Post Conflict People

Black Rod (Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Willcocks) hosted a reception at the House of Lords last night, to launch Post Conflict People, a group of professionals with experience in post-conflict reconstruction, development and institution building, for which several parts of the world are in crying need. Lord (Paddy) Ashdown gave a short speech, reprising the arguments set out in his latest book, declaring, ‘I don’t think we can control conflicts unless we are willing to intervene. But we can learn to do it better.’ Also present at the reception were Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was Her Majesty’s Special Representative in Iraq following the 2003 invasion, and Miles Wickstead, former Ambassador to Ethiopia, who is now heavily involved with the Westminister Foundation for Democracy, for which I have done a number of missions in recent years. Miles coincidentally now lives in the manor house in Paddy’s village of Norton-sub-Hamdon in Somerset. But all the signs are that we will soon see Paddy heading off to Afghanistan — an even greater challenge than the one he faced in Bosnia.