Adrian Hamilton

Profile: Full name: Adrian Hamilton Area of interest: International affairs and foreign policy issues (esp. Middle East, Iran, Iraq); also UK current affairs Journals/Organisation: The Independent Email: a.hamilton@independent.co.uk Personal website: Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/adrian-hamilton Blog: Representation: Networks:

Biography: About: Education: Career: The Observer: deputy editor, 1989/1993 Current position/role: The Independent: columnist also writes/written for: Other role Arts reviewer Other activities: Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: Broadcast media: Video: Controversy/Criticism: Awards/Honours: Scoops: Other:

Books & Debate: Oil: the biggest business (1975) OCLC 1419035 Oil: the price of power (1986) OCLC 16404058 Latest work: Speaking/Appearances: Debate:

The Independent: Column name: World View Remit/Info: International affairs and foreign policy issues (esp. Middle East, Iran, Iraq); also UK current affairs Section: Role: Commentator Pen-name: Email: a.hamilton@independent.co.uk Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/adrian-hamilton Commissioning editor: Day published: Thursday Regularity: Weekly Column format: Average length:

Articles: 2013 Pope Francis may do great things, but radical change won't be one of them - Nothing illustrates the chasm between secular and religious society better than the secular media's expectation that the new pope will do away with the old bureaucracy - 15th March Be realistic about Obama’s trip to Israel – he’s going because he has to - Will President Obama go ahead with his visit to Israel on 21 March as planned or will he have to postpone for lack of a government there? And does it really matter whether he goes or not? - 8th March A shift in the Vatican? If you believe the Pope is retiring, you’ll believe anything - 1st March Don't write off Tunisia's revolution just yet - They should keep calm and plod on. The public wants stability not chaos - 8th February Mali and a new War or Terror: Cameron goes where Blair went before – but at what cost? - The Prime Minister's decision to send troops to Mali is the product of an ill-defined nightmare of religious terrorism and "gesture" politics. He may come to regret it - 1st February After David Cameron's speech this week, Britain risks sliding out of Europe without even wanting to - Plus: why, even in Israel, the hard right vote is by its nature a protest vote, whereas the middle, which can switch either way, gets frightened off by extremism - 25th January Mali is not a global conflict, so a global response would merely repeat the errors of the past - The notion of a global threat from a revived al-Qa'ida should be familiar by now; it's the same flawed reasoning the led the US to launch its "War against Terror" - 18th January

Articles: 2012 The West can’t direct the Arab Spring, but we can support it - You can't expect mature politics to be practised in countries like Egypt where political parties have been banned for 50 years - 21st December The museum that reminds you of the true value of journalism - The Newseum reminds us that the basis of all journalism lies not in its power but its reporting - 14th December With blood on the streets of Damascus, even Assad's friends in Syria know his end is inevitable - It would be a disaster for the West to intervene in, and even worse to arm the 'moderate' elements of the opposition. But the threat of a no-fly zone is powerful - 7th December Somebody should have told Leveson that a better press is a gutter press - and always has been - Public interest has long meant of interest to the public. What has changed is the confidence of the ruling class in dealing with the press and the press in attacking them - 1st December Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s actions are driven by inexperience not lust for power - Morsi is not bent on dictatorship, merely unused to dealing with contradictory pressures - 30th November Why is Barack Obama swanning around Asia as the Middle East goes up in flames? - The most clear-sighted and intellectual President in a century or more is in the wrong place. Also, below: the challenge for Egypt's newly elected President Morsi - 23rd November Israel and Hamas are going to war over Gaza because conflict is in the interest of both camps - The brutal, appalling truth is that a relatively low level of hostilities is tolerable and even politically beneficial to both sides, not least given forthcoming elections - 16th November There's a chance of a deal with Iran. Is a re-elected President Obama brave enough to seize it? - Ahmadinejad's regime is worried, and not just about the currency crisis. Below: a comparison of the changes in leadership in America and China flatters neither hugely - 9th November Petty politics won the EU budget debate - Plus: you can't keep racism out of Asian politics - 2nd November Labour and others have played a shameful role in the EU budget debate - The Governments defeat over the EU budget was a victory for parochial pettiness, not democracy, as some have suggested - 2nd November The financial crisis requires international thinking. Our leaders just aren't up to it - The hour has certainly cometh, so where is the man or woman we need to lead us? - 26th October Everyone has it in for the Germans at this EU summit. But their stalling this time has a point - By dragging her feet on a proposed banking