Here’s my latest piece. This time with a rather different focus from my usual fare. On Being Mark Salter A senior advisor to US Republican Senator John McCain. NGAN/AFP/Getty Images Presidential Elections in America: And a rather interesting case of mistaken identity. The Indian Economist, September 7, 2016 By Mark Salter So here’s the thing. I’ve never considered my name anything special. Just another regular moniker, nothing special to attract attention. As for the rest – fine, I’ve written a couple of books, done the odd public thing over the years. But famous? I hardly think so. But it turns… More

Reconciliation and Peace Processes A Belfast Mural from after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. A new issue of Conciliation Resource‘s Accord Insight Series, titled ‘Reconciliation and Peace Processes‘, is just out. Now the personal interest confession: I am the Guest Editor of this excellent new publication. If you’ve an interest in the role of reconciliation in efforts to resolve the conflicts in Colombia, the Philippines/Mindanao, Nolrthern Ireeland or Georgia/Abkhazia- the four case studies covered in the report – or broader issues regarding the relationship between reconciliation and peace proceeses, then this spanking new publication is the one for you! Below… More

Another week, another round in the recent debate in the columns of Sri Lanka’s The Island into which I’ve  unwittingly been dragged. At any rate, with any luck the barrage of criticism I’ve been receiving in those pages of latre will die down soon. We shall see. For clarity’s sake, beneath my response I’m adding the article to which it was a reply. Richard Armitage, Former US Deputy Secretary of State on a visit to Sri Lanka, here with President Sirisena. Photo: Asiantrubune.coma Staying On Message August 30, 2016 Vinod Moonesinghe (The Island, 29 Aug 2016) offers a, to say… More

Norway in Sri Lanka: in defence of negotiations LTTE’s leader Prabhakaran with Norway’s envoy Erik Solheim. Photo/Tamilnet Here’s the latest installment of my contribution to a debate that’s been raging in the coloumns of Sri Lanka’s The Island over the last week. The immediate subject is Norwegian conduct in the aftermath of the assassination of Sri Lankan Froeign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005 – an event whose 11th anniversary fell earlier this month. More broadly, it’s about the role of facilitators and mediators in peace processes and what they should – and should not – try to do in… More

A Long Watch: The Capture of Commodore Boyagoda Here is a sensitive, thoughtful account of how her fascinating new book came to be by authoress Sunila Galiappatti. The book, A Long ‘Watch: The Capture of Commander Boyagoda, was recently released by Hurst, my own publishers in London. This article itself was originally published in The Wire. The Risks of Testimony: ‘Memories of Captivity with the Tamil Tigers BY SUNILA GALAPPATTI LTTE leaders at Sirumalai camp, Tamil Nadu, in 1984 while being trained by Indian Intelligence (RAW). Credit: Wikimedia CommonsThe framing of A Long Watch: War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka… More

Norway ‘Secrets’ are No Secret Raghavan and Aijitha Kadirgamar, eldest son and daughter of assassinated Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Laskhman Kadirgamar, by their father’s funeral pyre, Colombo, 15 August 2005. Source: FP PHOTO/Indranil MUKHERJEE   Post summer holidays and I find myself once again responding to revisionist accounts of the Norwegian’s engagement in the Sri Lankan peace process in the domestic press. This time the subject is the aftermath of the assassination – almost certainly by the LTTE – of noted Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005. Below is my riposte, published as an op ed in… More

Reconciliation: Two Views Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera at the UN Human Rights Council, Sept. 2015 —————————————- Here’s the 1 July edition of Ceylon Today. UK Minister at the top of the page – yours truly at the bottom.

Sri Lanka: Why the Search for Reconciliation Remains a Must Sri Lankan Army Victory Parade, May 2009 Here’s the first edition of my new monthly column for The Indian Economist In a brief glance away from the political obsession with Brexit, The Guardian ran an interesting report on the 20th of June. It detailed fresh allegations, photographic evidence included, of the Sri Lankan military’s use of cluster bombs during the final stages of the country’s 26 year long civil war. Unsurprisingly, the allegations were rapidly picked up by the Sri Lankan media, although, not as widely as might have been… More

Churchill puts the case for a United Europe Listen to the voice of Winston Churchill, one of the European Union’s spiritual founding fathers speaking in support of a ‘United States of Europe’ at the May 1948 Hague Congress that established the European Movement. Also in attendance at the Congress was a young British student called Noel Salter, who happens to have been my father.

The Brexit fantasy is about to come crashing down Boris Johnson: outwards and upwards. Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters Here from Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times comes perhaps the best dissection I’ve seen so far of what’s been smashed up – and what’s potentially been unleashed – by the result of the UK’s EU membership referendum vote. The fact that the analysis comes from beyond the UK’s borders – Dublin to be precise – somehow feels both appropriate and not entirely coincidental. Brexit vote reveals rancour and distrust at the heart of the English body politic  Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times, 25 June 2016 Did… More