Global Dashboard

Archives for the ‘Off topic’ Category

Scarcity issues arrive in the world of Icanhascheezburger

March 10, 2010 | by Alex Evans | More on Climate and resource scarcity, Off topic | No comments

(H/t Icanhascheezburger’s sister site, Ihasahotdog.com.)



How not to tweet an obituary

March 3, 2010 | by Richard Gowan | More on Off topic, UK | No comments

I’m rather fond of David Miliband’s blogging and twittering. But his initial tweet in response to the news of Michael Foot’s death hit the wrong note:

Michael Foot led a remarkable life. I remember meeting him on the Tube in the 80s; for a famous speaker he really listened.

Erm… This is doubtless an unfortunate mash-up of well-intentioned thoughts.  The Foreign Secretary’s next tweet – about Foot’s hatred for apartheid – was back on the mark.   But it’s always a good idea not to insert oneself into tributes to others…



What it means to forget

February 23, 2010 | by David Steven | More on Off topic | No comments

Yesterday, a British police dog handler was found guilty of animal cruelty after leaving his two Alsatians in the back of a boiling car. His defence? He forgot they were there.

British tabloid, the Sun is up in arms. Its headline: “Let off…Cop who left dogs to bake.” For some bizarre reason, its website has pictures from the RSPCA of each of the dead dogs.

How can someone leave two large dogs in a car by mistake? Quite easily. Because parents – doting and otherwise competent parents – do the same thing with their children more often than you’d like to think. And if the weather is hot (or cold) enough, the children die:

An otherwise loving and attentive parent one day gets busy, or distracted, or upset, or confused by a change in his or her daily routine, and just… forgets a child is in the car. It happens that way somewhere in the United States 15 to 25 times a year, parceled out through the spring, summer and early fall. The season is almost upon us.

Two decades ago, this was relatively rare. But in the early 1990s, car-safety experts declared that passenger-side front airbags could kill children, and they recommended that child seats be moved to the back of the car; then, for even more safety for the very young, that the baby seats be pivoted to face the rear. If few foresaw the tragic consequence of the lessened visibility of the child . . . well, who can blame them? What kind of person forgets a baby?

The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.

Last year it happened three times in one day, the worst day so far in the worst year so far in a phenomenon that gives no sign of abating.

(more…)



Red snippets

February 14, 2010 | by Richard Gowan | More on East Asia and Pacific, Influence and networks, Off topic | No comments

I don’t like cell phones.  Never have, never will.  Reading this, I like them even less:

You’re not supposed to send dirty jokes by mobile phone in China, but don’t worry: service providers have some other great, inspiring content that has the government’s enthusiastic support.

Today’s Economic Daily includes a short article on “red snippets” (红段子) the positive, uplifting text messages that are now being rolled out on a national scale after a successful five-year trial in Guangdong and a few other places.

These messages have a dual purpose: taking the place of the dirty jokes and mocking attacks on the establishment that are the focus of the latest mobile content clean-up campaign is only one half of their role. Officials from the government and major industry players are also talking about using positive SMS to build up “the spirit of Chinese culture for an Internet age,” a sort of soft power against the encroachment of vulgar American pop culture.

Xie Zhenhua, the China Mobile Communications Association official who is the public face of the project, says they’re the modern equivalent of Tang poetry or the Three Character Classic. One example cited by most articles was forwarded more than 150,000 times the year it was created: “China’s rise and the people’s prosperity: we work hand in hand toward that glorious day.”

I just thought that being a new superpower would be more, you know, fun.



The UN: sending laziness viral

February 12, 2010 | by Richard Gowan | More on Conflict and security, Economics and development, Off topic | No comments

“Meandering” is an excellent new-ish blog on peacekeeping and its discontents by Ed Rees, who works for the Peace Dividend Trust.  Ed recently asked readers with UN experience to contribute anonymously to a “working list of what host communities ‘pick up’ from peacekeepers” (with the important qualification that “STDs don’t count”).  Here’s a sample of the answers he’s got so far:

• A taste for double standards
• Disrespect for rule of law & due process
• Poor morals
• Poor discipline
• A poor work ethic
• A ID card fetish
• A propensity towards meaningless platitudes – ie “this is the year of development”
• A lack of accountability
• A Big Car fetish
• Having a driver to ferry one to important meetings in one’s Big Car
• Obsession with titles and status
• Posters announcing important initaitives that are adorned with many logos
• Long lunches
• Organograms
• The inability to fire people, rather selecting a move them up option
• Making “decisions by committee”, resulting in no decision
• An understanding that money derives not from labor but from being at the right place at the right time
• Keen understanding of the micro-gradations in classiness cocktail party venues
• Precise knowledge of per diem rates for international organizations

