By Niall Ferguson Chaos theory proposes that, by merely flapping its wings in the Amazonian jungle, a single butterfly can cause a hurricane in the Home Counties. That is because of the extraordinary complexity of the global climatic system: one tiny bit of turbulence in darkest Brazil can, under the right circumstances, trigger a kind […]
By Niall Ferguson Two vignettes that say much about the American way of war. First, two trigger-happy reservist pilots making a lethal attack on a British armoured convoy during the initial phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, despite indications that their targets were, in fact, their own allies…
By Niall Ferguson The Daily Telegraph Two vignettes that say much about the American way of war. First, two trigger-happy reservist pilots making a lethal attack on a British armoured convoy during the initial phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, despite indications that their targets were, in fact, their own allies.
By Niall Ferguson Los Angeles Times THIS IS NOT the first time that world leaders have had their summers ruined by “a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.” In the summer of 1938, the quarrel between Germans and Czechs over the Sudetenland — which inspired Neville Chamberlain’s notorious phrase […]
By Niall Ferguson Daily Telegraph On arriving at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport on Friday (no doubt humming Love Me Do), the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was greeted with roughly equal quantities of bouquets and brick-bats…more