Everyone knows what a Peace Support Operation (PSO) is – we’ve all seen it on TV. Intense deliberations in a high-level forum leading to a resolution by a representative international body to “do something”. Harried and sometimes exhausted looking negotiators ironing out wrinkles and soothing opposition. Discussions about [...]
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is an awkward beast. Looking for an identity and a purpose (despite the Dad’s Army like attempt to convey strategy and vision), it is still struggling with the implications of a merger more akin to pushing repelling magnets together whilst trying [...]
Time to put the red, white and blue at the disposal of a better world in which our shared values – currently much better articulated and enacted by Europe – deliver common benefit for all. Ukraine has set the cat amongst the pigeons. The war [...]
More questions than answers on the way forward for Tigray. But hope is not a good basis for strategic planning and wishing that the problem would go away is pointless. In such a context, results cannot be bought - rather grown over time. But the humanitarian clock [...]
After a period of exceptionalism, Tanzania's new President offers opportunities for change. But don't mistake an alignment of interests for an alignment of ideology. Be level headed and pragmatic about why and how change might happen in Tanzania. The opportunity now is to show that engagement can [...]
Following the merger of the FCO and DFID into a single Department to be known as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the task of integrating policy and programmes is underway. By all accounts, this task has taken on the characteristic of a number of choices – [...]
Boris Johnson has announced the merger of DFID into the FCO. He cites the need to fully integrate all arms of foreign policy into a single coherent whole as his motivation. But the characterisation of DFID as a lone wolf or a “cash point in the sky” is [...]
COVID-19 (C19) is throwing out the normal rule book; and causing everyone to have to think again about what they do, how they do it and why. There has been a rapid re-purposing of almost everything, demanding a much sharper clarity of purpose. Resources are being aligned to the [...]
In a world beset by COVID-19 (C19), the scope to miss other important signs of change or tension is great. In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia features in quite a number situation, some of which are coming to a head quietly and in the background. It is as [...]
There is no doubt that COVID-19 is a massive change. Many, many assumptions have been tested and found wanting; and many people are wondering what to do next, how to adapt, and what the future holds. But there are limits to conventional programming. Adaptive programming, long theoretical [...]