union, Angela Merkel may be holding up a solution to the Eurozone crisis. Is she right to do so? - 19th October Britain can't dodge the Euro issue with the promise of a referendum - If the Scots do decide on independence, where will this leave the English in their negotiations for a new deal in Europe? - 12th October This looks like the start of regional conflict in the Middle East - but neither Turkey nor Syria want war - Like everyone else Turkey has been caught off-guard by developments in the Arab world - and they have other threats to deal with than Syria - 5th October Get real, the Arab Spring is no endorsement of the West - Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen: these uprisings in the Middle East all targeted governments that were backed by the West - 28th September This isn’t a case of ‘good’ Islam vs ‘bad’ Islam - Oversimplifying the causes of the riots is dangerous. Political upheaval has created a power vacuum in the Arab region and there are many who wish to fill it - 21st September To settle Syria you need an accord between its neighbours - The Syrian revolt clearly presents the Iranians with a problem of loyalty - 31st August If everybody's ready for Greece to leave the euro, then it will - Is Greece's exit from the euro going to prove the price for keeping the rest in? - 24th August There's still (a slim) hope for the eurozone yet - You wouldn't know it from the coverage over here, but the Eurozone crisis has actually eased quite a lot of late - 17th August Obama - and the world - should fear lurch to the right - Whatever the virtues of the candidate, Mitt Romney's choice of the young, free market evangelist, Congressman Paul Ryan, as his running mate has brought the campaign to life - 13th August We're back to the bad old days of clandestine US interfering abroad - Resorting to cyber-assaults will come back to haunt President Obama - 10th August Dismiss Romney if you must. But he's the true face of the US - the foreign policy he espoused, or rather the set of prejudices he pursued, reflect precisely the assumptions of the US at large - 3rd August We're worrying about Syria for all the wrong reasons - The intensifying civil war in Syria has set off a storm of anguish over the ramifications for the region - 27th July The Syrians can, and will, get rid of Assad themselves - This is a civil war whose outcome will be decided from within, not without - 20th July A multi-speed Europe, yes. But we're on a road to nowhere - To hope that the eurozone will now fall apart is just wishful thinking - 13th July Why didn't we ask Diamond the right questions? - What the committee should have concentrated on was the years before the financial crisis when bank dealers distorted borrowing rates for the sake of personal gain - 6th July Our policy towards Europe? Do we have one? - As David Cameron, attends yet another EU summit telling everyone else what their policy should be, perhaps this is the time that someone retorts, "Fine, but what are you offering?" - 29th June Forget about fiscal integration. What Merkel wants is political union - It will have to be done through common defence and economic policy - 22nd June Mass uprising is the only way to unseat Assad - If there is to be an early resolution of the Syrian conflict, it can only be through one side wining decisively - 1st June Next stop for Europe should be Hollande paying a visit to Athens - If Greece is essentially a political problem, it is one in urgent need of European direction - 25th May Austerity or growth? It doesn't have to be one or the other - François Hollande's election provides an opportunity for a re-think - 18th May Leveson risks becoming mired in politics - Lord Justice Leveson is said to be no longer enjoying his role as chairman of the inquiry into the "culture, practice and ethics of the press" - 11th May Rise of Europe's far right cannot be explained by recession alone - Le Pen's success in France is based on the language of the outsider - 27th April Resentment could be the death of the eurozone - It's not financial markets that are going to break the eurozone, it's politics - 20th April Syria's opposition can now turn this ceasefire to its advantage - Whether it holds may be the question that most of the world, including Western leaders, is asking at the moment - 13th April A little democracy suits the Burmese regime - The military dictatorship has decided to undertake reforms not because it has been driven to them but because it now sees it as in its interests to do so - 6th April France is a racist country, and Toulouse will make that worse - The French have transferred their resentments from the Jewish population to the Arab one - 23rd March China's struggle between reform and reaction - Barely had the Chinese Premier, Wen Jibao, finished his final press conference this week with some surprisingly open remarks about the need for more political liberalism in the country than the charismatic party boss of Chongqing was summarily fired - 16th March What politicians won't admit - our soldiers die in vain - Every time a solder dies in Afghanistan, politicians immediately say how much the loss is regretted and how much we owe to our "brave heroes" - 9th March Is there really no alternative? Let Irish voters be the judge of that - Solutions are being pushed on the basis of 'no alternative'. Yet there are alternatives - 2nd March If we can't intervene, at least we can isolate Syria - The death