Tag: “iron curtain”

24th June 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Helsinki forty years on

Confrontation across ideological fault lines. Division in Europe. Pessimism about international affairs. You might think I am referring to today’s international situation. But in fact I would like you to cast your mind back forty years to 1975 and the Cold War. Under the cloud of mutually assured destruction, Europe and the wider world needed […]

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4th June 2014 Dublin, Ireland

Robin Barnett

by Robin Barnett

Former Ambassador to Ireland, Dublin

Poland – 25 amazing years

Even in a year of important anniversaries for Poland, the 25th anniversary of Solidarity’s victory in the elections of 4 June 1989 is a special moment. I arrived in Poland for the first time exactly seven years earlier. I would like to be able to say that I predicted what was to come. But I […]

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