They Think It’s All Over

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

John Ramsden begins his chronicle of Anglo-German attitudes with an anecdote about a holiday encounter with a German couple in Italy. The conversation turned to Russia. Ramsden asked the ‘handsome, upright’ German if he had visited Russia. ‘Well, just once,’ he wryly responded. ‘I went there in a tank in 1942.’ Pause. ‘To Stalingrad.’ This […]

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From Hawk To Chicken

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

‘The risk the administration took [in Iraq] was not absurd, especially in light of what was believed about the WMD threat at the time.’ ‘Walking away from Iraq now without creating a strong and stable government there will leave a festering terrorist sanctuary in the Sunni triangle.’ ‘We do not want to replace national sovereignty […]

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The Second Oldest Profession

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

As we go to press (an important qualifier when the pace of events is fast and the stakes high), the diplomatic community of London is locked in a titanic struggle with the undiplomatic mayor of London. Should diplomats be required to pay London’s congestion charge on their automobiles, especially if the automobiles (or, more precisely, […]

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