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Reading Northern Ireland: Part One, 'Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island' by Ian Cobain

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I have long been interested in Northern Ireland*, largely due to more general interests in UK politics and the study of peacemaking. This attitude has been turbocharged in recent years by a combination of factors: my first trip there, back in 2019; the Brexit process, which brought Northern Ireland to the forefront of British politics in a manner that had not been seen for some years; and the 2020 Lockdown, during which I began reading books on The Troubles. Though Northern Ireland is undoubtedly different, it is certainly not alien to, nor disconnected from, the rest of the United Kingdom. Its history is our history. My goal this year is to read more books concerning Northern Ireland, in an effort to increase my understanding of its past, present and future. I am starting this process with Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island (2020) by Ian Cobain.  -------- In his most recent book, Cobain takes an original approach to The Troubles that tells an important and int
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Review: Shadowplay: Behind the Lines and Under Fire: The Inside Story of Europe’s Last War, by Tim Marshall (2019)

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  I first came across Tim Marshall through Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics , his outstanding book on geopolitics. I enjoyed it so much, I quickly picked up his book on vexillology, Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags . What made these books so good was that they provided fresh perspectives on the contemporary world, which subsequently stuck with me long after I put them down. Whenever I saw a country’s flag, or read about an international conflict in the news, something that Marshall said in his books would pop into my head, providing useful context that helped me understand what I was seeing and reading. Shadowplay is a different sort of book, both in its subject matter and structure. There is no mention of flags, and references to geopolitics are relatively limited (notwithstanding an interesting discussion concerning a potential land swap between Kosovo and Serbia in the conclusion. Plus, fans of cartogra
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Social Distancing in Diplomacy: A challenge to the historic norm

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On Monday (23/03/2020), President Armen Sarkissian of Armenia hosted the Chinese Ambassador to Armenia Tian Erlong. Not long after, this image of the meeting circulated on Twitter. Due to COVID-19 related social distancing, Sarkissian and Erlong sat incredibly far away from one another. This is strikingly different to normal diplomatic meetings. As I discussed in my first ever blog post , these usually involve two men sitting very close to one another, often with a flag trying to get involved. Sitting near each other is not a new diplomatic practice. Perhaps the most famous example of this occurred in 1945, at the Yalta Conference. Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt met there to discuss post-World War Two Europe. During the Conference, a picture was taken of the trio sat together. In truth, this isn’t even a modern behaviour. Coins from the eighth century have been discovered depicting two rulers sat next to one another, m
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Donald Trump & Greenland VS King Edward the Elder & The Pagans: FIGHT!

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It’s a day of the week ending with the letter ”y”, so that means Donald Trump must be in the news for something he’s said/done/tweeted. Ah yes, this week the Donald attempted to combine his current job as President with his former role as a real estate mogul, declaring his intention to buy the island of Greenland, the semi-autonomous country belonging to Denmark. Though this seems ridiculous, Trump was quick to assure us that ‘It’s essentially a large real estate deal.’ “It’s just like buying a house. These days most houses that people buy come with 56,000 people, the majority of Inuit descent. That’s like double glazing these days.” Being a pro-negotiator, who knows the “art of the deal” is to not let your opponent know how much you want what they have, he added ‘It’s not No.1 on the burner, I can tell you that.’ However, for those hoping for some sort of nation-state spin off of “Homes Under the Hammer”, it doesn’t look like the deal will happen. Kim Kielsen, the
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Magic Mead and Hamburgers- A Comparison Between Feasting in Anglo-Saxon England and in Donald Trump’s White House

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It has happened to us all. Whilst getting ready for a dinner party, you go to the cupboard to grab the drinks/nibbles/party hats. However, “shock-horror”, you don’t have them in. This crisis recently faced Donald “god has it really only been two years” Trump.  Yesterday Trump hosted the Clemson Tigers, the winners of the national college football championship, for dinner. However, due to the US government shutdown the White House is currently lacking catering staff. Not wanting to let the American Football players go hungry, the Donald came up with an idea. Rather than going into the kitchen himself, he ordered them 300 burgers, alongside pizzas and chips. That’s right. The US president has taken ideas on governance from the ‘Steamed Hams’ scene in the Simpsons ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lnZr022M8 ). "What if I were to purchase fast food and disguise it as my own cooking. Hohohoho! Delightfully devilish Donald!" Though Trump seemed very proud
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Donald Trump, Edward the Confessor and 'Telephone Diplomacy'

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History is littered with great rivals: Ali V Frazier, Rommel V Montgomery, the ‘Compare the Market Meerkat’ and the ‘Go Compare Singer’. This week we saw the re-emergence of another one on the international stage. Now correct me if I am wrong, but Donald Trump strikes me as a man with several enemies. However, on Tuesday his greatest foe once again appeared in the oval office: the telephone.   The weigh in: Some say the rivalry is faked for the media, and that Telephone is just using Trump as a stepping stone to get a fight with Anthony Joshua If you haven’t seen the painfully awkward phone call Trump had with the Mexican President on Tuesday, I thoroughly recommend watching it now (Link here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/aug/28/enrique-hello-trumps-awkward-phone-call-with-mexican-president-video ). To summarise, Trump attempted to call President Enrique Pena Nieto in order to discuss their new trade deal. However, things quickly went south. In
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