of three journalists in Homs is not going to get the West to intervene in Syria, however passionate the feelings it may arouse - 24th February It's time to give negotiations with Iran a chance - The Iranian regime has a record of games-playing when it is put under pressure. And all too often it overplays its hand - 17th February Arms, not diplomacy, will decide the fate of Syria - World View: Don't be fooled by the outraged cries coming from London, Paris, Washington and now the UN Secretary General himself over the Russian and Chinese veto of the resolution on Syria - 10th February Egypt's generals will soon hear the final whistle - If the British tend to believe in the cock-up theory of history, in the Middle East it's the opposite - 3rd February Assassination should never be a weapon of state - Killing those you suspect of being engaged in nefarious activities has become not an extreme exception but the norm, whether they are with family, friends or anyone else who just happens to be passing by - 13th January The more we talk of war with Iran, the more likely it becomes - The frightening thing is that so many discuss war as if it was perfectly rational - 5th January

Articles: 2011 It's time for realism, not 'optimism', Mr Miliband - Talking about the need for growth isn't going to make it happen any more than cuts will help businesses - 30th December The battle is on to convince the markets that the euro has a future - World View: There is now an even chance that the euro will fail and the zone will break up - 23rd December The battle is on to convince the markets that euro has a future - There is now an even chance that the euro will fail and the zone will break up Britain still has a role to play in rescuing the euro - Everyone in this crisis needs a measure of humility about their mistakes so far – and to apply real imagination in deciding what to do next - 15th December A democratic disgrace crafted by cowards - As a committed European – indeed, I would even own up to having urged our joining the euro at its inception – I can only call what European leaders are now up to as a complete democratic disgrace - 10th December We are now irrelevant to Afghanistan's future - Sherard Cowper-Coles, our loquacious former ambassador to Afghanistan, was on the radio yesterday practically breaking down in tears at the prospects for the country - 8th December Breaking with the past is key to Turkey's future - With the centenary of the Armenian massacres due in 2015, the opportunity for a grand gesture of responsibility is clearly there - 1st December Don't assume that Egypt's uprising has failed - We have expected too much of the Arab Spring and are now in danger of becoming too pessimistic about it - 24th November Now the regional powers turn against Assad - Much is being made of the Arab League's sudden, and belated, baring of teeth in response to the Arab Spring. And it is a big change, even more so in the case of Syria than in the case of Libya - 17th November The democratic deficit at the heart of the crisis - It's not often that the Chancellor gets anything right, but for once he was correct when he told the meeting of his fellow EU finance ministers this week that political changes in Greece and Italy did not address the kernel of the financial crisis - 10th November Don't look to China to save us from ourselves - World View: In the heady days of the financial crisis of 2008/9 (can it really be only three years ago?), expanding the G8 group of leading industrial nations to the G20 to include the rising powers of China, India, Brazil and others was hailed as the way to a future of global economic governance - 3rd November Edward Burra: From Harlem to Hastings - Arts: Edward Burra's paintings are eccentric, varied and bleak. This most neglected of British artists is celebrated at the first retrospective in 25 years - 1st November As Europe sees it, UK barracking is just irresponsible - Here's a chance for the PM to step in, find a solution, and demand a return - 27th October It's unrealistic to expect Europe's leaders to find a big-bang solution - World View: The real moment for leadership and ideas will come at the G20 in Cannes - 20th October Not so much a murder plot as a screenplay - World View: This is not how Tehran operates. On the whole it avoids direct confrontation - 13th October We can't control Syria – and we shouldn't try - International Studies: They watered it down three times but still the Russians and Chinese vetoed the UN Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad for suppressing his own people - 6th October Public must have a say in any euro deal - If the world wants real political leadership from Europe, then they ought to understand the politics of the place - 29th September There's no need to fear the Arab Spring - Fears of Muslim fundamentalist takeovers compel new friendships and ever-greater threats - 22nd September Intervention is never simply humanitarian - The conclusion of the Libyan uprising isn't turning out quite as those outside , particularly in the West, expected - 1st September The real euro crisis is yet to explode - The dance of despair between the financial markets and the euro leaders goes on - 18th August This is all about branding - This was billed as David Cameron's most testing week in his premiership - 13th August Let's not go the way of LA - Britain is not nearly as divided a country as the United States. Sink estates live