Three lessons can be learned from the popular democratic uprisings which should inform our policy from now on.
The first is that it is no good preaching the values of democracy if we arm its enemies. Having armed Colonel Gaddafi and other autocrats we have a a logical case to be made for arming the protesters, particularly if we fail to live up to the 'duty to protect' laid down in the UN charter. But this policy should be pursued only in extremis. Most important, however, is to stop ar...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.