This one will run and run…



AIDS – the wrong answer

February 5, 2010 | by David Steven | More on Off topic | No comments



FBI: Bin Laden cunningly disguised as Bin Laden

January 15, 2010 | by Richard Gowan | More on Conflict and security, Europe and Central Asia, North America, Off topic | 2 comments

The big problem with catching Osama bin Laden is that everyone has forgotten what he looks like.  That, or he’s hiding in an ungoverned quarter of Pakistan.  One of those two.  Just in case it’s #1, the FBI has put out new photos of what the world’s most wanted man might look like today.  Here’s the FBI’s best shot of our man pre-9/11:

And here he is as he might be today… perhaps living on your street, caring for your children, or maybe just hiding out in some ungoverned corner of Pakistan:

Whoa! I mean… who’d have believed it?  Look at the guy.  It’s almost impossible to think it could be the same person.  For a start, he has got rid of the blanket over his shoulder.  And everyone (MI6, CIA) thought that the Bin-man wouldn’t go anywhere – like, for example, a well-guarded cave in an ungoverned quarter of Pakistan – without his beloved safety blanket.  He’s like Linus in Peanuts: no blanket, no identity.

And the turban!!! Where’s the cheeky bit of extra cloth flapping about? Gone. Is there nothing this man won’t do to hide his whereabouts?  He’s even started wearing (look closely) a brown shirt with a silver floral pattern!  Lucky the FBI put that photo out.  Without it, hell, anyone could have stumbled upon a well-guarded cave somewhere in, ooh, the Afghan-Pakistan border area, and met this blanket-free, small-turbaned, crap-shirted dude and thought “hey, isn’t that… no, my bad, that’s definitely not OBL. No resemblance.   Sorry about that fine sir, I’ll be on my way…”.



Beat the recession (Punch it! Kick it!!)

January 11, 2010 | by Richard Gowan | More on Economics and development, North America, Off topic | No comments

New York State’s constantly-on-the-ropes Governor David Paterson has just come up with an excellent plan to boost economic recovery:

Gov. Paterson is pushing to legalize ultimate fighting in New York, claiming the unrestrained mixed-martial arts events will make a quick buck for the state’s troubled economy. If he gets his wish, the cage fighting exhibitions, which have been banned in the area since 1997, could take place not only in upstate arenas but in Madison Square Garden.

The controversy over the Brazilian-inspired fighting championships began when John McCain called the blood sport “repugnant” thirteen years ago. The practice was banned in 36 states, including NY, and some reforms were adopted. The UFC introduced weight classes and gloves and made kicks to a downed opponent, hair pulling, fish-hooking, headbutting, and groin strikes illegal. The championship also dropped its “There Are No Rules!” tagline.

Now proponents claim that the PG-13 version of the ultimate fighting is appropriate and necessary. “A study done in 2008 by the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization estimated one event would generate $11.5 million in economic activity in New York City and $5.2 million in Buffalo. Ultimate Fighting Championship estimates there could be two or three events a year in New York,” according to the NY Daily News. Paterson is slated to propose the legalization in his January 19 budget announcement.

Seriously? Why stop there, Governor? If we were to boot the Mets out of their lovely new Citi Field ballpark and turn it over to Roman-style gladitorial combat – possibly involving live tigers mauling slaves - then (i) we wouldn’t have to put up with the Mets being rubbish any longer, and (ii) you’d raise way over $11.5 million.



Afghans: cheerier than Americans

January 11, 2010 | by Richard Gowan | More on Conflict and security, Europe and Central Asia, North America, Off topic | No comments

Some unexpected data comes in from the BBC:

Of more than 1,500 Afghans questioned, 70% said they believed Afghanistan was going in the right direction – a big jump from 40% a year ago. Of those questioned, 68% now back the presence of US troops in Afghanistan, compared with 63% a year ago.

The survey was conducted in all of the country’s 34 provinces in December 2009. In 2009 only 51% of those surveyed had expected improvement and 13% thought conditions would deteriorate. But in the latest survey 71% said they were optimistic about the situation in 12 months’ time, compared with 5% who said it would be worse.

