14th of June 2025 Link: https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/619279-london-moscow-enemy-benefits/
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Fri 13 Jun 2025 Fiona Hill’s assessment of the Russian threat to Britain is a classic example of how a seemingly rational argument based on a false premise and scanty evidence can lead to a mad conclusion (Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says, 6 … Continue reading Letter in The Guardian: Russia adviser Fiona Hill’s alarming conclusion
5th of June 2025 In George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother’s state of Oceania is perpetually at war. This never-ending conflict is not a conventional war to be won, but rather a tool of control. The paradoxical party slogan “War is Peace” is the key idea. Continuous war justifies continuous surveillance. Orwell’s novel vividly illustrates how … Continue reading 1984 Revisited – Robert Skidelsky and Attila Mesterházy Jr.
27th of May 2025 I. Some of you may know the famous scene at the start of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, when one of our fur-covered ancestors picks up a bone from a skeleton lying on the ground and realises that it can be used to fight off enemies. Having killed the leader of … Continue reading Robots as Weapons of War
15th of May 2025 As John Lanchester recently remarked (LRB 27 April 2025) ‘However little money there is for anything else, there’s always enough money for a war’. The failures of neoliberal economics threaten all kinds of political backlashes, some of which have already been seen in the nationalist turn of international relations. ‘Military Keynesianism’ … Continue reading Military Keynesianism?
13th of May 2025 As the Ukrainian war enters its third year, there has been renewed, if rather limp, talk of a ceasefire followed by negotiations. The premise is that since neither side can ‘win’, it makes sense to start making peace. Few now remember that the war almost ended before it got going. On … Continue reading The Lost Peace?
8th of May 2025 It is right to be suspicious of Putin’s intentions without falling for the idea that he will never stop. In 1836 the liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill claimed that Lord Melbourne’s government was smitten with the “epidemic disease of Russophobia,” an irrational panic that had triggered an unnecessary increase in defense … Continue reading The Nation: Russophobia—an Epidemic Disease?
10th of June 2025 Europe is committed to rearmament. Commission President van der Leyden unveiled her ‘ReArm Europe Plan’ which aims to boost EU defence spending by euros 800bn over four years. On 5 June NATO defence ministers agreed to double their members’ annual defence spending from an average of roughly 2.5% of GDP to … Continue reading Should Europe Rearm?
Please find my latest podcast appearances from the past month below: Neutrality Studies – Pascal Lottaz: “Britain’s insistence on total Ukrainian victory was misguided – it’s time for a realistic compromise” Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fRekSG5p2U&t=53s Glen Diesen: “Pax-Americana is Over” Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALnyAWz5l8I&t=998s Glen Diesen: “Europe Is Trapped by Its Own Propaganda in Ukraine” Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtDydebAs8k&t=1240s Glen Diesen: … Continue reading Podcast Appearances
Apr 01, 2025 Crossposted from “Brave New Europe” At last week’s Paris meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron congratulated themselves on reinserting Europe into the peace process opened up by President Trump. In practice, they have done their best to derail it. Nothing is more foolish than their idea … Continue reading Europe’s Misguided Interventions