side by side with posher streets - 11th August The charade of public inquiries - Those who shout 'cover up' at any government-ordered investigation fail to understand the political imperatives - 5th August Questions over the Syrian clampdown - If President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, had been alive, we might have had 20,000 dead - 4th August Public faith in our institutions - The past decade has seen almost every institution shorn of reputation - 30th July Now we want Gaddafi out, now we don't - British and French policy is all over the place - they have only themselves to blame - 27th July We're near to limit of charitable giving - The desperate humanitarian crisis in Somalia has been formally declared a famine by the UN - 21st July Baying for Murdoch's blood will serve no good - He has never been all-powerful, nor has he seen himself as such. Governments have always had the option to say no to him - 15th July Palestin- ians only have one option now - Time is running out is a phrase so overused in diplomacy that it has ceased to have any meaning - 14th July Now you see the PM, now you don't - We haven't heard much from David Cameron of late about Libya - 7th July A promise by Murdoch is meaningless - The people one should feel sorry for are the independent directors appointed to preserve the separated Sky news - 1st July Politics should finally decide the Greek crisis - International Studies: So the Greek parliament has voted to pass the "crucial" budget cuts, albeit with the narrowest of majorities. And we seem to be exactly where we were before. The strikes go on - 30th June Is violence now the only way to change Syria? - 23rd June Nato is dead – we just won't admit it - If ever the death knell was sounded for an organisation, it was sounded by the US Defence Secretary last Friday - 16th June It's not undemocratic to want a third term - What is missing within Turkey is a proper debate on the Kurdish question - 9th June Spanish are having their own Arab Spring - The protests should be causing us to look at ourselves and see what lessons they have for us - 2nd June This is no way to treat an accused man - Humiliation and refusal of bail cannot be the 'punishment' for crimes that are unproven - 19th May The doubters have their day - If Sir John Chilcot has achieved nothing else, his inquiry has brought out of the woodwork a steady stream of officials anxious to distance themselves from the invasion of Iraq and in particular the intelligence assessments used to justify it - 13th May High jinks and low politics in Tehran - The battle for pre-eminence between President Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - 12th May Japan may be showing way to the world - Do not give up Japan, says the slogan in the hotels on the buses, offices and even some of the rubbish trucks in Tokyo - 5th May No wonder Hague can't explain himself - How much sympathy should we have for the hapless Foreign Secretary over Libya and Syria? - 28th April My advice to Assad: go now when you can - The Syrians deserve a decent break - 21st April Time to bring back the family doctor - Patients aren't items or numbers, let alone 'customers'. They're living people, each with their own fears and frailties - 19th April France must get out of Ivory Coast – and fast - We're back to the future, back to the 19th century, as you watch France in all its martial glory in Ivory Coast and in Libya - 14th April London begins to feel French, just as the mood changes - 9th April Where does the UN go after Abidjan? - We're entering uncharted waters in which its standing is very much in play - 7th April Don't let Libya distract us from what Blair did - A terrible thought has struck me. Could the excitement over the war in Libya serve to make Tony Blair look less awful and deprive the Chilcot inquiry of what little sting it may have when it finally publishes later this year? - 2nd April None of us knows what will happen next - There could be few more asinine ideas than arming the rebels in Libya - 31st March Obama is wise to keep his distance - Spare a thought for the President as he tours Latin America while being questioned about Libya - 24th March The end of the world as we know it - We are living through a period of unprecedented global uncertainty and flux. From wars and natural disasters to economic and political strife, what we thought we knew has changed for ever - 23rd March Bahrain's uprising is about power - Every time the protests in Bahrain are mentioned, they are made into a battle between Sunni and Shia - 17th March Modernity an age-old menace - It is easy to confuse the orderliness of the Japanese with a spirit of obedience - 14th March Military posturing on Libya is self-defeating - International Studies: Could Colonel Gaddafi not only survive the current uprising in Libya but actually win? - 10th March The shadow of a monstrous power - Murdoch has the power to propel policy where it matters to him - 4th March Bravery on one side, shame on the other - The real failure of response to the uprisings has been the EU's - 3rd March This is not about power. It's about a different world - International Studies: With a repellent sense of timing Tony Blair is appearing in Prospect magazine with an interview arguing that the Arab world's problems don't start with despotism and corruption but still revolve around the Palestinian problem - 24th February Uprisings may not presage democracy - If only it would happen like that - 27th January Putting caution before ideology - Whenever anyone claims talks as the 'most important in 30 years', you can bet that they will produce little - 20th January Hobbling on in Europe is the best we can manage - On Tuesday the Government got its EU Bill through the Commons - 13th January Pakistan is not beyond hope – or our help - The world has been quick to condemn the assassination of Salmaan Taseer and proclaim him a martyr - 6th January

