Author Archives: carne

I thought I would post the chapter from The Leaderless Revolution called “Niine Principles for Action”.  I welcome comments on anything here on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/carnewross/.

Here is a short list of principles that may guide action, along with a few practical examples.  The principles are by no means exclusive, nor comprehensive: mere pointers, not instructions. 

Continue reading Nine Principles for Action (from The Leaderless Revolution)→

I always really enjoy talking with students.  A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at Cornell and was interviewed by Marc Masson, a French post-grad there.  This was the result.  The interview covers the UN (and the new SG), some of the problems with diplomacy and some advice for those interested in careers in international relations.

Continue reading Interview with Cornell International Affairs Observer→

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.

Continue reading Can the Left reclaim Nationalism? Discussion in The Nation→

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.

Continue reading Iraq: the story of my evidence→

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

Full text:

Continue reading Is the UN heading the way of the League of Nations? My oped in The Guardian→

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. Continue reading We need to talk about nukes→

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. Continue reading The reactionary, anti-political cult of “tidiness”→

Continue reading “Ich habe da mitgemacht” – Profile of CR in Die Zeit (Germany)→

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.
Continue reading The Paris Talks and Independent Diplomat→

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.

Continue reading The Report: Peter Oborne’s Iraq Inquiry→

Power to the people: an essay on Bookchin, anarchism and Rojava, Syria, by me in this weekend’s Financial Times.

The Kurds in Rojava are testing a democratic model shaped by the political philosophy of an American eco-anarchist

Continue reading Power to the People: Rojava, anarchism and Murray Bookchin: Financial Times, 24 Oct 2015→

Continue reading Global Dispatches: Interview with CR (Podcast)→

Posted on FB:

Continue reading Some thoughts on the Iran deal: don’t forget Syria→

”I see the desire for decentralisation and in some cases separation as a very natural and inevitable response to globalisation, where power has not only left people’s hands but also no longer seems to belong to national governments. Just look at Greece. Everyone feels a lack of agency over the circumstances that affect them and that matter to them. That desire to reassert agency and control will be manifested in many different ways. But the paradox is that decentralisation or separation, as in Scotland or Catalonia, will not really recapture economic agency. Continue reading The reaction to globalisation – Stir magazine→

A while back, I spoke at the Carnegie Council.  This is a clip comprising a short explanation of complexity theory as a means to understand what’s going on.

Continue reading The complex system of humanity: Carnegie Council→

This was a panel I took part in at the Skoll World Forum, discussing political change with film-makers and activists.

Continue reading Revolution begins in the imagination→

This review appeared on a Catalan website Vilaweb in 2013, but was recently and generously translated by my friend and colleague, Jan Hartman.  Please note that there are one or two inaccuracies about me in the article, including the timing of my work on Iraq at the UNSC, which in fact concluded several months before the 2003 invasion.

A rebel diplomat on the Catalans’ side

Continue reading “A rebel diplomat on the Catalans’ side”: Translation of Catalan “Vilaweb” review of “The Leaderless Revolution”→

Published on Medium, January 28th 2015

Americans may just about have heard that Britain is to go to the polls to elect a new parliament in less than 100 days. Much about British politics is extremely obtuse and muddling, even to Brits. So here’s a short guide that may help pierce the fog.

Continue reading A Short guide to the British general elections – for Americans→

Published in Medium, 150111

There’s a lot to think about. Some preliminary reflections for today:

Continue reading Short Notes on #CharlieHebdo, published 11 Jan 15 (also in French)→

Some time ago Esther Dyson chose to write to me as part of a series of letters organised by the Artangel arts group for the Long Now Foundation.  Letter writers were invited to consider the future – including up to 10,000 years hence (the perspective that the Long Now Foundation seeks to encourage).  I chose to send my letter to the poet John Burnside.  This is my letter:

Continue reading The privilege and nightmare of contemplating the future: My LongPlayer letter to John Burnside→

The Washington Post recently published this discussion of self-determination in the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, quoting my views a few times.  Here’s the article:

How Scotland’s Yes Campaign Won even when it Lost

Continue reading How Scotland’s Yes Campaign won even when it lost (Washington Post analysis quoting CR)→

Liam Barrington-Bush, the researcher for the forthcoming documentary “The Accidental Anarchist”, is collecting ideas for the film.  He’s looking for contemporary examples of non-hierarchical and autonomous organization, both politically and in the workplace, such as participatory democratic processes and cooperatives.  If you have suggestions, please submit them here.  Thank you!

