The multi-billion dollar expenditure on nuclear powered submarines as part of the AUKUS pact has attracted some attention. Perhaps it helps to provide historical context if it is remembered that Australia’s first submarines were of limited use in the defence of our shorelines. My four times great grandfather William Eckford from North Ayrshire was a Continue reading »
history
John Mitchinson explores how the lessons of the Crimean War still resonate today
US politicians and others are always boasting about the US being the greatest in just about any category you can think of – from the record for eating hot dogs in a given time to their so-called democracy. But perhaps the greatest boast is that it is a peace-loving state committed to protecting the world. Continue reading »
As fake grassroots organisations continue their culture war – we need to fight back, writes Otto English
Part 4 and (for now) last of this series. Earlier installments can be found here. So, by early 1999 various attempts to resolve the Kosovo situation had failed. In autumn 1998 the Americans had sent Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy to Belgrade. Holbrooke negotiated a deal that looked good on paper, with a ceasefire, […]
The treatment of Native Americans more than 100 years ago cannot provide an exact comparison to the situation of Palestinians today – but there are striking similarities, writes Alexandra Hall Hall
Part 3 of a series on the Kosovo War. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. So, Adem Jashari. Very short version: he was a guerrilla leader / local strong man. He lived in a region of Kosovo that was already challenging for the Serb authorities — rural, rugged terrain, and 100% ethnic […]
Okay, so we’ve talked about Bosnia and how that set things up for the Kosovo War. Now, what happened in Kosovo that made NATO want to get involved there? Back when Serbia was part of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was a “special autonomous province” of Serbia. This meant that it had limited self-rule and its own regional […]
We’re just a few weeks away from the 25th anniversary of the Kosovo War, which started in March 1999. So, I’d like to do a retrospective on the war’s causes. This is a long story! It’s going to take at least three posts, and they won’t be short. I think it’s interesting, but it may […]
Maintaining the illusory story of what Britain was is integral to the illusion of what Britain is – and the maintenance of political and economic hegemony, writes MP Clive Lewis