Compare that with these Gallup figures, released last week:

Sixty-three percent of Americans describe their outlook for the United States during the next 20 years as “very optimistic” or “optimistic.” Americans expressed greater optimism about the country’s future near the beginning of the 1990s and 2000s, but the current level optimism exceeds that of Americans heading into the 1980s.

So, there you go: there’s 7% more hope in Afghanistan!



Travelling in style

January 10, 2010 | by Mark Weston | More on Africa, Off topic | 3 comments

We achieved the record for a ’sept places’ (seven-seater) the other day. This is considered the most luxurious form of transport in this part of West Africa. It consists of a Peugeot or Renault estate car slightly modified with an extra row of seats where the boot should be. It is designed to seat seven plus the driver.

If you are seated in the front or middle rows, it is fairly comfortable, provided of course that you don’t object to clouds of dust billowing in through the uncloseable windows, chickens pecking around your feet, or spray from the driver’s spittle occasionally flying in your face.

If you are seated in the back, however, it is less luxurious. You then have to choose either to bend your legs double in front of you so that they are folded tight against your chest (and these cars never stop during the journey, so your knees may be folded for seven hours straight, as mine were on our first sept places journey), or to put your legs on the floor and instead have your head rammed up hard against the metal ceiling. Shifting from one buttock to the other, moreover, to avoid contracting haemmorhoids from the rock-hard seats, is impossible – there is no room.

The middle row is only comfortable, of course, if the driver sticks to the 7-person limit. Often, however, he cannot resist the temptation to fit a few more in. Sometimes there are four people in a row designed to squeeze in three, turning the sept places into a neuf places. This is uncomfortable, but not the worst of all possible worlds.

The other day our driver allowed no less than 16 passengers (plus 3 chickens) into one of these cars. There were people standing up! They were leaning from the rear row over the middle row, where Ebru and I were seated with three others and the chickens. Astonishingly, nobody complained when we stopped to let in more passengers – when there are fourteen of you in a car designed for seven, after all, a couple more bodies doesn’t make that much difference.

The driver was not satisfied with our discomfort. He decided to make the journey even more challenging by giving us a demonstration of his driving skills. He seemed to have only recently passed (or bribed his way through) his driving test, for he looked extremely nervous. Sweat poured down his long hooked nose from under his white Muslim cap. He gripped the wheel tightly, and hunched over it to be closer to the road surface. Then, every time he reached down to change gear, he lost control and the car veered into the middle of the road. This behaviour provoked some complaints from the passengers; we were lucky the road was virtually deserted, so that when he regained control of the wheel we were still intact.

Near the end of the journey, a rotund, stern-looking woman passenger asks him to stop to let her out. “Where?” he asked. “At the mango tree.” The road is lined on both sides, as far as the eye can see, with mango trees. “Which one?” asks the hapless driver, gripping the wheel and staring intently ahead. “That one there, straight ahead,” the woman replies, tutting at the driver’s stupidity. He keeps driving, bemused, sweat pouring down his black robe, until she shouts, “This one! Stop!” We screech to a halt, and are down to a more comfortable 15 again…



Peak oil, peak water… peak Christmas!

December 24, 2009 | by Alex Evans | More on Off topic | No comments

As regular readers will know, we’re always on the lookout for the latest emerging scarcity trend – so, in keeping with the seasonal mood, here’s why your Christmas tree seemed so pricey this year:

The price of trees has risen sharply for the second consecutive year because of the combination of a Europe-wide shortage and the weak pound. A 7ft Nordmann fir – the most popular variety – could now set you back between £40 and £50, up from £30-£40 in 2007.

“It’s very much a seller’s market,” says Ian Millward, managing director of Trees for Christmas, which sells about 8,000 trees wholesale each year. This year Mr Millward sold his entire stock before December 1, two weeks earlier than usual. “It’s certainly the worst shortage I’ve known. I’ve only been able to buy a finite supply of trees,” he says.

Thrillingly, it seems that falling prices a year or two ago led to a precipitous decline in investment, setting the stage for a supply crunch… just like oil!

The supply of Nordmanns from Denmark, the largest exporter of Christmas trees within the European Union, has fallen sharply since 2005 following a steep decline in prices, which caused growers to stop planting.

Peak oil, peak water, peak food… peak Christmas? 

