Adrian Hamilton



Profile:
Full name: Adrian Hamilton

Area of interest: International affairs and foreign policy issues (esp. Middle East, Iran, Iraq); also UK current affairs

Journals: The Independent

Email: [mailto:a.hamilton@independent.co.uk a.hamilton@independent.co.uk]

Website: Independent.co / Adrian Hamilton

Blog: Open House

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Biography:
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Career: The Observer: deputy editor, 1989/1993 Current position/role: The Independent: comment editor, columnist


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Books & Debate:

 * Oil: the biggest business (1975) OCLC 1419035
 * Oil: the price of power (1986) OCLC 16404058

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The Independent:
Column name:

Column remit: International affairs and foreign policy issues (esp. Middle East, Iran, Iraq); also UK current affairs

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Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:a.hamilton@independent.co.uk a.hamilton@independent.co.uk]

Website: Independent.co / Adrian Hamilton

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Thursday

Regularity: Weekly

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Articles: 2011

 * for Murdoch's blood will serve no good'' - He has never been all-powerful, nor has he seen himself as such. Governments have always had the option to say no to him - 15th July
 * ians only have one option now'' - Time is running out is a phrase so overused in diplomacy that it has ceased to have any meaning - 14th July
 * you see the PM, now you don't'' - We haven't heard much from David Cameron of late about Libya - 7th July
 * promise by Murdoch is meaningless'' - The people one should feel sorry for are the independent directors appointed to preserve the separated Sky news - 1st July
 * should finally decide the Greek crisis'' - International Studies: So the Greek parliament has voted to pass the "crucial" budget cuts, albeit with the narrowest of majorities. And we seem to be exactly where we were before. The strikes go on - 30th June
 * violence now the only way to change Syria?'' - 23rd June
 * is dead – we just won't admit it'' - If ever the death knell was sounded for an organisation, it was sounded by the US Defence Secretary last Friday - 16th June
 * not undemocratic to want a third term'' - What is missing within Turkey is a proper debate on the Kurdish question - 9th June
 * are having their own Arab Spring'' - The protests should be causing us to look at ourselves and see what lessons they have for us - 2nd June
 * is no way to treat an accused man'' - Humiliation and refusal of bail cannot be the 'punishment' for crimes that are unproven - 19th May
 * doubters have their day'' - If Sir John Chilcot has achieved nothing else, his inquiry has brought out of the woodwork a steady stream of officials anxious to distance themselves from the invasion of Iraq and in particular the intelligence assessments used to justify it - 13th May
 * jinks and low politics in Tehran'' - The battle for pre-eminence between President Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - 12th May
 * may be showing way to the world'' - Do not give up Japan, says the slogan in the hotels on the buses, offices and even some of the rubbish trucks in Tokyo - 5th May
 * wonder Hague can't explain himself'' - How much sympathy should we have for the hapless Foreign Secretary over Libya and Syria? - 28th April
 * advice to Assad: go now when you can'' - The Syrians deserve a decent break - 21st April
 * to bring back the family doctor'' - Patients aren't items or numbers, let alone 'customers'. They're living people, each with their own fears and frailties - 19th April
 * must get out of Ivory Coast – and fast'' - We're back to the future, back to the 19th century, as you watch France in all its martial glory in Ivory Coast and in Libya - 14th April
 * begins to feel French, just as the mood changes'' - 9th April
 * does the UN go after Abidjan?'' - We're entering uncharted waters in which its standing is very much in play - 7th April
 * let Libya distract us from what Blair did'' - A terrible thought has struck me. Could the excitement over the war in Libya serve to make Tony Blair look less awful and deprive the Chilcot inquiry of what little sting it may have when it finally publishes later this year? - 2nd April
 * of us knows what will happen next'' - There could be few more asinine ideas than arming the rebels in Libya - 31st March
 * is wise to keep his distance'' - Spare a thought for the President as he tours Latin America while being questioned about Libya - 24th March
 * end of the world as we know it'' - We are living through a period of unprecedented global uncertainty and flux. From wars and natural disasters to economic and political strife, what we thought we knew has changed for ever - 23rd March
 * uprising is about power'' - Every time the protests in Bahrain are mentioned, they are made into a battle between Sunni and Shia - 17th March
 * an age-old menace'' - It is easy to confuse the orderliness of the Japanese with a spirit of obedience - 14th March
 * posturing on Libya is self-defeating'' - International Studies: Could Colonel Gaddafi not only survive the current uprising in Libya but actually win? - 10th March
 * shadow of a monstrous power'' - Murdoch has the power to propel policy where it matters to him - 4th March
 * on one side, shame on the other'' - The real failure of response to the uprisings has been the EU's - 3rd March
 * is not about power. It's about a different world'' - International Studies: With a repellent sense of timing Tony Blair is appearing in Prospect magazine with an interview arguing that the Arab world's problems don't start with despotism and corruption but still revolve around the Palestinian problem - 24th February
 * may not presage democracy'' - If only it would happen like that - 27th January
 * caution before ideology'' - Whenever anyone claims talks as the 'most important in 30 years', you can bet that they will produce little - 20th January
 * on in Europe is the best we can manage'' - On Tuesday the Government got its EU Bill through the Commons - 13th January
 * is not beyond hope – or our help'' - The world has been quick to condemn the assassination of Salmaan Taseer and proclaim him a martyr - 6th January