Articles: 2010 Last thing Ivorians need is an invasion - The year is ending as so many have before it, with an African nation in crisis - 30th December This is not the Start of something new - President Barack Obama is finally hitting bottom in Congress - 23rd December Cooper hasn't learnt from mistakes - To say that the Coalition Government should do more multinationally doesn't mean very much - 16th December Don't give up on the euro just yet - As long as politics remain in its favour, odds are still on the euro's survival - 9th December Same blind alley, same old consequences - So American diplomats are anxious that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal might find its way into the hands of terrorists - 2nd December Obama risks making the Korean crisis worse - His response was to announce a joint military exercise on the border this week - 25th November Of course Iran wants to meddle in its region - Cash has always been the currency of the East - 28th October Multi- culturalism needs defenders - It was once a term of tolerance in an increasingly cosmopolitan and urbanised western world - 21st October Israel has no future as purely Jewish - More cynical observers of the Israeli PM tend to dismiss his latest offer to the Palestinians - 14th October You can't blame it all on a rogue trader - If you thought that Britain was adept at putting the blame for disaster down the line and never up it, you should look across the Channel - 7th October Those not against Iraq were with it - There's a wonderful exchange in Billy Wilder's fast-talking comedy of post-war Berlin, One,Two, Three, when the Coca-Cola executive, played by James Cagney, asks his German assistant: "Just what did you do in the War?" "I was in the underground," comes the reply. "You mean fighting Hitler?" asks Cagney. "No, just digging it." - 30th September Global poverty isn't what it was - Clegg calls on rich countries to 'honour their commitments' on UN Millennium Development Goals - 23rd September More speed, less haste in defence - The current rushed strategic review is being 'money-driven rather than driven by the threats to our country' - 16th September The bonfire of a pastor's vanity - We've been here before and, no doubt, we'll be here soon enough again - 9th September Obama the realist, Blair the fantasist - Compare and contrast President Obama and Tony Blair talking about Iraq - 2nd September China has money, America has guns - China's economic rise has released the usual burst of pronouncements on the rise and fall of nations - 26th August Historians who want to cut a dash - The hunger to strike a pose in America seems to affect our historians especially - 21st August Aid trickles while the waters flood - Pakistan doesn't need outside critics to put people off giving - 19th August The benighted lot of Pakistan - A little over a year ago, the Pakistan army launched a much-lauded (in the West at least) assault on the Taliban - 5th August Back to the past with foreign policy - The PM has picked up the ball and is playing it with quite astonishing panache - 29th July Banning the burka is a lot of hot air - It may be because I'm too English for Gallic high rhetoric but it's very difficult to take seriously France's impassioned debate about banning the burka - 15th July The end of the Afghan venture - We're on our way out of Afghanistan. The politicians know it. The generals know it. The Afghans know it, as do their neighbours. The only people who are apparently not meant to know it are the soldiers fighting this hard-slogging war and the public - 1st July Once again, those who reveal the truth are punished - How ironic, and how typical, that so many commentators have joined in censoring General Stanley McChrystal for speaking out too openly to a reporter on Rolling Stone. The result of his own arrogance, they declare - 26th June G8 and G20: what's the difference? - You have to feel sorry for the poor Canadians. With a right-wing government hell-bent on massive public expenditure cuts, they have to fund not just one grand international summit with the G20 this weekend, but two, with the G8 summit on Friday - 24th June Words and waffle over Afghanistan - It hasn't taken David Cameron long to start talking pure codswallop with an air of easy authority - 17th June Europe isn't just a matter of foreign policy - On the "Who Would Have Thunk It?" scale, the new Foreign Secretary's tour of European capitals must be pretty - 10th June Israel had few enough friends already - Is Israel's assault on the Gaza flotilla the point when international support for the nation began to change? - 3rd June This is a crisis of politics not markets - The striking thing about the euro crisis and the crash in the markets is not that they should happen - 27th May New politics' also applies to Europe - Europe was supposed to be the great dividing issue of the new government - 20th May It doesn't help to obsess over Iran - For those who remember