Category: “foreign policy”

I was in Paris for part of the aftermath of former Presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s spectacular fall. The mood in the Parti Socialiste at the time was one of real anxiety, for all the considerable unpopularity of President Sarkozy. DSK had looked like a shoo in not just for the candidature but for the Presidency. [...]

By Joe Hewitt “Sometimes it is hell on the streets but when I play football I feel as if I’m in heaven.” Thamires, Brazil. Football is accessible even to those who have the least in this world, providing street children around the globe with fun, hope, companionship and confidence for a brighter future away from [...]

If, as is being widely suggested, Francois Hollande wins the French elections, and Nicolas Sarkozy becomes a rare, single-term President, there are one or two lessons David Cameron might try to draw on … once he has repaired the damage done to Anglo-French relations by effectively endorsing Sarko. The main lesson relates to hyperactivity. When [...]

I just did a short interview on Five Live on the fall-out (literally in the case of relations between Britain and Italy) from the failed attempt to rescue two hostages in Nigeria. I was preceded by an Italian politician who was venting her spleen at David Cameron’s failure to consult his Italian opposite number until [...]

Yes that was me tweeting in German last night, digging into my modern languages education to remember all I could, and surprised how much that was. Truth is, as I am about to say to a conference in Berlin when I speak in English, French is the dominant foreign language in my head, and when [...]

Endlich, enfin, AT BLOODY LAST … Europe’s leaders are starting to realise that they might have to do something beyond enjoying the scenery in Davos to address the problem of youth unemployment. This morning’s Observer leads on the raising of jobs and the young to the top of the agenda for the upcoming EU summit. [...]

I don’t know which papers Lord Leveson reads, but assuming he flicks through them all as he presides over his inquiry into the press, he will be getting a very good example of the fusion of news and comment right now. There are pro Europe papers and there are rather more, and louder, anti Europe [...]

With thanks to my favourite Elvis impersonator, Mark Wright aka@kingswimg72, I bring you his excellent tweet in response to mine asking the question ‘how many of our most important decisions do we make at 4am?’ ’4am is time partners get drunk, argue and break up. The following morning they have to break it to the [...]

Another day, another summit, another round of ups and downs, then stand by for another set of bold declarations that Europe’s leaders have found the solutions to the current crisis … again. With every step of crisis management that doesn’t quite work, they take another reputational hit. How refreshing it would be if, instead of [...]

I’m off to Dunkirk today for a conference of French communications professionals, Cap’ Com, asking themselves whether the public still believe ‘la communication publique.’ The answer is that sometimes some of the public do, and sometimes some of them don’t. ‘Twas ever thus. It is probably fair to say though that people in advanced democracies [...]