Articles

What we know, and don’t know, about the new geopolitical and geoeconomic order

05.10.22

If ever an era confirmed why it is both right and important to be a classical liberal – or at the very least to understand and learn from classical...

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Reflections, 20 years on

10.09.21 Publication:

This beautiful, poignant image from the September 10th cover of The Economist took me back to that terrible day 20 years ago in more ways than most, for it...

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“Three Myths about Afghanistan”

05.09.21 Publication:

There’s no denying that August was a terrible month both for President Joe Biden and for the reputation of the United States. But the disastrously handled...

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The Real Failure Is Pakistan

18.08.21 Publication:

LONDON – There is only one good thing about the fact that the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks will take place less than a month...

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UK Future Relationship with Asia

21.03.21 Publication:

My country, Britain, faces a self-imposed difficulty. It chose, in a referendum in 2016, to leave the 28-country block of the European Union, of which it had...

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Royals

11.03.21 Publication:

If you feel strongly about the interview given by Britain’s Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle to Oprah Winfrey on CBS, then just remember...

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Vaccination Investment

10.03.21 Publication:

Anyone in business will know that it is very rare to find ratios of risk to likely return that are highly favourable and carry a high degree of certainty. Any...

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 27

07.03.21

“You are old, Father William, the young man said, and your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head – Do you think, at your...

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 26

26.02.21

It was one of those events for which I suspect all of us can remember what we were doing or where we were when we heard the news – or, for those in Japan,...

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 25

11.02.21

The "Basic Policy" for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is as clear as it is uplifting. “When people look back on the Tokyo 2020 Games...

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Biden Presidency

31.01.21 Publication:

Four years ago it was said, probably accurately, that Hillary Clinton may have been the only Democratic Party candidate that Donald Trump stood a chance of...

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 24

17.01.21

It is mid-January and the temple bells have long since fallen silent, but it still feels appropriate to say Shinnen Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu to you all,...

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Big Lie

09.01.21 Publication:

America’s attempted revolution has failed. Donald Trump has failed. His opponents now command a majority in both houses of the US Congress. Criminal...

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Lessons from Japan’s Battle Against Coronavirus

06.12.20 Publication:

Many western governments have evaded awkward comparisons with countries that have managed the virus better by dismissing them as too different to learn...

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‘Japan Forward’ Book Review: ‘Japan’s Far More Female Future’

27.11.20

~Women in Japan are sometimes regarded as having a lower social status than men. They also face limited professional opportunities. Yet a compelling new book...

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 23

08.11.20

So how was it for you? No prizes for guessing to what I am referring. Obviously, it was pretty good in the end for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, less so for...

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Reflections on the US Election

08.11.20 Publication:

After all the arguments about Russian interference in 2016, the US presidential and congressional elections of 2020 feel like a rather majestic democratic...

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Will the Trump Years be a Blip?

07.11.20 Publication:

Throughout Donald Trump’s occupancy of the White House since January 2017 I have had in my mind comparisons with the previous billionaire, narcissistic...

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US lessons for Europe

06.11.20 Publication:

The outcome of America’s elections brings to mind a line from two famous American entertainers, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy: “Another fine mess you’ve...

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Lionel Barber’s Chronicle of his time as FT Editor

05.11.20 Publication:

“The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times”. By Lionel Barber. W.H. Allen, 460pp There aren’t really any other jobs like it....

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 22

02.11.20

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone…”. It feels a bit early to quote a Christmas carol, with...

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How to Make Japan Great Again

06.10.20 Publication:

DUBLIN – Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has arrived with a suite of ambitious policy ideas, including plans to digitize government services...

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Japan Society Chairman’s Blog – 21

02.10.20

Every generation, as they get older, sees things happening among younger people that allows them to conclude that society must have gone mad. For me, in recent...

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How the US vote will affect the World

01.10.20 Publication:

The American election always matters to the outside world, for whatever anyone may claim about the decline of US power or the demise of US hegemony, the...

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