Articles: 2010

 * thing Ivorians need is an invasion'' - The year is ending as so many have before it, with an African nation in crisis - 30th December
 * is not the Start of something new'' - President Barack Obama is finally hitting bottom in Congress - 23rd December
 * hasn't learnt from mistakes'' - To say that the Coalition Government should do more multinationally doesn't mean very much - 16th December
 * give up on the euro just yet'' - As long as politics remain in its favour, odds are still on the euro's survival - 9th December
 * blind alley, same old consequences'' - So American diplomats are anxious that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal might find its way into the hands of terrorists - 2nd December
 * risks making the Korean crisis worse'' - His response was to announce a joint military exercise on the border this week - 25th November
 * course Iran wants to meddle in its region'' - Cash has always been the currency of the East - 28th October
 * culturalism needs defenders'' - It was once a term of tolerance in an increasingly cosmopolitan and urbanised western world - 21st October
 * has no future as purely Jewish'' - More cynical observers of the Israeli PM tend to dismiss his latest offer to the Palestinians - 14th October
 * can't blame it all on a rogue trader'' - If you thought that Britain was adept at putting the blame for disaster down the line and never up it, you should look across the Channel - 7th October
 * not against Iraq were with it'' - There's a wonderful exchange in Billy Wilder's fast-talking comedy of post-war Berlin, One,Two, Three, when the Coca-Cola executive, played by James Cagney, asks his German assistant: "Just what did you do in the War?" "I was in the underground," comes the reply. "You mean fighting Hitler?" asks Cagney. "No, just digging it." - 30th September
 * poverty isn't what it was'' - Clegg calls on rich countries to 'honour their commitments' on UN Millennium Development Goals - 23rd September
 * speed, less haste in defence'' - The current rushed strategic review is being 'money-driven rather than driven by the threats to our country' - 16th September
 * bonfire of a pastor's vanity'' - We've been here before and, no doubt, we'll be here soon enough again - 9th September
 * the realist, Blair the fantasist'' - Compare and contrast President Obama and Tony Blair talking about Iraq - 2nd September
 * has money, America has guns'' - China's economic rise has released the usual burst of pronouncements on the rise and fall of nations - 26th August
 * who want to cut a dash'' - The hunger to strike a pose in America seems to affect our historians especially - 21st August
 * trickles while the waters flood'' - Pakistan doesn't need outside critics to put people off giving - 19th August
 * benighted lot of Pakistan'' - A little over a year ago, the Pakistan army launched a much-lauded (in the West at least) assault on the Taliban - 5th August
 * to the past with foreign policy'' - The PM has picked up the ball and is playing it with quite astonishing panache - 29th July
 * the burka is a lot of hot air'' - It may be because I'm too English for Gallic high rhetoric but it's very difficult to take seriously France's impassioned debate about banning the burka - 15th July
 * end of the Afghan venture'' - We're on our way out of Afghanistan. The politicians know it. The generals know it. The Afghans know it, as do their neighbours. The only people who are apparently not meant to know it are the soldiers fighting this hard-slogging war and the public - 1st July
 * again, those who reveal the truth are punished'' - How ironic, and how typical, that so many commentators have joined in censoring General Stanley McChrystal for speaking out too openly to a reporter on Rolling Stone. The result of his own arrogance, they declare - 26th June
 * and G20: what's the difference?'' - You have to feel sorry for the poor Canadians. With a right-wing government hell-bent on massive public expenditure cuts, they have to fund not just one grand international summit with the G20 this weekend, but two, with the G8 summit on Friday - 24th June
