My Temporary Enemy’s Temporary Enemy…
One of the biggest difficulties for politicians and pundits trying make sense of changes in the world is what I call the Problem of Classification. Most apparently sudden and violent changes have three common characteristics. The first is that they are not, in fact, sudden, but have been building up for a long time, often unnoticed and so not understood. The second is that some event, often unexpected, has intervened to suddenly make these changes which were previously hidden now obvious. The third is that in almost all cases, the changes obey simple rules which have been in force for millennia, but are not usually discussed in textbooks of politics and international relations.







