Can the Left reclaim Nationalism? Discussion in The Nation
08.02.16 | The Nation asked me to comment on Larry Summers's notion of "responsible nationalism" as a response to the more toxic kind of Trump and the Brexiters.  You can view the article on The Nation site here.   Can the Left Reclaim Nationalism? By Carne Ross, Sherle R. Schwenninger, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian and Mark Blyth Writing in The Washington Post last month, former Treasury secretary Larry Summers suggested that the proper response to recent manifestations of popular... more
Chilcot Report: How Tony Blair Sold the War: My OpEd in NY Times
07.18.16 |

I returned to the UK for the publication of the Chilcot Report.  I did a number of interviews, which are posted in the News/Media section of this site.  I was asked by the New York Times to write about the report.  You can see it online here.  And here's the text: nytimes.com Chilcot Report: How Tony Blair Sold the War Carne Ross Bill Bragg London — WEDNESDAY saw the publication, years overdue, of the official report into Britain’s conduct of the 2003 Iraq war. The... more
Iraq: the story of my evidence
06.13.16 | With the publication of the Iraq Inquiry "Chilcot" Report imminent, I am re-posting a blog I wrote at the ten-year anniversary of the war: With the ten year anniversary of the war, I wanted to tell the story of the evidence I gave to the first official inquiry into the war, an event that led to my resignation from the British foreign servce. The Butler Inquiry, as it was known, in 2004 invited testimonies from officials who had worked on Iraq before the 2003 invasion.  I had been the UK's... more
Is the UN heading the way of the League of Nations? My oped in The Guardian
03.11.16 |

 The League of Nations' first meeting, 1920

Oped in today's Guardian about the UN and what to do about it.

 

Oped in today's Guardian about the UN and what to do about it. Full text: As good a place as any to witness the slow decline of the post-second world war global “order” is the UN security council – if they would let you in, which they won’t. Don’t bother with that rarefied organ’s “public” meetings. None of its real diplomatic business is conducted in the open. In a reflection of the state of the world, the security council, which is charged with the maintenance of international peace, is... more
"Ich habe da mitgemacht" - Profile of CR in Die Zeit (Germany) - English translation
01.28.16 | Die Zeit: I Was Part of It “I Was Part of It” This article was originally published in German for Die Zeit on 23 December 2015. (translation below)   Professional diplomat Carne Ross ended his career and committed himself to the truth By Kerstin Kohlenberg He could never be a diplomat: Carne Ross remembers his father telling him that from an early age, at home in South London. To be a diplomat, his father explained to his twelve year old son, you had to be very smart. And he... more
We need to talk about nukes
01.26.16 | Mankind has the ability to destroy itself in two ways: climate change and nuclear weapons. This latter method provokes very little discussion these days, presumably because fashionable preoccupations like terrorism or the presidential elections take precedence. There should be much greater debate, in particular about news that the US is busy developing "precision" nuclear weapons and that there is a new nuclear arms race with Russia and China. In the old days of East-West confrontation, there... more
The reactionary, anti-political cult of "tidiness"
01.26.16 | The cult around the Japanese guru of tidiness Marie Kondo is bizarre but explicable. It is bizarre because it is absurd that people need to buy a book in order to be told why and how to tidy their houses. There is something grotesque about this spectacle of rich people obsessing about which of their many possessions bring them "joy" as they decide which to discard and which to keep. But such criticism is easy. Modern society has been wasteful long before Marie Kondo came along. Where does this... more
"Ich habe da mitgemacht" - Profile of CR in Die Zeit (Germany)
01.14.16 |

US-Soldaten im Irak (Archivbild)

Profile of me in Die Zeit, the German news weekly, by Kerstin Kohlenberg, whom I met last year in a car in the cold of Colorado, as she mentions.  This is the link to the online version in German.  This is an unofficial English translation of the article:

Profile of me in Die Zeit, the German news weekly, by Kerstin Kohlenberg, whom I met last year in a car in the cold of Colorado, as she mentions.  This is the link to the online version in German.  This is an unofficial English translation of the article: Begins Zeit Online/Politics “I Was Part of It” Professional diplomat Carne Ross ended his career and committed himself to the truth By Kerstin Kohlenberg He could never be a diplomat: Carne Ross remembers his father telling him that... more
The Paris Talks and Independent Diplomat
12.11.15 | Reuters, in Paris, on the work of Independent Diplomat.  This is the fruit of six years of relentlessly hard work by an extraordinary group of young diplomats, led by the brilliant Dean Bialek:"The Marshall Islands and the bloc of 44 island states rely on pro-bono advice from New York-based Independent Diplomat, a non-profit consultancy started in 2004 by former British diplomat Carne Ross.The agency makes former diplomats and others with international experience available to clients that... more
The Report: Peter Oborne's Iraq Inquiry
10.29.15 | Today's news that the UK Iraq Inquiry's report will be further delayed stimulated the journalist Peter Oborne to conduct his own inquiry.  I was interviewed for this, as I testified to the so-called Chilcot Inquiry and the release of my evidence to the earlier Butler Inquiry is one of the reasons the full inquiry into the war (Chilcot) was established.  The programme is good, and offers clear details and testimony about how the Blair people lied about the war and how it was illegal. more