 * and waffle over Afghanistan'' - It hasn't taken David Cameron long to start talking pure codswallop with an air of easy authority - 17th June
 * isn't just a matter of foreign policy'' - On the "Who Would Have Thunk It?" scale, the new Foreign Secretary's tour of European capitals must be pretty - 10th June
 * had few enough friends already'' - Is Israel's assault on the Gaza flotilla the point when international support for the nation began to change? - 3rd June
 * is a crisis of politics not markets'' - The striking thing about the euro crisis and the crash in the markets is not that they should happen - 27th May
 * politics' also applies to Europe'' - Europe was supposed to be the great dividing issue of the new government - 20th May
 * doesn't help to obsess over Iran'' - For those who remember the days of Nikita Kruschev and Fidel Castro, there was something wonderfully retro about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty summit in New York this week - 6th May
 * Greece and we save ourselves'' - While politicians here are resolutely refusing to discuss the detail of cuts for fear of putting off the voters, the commentators, along with the financial experts, are all busily urging ever more draconian action by Greece and blaming its workers for rising up in protest - 29th April
 * foreign in tonight's debate'' - My advice to Clegg is, don't be cautious. Turn foreign policy to your advantage - 21st April
 * interests are not always ours'' - If he has preferences it is for a Cold War bilateralism with Russia and China - 15th April
 * is not an end in itself'' - West's desire to show progress makes it reluctant to call a dud election a sham - 8th April
 * but political radicalism'' - The tighter the race, the less open the discussion of policy alternatives - 1st April
 * but not irrational'' - When so many are suffering the pains of recession, of threatened (and actual) job losses and pay curbs, if not cuts, the sight of workers kicking against the pricks and causing serious inconvenience to the travelling public is hardly likely to arouse understanding, let alone support - 26th March
 * interests are not the same as ours on Palestine'' - Its greatest fear in its relationship with the West is marginalisation - 25th March
 * vote for competence not policy'' - In a peculiarly British way, the result usually reflects the consensus in the country - 19th March
 * Janus face of recession politics'' - There is a divide in the way voters see it and politicians talk about it - 11th March
 * is right – Britain and Europe are letting it down'' - The UK knows well what markets can do and how to confront them - 4th March
 * we halt our slide to the margins?'' - Economically hamstrung, shorn of confidence, and increasingly irrelevant on the world stage. We face hard choices if we are to recover our status - 26th February
 * leader deserves full honour'' - If President Obama intended to make a firm gesture by meeting the exiled Dalai Lama yesterday, it has to be said that it was a very tentative one -19th February
 * demeans the torturer as well as the victim'' - The policy of rendition was developed, and condoned, to get round the law -18th February
 * gestures on European stage'' - Neither Brown nor Cameron would make a move that looked like integration - 4th February
 * was the war itself that was wrong'' - The truth is that Blair and Brown went to war because they thought it was easy - 29th January
 * donations won't help Haiti'' - The disaster appeal has become a grand media event used by charities to raise funds - 22nd January
 * against Iran won't help reform'' - Too much comment is based on what people outside want to happen, not what will - 14th January
 * politics never works abroad'' - No wonder the White House is getting fed up with its needy and gaff-prone ally - 7th January
 * of nations'' - I blame the intellectual elite for this obsession with global status - 1st January