Happily not, dear readers: in fact, there’s a silver lining in here for Britain. You may think that we don’t export much these days other than Collateralised Debt Obligations and The X Factor. But you’d be wrong:

Not only does the weak pound raise the price of imported trees, it also makes exporting a more attractive prospect for UK growers.

Britain to the rescue! The feelgood factor returns! Unfortunately, of course, in what’s probably a taste of what’s to come on the economic front in 2010, that means fewer trees available for those of us at home.

“We used to buy a lot of trees from Scotland but we just couldn’t get any from suppliers there this year,” says Richard Doubleday, owner of Sandon Garden Centre in Chelmsford. “It seems some growers sold out their stock to European buyers because they could get a better price due to the difference in the euro and the pound.”

So, it seems you can add Christmas tree growers to the National Shit List, along with bankers and MPs. Happy Christmas!



Nauru: cut the crap!

December 21, 2009 | by Richard Gowan | More on Cooperation and coherence, East Asia and Pacific, Economics and development, Europe and Central Asia, Global system, Off topic | 4 comments

A tragic tale from the Khaleej Times of the UAE:

At long last there is a foreign minister on the international scene with ice-cold blood in his veins and an uncomplicated, unemotional comprehension of national interest. His name is Kieren Keke. He carries the flag for Nauru, an eight-square-mile island-nation of 11,000 inhabitants in the South Pacific famous on two counts.

It is the smallest republic in the world, and its principal source of revenue was through the export of phosphates formed by bird droppings [guano]. That was undoubtedly the most valuable bird waste in history, but the republic killed the local version of the golden egg by selling more phosphate than the birds 
could drop.

When the money ran out, Nauru’s imagination blossomed. It invested millions of dollars from its national saving in a London musical. The musical flopped, wrecking the country’s bank balance. It then tried to solve Australia’s troublesome problem by providing a base for immigrants en route to the Pacific El Dorado, in return for suitable compensation. Regrettably, the refugees wanted refuge in Australia rather than amidst lost bird droppings.

But Nauru’s imagination remained fertile. In 2002 Nauru took $130 million from China to break relations with Taiwan. In 2006, presumably after this sweetener was exhausted, it reopened links with Taiwan. It is not known whether there was a financial angle to this decision, but the track record tells its own story. This year Nauru recognised Abkhazia [population: 215,000], one of two “nations” that Russia “liberated” from Georgia in 2008. The price: $50 million. Mr Keke has also paid a visit to the second region, South Ossetia, possibly with an accountant as travelling companion. The message has gone to every chancery: if the price is right, Nauru, a full member of the United Nations, will oblige.

(more…)



Ban Ki-moon: signed, sealed, delivered!

December 16, 2009 | by Richard Gowan | More on Cooperation and coherence, Off topic | No comments

It’s Stevie Wonder with one of his biggest fans!

Stevie Wonder Photo



Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

December 15, 2009 | by Alex Evans | More on Off topic | 2 comments

… but I think I have just discovered the greatest quotation of all time.

It is 1987. Mike Tyson is harrassing a little-known model called Naomi Campbell at a swanky drinks party in New York. Seeing a damsel in distress, who should ride to her rescue but… AJ Ayer!

Now read on:

TYSON: Do you know who the fuck I am? I’m the heavyweight champion of the world.

AYER: And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men.



Welcome to Gropenhagen

December 4, 2009 | by Alex Evans | More on Climate and resource scarcity, Off topic | One comment

Newsflash just in from Der Spiegel:

Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference. Now, the prostitutes have struck back, offering free sex to anyone who produces one of the warnings.

Copenhagen’s city council in conjunction with Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards out to 160 Copenhagen hotels urging COP15 guests and delegates to ‘Be sustainable – don’t buy sex’. “Dear hotel owner, we would like to urge you not to arrange contacts between hotel guests and prostitutes,” the approach to hotels says.

Now, Copenhagen prostitutes are up in arms, saying that the council has no business meddling in their affairs. They have now offered free sex to anyone who can produce one of the offending postcards and their COP15 identity card, according to the Web site avisen.dk.

Full marks for feistiness, tactical judgement and PR aplomb there, then. If this is any indication of the kind of screw-you approach the Danes will be taking to chairing the summit, then we’re in good hands. So to speak.



