INTERESTING READS

Holbrooke gets a suitable successor:

When I arrived in Ankara to take up assignment as ambassador in late-1998, Marc Grosssman had already left for Washington after completing his term as the US envoy to Turkey. But Turks used to talk a lot about him in the cocktail circuits and freely draw comparisons with Grossman’s amiable successor Mark Parris, who was apparently a sharp contrast. Let me put it this way – Ambassador Parris was a scholar-diplomat…

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2011/02/16/holbrooke-gets-a-suitable-successor/

The plight of the Egyptian military!

Xinhua has featured an insightful commentary on what lies ahead for Egypt. The prognosis is gloomy for the democracy project in Egypt insofar as the situation remains unstable. The agitations will probably continue for the establishment of a transitional government based on ‘co-sharing of power’ by the army and the people. The military has its hands full…

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2011/02/15/the-plight-of-the-egyptian-military/

Reading the wrong speech at the UN

The Indian establishment did well to give the spin that EAM Krishna’s faux pas in New York – reading out his Portugese counterpart’s speech at the UN security council last week – was a perfect storm in a tiny tea cup. But like the proverbial rubber coil, the story pops up again elsewhere, thanks to some treacherous undercutting apparently from some sections within the establishment itself – or from Delhi’s unforgiving dip corps….

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2011/02/15/reading-the-wrong-speech-at-the-un/

(via M.K. Bhadrakumar)