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Prince William, the second in line to the British throne, just finished a trip to Afghanistan, which probably happened at the same time as Taliban gunmen failed to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a slew of international officials.
Despite Prince William’s safe return and President Karzai’s lucky escape, it should be clear to anyone that [...]

What are the connections between climate change and migration? Not as obvious as one might think… one of the conversations we’ve been having in the coffee break is the lack of hard evidence when it comes to the relationship(s) between development, conflict, and climate change and the increasing difficulty to demonstrate cause and effect. Rhetorically [...]

Later in the week half of the European Commission will go to Beijing. Playing Kissinger to EU President Barroso’s Nixon, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has prepared the way for his boss with a thoughtful speech to the China-Britain Business Council.
Instead of boycotting the Olympics, Mandelson argues that China should be treated with respect - but [...]

Barney Rubin has an excellent post updating on latest developments in Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas.  Start, he says, from a clear recognition of one thing at least: the US has no plan.  Here’s a graph from the US Government’s General Accountability Office which proves the point:

Note especially the amount being allocated to political reform, [...]

And now for the latest instalment of “how not to do public diplomacy”.  Last time, readers will recall, we observed with interest as Chinese government sources called the Dalai Lama a terrorist and implied that he might be a Nazi.  Later, of course, it transpired that these comments were merely a prelude, a limbering up [...]

Australia’s PM Kevin Rudd - who as David noted is “surely the wonkiest head of state ever” - continues to charm the pants off everyone he comes across. 
While Gordon Brown manages to annoy everyone with his foreign policy equivocations (FT: “He will not be going to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, but that should [...]

Barney Rubin does know how to start a blog post:
Last week I was at a meeting in Madrid to discuss a “Political Solution” to the conflict in Afghanistan. Among the topics discussed was prospects for talking to the Taliban. I was surprised, however, at how literally some of the participants seemed to take it. One [...]

Avaaz’s current petition, calling on China to begin “meaningful dialogue” with the Dalai Lama, looks set to pass has now passed the one million signature mark some time later today, which will make making it comfortably the largest petition ever organised on the internet.  Sign it here.
[Update: and they've also just won political video of the [...]

The Economist’s James Miles is the only foreign correspondent with official approval to be in Tibet.  More photos here. 
Security is particularly intense in the Tibetan quarter itself. Helmeted riot police are posted every few metres along its narrow, winding alleyways. Residents are subjected to identity checks as they walk around. In the heart of the district, [...]

While China is blocking websites in the hope of preventing news of security force brutality from seeping out, Xinhua is busy denouncing the Dalai Lama as a “master terror maker”. In fact,
The Dalai Lama and his clique have never for a day refrained from violence and terror. His childhood teacher, an Austrian, was a Nazi…
You have to be [...]

Interesting to read the argument made today that China’s overseas diplomacy has in some cases - like Sudan - been “hijacked” by state-owned companies like PetroChina, that are alleged to have become “very powerful interest groups” in their own right.
Very interesting to see who’s making it: scholars at “leading Chinese think-tanks and universities in Beijing“, [...]

Meanwhile, on the Time magazine blog, Simon Elegant has been sitting in on Wen Jiabao’s ‘work report’ to delegates at the National People’s Congress.
It took two and half hours but there was no question then and in subsequent comments by senior officials that inflation is very much on their minds. Wen said their target for the year [...]

The tiny Pacific small island state of Palau has just announced that it’ll be formally requesting protection from the Security Council on climate change and rising sea levels- and co-sponsoring a binding Security Council Resolution calling for mandatory emissions caps. 
It’s not the first time that climate change has appeared on the Security Council’s agenda (the [...]

Paddy Ashdown is in trenchant mood in today’s FT.
With fighting in Afghanistan now entering its seventh year, no agreed international strategy, public support on both sides of the Atlantic crumbling, Nato in disarray and widening insecurity in Afghanistan, defeat is now a real possibility. The consequences for both Afghanistan and its allies would be appalling: [...]

On Saturday, I wrote about the black mood that’s gripping Pakistan, with many here asking whether the country faces a descent into chaos.
So, how serious is the threat?
Very, if you believe the 2007 Failed States Index, which places Pakistan twelfth, only a couple of points behind its neighbour, Afghanistan. The country was 36th in 2005.
Pakistan’s [...]

James Kirchik, writing in the New Republic, discusses the “admittedly bizarre rumor circulating at the United Nations and the State Department, where many are speculating that Khalilzad–currently America’s ambassador to the United Nations and the highest-ranking Muslim to serve in the Bush administration–is contemplating a run for Karzai’s job”.  Kirchik continues:
…Khalilzad himself has done little to [...]

Here’s some video I took of yesterday’s violent confrontation between Pakistan’s police and its lawyers - a clash in which there were 12 arrests and 30 injuries.
I haven’t had time to do more than sew a few clips together - but you’ll see the police preparing to break up the demo, as the call for [...]

The ‘inbreeding’ row, sparked by Environment Minister (!) Phil Woolas, is yet to reach Pakistan - but it will and the consequences are sure to be ugly.
As far as I can tell, Woolas’s remarks were made to the Sunday Times and triggered an article with the headline: Minister warns of ‘inbred’ Muslims. On Sky News, [...]

As I write, police here in Islamabad are just finishing breaking up a demonstration by Pakistan’s lawyers. The lawyers had been holding a convention and were attempting to march on the enclave where the city’s judges live - in support of the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The authorities were having none of it. An [...]

Pakistan’s election will be held on the 18th – Monday week – and the campaign has already proved a violent one.
“Gujrat is a district where violence and bloodshed during the election campaigning and polling is considered a routine matter,” Iqtidar Gilani writes in the Nation. “Display of weapons as a show of strength is also [...]

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