Martin Woollacott

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de noviembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

MundoAsia

Down University Avenue, a narrow road in an affluent district of north Rangoon, a procession of cars and trucks bumps, at rush hour, trying to avoid the city’s desperate congestion. It sometimes includes taxis bearing tourists who come to look at the house where Aung San Suu Kyi lives. All they can see is a big steel gate. Disappointed, they take a quick photo, then dodge back into the traffic jam. When she was first locked up here in 1989, this would have been almost a country lane, and the secluded villas like this on the edge of Inle lake would have been quiet and peaceful places, far from the bustle of central Rangoon, which in those days, to tell the truth, was also not that bustling.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

There can be something akin to love between peoples. In the debate on Scottish independence this seems too often forgotten. Divorce lawyers' bickering over currency arrangements, nuclear weapons and economic advantage takes precedence over appraisal of what is at the heart of the marriage.

We are, after all, talking about breaking up a love match. It did not begin as one, but it came to be one, and was long celebrated as such on both sides. Then it cooled. Yet although bonds of this kind can erode, they can also be revived. Separation, as we know from the lives of individuals, can be ruinous for one or both partners.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa

It is amazing how swiftly a new crisis can knock into perspective one which dominated discussion only a short time before. Just a few weeks ago we were debating whether the west was heading for a new cold war with Russia, or a new Crimean war over Ukraine, or a new Great Game in central Asia. Then the markets began their decline, and Georgia and its possible consequences were swept aside.

But the profound sense of insecurity now felt on both sides of the old east-west divide should allow us to see Russia's Georgian intervention in a new light. It is not just that the financial crisis has hit Russia with particular force.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, the armed forces of the states located in the world's most intense conflict zone are stacked together like a dangerous house of cards. They plan, plot and puzzle, as embattled military establishments always do. Yet the most important decisions are arguably those that face the army least often mentioned in discussion - that of Pakistan.

For the Pakistani army has to decide how to save itself and the country it has dominated for so long. In the struggle across the region, it could even be said that decisions made in Rawalpindi, the army's headquarters, may turn out to be more important than those made in Washington, Baghdad, Tehran or Tel Aviv.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

The Bush administration's predictable reaction to this week's report by the International Atomic Energy Agency has been to say that it demonstrates conclusively that Iran's nuclear cheating continues, and that there will be consequences. Israel has been even more severe, while Britain, France, and Germany all support the American line to one degree or another. One has to hope that, in private, there are at least elements of a more nuanced understanding of the situation. If not, we could soon find that the consequences for us are every bit as serious as any that may be borne by Iran.

The danger is not yet of an immediate American or Israeli attack, but of a sundering of the lines of communication between the various countries concerned, and a loss of control over events in a region already primed for reckless acts.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

One of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's favourite tactics is to answer a question with a question. It thrusts the responsibility for whatever danger is being canvassed back on to his interlocutor and the nation he represents. When Ahmadinejad asks a US interviewer: "What need do we have for a bomb?" the message is that such a need could only arise if Iran was faced by the irrational enmity of a heavily armed super-power like, for example, the US. Or by that of an Israel, which, he pledged yesterday, Iran would never attack. The Iranian president has gone to New York determined to show that if there is any warmongering going on, it will be seen to be American, not Iranian.…  Seguir leyendo »