Timothy Garton Ash
Timothy Garton Ash
Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSAis a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth12 July 1955
weakness criminals reactions
I have also been saddened, though hardly surprised, by the weakness of the EU's reaction to the criminal attack on the Danish embassy in Syria, which seems to have been permitted, if not actively encouraged, by the Syrian regime.
abandon british-author community liberal pursuit refine
What we in the community of established liberal democracies should do is not abandon the pursuit of democratisation but refine it.
african british-author continent country estimated europe larger mainly men million proportion seven six women
No country in Europe has a larger proportion of men and women of immigrant descent, mainly from the African continent and mainly Muslim: an estimated six to seven million of them, or more than 10% of the population.
british-author forget known leave meeting officially six
I will never forget meeting Suu Kyi in Rangoon - now officially known as Yangon - some six years ago, when she was still able to leave her house.
british-author budget canada european lots net poorer taking time
Canada is rich, so would be a much-needed net contributor to the European budget at a time when the EU has been taking in lots of poorer states.
united-states common obsession
Yet another thing Canadians and Europeans have in common is an obsession with the United States, and with distinguishing themselves from it, often by crude stereotyping.
violence transition compromise
But transitions from the politics of violence to democratic compromise are always messy.
fighting russia roles
Russia has lost an empire but not yet found a role. Russia has to decide what it wants to be. And as we know in Britain, that takes some time. It is quite tough to lose an empire and Russia lost its empire very rapidly and very admirably, that is to say peacefully, it didn't fight.
struggle angel government
In a democracy it is ultimately for us, the citizens, to judge where to place the balance between security and privacy, safety and liberty. It's our lives and liberties that are threatened, not only by terrorism but also by massive depredations of our privacy in the name of counter-terrorism. If those companies from which governments actually take most of our intimate details want to show that they are still on the side of the angels, they had better join this struggle for transparency too.
wall mean europe
It is not just that it is profoundly offensive to the leaders and people of a democratic Germany to paint Hitler on the wall (or on the remnants of the Wall). It is also consummately counterproductive. Such sauce does not make the meat of substantive criticism more interesting. It means that the whole dish is pushed away. It does not mean that Britain's voice is listened to more attentively in the councils of Europe. It means that it is listened to even less.
numbers leader unhappy
So what were Europeans telling their leaders? The general message was perfectly summed up by the cartoonist Chappatte, who drew a group of protesters holding up a placard shouting "Unhappy" -- and one of their number shouting through a megaphone into the ballot box. There are 28 member states and 28 varieties of Unhappy.
america levels british
America is replicated at every level of British life, from the taxi driver to the prime minister.
war political chinese
I find Chinese debates about their political system domestically, but also about China's claims in the international system, to be among the most original and surprising and exciting of our time. The starting point is a system that none of us had anticipated, which I call Leninist capitalism, but also obviously because it is the most important emerging power. The question of China's relations with the United States in particular, and the rest of the world in general, is the question of war and peace in the 21st century.
europe democracy way
Well, that's the way democracy works. We have to build this Europe with the material we have at our disposal. And this material is national democracy.