Georgia and Russia: the aftermath , Donald Rayfield
The Georgia-Russia war of 8-12 August 2008 has left a host of issues unresolved. The future of the contested territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the resettlement of the expelled and displaced, the fate of Georgia's aspiration to join Nato, and the ambitions of an emboldened Russia are just a few. The bitter fallout of a vicious conflict means that it will be some time before the longer-term impact of the war in these and other areas will become clear.
Donald Rayfield is... more »
Philanthrocapitalism: old myths, new realities , Michael Edwards
"Light the blue touch-paper and wait for the fireworks": that just about sums up the response to my book Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism since its publication in March 2008. Not that I'm complaining. The book was written to stimulate debate about the increasing influence of business on philanthropy and it has done that pretty well - aided and abetted by a free download, the viral-networking potential of the web, and the publication of Matthew... more »
East DR Congo: dynamic of conflict, Gérard Prunier
Since August 2008 the situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has grown progressively worse in ways that seem hard to understand.
Gérard Prunier is research professor at the University of Paris. He is the author of The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (C Hurst, 1998), Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide (C Hurst, revised edition, 2007), and From Genocide to Continental War: The ‘Congolese' Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa (C Hurst, 2006)... more »
G20's world: join a group read , Tony Curzon Price
The G20 communique from their November 15th Washington meeting isreproduced below. Join me in doing a group read/comment of the text. Isit what we need from our leaders? Are the principles right? What ismissing? What does it mean?
To join in, follow these steps: 1) get a diigo account 2) join the oD-G20-communique group 3) start using diigo to add notes and comments to any part of the text below. I recommend you do this either through the diigolet functionality, or, my preferred option,... more »
BBC’s Russian Service: debate continues,
From Dr.John Dunn, 10 November
More detail on the impending changes to the BBC's Russian service,
including a list of the programmes due to close and a long interview with
the head of the Russian service, can be found at:
On the question of broadcasting platforms the BBC does have a problem:
short-wave reception can be difficult and of poor quality: remember the old
joke... more »
Japan as lame goose, Christoph Neidhart
Geese flying in formation, led by the strongest, this paradigm, taken from classical Chinese poetry, has been used by Japanese scholars to symbolize their nation's leadership in East Asia.
The geese represent the East Asian nations, the stronger leading the weaker to rise.
With the world financial system in turmoil, no other country is better suited to take leadership in shaping a new financial system than Japan. Yet, the once self-promoted leading goose is grounded,... more »
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