Continue reading Ideas for “The Accidental Anarchist”→

Steve Adubato had me on his “One on One” show talking about The Leaderless Revolution in 2013. It’s a good short interview on the main ideas of the book.

Continue reading Good short interview on The Leaderless Revolution→

Rather remarkably, the OECD invited me to write – and then printed! – an article about trust and government. The article can be found here (http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/4371/Politics_and_the_trust_conundrum.html) and is pasted here.

Politics and the trust conundrum

Carne Ross, Founder and Executive Director, Independent Diplomat

Continue reading Politics and the Trust Conundrum (OECD Yearbook)→

The Guardian asked me for my views on US military intervention in northern Iraq. I took the chance to propose a new doctrine for western policy in the Middle East. (gu.com/p/4vk68/tw).

Here’s the text:

A friend from Pristina once told me that the happiest day of his life was when he heard Nato cruise missiles over his home town. This was in 1999 when Nato intervened from the air to stop the Serb campaign to drive Albanians from Kosovo. Often military intervention is wrong, but sometimes it is right. It was right in Kosovo, and Libya in 2011, and it is right today in northern Iraq.

Continue reading Iraq exposes the west’s hypocrisy in the Middle East: my oped in The Guardian→

Interview: Carne Ross

August 2014, Volume 70, Number 4

The former Foreign Office high-flyer talks about his new career as a diplomatic entrepreneur, the need to give a voice to the voiceless, and how he helped John le Carré create a fictional whistle-blower

You resigned from the Foreign Office a decade ago over the Iraq war. What is wrong with diplomacy?
Continue reading Diplomacy, Anarchism and the work of Independent Diplomat: my interview in The World Today→

John Kerry must be cursing the neo-cons.  “If you break it, you bought it”, Colin Powell once said.  Iraq is spectacularly broken, with civil war on multiple fronts.  And the US has no choice but to try to put it back together.  Having backed al-Maliki despite his egregiously divisive behavior, it cannot now let him fall and with him any semblance of the state.  This is the post-imperial burden Powell predicted (though did nothing to prevent).  As the US sends a Continue reading US Fingers in the Mangle: my analysis of the Iraq crisis→

The Artangel Project and Long Now foundation have collaborated in a project called the Longplayer Letters where various thinkers and activists from different sectors are encouraged to write to each other about their thoughts about the future, a sort of long form debate about the long term.  Esther Dyson addressed her letter, No.4 in the series, to me.  Here it is:

Continue reading Through a Telescope, darkly: Esther Dyon’s Artangel Longplayer Letter to me→

Annie Appel will soon publish a wonderful compendium of photographs of the Occupy movement.  She kindly invited me to offer an introduction.  This is what I wrote:

Begins

Continue reading The Aesthetics of Occupy→

The struggle for the common good has a long past.

BY Noam Chomsky

This broad tendency in human development seeks to identify structures of hierarchy, authority and domination that constrain human development, and then subject them to a very reasonable challenge: Justify yourself.

Humans are social beings, and the kind of creature that a person becomes depends crucially on the social, cultural and institutional circumstances of his life.

Continue reading Chomsky’s Brief History of Anarchism→

Last October, I was invited to talk about “The Art of Performing Political Innovation” at an event called “Performing Change” at the Eyebeam Arts Center in New York City, at the invitation of the Italian artist Paolo Cirio (thank you, Paolo).  Although the video is over 50 minutes, my talks is at the beginning and lasts about 15 minutes.  I try to identify the common features of great art and great politics.  What makes beautiful politics?

