Bøger af William Mallinson

In the troubled island of Cyprus, the national interests and rivalries of Greece and Turkey still collide, the population remains divided between the Greek and Turkish communities and the country is a cat's paw of outside powers. This book portrays Cyprus as a continuing source of international tension in the Mediterranean and beyond.

This is a fast-moving geo-historical thriller, which uses both verifiable history and current events to show how Britain and the USA plan to give the Greek island of Rhodes to Turkey, in return for Turkish compliance in their plans to attack Syria and Iran. The action takes place after 2013.The book begins with a succinct, pithy and colourful history of the big powers¿ obsession with the Eastern Mediterranean. The action proper then begins, by jumping towards the end of the book, with a ¿stream of consciousness¿ scene, where Russian agents have just killed two CIA operatives, thereby saving the life of one of the book¿s heroes, a British diplomat about to expose the plan to give Rhodes away.The US State Department Psychology and Strategy Board issues a special report recommending secret help to Turkey in return for compliance with the plan to attack Iran.A top-level meeting at the Pentagon then decides that a small and secret committee will be set up with the British and Turks, to advise on ways of keeping the Russians out, the Greeks subdued, the Turks satisfied, and how Turkish military action could help.

This book demonstrates that geohistory is a more effective concept than geopolitics in understanding inter-state relations, at a time of considerable confusion in world affairs, and that Francesco Guicciardini¿s thoughts are an efficient medium to demonstrate not only the inadequacies of geopolitics, but that a geohistorical approach can be a more responsible way of understanding international affairs. The book introduces a fresh approach, based on the individual, on which corporate characteristics and behaviour depend, often in the shape of state interests, which are unable on their own to predict actions driven by human behaviour. The book shows how show mainstream international relations theories are stuck in paradigms, inadequate in explaining why world politics is moving in a direction that nobody could predict even a decade ago. It shows how ideology can blur clear understanding. In short, it represents a new and intellectually refreshing approach and method in understanding, and tackling, the vagaries of relations between states.

Can Henry Kissinger be described as a serious statesman who altered the course of relations between states? Or was he a shallow impersonator of those whom he admired, and a geopolitical engineer who treated people as collateral fodder, reducing morality to the status of a strategic and tactical tool? Using the story of Kissinger's behaviour over Cyprus, backed up by recently revealed government documents, many critical, William Mallinson, former diplomat and leading authority on Cyprus' history, provides an incisive analysis and evaluation of Kissinger's approach, revealing a man who appears to have considered political strategy more important than law and ethics.