War Stories

As I write these lines, I am working on a commercial mediation project in the Pacific nation of Samoa – yes the one that has just jumped across the international dateline. My blog post today is a…

 This year brings an overlap of winter holidays from two different traditions and calendars: Hanukkah and Christmas. Each of these holidays is a story of miracles – wondrous events occurring in times…

This blog is inspired by a page from Monty Python's 'Big Red Book' entitled 'Why Accountancy is Not Boring.' (Apologies to those who have not come across the Pythons' rather English form of humour -…

 Yep, it's been an up-and-down month.  More down than up if I'm honest. But hey! I've done enough of these things to know that my old Dad was right all those years ago when we'd stand at the top of a…

The Situation: Your adversary is attacking your case in the mediation in such a manner that good faith negotiations seem like a distant cousin to all out war. You are looking for a way to recover. …

This week I came across an article in Forbes magazine (not my usual reading, I hasten to add!) which irritated and inspired me in equal measure. Under the title “The Ten Most Peaceful Countries Don…

This morning I was greeted with the news that Julian Barnes’ The Sense of An Ending had been named this year’s winner of the Man Booker Prize. A wonderful read, in part about how our memory deceives…

Last week, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a television interview that he had just made his 71st trip to the Middle East in the three or four years that he has been envoy for the…

 Plastered onto the rear fender of my next-door neighbor’s Honda is a bumper sticker that asks, “If you can't change your mind, are you sure you still have one?” It’s a cheeky question perhaps, but…