Articles: 2009

 * 'Yes, we can' to 'No, we can't''' - Great presidents make political weather; yet Obama is hobbled by recession - 23rd December
 * servants intent on evading all responsibility'' - Chilcot has heard a litany of excuses - 17th December
 * Hallelujah for our Handel'' - He understood that the British are uniquely in love with performance - 15th December
 * and elections just don't mix'' - After a succession of massive majorities, we've forgotten what tight elections are like - 11th December
 * hope it really is an 'exit' strategy'' - All the talk of targets by which withdrawal will be gauged is so much pie in the sky - 3rd December
 * and the truth'' - Those who think the establishment a myth should look to the inquiry's membership - 26th November
 * can't choose a camel this way let alone two horses'' - It's easy to dismiss the EU summit as being a lot of fuss over nothing jobs - 19th November
 * damn lies and Berlin speeches'' - We're back to propping up rotten regimes. Stability is more important than values - 12th November
 * Europe and pure waffle'' - Tone, as Tony Blair found, only works for so long once you’re in government - 5th November
 * he might like to take his leave of Labour'' - Whatever his intentions, David Miliband is certainly putting himself about these days - 24th October
 * redefines art, but not in a good way'' - There are two simple rules of public patronage of the arts. One is that, if you do it for a social or political purpose, it will fail. And the second is that if you hand over the actual commissioning to the Arts Council it will produce the very worst art - 23rd October
 * to another false election'' - Compared to others, Tunisian control is more discrete – but it's still a closed system - 22nd October
 * isn't what Obama is achieving'' - Rarely has a President bent on change been met with such adverse cirumstances - 15th October
 * is showing us how to live without our comfort blanket'' - British policy has been based on showing itself useful to Washington across the whole gamut of policy - 28th September
 * against Iran must be cooled for sake of the Middle East'' - Adrian Hamilton: The latest Iranian admission only adds fuel to a furious row of charge and counter-charge that has been busily stoked up by Israel, some of Iran's Arab neighbours and the American right - 26th September
 * did we ever think greed was good?'' - Greed is no longer good. It's now considered really bad. And it isn't just the Archbishop of Canterbury saying so - 24th September
 * it is European leadership you want, don't start here'' - On those grounds, it would be best if the Irish did reject the treaty again - 17th September
 * but the recession is not over'' - The factors behind the recovery up until now have been largely temporary in nature - 10th September
 * bonuses won't solve anything'' - Tax bonuses generally by all means but concentrating the fire on the City won't work - 3rd September
 * not despair of democracy'' - What is wrong is what we want elections to achieve in places such as Afghanistan - 27th August
 * politics is doing us no good'' - On the big questions the Tories and Labour seem determined to avoid any debate at all - 20th August
 * aren't going to bust Burma'' - Politicians like them because they make you look as if you’re ‘doing something’ - 13th August
 * do we feel we must turn Chekhov into Noel Coward?'' - No one can say that the British are not international in their theatrical outlook - 6th August
 * failure as Foreign Secretary'' - Little wonder that foreign leaders see him as jejune while officals despair of him - 30th July
 * bitter politics of debt reduction'' - In hard times there is virtue in the politician who proposes harsh measures - 23rd July
 * terror is the problem, we won't solve it in Afghanistan'' - So here we go again, in a war which half the population does not believe in - 16th July
 * China's President left the G8'' - The local Uighurs see their identity being swamped by Han Chinese, as in Tibet - 9th July
 * can Iranians mend their broken Islamic Republic?'' - David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, ought to be pleased with Iran - 2nd July
