Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, has voiced concern over the outlook of US government bonds, calling on Washington to ease worries about US assets. Speaking at his annual news conference on Friday, Wen expressed concern that massive US deficit spending and near-zero interest rates could erode the value of China’s […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "International relations"
The New Cold War, Edward Lucas
A fascinating book by The Economist‘s Central and East European correspondent, Edward Lucas: First a medieval fortress and then the citadel of Soviet totalitarianism, the Kremlin’s rose-red walls have rarely made lovers of liberty and justice feel at home. It is as if Britain’s government were based in the Tower […]
Read MoreIraq war ‘violated rule of law’
From the BBC: Lord Bingham said Lord Goldsmith had given Mr Blair “no hard evidence” that Iraq had defied UN resolutions “in a manner justifying resort to force”. read more | digg story
Read MoreTime to go home, Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki tells Britain
British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has told The Times. read more | digg story
Read MoreHannan: We are treating Iceland disgracefully
Are we supposed to be impressed? Gordon Brown gets nasty with Iceland, a nation with half the population of Wiltshire. He seizes the assets of an Icelandic bank, effectively closing it down. He uses anti-terrorist legislation against a friendly country. Icelanders can’t understand it. They had tried to co-operate, to […]
Read MoreChristopher Meyer: A return to 1815 is the way forward for Europe
The eminent Christopher Meyer writes in the Times: Those who think that there is such a thing as progress in international affairs – that we are capable of learning the lessons of history – have been brutally disabused by the Georgian crisis. You can have all the rules you like […]
Read MoreGuardian: Israel asked US for approval to bomb nuclear sites in Iran
The Guardian reports: Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources […]
Read More