19/03 16:09 The Shrine Down the Hall Bedrooms of America's young war dead - slide show
17/03 16:51 Merkel supports eurozone 'red card' Germany steps up pressure on Eurozone weaklings.
16/03 18:56 Institutional Development: How the G-20 May Help the World's Poor - Brookings Institution What to make of Korean President Lee Myung-bak's decision to include development as an 'integral' part of the G20 agenda
16/03 11:22 Icelandic banks deliberately weakened krona before collapse Short trading by the banks against the krona amounted to around ISK 1,000 billion (USD 7.93 billion at today’s rate) before the 2008 banking collapse, according to economist Bjarni Kristjansson.
16/03 11:14 The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story Apparently, Petraeus has warned the White House that American policy on Israel is damaging broader US interests.
14/03 11:38 Nicolas Sarkozy 'angry at David Cameron over dwarf jibe' They're calling it dwarfgate.
14/03 11:27 Bogus TV report of Russian invasion panics Georgia "Although the broadcast was introduced as a simulation of possible events, the warning was lost on many Georgians."
13/03 16:38 Glenn Beck Denounces "Born In The USA" as Anti-American Twenty-six years after the release of Bruce Springsteen's hit song, conservative talk show host/performance artist Glenn Beck finally got around to listening to the lyrics.
13/03 13:31 On the Spot with Kim Jong-il Photos of the North Korean leader making "on-the-spot" guidance visits.
13/03 13:31 A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things Photos of the US President trying to look interested.
12/03 18:54 The amazing true story of Zeitoun Katrina and the War On Terror - mixed together in the injustice done to a New Orleans' hero.
12/03 16:43 I am not afraid of my Toyota Prius Could Toyota's problems simply be a case of modern hysteria?
12/03 14:01 Wolfgang Schauble’s torture chamber "The German government is essentially proposing chucking weaklings out of the euro."
12/03 09:54 It’s In the Bag! Teenager Wins Science Fair, Solves Massive Environmental Problem | Discover Magazine Canadian schoolkid's science experiment figures out how to dispose of plastic bags in 6 weeks instead of a thousand years
11/03 13:27 State Department plans 7 new posts in public diplomacy | Washington Times Officials to be assigned to the department's regional bureaus in effort to integrate public diplomacy into the policy process
10/03 17:22 The Foreign Policy Framework of a New Conservative Government | William Hague Shadow Foreign Secretary calls for "Britain to work harder to exert her influence rather than to accept a decline in it. "
10/03 15:45 Cathy Ashton speech to the European Parliament | europa.eu EU High Representative outlines her vision for the future of European foreign policy
10/03 15:11 South African tourism minister nominated for top UN climate job Marthinus van Schalkwyk nominated to replace Yvo de Boer.
10/03 13:05 Time to stock up on "survival seeds"! Seeds are the new gold.
10/03 09:37 Tories plan fast-track review of defence | FT Hague: defence review likely to be complete by November 2010 and to encompass national security and foreign policy
09/03 15:26 Think Progress » Palin Admits To Travelling To Canada For Health Care "We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn’t that ironic?"
09/03 09:46 Why Europe needs its own IMF | FT Giancarlo Corsetti and Harold James: a European Monetary Fund is needed "through which support operations can be calmly negotiated without exciting political passions."
08/03 08:59 Interview with Dambisa Moyo | New Statesman Moyo: "Standard models of economic development have three ingredients: capital, labour and technology. I'm looking at how government policies on these have yielded bad outcomes."
05/03 11:19 Hacking human gullibility with social penetration The easiest way into a computer network is by tricking the people who use it.
05/03 10:02 EU faces bitter battle over control of foreign policy | FT David Miliband and Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, voice concerns in a letter to Cathy Ashton about the European External Action Service (EEAS)
05/03 09:01 Theatre of war | The Times Ten questions the Chilcot Inquiry should ask Gordon Brown
04/03 12:49 Hassan touted by supporters as best choice for climate post Indonesians want their ex-foreign minister to take over from Yvo de Boer at the UNFCCC.
04/03 12:39 Romney’s ‘No Apology’ Outlines Foreign Policy for Fantasy World Frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination for President loves his zero-sum geopolitics.
03/03 18:34 Fractional-reserve banking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia If you don't understand this stuff, then you should
03/03 16:11 Fog Catchers Bring Water to Parched Villages - National Geographic With a few thousand dollars and some volunteer labor, a village can set up fog-collecting nets that gather hundreds of gallons of water a day—without a single drop of rain
03/03 11:12 Cathy Ashton interviewed on the Today programme | BBC Radio 4 Ashton addresses critics, saying "i've not yet developed the capacity for time-travel"
28/02 16:48 Could Britain Re-Take The Falkland Islands Again? Probably not - too few ships, military over-stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, not much money to spare.
27/02 23:55 A parable about how one nation came to financial ruin. - By Charles Munger - Slate Magazine Why the US and the UK are screwed, by Warren Buffett's deputy at Berkshire Hathaway
27/02 22:25 100 Items to Disappear First Your supermarket looting list, in order of priority, should you find yourself facing the end of the world as you know it.
27/02 22:23 The World Without Us - Alan Weisman Q: Which part of our legacy will last forever? A: The TV and radio waves making their way through space.
27/02 22:18 Swiss face 'holy war' with Gadhafi's Libya - washingtonpost.com Switzerland unsure how seriously to take El Jefe's declaration of jihad in retaliation for their brief detention of his son in 2008
27/02 22:15 Subjects of UN Security Council Vetoes - Global Policy Forum Interesting factoid: the only times the UK has EVER used its Security Council veto on its own (without US or France) have been on S Rhodesia / Zimbabwe.
27/02 22:11 Freedom Ship - the City at Sea Cruise ship meets tax haven meets aircraft carrier
27/02 17:44 Congressman Tom Perriello On The Senate Stalling On Climate Change Legislation What happens when one of the founders of Avaaz.org gets elected to Congress
27/02 15:15 Kids' Center — Central Intelligence Agency Hi kids! Want to hear a story about our network of secret prisons?
Source: GLOABL Dashboard Reading List Pipes
Articles & Publications
Stop Betting the House talk

