Conflicts Forum

By Mark Perry, Bitterlemons, June 12, 2008
The prime minister of His Majesty’s Government, the rotund Lord North–reputed (falsely) to be the bastard son of George III–once sniffed to his cabinet that if it were not for the interference of France, the American colonists would surely return to the loving arms of their mother country. He […]

By Alastair Crooke, The Guardian, June 1, 2008
Sir Hugh Orde speaks rarely heard truth when he says that he has never heard of a terrorist campaign that was “policed out”, adding that he could not think of one that had not ended through negotiation.
There has been an unshakeable faith in Europe that western law-enforcement officers […]

By Alastair Crooke, Conflicts Forum, May 11, 2008
“But what if nobody takes notice?” is the question posed by Robert Malley and Hussein Agha in an article in the recent New York Review of Books concerning the putative ‘shelf agreement’ being discussed between President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert. A ‘shelf agreement’ is an exercise in […]

By Alastair Crooke, The Guardian, March 24, 2008
The French philosopher Michel Foucault notes that in all societies discourse is controlled - imperceptibly constrained, perhaps, but constrained nonetheless. We are not free to say exactly what we like. The norms set by institutions, convention and our need to keep within the boundaries of accepted behaviour and […]

By Mark Perry, Bitter Lemons, February 21, 2008
While it may be difficult to remember, George W. Bush was once considered a debater who could match wits with the likes of Al Gore and John Kerry. This judgment was the result, at least in part, of Bush’s uncanny ability to transform claims that he was stupid […]

A Conflicts Forum Monograph by Alastair Crooke, and an Interview with Ambassador Chester Crocker, February, 2008
In 2006, the United States Institute of Peace generously provided a grant to Conflicts Forum to conduct a research study on “Disarmament vs. Demilitarization” in the context of the current Lebanese political environment. The goal of the study is to […]