The World

When the Financial Times asked me to start a blog on international affairs I agreed instantly. After all, I keep reading that the internet and the “blogosphere” spell the death of newspapers – so it seems wise to start edging away from the doomed world of print and launching into cyberspace. What is more the FT pays my salary and I didn’t want to risk getting nasty looks in the corridors from my new bosses. (I joined the paper in July 2006).

It was only after I had agreed that I realised that I’m not entirely sure what a blog is. Having plunged into the blogosphere to get my bearings, it seems to me that they fall into two rough categories.

There are bloggers who are so obsessed by a particular issue – a sports team, a company, a film star – that they find that the mainstream media cannot provide enough material to satisfy them. Out there in cyberspace, they can bond with fellow monomaniacs. A favourite example of mine is an (apparently) influential blog dedicated solely to following the doings of Netflix, a big American DVD –rental firm.

The phrase “get a life” springs to mind. But hell – I’m sure many people find my interests boring too.

The second sort of blog seems to cover a broader range of subjects, and depends more on the personality and interests of the blogger. A successful example is Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, which ranges eclectically across a range of subjects – from gay rights to the nature of conservatism and the war in Iraq.

My blog is going to fall more into the second category. My main job here at the FT is to write a weekly column on international affairs. Since “the world” is a fairly broad brief, I’ve defined three main interests that I intend to follow:

1) America and the world: I’ve been fascinated by American politics and foreign policy ever since spending time in California as a teenager in the 1970s – while my father was on sabbatical at Stanford. (He is a professor of abnormal psychology, since you ask). After that I studied US foreign policy (among other things) at Cambridge and Princeton, and then spent time as a foreign correspondent in Washington. When I first lived in Washington in the early 1990s, George Bush was president and there was a war in Iraq. How times change. Still, one thing that is even truer than when Bush premier was in power, is that to understand world affairs, you need to understand what is going on in Washington.

2) Europe – My most recent stint as a foreign correspondent was in Brussels from 2001 to 2005. I was the EU correspondent for The Economist and author of the Charlemagne column. Some people, I know, find the inner workings of the EU almost as dull as the inner workings of Netflix – so I intend to cover not just the doings of the Eurocracy in Brussels, but the broader political, economic and social trends shaping the “old continent”.

3) Globalisation – Yes, I know everybody says they are interested in globalisation. But I spent five years covering Asian affairs from 1992-1997 – first as a correspondent in South-East-Asia and then as The Economist’s Asia editor. I visited Bangalore before Tom Friedman had ever heard of the place – but somehow forgot to write a best-selling book about it. By globalisation I mean the flow of money, people, jobs and ideas around the world.

Finally, I have developed a morbid sub-interest in jihadism. Oh, and I reserve the right to write about anything else that interests me.

I will endeavour to post something most days of the week, although please allow for the occasional pause caused by holiday, travel or physical or mental collapse.