 * me excess of it? No thanks'' - I never thought to say it, but maybe there is too much Shakespeare on the stage at the moment - 15th June
 * can support the Iranian protests...'' - ... but we must not interfere - 18th June (See: Iran: summary)
 * in Iran - a labyrinthine system'' - The regime in Iran is now desperately – and so far uncertainly – playing for time while it tries to work out just what is happening in the country and the forces that are now engulfing it - 17th June
 * election that bodes ill for Iranians'' - Once again the West is caught between its interests and its principles - 15th June
 * reforms won't restore trust'' - Far from taking politics into the 21st century, he's moving it back to the 18th - 11th June
 * knock Obama before he's tried in the Middle East'' - There is an element of double think in the reactions to his Cairo speech - 4th June
 * wrong way to reform the Select Committee system'' - The problem is not an overweening executive but that policy is so poor - 28th May
 * rather see my own doctor, please'' - If a GP won't take responsibility for you, who in the whole system will? - 25th May
 * no time to despair of humanitarian intervention'' - The Sri Lankan government's victory over the Tamil Tigers has been total - 21st May
 * we go again, back to bank profits and big bonuses'' - Just as before, the returns are being made in the investment arms - 14th May
 * is just using Iran to stall progress'' - Israel is not Iran's primary concern, or target, and never has been - 8th May
 * Pakistan will not solve Afghanistan'' - It's gang up on Pakistan time - 30th April
 * out on Ahmadinejad was childish'' - Isn't it time western diplomats just grew up and stopped these infantile games over the Iranian President? - 23rd April
 * At last, Europe has become interesting'' - Now the challenges are international and the solutions regional - 16th April
 * History requires us to look beyond art'' - Winning generals always looked to artists to preserve their names - 14th April
 * summitry ceases to have use'' - Doha’s claim to fame was Arab leaders embracing Sudan’s president - 9th April
 * Nato was a family, you'd have to call it dysfunctional'' - If you think the G20 a fractious affair, you should look to Strasbourg - 2nd April
 * must get out of Afghanistan'' - Obama's rethink is one of the best things that has happened since he gained office - 26th March
 * only Brown had taken job at IMF'' - He has set the bar for the G20 so high because he needs to show he is leading - 19th March
 * only it was as easy as the Obama supporters thought'' - He may be open but the policies are still cast in the Clinton-Bush mould - 12th March
 * fruitless to ask Brown to say sorry'' - The oddity of the crisis is that it has punished the virtuous not the guilty - 5th March
 * is the only thing that can curb drinking'' - After smoking, is drink the next target for social prohibition? The signs are there. And not just in Britain, where the image of the drunken yob has become part of folklore - 3rd March
 * are better things to do than shaming these bankers'' - The debate here has hardly begun - 12th February
 * must recognise that globalisation is in retreat'' - You cannot brush aside the strikers' - 5th February
 * Mr Brown, the world isn't following your economic lead'' - Europe is putting far more into social assistance and employment support - 29th January
 * you're in a deep, deep hole, it's best to stop finger-pointing'' - For the past few weeks Gordon Brown's advisers have been desperately advising him to admit some responsibility, or at least some fellow feeling, for the recession overwhelming the country - 24th January
 * should admit his ignorance'' - In the PM's version, everything comes from outside, nothing is his responsibility - 22nd January
 * too early to start losing faith in Obama'' - If nothing else he is committed to a break with the Bush past - 15th January
 * path to Middle East peace'' - The lesson of the Cold War is that wars have consequences for a generation or more - 8th January



