Author Archives: Curzon

About Curzon

Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (1859 - 1925) entered the British House of Commons as a Conservative MP in 1886, where he served as undersecretary of India and Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Viceroy of India at the turn of the 20th century where he delineated the North West Frontier Province, ordered a military expedition to Tibet, and unsuccessfully tried to partition the province of Bengal during his six-year tenure. Curzon served as Leader of the House of Lords in Prime Minister Lloyd George's War Cabinet and became Foreign Secretary in January 1919, where his most famous act was the drawing of the Curzon Line between a new Polish state and Russia. His publications include Russia in Central Asia (1889) and Persia and the Persian Question (1892). In real life, "Curzon" is a US citizen from the East Coast who has been a financial analyst, freelance translator, and university professor; he is currently on assignment in Tokyo.

OPEC, Evil Genius Cartel?

Posted on 4/5/2011 by Curzon

I was somewhat surprised to see this recently appear in a report on the future of energy published by HSBC. In a summary of that report just provided to me: OPEC plays a tantalising game of making oil just about … Continue reading →

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Fourteen Centuries of the Arab Homelands

Posted on 4/2/2011 by Curzon

In my trip to Lebanon last year, I spotted in an Arabic language school this timeline of the Arab world since the growth of Islam. The chart was published in the late 1980s, and the timeline goes up from 530 … Continue reading →

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Trip to the Enclave of the Enclave

Posted on 3/22/2011 by Curzon

I previously posted on the pages of these blog an explanation of the enclave of an enclave (or is that an enclave of an exclave?), by which a small part of the UAE, called Nahwa, is located in a small … Continue reading →

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The British Evacuation of Japan and Bahrain, compared

Posted on 3/19/2011 by Curzon

This is rather amusing. Britain has warned all of its citizens to evacuate, and flights have been chartered to evacuate citizens back to Britain. Enough flights have been chartered to bring 17,000 nationals back to the motherland. Now let’s look … Continue reading →

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The Educators

Posted on 3/17/2011 by Curzon

Henry Kissinger and Donald Rumsfeld are the two most reviled men to have served in the position of Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. Yet the irony — and majestic genius — of the careers of both men is … Continue reading →

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The ingredient in Mummia is…

Posted on 3/15/2011 by Curzon

In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy with the inscription “Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc.” The jar contained a blackened human rib, carbonized wood, a piece of linen and a cat femur–the later … Continue reading →

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Where can an international lawyer go adventuring?

Posted on 3/9/2011 by Curzon

As some readers may know, Curzon is a lawyer — qualified in the US, but working first in Japan and now in Dubai. A common question that I’ve heard through my years of practice is, “How do you practice law … Continue reading →

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Al Karama, the lost capital of the UAE

Posted on 3/6/2011 by Curzon

Abu Dhabi is known as the political capital of the United Arab Emirates, and has held that position for the 39 years that the country has existed. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Under Article 9 of the … Continue reading →

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US responsibility for the weak Franco-American Relationship

Posted on 3/3/2011 by Curzon

I’ve recently been reading an old friend, Henry Kissinger’s 900-page tome Diplomacy. Like with many books of epic proportion and content, every read gives me new insight, and for the first time Kissinger’s comments on the US foreign policy during … Continue reading →

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Photos of Libya

Posted on 2/28/2011 by Curzon

As Gaddafi holds on to power in Libya, anti-government forces have now captured just about every other city in the country. Meanwhile, the US is offering “any kind of assistance” to anti-government forces. In all of this, you can color … Continue reading →

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