trend of economic and financial grav...
Revisiting China arms embargo
France and Germany sought the lifting of the EU arms embargo in 2004 but Washington insisted on the embargo being maintained. The embargo was lifted against Uzbekistan last October, despite continuing concerns about human rights in the central Asia...
EU-US summit: egotistical wrangling
Everyone agrees that the European Union must get its act together. The wrangling over the next EU-US summit shows that the EU won’t get it’s act together until the egotism of Member State leaders is brought under control. Now it’s the turn...
Haiti: action before photo-ops
Criticism of Catherine Ashton not going to Haiti shows why a Commission not directly answerable to the electorate has its advantages. Most national politicians fly to disaster areas for domestic political reasons. The last thing Haiti wants is he...
