Michael Jackson: the foreign policy angle (updated)

by | Jun 25, 2009


Update: I wondered last night where Breaking News had picked up its David Miliband quote.  Turns out it was from the Foreign Secretary’s own Twitter feed. The Guardian and Telegraph have both now picked up on the story. Just one problem – @David_Miliband is not actually written by the man himself, but by some bloggers linked to the UK Independence Party. Oops. My bad. Expect an embarrassed retraction from the papers soon as well. This, by the way, is what verified accounts are for.

Michael Jackson dead

Michael Jackson’s death was confirmed within the past hour – but already the foreign policy community is digesting the news. According to Breaking News, [fake – see above] David Miliband has consoled the world. “Never has one soared so high and yet dived so low,” he commented, transcending at a stroke Tony Blair’s “people’s princess” tribute to Diana.

The Twitter user, badjournalism, meanwhile, brings a much-needed a military angle, “Rumours circulating that General Sir Mike Jackson to do the 02 gigs,” he says.

Author

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.


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