Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-39: Far Eastern Affairs, May, 1933-November, 1936 2nd Series, v. 20 (Documents on British foreign policy 1919-1939)
Events dear boy, events (Free subscription) | yesterday
Of course, as Iain Martin suggests , it is a bizarre decision to appoint Baroness Ashton to the post of EU high representative for Foreign Affairs and security: But this weird kind of compromise choice is what you get with backroom stitch-ups. With France and Germany settled on Van Rompuy for president, the high representative needed to be from the socialist grouping and a big country. So thoughts...
John Rentoul (Free subscription) | yesterday
Respectful fun has been poked at some colleagues who paid no attention to what they were told . They were told in July : I suspect that the leaders of the European Union's governments would rather have someone who is no threat to their power, pomp or prestige. And they were told at the beginning of October : The candidate most likely to beat Blair is the dullest, most faceless bureaucrat on the list....
The Guardian (Free subscription) | yesterday
GCHQ to run ad campaign within Xbox Live online games to attract 18- to 34-year-olds to its ranks Government intelligence organisation GCHQ is to run an ad campaign within Xbox Live online games, including Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, to attract quick-thinking 18- to 34-year-olds to its ranks. The campaign marks the first time that GCHQ, which reports to the foreign secretary, David Miliband,...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | yesterday
After a turbulent 500 years it is understandable – I sometimes feel like putting my feet up too – but it is a mistake It's not true that last night's appointments at the EU's Brussels conclave are without historic precedence. When the Italian politician Signor Caligula was president of the European commission during one of the continent's more dynamic phases he appointed his horse to negotiate...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | yesterday
David Miliband says UK needs more time to shore up Afghan government The Afghan government could fall within weeks if Nato pulled out troops now, David Miliband warned today as he urged British opponents of the war to give the fight to rebuild the country more time. In an interview with the Guardian at the end of a visit to Kabul for the presidential inauguration of Hamid Karzai, the foreign secretary...
Right to Common Sense (Free subscription) | yesterday
Yesterday evening the news broke on who the EU appointments for President and Foreign Secretary (EU High Representative). The first was Herman van Rompuy , the Prime Minister of Belgium and the latter was Baroness Ashton . First of all I don't think there was any need for either position in the first place but now that there is I'm glad the President is going to be more of an administrative type. Having...
People Daily (Free subscription) | yesterday
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is visiting Afghanistan and attending the inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a witness to the new contract between President Karzai and the Afghan people, British Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday. This is Miliband's fifth visit to Afghanistan as foreign secretary. Miliband said "I'm not here to applaud President Karzai. I'm here to engage...
Thoughts Allowed! (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Mention the name Catherine Ashton and you could be forgiven for receiving a blank stare in response. From today, though, all that is likely to change, for she is not only a little known (outside of the political world) Baroness who had been working as the Trade Commissioner for the EU but she has just been named as the person who will be its newly created foreign affairs supremo. In a similarly surprising...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Public holiday declared as Kabul ringed off in security clampdown against feared Taliban attack To everyone's surprise the ceremony began on time, the president walking up a stained, blotchy red carpet to the sound of a rough brass band and thumping drums. Looking immaculate, as he always does, Hamid Karzai's striped green silk Uzbek cloak stood out in the cold sunshine of a Kabul winter's morning....
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Gordon Brown abandons support for Blair as leaders of the EU's dominant centre-right bloc make clear they will only support a member of their own grouping Tony Blair tonight bowed out of the race to become the first president of the European Council when it became clear that centre-right leaders, who dominate the EU, are determined that the post should go to their group. Gordon Brown abandoned his...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
From Tony Blair to Herman Van Rompuy, the contenders for top European jobs are overwhelmingly male Right now in Brussels the heads of the 27 national governments of the European Union's member states will be milling around . Gordon Brown will be lobbying for Tony Blair, Herman Van Rompuy will be trying to persuade people he is not as anonymous as many fear, and José Manuel Barroso will be pottering...
IPE Journal (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
European leaders are gathering in Brussels to appoint their first permanent president and foreign affairs high representative under the Lisbon Treaty. Belgian PM Herman van Rompuy is the favorite for the presidency, and the presumed German preference. A German-Franco consensus would all but decide the post. The foreign affairs post is wide open, after British foreign minister David Miliband, the consensus...
Mock, Paper, Scissors (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
SMH.com.au US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has admitted she has a “crush” on Britain’s youthful-looking, 44-year-old foreign minister David Miliband, according to an interview published in US Vogue magazine. This really reeks of sexism. Nothing else in the article, just funny older woman think that a younger man is kinda hot. (And given the way she was [...]
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Western leaders and concerned neighbours joined a great gathering of the clans in the Salam Khana palace for President Karzai's inauguration President Karzai I became President Karzai II this morning at an inauguration ceremony that was part splendid, part shabby and awkward for everyone. This was an event to be endured not enjoyed – "sober not triumphant," said the foreign secretary,...
Nick Robinson's Newslog (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
No-one is ready to pronounce Tony Blair's presidential hopes dead but they are certainly reading the last rites for them. So, Britain looks set to get neither of the top two EU jobs created by the Lisbon Treaty. Gordon Brown's energies are now, some claim, focused on securing an important economic portfolio in the commission for a Brit instead. It was not, I'm told, Iraq wot lost it for TB. It was...
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