What is a failed state? Not so long ago, when I was Britain’s Overseas development minister, and later European commissioner for External Affairs, I would...
I first visited the United States in 1965 on a student scholarship funded by a generous Boston philanthropist. Ever since that trip, which took me from New...
I do not know Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, very well. She worked for my administration when I was governor there. Diligent and well...
Thirty years ago last month, I was in Beijing as a British development minister for the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank. But what took place at...
I first visited Sri Lanka as Britain’s development minister in the 1980s, during the early stages of the vicious war between guerrilla fighters the so-called...
The game of chicken is simple to describe but dangerous to play. Based on evolutionary game theory, it was sometimes used to describe nuclear brinkmanship...
I recently saw an American play in London called “Sweat,” written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Lynn Nottage. It was performed previously on and off...
Day after day, week after week, most British citizens think that the turmoil over their country’s proposed exit from the European Union cannot get any worse....
British members of Parliament will soon have to make one of the most difficult political decisions of their lives. The choice is between approving the Brexit...
When was the last time you sat down and wrote a letter? I don’t mean an email or a text message; nor would I count a dictated message to a machine or a...
In a 2013 news conference, then-recently inaugurated Pope Francis famously said that, when it comes to sexual orientation, including past homosexual acts,...
Shares in strongman leaders seem to be falling. The market has not yet turned bearish, but autocrats have little reason to feel bullish.Consider China. The...
In the United Kingdom, Brexit looms large, with everyone from government ministers to tabloid newspapers frothing daily about the deal that will be struck...
It has been nearly two years since the United Kingdom narrowly voted in favor of leaving the European Union. As the march toward Brexit – formally set for the...
This spring, British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government is being reminded of just how powerful – and long-lasting – the unintended...
Almost exactly 20 years ago, after months of delicate and difficult negotiation, leaders of Northern Ireland’s two main political camps – Catholic...
Imagine that you, like me, are a typical product of Western liberal democracy, and are invited to give a lecture to a group of Chinese students in Beijing or...
Thirty years ago, a colleague of mine in the British government who had ministerial responsibilities in Africa and Asia hung the world map in his office...
After U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent visit to China, it can only be a matter of time before right-wing media outlets like Breitbart News and Fox News...
An anecdote about U.S. President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 has long been regarded as confirmation of the long view of history taken by Chinese...
Visiting Hong Kong is a true pleasure. With its modern architecture towering around the busy harbor, that great and exciting city must rank among the world’s...
To the great poet T.S. Eliot, “April is the cruelest month.” But in 2017, the world’s politicians could be forgiven for thinking that September is more...
Nowadays, the West can be described as decadent. That does not mean simply that we are addicted to “bread and circuses,” from welfare programs in Europe...
While I was governor of Hong Kong, from 1992 until the handover of the city to China in 1997, I kept a diary. Consulting that diary over the last few months,...
As I strolled through Paris the other day, the air was warm, the sky was blue, and I felt like I was in the best of all possible worlds. As always, Paris...