Tag: diplomacy
Welcome to the 100th Sunday Smack everybody!!! I can’t believe that I am doing this weekly round-up for 100 weeks (= almost two years!) already! The blog itself will turn 4 this summer too!! On this occasion besides thanking you all for reading and sticking with me all through these years I thought it would be best to share my thoughts about this blog with you all. Quite some time ago I decided to do this just to follow the topics I am most interested in. I sure want to continue doing it, and want to do it with more…
Photo from Pinterest Happy Sunday and happy March everybody! I know spring might still be a couple of weeks away, but I cannot wait already. In the meantime, everybody I follow seems to be watching House of Cards this weekend. I did not get around to it yet, but no wonder why we are in the same circles, right? How about you all? And no spoilers, please! 🙂 Should you want to take a few minutes in between two episodes, check out these posts. Mediation Fail in the Central African Republic This happens when there is good will, but only…
It’s been a long time since the last time when I could not manage to post anything between two Sunday Smacks, sorry about that. Amazingly enough, although I have even failed to mark yesterday’s International Mother Language Day, this post of mine from two years ago got very popular yesterday. Thanks to everybody for still keeping it in circulation! Now let’s see a couple of interesting posts from not so far back. The Budapest Memorandum and Beyond: Have the Western Parties Breached a Legal Obligation? The Ukrainian crisis looks even more troublesome when international treaty interpretation comes into play. The…
Hey Everybody! Am I the only one disturbed by the new changes of Tumblr? I am yet to discover any developments, while I found quite a few failures already. For one thing, please view the above pic’s source here, as Tumblr doesn’t let me link it the usual way anymore… *sighs* Anyway, believe it or not, one twelfth of the year has already passed so it’s time to review all those goals for 2015! I myself, still being inspired and energized by London, was busy this week with working on different plans. I will share some of them here later!…
The US Cancels Visas for Hungarians Involved in Corruption The State Department refused entry to the U.S. to several Hungarians because it said they had been involved in corruption, once more highlighting tensions between the U.S. administration and the feisty government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Happy Sunday, everybody! This is the first post ever that I am writing on a train, can you tell? Actually, I am pre-writing it on Saturday, and when you are reading it on Sunday, I am on a boat – a Danube cruise trip (still on my mission to catch-up on this rapidly passing summer). Hope your are all having a great time too! Take a look at what happened this past week, through the lense of my favorite bloggers. Russia’s convoy to East Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross This convoy which turned out not to…
Hey Everybody! Hope all your weekends are going fine and you can take a few minutes to check out this week’s posts. With Maliki Gone, Can Iraq’s New Prime Minister Put His Country Back Together? That we’re going to have to wait and see. What You Need to Know about the UN Human Rights Council’s Gaza Investigation Sadly, it is probably true that the investigation will be no use in improving the situation. I have to insert one of my favorite quotes from Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy here. He writes that fact-finding missions are “the standard device for diplomats signaling that…
Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura was named UN mediator for Syria on Thursday, taking on the Herculean task of finding a political solution to the dragging civil war. He replaces the hugely respected Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned in May after two rounds of peace talks collapsed and as the conflict escalated into a fourth year, killing more than 162,000 people. UN chief Ban Ki-moon confirmed the appointment of the special representative and his Egyptian deputy, urging the much-divided Security Council and Syrian parties to work closely with him. Ban has frequently criticized animosity on the Council between Western powers and…
Welcome to the 50th Sunday Smack! That’s right, the 50th! 🙂 How great that this one is the first Sunday Smack I get to write on my new laptop! Yes, that of course means I have no excuse anymore not to act on all my great ideas regarding this blog (and everything else). Minus two weeks, I have been doing this for a whole year. It is unbelievable, really, and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed every bit of it, it helps me keep my professional reading in order. I can only hope it’s also useful to at least…
How Much Does It Cost to Be Ambassador to Hungary? Watching John McCain set-up a fellow senator like a bowling pin is a rare Washington pleasure. Even when he does it in Budapest. I was planning to take on (soon to be Her Excellency) Ms. Bell ever since I learned she was appointed and created quite a buzz in diplomatic circles immediately. To the above piece I only have a few notes to add. – The story is interesting and mostly true, I just sense a bit of bias here. – Personally I don’t see how appointing a non-career diplomat…