Talk given by David Steven at Gresham College on risk and resilience in the UK housing market, as part of a Long Finance Roundtable meeting (March 2010)

Time to Stop Betting the House: a response to the FSA

Report by David Steven in response to the FSA’s Mortgage Market Review

Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization: Risk, Resilience and International Order

Brookings Institution report by Alex Evans, Bruce Jones and David Steven on how globalisation could fail – and how it could be made more resilient. Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary World Economic Forum in Davos.

Hitting Reboot – where next for climate after Copenhagen

Report by Alex Evans and David Steven analysing the post-Copenhagen context on climate change, including a proposed 12 point action plan. Written for the Brookings Institution / NYU Center on International Cooperation Managing Global Insecurity programme.

Climate Change and Hunger: Responding to the challenge

World Food Programme report on the state of the science on what climate change means for hunger, plus policy recommendations. Authored by IPCC Impacts Chair Martin Parry with Mark Rosengrant, Tim Wheeler and Global Dashboard’s Alex Evans (December 2009)

Scarcity, security and institutional reform

Presentation by Alex Evans to a seminar organised for the UN Department of Political Affairs by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (August 2009)

The Resilience Doctrine

Article on risk and resilience by Alex Evans and David Steven – part of a special in World Politics Review on risk and resilience in a globalized age (July 2009)

An Institutional Architecture for Climate Change

Report by Alex Evans and David Steven exploring the future international institutional requirements for managing climate change, and including three scenarios for climate institutions between now and 2030. Commissioned by the UK Department for International Development. (May 2009)

Risks and Resilience in the New Global Era

Article by Alex Evans and David Steven exploring resilience as a political agenda – part of a special edition of Renewal on the transformation of foreign policy (February 2009)

A Tale of Two Cities

Climate and cities think piece, co-authored by David Steven and the British Council’s Peter Upton (29 January 2009)

The Feeding of the Nine Billion

Chatham House pamphlet by Alex Evans on how scarcity issues will shape the outlook for global food production, and the actions that policymakers need to take at the international level and in developing countries to ensure food security in the 21st century

2009 – A Year for International Reform

Paper by David Steven, presented to “Reforming International Institutions – Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century,” a conference organized by the United Nations University and the British Embassy in Tokyo (Jan 2009).

Food prices: what next?

Speech by Alex Evans at the Tomorrow Network (25 November 2008)

A Bretton Woods II Worthy of the Name

Paper by Alex Evans and David Steven on financial reform and wider multilateralism, published ahead of the G20 ‘Bretton Woods II’ Summit (November 2008).

