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Peter Vale
Fifty Years On, Midway Through the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Report Card
The Cuban Missile Crisis remains of great interest to scholars, but a lack of public interest suggests that understanding how humans make history takes a little longer.
Understanding the World 50 Years Hence
It has become apparent how dependent IR is on hiding behind jargon. The work of economic historians provides a valuable guide to making things more intelligible.
Responsibility for Anders Breivik
The Norwegians may be living through a painful ordeal, or switching off, as they choose. Yet, the truth is that we are all responsible for Breivik and this terrible crime against humanity.
Postcard From the IR Zone
Will the IR-Zone always be, as Stanley Hoffman noted, an American discipline? Something other than an obsession with exercising America’s place and power in the world?
Honouring Mandela’s Legacy
South Africa’s achievements rest on interdependence and an unwavering belief in constitutionalism. This is Nelson Mandela’s lasting legacy.
Remembering Dag Hammarskjöld
This September will mark the 50th Anniversary of Hammarskjöld’s death in a plane-crash in the country now called Zambia. A Swedish diplomat, economist, and author, he was an early Secretary-General of the United Nations. How should we remember his life and his work?
A hectic season for IR junkies
This is a hectic season for IR junkies – another American-led war, several new African catastrophes, another crisis over the Euro, and (perhaps, best of all) the return of the nuclear issue. As these have arisen I’ve been wondering what kind of a creature IR is in the aftermath of the endless procession of experts [...]
Tortured Ideas: a response to Harvey Sapolsky
IR – SO, WHO IS IT FOR? It is often said that the study of International Relations is either for the world’s people or for national politics. This cliché usefully explains the chasm between Harvey Sapolsky and myself. And anyone reading his Blogs and my own will recognise that we occupy different intellectual and political [...]