This site hosts my writing and media appearances including news about the documentary movie, Accidental Anarchist. I am a former British diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war. I founded the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat.
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
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:
Continue reading Chilcot Report: How Tony Blair Sold the War: My OpEd in NY Times
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.
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
“I Was Part of It”
This article was originally published in German for Die Zeit on 23 December 2015.
(translation below)
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”
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