The Future of Resilience

Speech by David Steven to RUSI Conference on UK Resilience (8 October 2008)

Towards a Theory of Influence

Chapter by Alex Evans and David Steven in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office publication, ‘Engagement: public diplomacy in a globalised world’ (July 2008).
Download Chapter

Multilateralism for an Age of Scarcity

Draft report by Alex Evans exploring multilateral system reforms needed in order to manage resource scarcity issues more effectively. The final version will be published in early 2010 (July 2008)

Scarcity issues and conflict in Africa

Speech by Alex Evans at UK Parliament (8 July 2008)

A Low Carbon World – Pathways to a Global Deal

Speech by David Steven at the UNU G8 Symposium (4 July 2008)

Climate, scarcity and multilateralism

Speech by Alex Evans to United Nations Association UK (7 June 2008)

The new public diplomacy and Afghanistan

Speech by David Steven to the UK Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group seminar on Strategic Communications, Public Diplomacy and Afghanistan (4 June 2008).

Technology and Public Diplomacy

Speech by David Steven to the University of Westminster Symposium on Transformational Public Diplomacy (30 April 2008).

Rising Food Prices: Drivers and Implications for Development

Briefing paper by Alex Evans, published through Chatham House’s food programme (April 2008).

Looking Forward: how do we build resilience?

Speech by David Steven to RUSI Conference on Critical National Infrastructure (16 April 2008).

Shooting the Rapids: multilateralism and global risks

Paper by Alex Evans and David Steven, commissioned by Gordon Brown and presented to heads of state at the Progressive Governance Summit (April 2008).

Beyond a Zero-Sum Game on Climate Change

Chapter by Alex Evans and David Steven, as part of the British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020 book ‘Talking Trans-Atlantic’ (March 2008).

From Bali to Copenhagen: towards an endgame for global climate policy?

Article by Alex Evans for the Environmental Policy & Law Journal (January 2008).

Climate Change: The State of the Debate

Report by Alex Evans and David Steven, written for the London Accord (December 2007).

The Post-Kyoto Bidding War: bringing developing countries into the fold

New paper by Alex Evans on climate policy after 2012 from the Center on International Cooperation (October 2007).

Alternative CSR: the Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Chapter on the FCO from Manchester University Press’s Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review, by David Steven (September 2007).

Fixing the UK’s Foreign Policy Apparatus: A Memo to Gordon Brown

Note by Alex Evans and David Steven about how to restructure the UK’s foreign policy system in order to manage trans-boundary global risks better (April 2007).

Evaluation and the New Public Diplomacy

Talk given by David Steven at the Wilton Park conference: The Future of Public Diplomacy. Focuses on strategies to drive public diplomacy to the heart of the foreign policy armoury (March 2007).

Articles and Publications

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Churchill band of the future | Comment

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Natalia Shakhova: permafrost failing | Comment

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Ku Klux Klan 2010 Rally in South Georgia | Comments Off

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1st accurate model of cause/effect in the global economy | Comments Off

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Taiwan’s take on Gordon (FF to 35 seconds in; h/t Dizzy Thinks) | Comments Off

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Daily Mail lies about Facebook (updated x7)

Daily Mail lies about Facebook. Facebook sues. Exclusive.

Back to Realism

Transnational factors and threats should make state-centric approaches fall apart, in theory – but in practice, today’s statesment seem extraordinarily adept at sticking with “national interest”-based thinking.

Time to Stop Betting the House

Today, I launch a new paper on risk and resilience in the UK housing market. The report calls for a fundamental shift in the way in which the UK mortgage market is regulated and the how it operates.
The paper is published by the Long Finance Foundation, which is a counter to [...]

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Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization

Brookings Institution report by Alex Evans, Bruce Jones and David Steven on how globalisation could fail – or be made more resilient. Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary World Economic Forum in Davos.

The best news on climate change for months. Maybe.

Bono endorses contraction and convergence – potentially kicking off a major (and long overdue) strategic rethink on climate change among NGOs and civil society

Copenfailure: a first analysis

A very rough first analysis of the Copenhagen Outcome, two hours after the summit finished.

How we talk about climate change

We’re kidding ourselves if we think that “green collar jobs” will persuade people to take serious action on climate change. A deeper narrative is required.

The window of opportunity on scarcity issues starts to close (updated x3)

With oil and food prices already back to July 07 levels, have policymakers missed the window of opportunity to take action when prices eased after the credit crunch?