The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. Cicero - 55 BC Meanwhile Osbourne gives a speech on poverty, just having come back fr...

Our foreign policy priority must be to transfer responsibility for Afghan security to their local army and police as quickly as possible. Our wider foreign policy must embrace stronger links and more diplomatic interest in the emerging powers. I welcome today’s change of emphasis in foreign policy. You could have read it here first. The

One for Gordon Brown"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero 55BCThanks to Rayatcov for leaving this in the comments ...

Iain Martin calls for a British foreign policy. Hear, hear. But what would such a foreign policy look like? How would it differ from the European one, which Britain is currently bound to uphold (in the words of the Treaties) "actively and unreservedly, in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity"? Britain must take foreign policy back from Brussels A sovereign Britain should rediscover her sympat...

Martin Kettle dissects the Conservatives’ foreign policy, concluding that: “You can criticise Labour or Liberal Democrat foreign policy for believing in the wrong things or neglecting the big issues. But at least these parties make clear what they believe in – and make clear that they believe in something. The problem with Tory foreign policy

I was a bit taken aback by Security Minister Lord West comments this morning about Gaza fueling terrorism. Of course he is right that foreign policy can drive radicalisation, but that doesn't mean you should temper your foreign policy to avoid upsetting radical Islamists, any more than you should shape your immigration policy to appease the BNP. Reacting to bits of UK foreign policy you don't like...

My latest column at WPR is about the difference between security assistance and "governance" assistance: In March, the Stimson Center released a report (.pdf) by Gordon Adams and Rebecca Williams reviewing U.S. security assistance programs. Titled "A New Way Forward," the report argued that the United States should restructure its security assistance programs away from "security," as defined in Co...

There has been a conspicuous silence from the Tories about David Miliband’s deeply mistaken piece in The Guardian yesterday. While there are not many votes in foreign policy for an opposition, it is vital that a party that wants to be a success in government uses its time out of office to work out its world view. So far, there’s insufficient evidence that the Tories have done this. Dav...

As William Hague found before last year’s election, getting your voice heard on foreign policy is difficult for an Opposition. You are, at best, reduced to providing commentary to on-going events, vying not with the government for access to the media but with an array of better-informed foreign policy experts. Having a distinctive take on the changes in the world and practical ideas for how ...

This site provides free access to the fourth annual public opinion poll conducted by Australian research centre the Lowy Institute for International Policy. The 26 page report presents the findings of a survey into the foreign policy attitudes of typical Australians. Topics covered include attitudes towards Austrlain foreign policy and policy in the world, the US presidential election, Australia’...