Has Tony Blair made Britain a pariah state?
The images of protestors burning British flags across the world last week signalled the start of a new diplomatic era of isolation and hostility unknown since the days when Maggie…
Articles, Briefings and Essays
The views expressed in the articles are those of each respective author and do not necessarily reflect the views or position of the Foreign Policy Centre.
Winning the peace
Will a war in Iraq set the Middle East and Muslims around the world on fire? That is the question which leaders of the Arab League are asking as they…
The necessity and impossibility of taking sides
The Israeli election next week will trigger yet again the mixed feelings, discomfort and conflicting loyalties that define life as a Jew at the beginning of the 21st century. The…
Will the euro be a casualty of Blair’s Iraq war?
Every war in history has had unintended consequences. As Tony Blair returns from his Texan hoe-down having firmed up British support for "regime-change" in Baghdad, a regional war in the…
Could the left back an Iraq war?
In the black and white world of President Bush, the European left is as soft as Saddam is evil. And the White House seems to be as uninterested in persuading…
Velvet fist in the iron glove
In reacting to the horrific bomb in Karachi yesterday President Bush spoke about the Pakistani casualties and addressed the muslim world as well as his own citizens: "They claim they…
Why America isn’t listening
At the end of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington a middle-aged woman with a weather-beaten face and a brown wig sits on a milk crate. Surrounded by placards calling for nuclear…
Mighty Europe
Beneath the rows and gesture politics, Europe’s big three countries have stealthily begun to make the EU a serious force in the world, as the secret negotiations last autumn with…
Iraqis don’t need more propaganda
At the end of last year, the Baghdad bureau of the Al-Arabiya news channel was shut down when twenty Iraqi policemen stormed the building in protest at what Donald Rumsfeld…
Launch of the Civility Programme on Middle East Reform
It's a great honour for me to open this first conference of the Civility Programme. I want to talk today about why modernisation and reform in the Arab world matters…
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