Articles: 2008

 * politics is driving this war'' - The bombing happened because it was in the interests of all parties concerned - 1st January 2009
 * have used up their economic ammunition'' - If politicians feel at sea, they're not alone. No one knows the answer - 18th December 2008
 * has Europe been more needed'' - Europe's hour has come round at last. Or least it should have - 11th December 2008
 * is only right that our cricketers go to India and play'' - Most of the dead were Indian, many dying to protect their British guests - 4th December 2008
 * would be Obama's first mistake'' - She comes with the baggage of the failed Clinton era - 27th November 2008
 * cannot begin until house prices bottom out'' - We don't have the money to fund recovery without outside investors - 20th November 2008
 * count on a new Bretton Woods'' - Let us assume – because it is now the accepted wisdom – that the world cannot be the same after this credit crunch - 14th November 2008
 * new role as the 'Supermac' of global finance'' - The Prime Minister is pushing barren remedies for the world's woes - 7th November 2008
 * wouldn't get too carried away by success if I were Brown'' - Being a Chancellor with a plan isn't the same as being a statesman - 16th October 2008
 * politicians and the City'' - When it comes to it, there is just a huge divide - 10th October 2008
 * won't be long before the British blame foreigners'' - What won't go away is the sense of humiliation in this crisis - 2nd October 2008
 * creeping defeatism is overcoming Labour'' - You have to go to a party convention to understand how shut off they are - 25th September 2008
 * the banks – it's the economy that matters now'' - The period of consumer-led growth is over. But what will the next engine of growth be? - 18th September 2008
 * Brown does not deserve this much vitriol'' - His difficulty is that he has been unable to grow from a master of measures to a general strategist - 11th September 2008
 * lessons of past economic downturns'' - History, as is often said, never repeats itself exactly. But then history usually provides some lessons that can be learned even if it doesn't enable you to predict the future, as politicians and economists keep rifling it to do - 4th September 2008
 * need an old approach for the new global politics'' - 28th August 2008
 * It's economics, not politics, that will influence Russia'' - 21st August 2008
 * are still fighting the Cold War'' - the conflict in Georgia - 14th August 2008
 * not all the fault of the banks'' - For politicians nothing could be better than a form of finance that enabled the poor to buy houses - 7th August 2008
 * A bitter power struggle for the soul of democracy - Ignore the debate about Islam and the West. If the elected Turkish government loses, we are all victims - Tuesday, 29th July 2008
 * Ultimately, this is as much about politics as justice (about Radovan Karadzic) - 24th July 2008
 * Britain can offer Barack Obama advice on Iraq - 17th July 2008
 * The West still isn't taking the Iraqis into account - 10th July 2008
 * McEwan's attack on Islam reveals only his ignorance - 26th June 2008
 * This meeting in Saudi Arabia won't solve oil prices - 19th June 2008
 * The strange legacy of President Bush - 12th June 2008
 * Stop knocking the banks – they've done us proud - 5th June 2008
 * If only the Irish would kill the Lisbon Treaty - 29th May 2008
 * Any change from Bush's fundamentalism will do - 22nd May 2008
 * Should we still view Israel as a 'special friend'? - 15th May 2008
 * We don't have to live with a mendacious mayor - 1st May 2008
 * An ethical foreign policy is still within reach - 24th April 2008
 * A way out of this Olympic confrontation - 17th April 2008
 * The Chinese will never compromise over Tibet - 10th April 2008
 * Time to disband Nato now the Cold War is over? - 3rd April 2008
 * Our unpredictable and troublesome guest - 27th March 2008
 * Why did so many people support the war in Iraq? - 20th March 2008
 * Now was not the time to pick a fight with the City - 13th March 2008
 * We're still waiting for that debate on Europe - 6th March 2008
 * Passive distaste has turned into active resentment of the wealthy - Tuesday, 4th March 2008
 * Could Turkey create an Islam acceptable to the West? - 28th February 2008
 * Democracy has become a devalued concept - 14th February 2008
 * Nato should not be fighting this war in Afghanistan - 8th February 2008
 * The question remains: is King up to the job? - 31st January 2008
 * This crisis can only be solved at a global level - 24th January 2008
 * What voters really care about is the same the world over - 17th January 2008
 * Why Brown can draw comfort from New Hampshire - 10th January 2008
 * Can America win back the world's respect? - It will take more than a change of president to repair the damage that Bush has caused - Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