the days of Nikita Kruschev and Fidel Castro, there was something wonderfully retro about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty summit in New York this week - 6th May Save Greece and we save ourselves - While politicians here are resolutely refusing to discuss the detail of cuts for fear of putting off the voters, the commentators, along with the financial experts, are all busily urging ever more draconian action by Greece and blaming its workers for rising up in protest - 29th April The foreign in tonight's debate - My advice to Clegg is, don't be cautious. Turn foreign policy to your advantage - 21st April Obama's interests are not always ours - If he has preferences it is for a Cold War bilateralism with Russia and China - 15th April Democracy is not an end in itself - West's desire to show progress makes it reluctant to call a dud election a sham - 8th April Everything but political radicalism - The tighter the race, the less open the discussion of policy alternatives - 1st April Self-defeating, but not irrational - When so many are suffering the pains of recession, of threatened (and actual) job losses and pay curbs, if not cuts, the sight of workers kicking against the pricks and causing serious inconvenience to the travelling public is hardly likely to arouse understanding, let alone support - 26th March Israel's interests are not the same as ours on Palestine - Its greatest fear in its relationship with the West is marginalisation - 25th March People vote for competence not policy - In a peculiarly British way, the result usually reflects the consensus in the country - 19th March The Janus face of recession politics - There is a divide in the way voters see it and politicians talk about it - 11th March Greece is right – Britain and Europe are letting it down - The UK knows well what markets can do and how to confront them - 4th March Can we halt our slide to the margins? - Economically hamstrung, shorn of confidence, and increasingly irrelevant on the world stage. We face hard choices if we are to recover our status - 26th February Spiritual leader deserves full honour - If President Obama intended to make a firm gesture by meeting the exiled Dalai Lama yesterday, it has to be said that it was a very tentative one -19th February Torture demeans the torturer as well as the victim - The policy of rendition was developed, and condoned, to get round the law -18th February Empty gestures on European stage - Neither Brown nor Cameron would make a move that looked like integration - 4th February It was the war itself that was wrong - The truth is that Blair and Brown went to war because they thought it was easy - 29th January Private donations won't help Haiti - The disaster appeal has become a grand media event used by charities to raise funds - 22nd January Ranting against Iran won't help reform - Too much comment is based on what people outside want to happen, not what will - 14th January Gesture politics never works abroad - No wonder the White House is getting fed up with its needy and gaff-prone ally - 7th January Competition of nations - I blame the intellectual elite for this obsession with global status - 1st January

Articles: 2009 From 'Yes, we can' to 'No, we can't' - Great presidents make political weather; yet Obama is hobbled by recession - 23rd December Civil servants intent on evading all responsibility - Chilcot has heard a litany of excuses - 17th December Sing Hallelujah for our Handel - He understood that the British are uniquely in love with performance - 15th December Policy and elections just don't mix - After a succession of massive majorities, we've forgotten what tight elections are like - 11th December Let's hope it really is an 'exit' strategy - All the talk of targets by which withdrawal will be gauged is so much pie in the sky - 3rd December Chilcot and the truth - Those who think the establishment a myth should look to the inquiry's membership - 26th November You can't choose a camel this way let alone two horses - It's easy to dismiss the EU summit as being a lot of fuss over nothing jobs - 19th November Lies, damn lies and Berlin speeches - We're back to propping up rotten regimes. Stability is more important than values - 12th November Cameron, Europe and pure waffle - Tone, as Tony Blair found, only works for so long once you’re in government - 5th November Why he might like to take his leave of Labour - Whatever his intentions, David Miliband is certainly putting himself about these days - 24th October This redefines art, but not in a good way - There are two simple rules of public patronage of the arts. One is that, if you do it for a social or political purpose, it will fail. And the second is that if you hand over the actual commissioning to the Arts Council it will produce the very worst art - 23rd October Welcome to another false election - Compared to others, Tunisian control is more discrete – but it's still a closed system - 22nd October Peace isn't what Obama is achieving - Rarely has a President bent on change been met with such adverse cirumstances - 15th October Obama is showing us how to live without our comfort blanket - British policy has been based on showing itself useful to Washington across the whole gamut of policy - 28th September Rhetoric against Iran must be cooled for sake of the Middle East - Adrian Hamilton: The latest Iranian admission only adds fuel to a furious row of charge and counter-charge