Continue reading What makes a beautiful politics? My talk at Eyebeam, “Performing Change”, October 2013→

This is from the New Statesman’s “Guide to Political Studies”.  They asked me what I would say to someone wanting to get into “international relations”.  You can download the guide, including my bit, here.  And here it is in text form:

Continue reading If you want to get into “international relations”, here’s my advice (New Statesman, November 2013)→

Prepared by the Skoll Foundation, who gave us an award recently.

Continue reading Flattering video on the work of Independent Diplomat→

Big interview in LA Review of Books.  Full text:

Rebel with a Cause: An Interview with Carne Ross

September 1st, 2013

1.  Rapid capital flight from so called emerging economies like Brazil and India demonstrates the profound and inherent volatility of global financial markets

2. Also shows Minsky-ian nature of markets: speculators get out because they fear others may do so first, creating self-sustaining cycle

3. And it’s not at all clear that tools of international cooperation, including the IMF, are adequate to mitigate this volatility and prevent negative consequences (indeed, there’s a strong argument that IMF prescriptions in eg Greece have made things much worse)

Continue reading Capital Flight and what it tells us about how to address global problems→

The Nation published an article about The Occupy Money Cooperative by Alissa Quart. I have taken the liberty of pasting the text below.

Occupy Bank Cards! A band of finance wizards take on the system they now say is corrupt. By Alissa Quart August 12, 2013  

Continue reading The Nation: Occupy Bank Cards!→

This is a great short video which puts David Harvey’s Marxist critique of capitalism into animated form.  It’s a compelling analysis, but notably Harvey fails to offer any solution.  For that, well, my views are in my book.   In a few words: direct action, participatory democracy, recapturing agency.

Continue reading Animated: David Harvey’s critique of capitalism→

In my Occupy banking group, we are gearing up to launch a fundraising appeal for The Occupy Money Cooperative.  More details about this will appear on this site, and on the Coop’s own site, in the near future.  Meanwhile, here’s a good article from 2012 about cooperative banks – and indeed an incisive critique of contemporary banks – by Ellen Brown.

Continue reading Cooperative Banking is the Wave of the Future: Ellen Brown→

Liam Barrington-Bush is exploring new forms of political action and organization, from Mexico to the UK.  His book, “Anarchists in the Boardroom” is out soon.  I met him at the Left Forum in New York City a few weeks ago, where he had invited me to a panel on horizontal forms of organization.  This led to this interview in today’s Guardian, which I am also pasting below, with apologies to The Guardian’s copyright guardians (all property, including intellectual, is th Continue reading “Our forms must reflect our fundamental political values”, Interview in The Guardian→

Rosie Gray has written a very generous profile of me and my work with Independent Diplomat and Occupy.  You can see the original article on Buzzfeed here.  I’ve also pasted it below:

Continue reading Buzzfeed profile of me and my work with Independent Diplomat and Occupy→

At a recent private meeting of peace mediators, I had a conversation I thought it worth recording.  My interlocutor, whom I shall call “C”, was someone with deep experience of the Middle East and terrorism: as a member of the intelligence service for a powerful country he had himself pursued direct contacts with Hamas, Hezbollah and others.  Now retired, he continues to do so today, but now his aim is reconciliation and mutual understanding among often-warring groups.  I asked him about something that has long bothered me.  For a long while, the West “talked to terrorist Continue reading Why the West stopped talking to terrorists: a theory of the “Chicago Schools”→

Continue reading Good Washington Post video on Western Sahara→

I was very lucky to be asked to speculate on the future as part of Triple Canopy’s series of lectures on this topic at the Museum of Modern Art, PS1 building in Queens, NYC.

Continue reading My Speculation on the future at the Museum of Modern Art, PS1, New York, courtesy of Triple Canopy→

I was invited to the Carnegie Council on International Ethics to talk about ethics and leadership.  As you will see, I don’t feel very qualified to offer judgements on this, but rather to offer lessons from my past as a diplomat on what NOT to do.

Continue reading Carnegie Council discussion on ethics→