that has been busily stoked up by Israel, some of Iran's Arab neighbours and the American right - 26th September How did we ever think greed was good? - Greed is no longer good. It's now considered really bad. And it isn't just the Archbishop of Canterbury saying so - 24th September If it is European leadership you want, don't start here - On those grounds, it would be best if the Irish did reject the treaty again - 17th September Sorry, but the recession is not over - The factors behind the recovery up until now have been largely temporary in nature - 10th September Curbing bonuses won't solve anything - Tax bonuses generally by all means but concentrating the fire on the City won't work - 3rd September Let's not despair of democracy - What is wrong is what we want elections to achieve in places such as Afghanistan - 27th August Two-party politics is doing us no good - On the big questions the Tories and Labour seem determined to avoid any debate at all - 20th August Sanctions aren't going to bust Burma - Politicians like them because they make you look as if you’re ‘doing something’ - 13th August Why do we feel we must turn Chekhov into Noel Coward? - No one can say that the British are not international in their theatrical outlook - 6th August Miliband's failure as Foreign Secretary - Little wonder that foreign leaders see him as jejune while officals despair of him - 30th July The bitter politics of debt reduction - In hard times there is virtue in the politician who proposes harsh measures - 23rd July If terror is the problem, we won't solve it in Afghanistan - So here we go again, in a war which half the population does not believe in - 16th July Why China's President left the G8 - The local Uighurs see their identity being swamped by Han Chinese, as in Tibet - 9th July How can Iranians mend their broken Islamic Republic? - David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, ought to be pleased with Iran - 2nd July Give me excess of it? No thanks - I never thought to say it, but maybe there is too much Shakespeare on the stage at the moment - 15th June We can support the Iranian protests... - ... but we must not interfere - 18th June (See: Iran: summary) Power in Iran - a labyrinthine system - The regime in Iran is now desperately – and so far uncertainly – playing for time while it tries to work out just what is happening in the country and the forces that are now engulfing it - 17th June An election that bodes ill for Iranians - Once again the West is caught between its interests and its principles - 15th June Brown's reforms won't restore trust - Far from taking politics into the 21st century, he's moving it back to the 18th - 11th June Don't knock Obama before he's tried in the Middle East - There is an element of double think in the reactions to his Cairo speech - 4th June The wrong way to reform the Select Committee system - The problem is not an overweening executive but that policy is so poor - 28th May I'd rather see my own doctor, please - If a GP won't take responsibility for you, who in the whole system will? - 25th May This no time to despair of humanitarian intervention - The Sri Lankan government's victory over the Tamil Tigers has been total - 21st May Here we go again, back to bank profits and big bonuses - Just as before, the returns are being made in the investment arms - 14th May Israel is just using Iran to stall progress - Israel is not Iran's primary concern, or target, and never has been - 8th May Demonising Pakistan will not solve Afghanistan - It's gang up on Pakistan time - 30th April Walking out on Ahmadinejad was childish - Isn't it time western diplomats just grew up and stopped these infantile games over the Iranian President? - 23rd April At last, Europe has become interesting - Now the challenges are international and the solutions regional - 16th April History requires us to look beyond art - Winning generals always looked to artists to preserve their names - 14th April When summitry ceases to have use - Doha’s claim to fame was Arab leaders embracing Sudan’s president - 9th April If Nato was a family, you'd have to call it dysfunctional - If you think the G20 a fractious affair, you should look to Strasbourg - 2nd April We must get out of Afghanistan - Obama's rethink is one of the best things that has happened since he gained office - 26th March If only Brown had taken job at IMF - He has set the bar for the G20 so high because he needs to show he is leading - 19th March If only it was as easy as the Obama supporters thought - He may be open but the policies are still cast in the Clinton-Bush mould - 12th March It's fruitless to ask Brown to say sorry - The oddity of the crisis is that it has punished the virtuous not the guilty - 5th March Opinion is the only thing that can curb drinking - After smoking, is drink the next target for social prohibition? The signs are there. And not just in Britain, where the image of the drunken yob has become part of folklore - 3rd March There are better things to do than shaming these bankers - The debate here has hardly begun - 12th February Politicians must recognise that globalisation is in retreat - You cannot brush aside the strikers' - 5th February No, Mr Brown, the world isn't following your economic lead - Europe is putting far more into social assistance and employment support - 29th January When you're in a deep, deep hole, it's best to stop finger-pointing - For the past few weeks Gordon Brown's advisers have been desperately advising him to admit some responsibility, or at least some fellow feeling, for the recession overwhelming the country - 24th January Brown should admit his ignorance - In the PM's version, everything comes from outside, nothing is his responsibility - 22nd January It's too early to start losing faith in Obama - If nothing else he is committed to a break with the Bush past - 15th January The path to Middle East peace - The lesson of the Cold War is that wars have consequences for a generation or more - 8th January

Articles: 2008 Pure politics is driving this war - The bombing happened because it was in the interests of all parties concerned - 1st January 2009 Governments have used up their economic ammunition - If politicians feel at sea, they're not alone. No one knows the answer - 18th December 2008 Never has Europe been more needed - Europe's hour has come round at last. Or least it should have - 11th December 2008 It is only right that our cricketers go to India and play - Most of the dead were Indian, many dying to protect their British guests - 4th December 2008 Hillary would be Obama's first mistake - She comes with the baggage of the failed Clinton era - 27th November 2008 Recovery cannot begin until house prices bottom out - We don't have the money to fund recovery without outside investors - 20th November 2008 Don't count on a new Bretton Woods - Let us assume – because it is now the accepted wisdom – that the world cannot be the same after this credit crunch - 14th November 2008 Brown's new role as the 'Supermac' of global finance - The Prime Minister is pushing barren remedies for the world's woes - 7th November 2008 I wouldn't get too carried away by success if I were Brown - Being a Chancellor with a plan isn't the same as being a statesman - 16th October 2008 Separating politicians and the City - When it comes to it, there is just a huge divide - 10th October 2008 It won't be long before the British blame foreigners - What won't go away is the sense of humiliation in this crisis - 2nd October 2008 A creeping defeatism is overcoming Labour - You have to go to a party convention to understand how shut off they are - 25th September 2008 Forget the banks – it's the economy that matters now - The period of consumer-led growth is over. But what will the next engine of growth be? - 18th September 2008 Gordon Brown does not deserve this much vitriol - His difficulty is that he has been unable to grow from a master of measures to a general strategist - 11th September 2008 The lessons of past economic downturns - History, as is often said, never repeats itself exactly. But then history usually provides some lessons that can be learned even if it doesn't enable you to predict the future, as politicians and economists keep rifling it to do - 4th September 2008 We need an old approach for the new global politics - 28th August 2008 It's economics, not politics, that will influence Russia - 21st August 2008 We are still fighting the Cold War - the conflict in Georgia - 14th August 2008 It's not all the fault of the banks - For politicians nothing could be better than a form of finance that enabled the poor to buy houses - 7th August 2008 A bitter power struggle for the soul of democracy - Ignore the debate about Islam and the West. If the elected Turkish government loses, we are all victims - Tuesday, 29th July 2008 Ultimately, this is as much about politics as justice (about Radovan Karadzic) - 24th July 2008 Britain can offer Barack Obama advice on Iraq - 17th July 2008 The West still isn't taking the Iraqis into account - 10th July 2008 McEwan's attack on Islam reveals only his ignorance - 26th June 2008 This meeting in Saudi Arabia won't solve oil prices - 19th June 2008 The strange legacy of President Bush - 12th June 2008 Stop knocking the banks – they've done us proud - 5th June 2008 If only the Irish would kill the Lisbon Treaty - 29th May 2008 Any change from Bush's fundamentalism will do - 22nd May 2008 Should we still view Israel as a 'special friend'? - 15th May 2008 We don't have to live with a mendacious mayor - 1st May 2008 An ethical foreign policy is still within reach - 24th April 2008 A way out of this Olympic confrontation - 17th April 2008 The Chinese will never compromise over Tibet - 10th April 2008 Time to disband Nato now the Cold War is over? - 3rd April 2008 Our unpredictable and troublesome guest - 27th March 2008 Why did so many people support the war in Iraq? - 20th March 2008 Now was not the time to pick a fight with the City - 13th March 2008 We're still waiting for that debate on Europe - 6th March 2008 Passive distaste has turned into active resentment of the wealthy - Tuesday, 4th March 2008 Could Turkey create an Islam acceptable to the West? - 28th February 2008 Democracy has become a devalued concept - 14th February 2008 Nato should not be fighting this war in Afghanistan - 8th February 2008 The question remains: is King up to the job? - 31st January 2008 This crisis can only be solved at a global level - 24th January 2008 What voters really care about is the same the world over - 17th January 2008 Why Brown can draw comfort from New Hampshire - 10th January 2008 Can America win back the world's respect? - It will take more than a change of president to repair the damage that Bush has caused - Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

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