Fred Carver

bellingcat.comBellingcat is Hiring - Contractor: AI Engineer (Open Source Agentic Systems) - bellingcatBellingcat is hiring an AI Engineer. Apply within.

One of the most interesting projects I've done in a long time, working with @benaldson.bsky.social on a deep dive into the history of UN selection processes for 1 for 8 Billion and @plataformacipo.bsky.social It's now out! 1for8billion.org/backroom-deals

Fred Carver reposted

Bellingcat

@bellingcat.com

Help us explore the capabilities of open-source AI models and build tools designed to support researchers, not replace them. If you bring a different perspective or experience, we’d encourage you to apply and help shape the future of open-source investigations: www.bellingcat.com/contractor-a...

Bellingcat@bellingcat.com

We’re looking for an AI Engineer to build agentic systems for open-source investigations. If you’re experienced in developing AI tools, particularly for researchers and journalists, we’d like to hear from you. This is a 12-month contract. Apply by 8 November: www.bellingcat.com/contractor-a...

The inverse of this is Radetzky March where our hero gets an espresso from the machine & makes a call from the payphone in the station waiting room - which feels absurd but Vienna had all those things in 1910, you just forget you're in 1910 because the Austro-Hungarian empire is so weird & medieval

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I only really came across Pillay when she was HCHR and, like pretty much all UN officials, I had my share of frustrations with her. But you grade on a curve, and in a tough job many others did far less. And her overall body of work is extraordinary and Trump's breakdown hilarious.

I think it's a solid choice, and by the woeful standards of recent years an exceptional one.

1for8billion.orgIf Security Council Can't Agree — 1 for 8 Billion

As you probably suspected, the answer is: everyone cites conflicting precedents and then they give it Dag's niece until the end of the season. Oh so very UN.

Fred Carver@arbeider4fred.bsky.social

What happens if the UN Security Council cannot pick a new Secretary-General by the end of the year? It's very very possible so @benaldson.bsky.social and I outlined some of the options for @plataformacipo.bsky.social 1for8billion.org/if-security-...

1for8billion.orgIf Security Council Can't Agree — 1 for 8 Billion

fpc.org.ukLong Read | The State of the UN - The Foreign Policy CentreWhat does a weakened United Nations mean for the UK? Fred Carver examines the state of the UN and where Britain can still exercise influence.

A good start that Burnham went to UNGA, and that despite being the first UK PM since Hague era David Cameron not to set foreign policy directly from Number 10 but to actually have a non-titular Foreign Sec. Keir "I want to reach the top of foreign policy" Starmer didn't bother last year

Fred Carver@arbeider4fred.bsky.social

Pleasure to write this for @fpcthinktank.bsky.social on the current state of the UN, and what that means for the UK fpc.org.uk/long-read-th...

sdg-action.orgLooking for leadership | SDG ActionIndifference and hostility have created a leadership vacuum in development. But as practitioners do the best they can in challenging circumstances, they create their own forms of thought leadership

15 Sept

My new editorial/introduction for SDG Action ahead of #unga sdg-action.org/looking-for-...

medium.comMokhtefi on AlgiersAnother piece, this time a book review, I submitted on spec unsuccessfully. I wrote it nearly 3 years ago, for a magazine I co-edited so I…

13 Sept

She lived a truly incredible life (essentially "what if Forrest Gump was an incredibly smart marxist?") and then wrote a fascinating but frustratingly incomplete memoir. I reviewed it here medium.com/freds-blog/m...

Accueil [Unofficial]@tsa-algerie.com.web.brid.gy

tsa-algerie.comDécès d’Elaine Klein Mokhtefi, l’Américaine qui a embrassé la cause algérienneEn juillet dernier, le président de la République, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, décide de lui octroyer la nationalité algérienne. Elle était attendue par ses amis pour une visite dans son pays d’adoption en octobre prochain, pour célébrer cette naturalisation qu’elle portait dans l’âme. Mais voilà que le destin en a décidé autrement. Elaine Klein Mokhtefi, Américaine de […] L’article Décès d’Elaine Klein Mokhtefi, l’Américaine qui a embrassé la cause algérienne est apparu en premier sur TSA.

Fred Carver reposted

Foreign Policy Centre

@fpcthinktank.bsky.social

7 Sept

🌐 New long read | The State of the UN The UN may be in poor shape, but it is far from useless. Ahead of #UNGA, Fred Carver asks what has been lost as the international order fragments and what the UN still provides as the “velvet rope of diplomacy”. ➡️ fpc.org.uk/long-read-th...

7 Sept

Pleasure to write this for @fpcthinktank.bsky.social on the current state of the UN, and what that means for the UK fpc.org.uk/long-read-th...

passblue.comBeing Serious About Peace - PassBlueBeing Serious About Peace - PassBlue

31 Aug

Important piece by two of the great peacebuilders of our time. Guterres wanted to be a mediation SG but only rarely did he invest the time and resources over the long term needed. Here's how the next SG can do better passblue.com/2026/08/30/b...

odi.orgBeyond the unitary state: rethinking state-building in an age of fragmentationIn this blog, former UN Assistant Secretary General Sir Charles Petrie examines the question of state-building in an age of fragmentation, drawing on close to 40 years of experience working in conflic...

22 Aug

Fantastic essay. One of the things I keep coming back to is that the centralisation of authority is neither necessary nor desirable for sustainable peace. Only thing I'd maybe add is I think a big part of why the myth persists is GWOT's hostility to the non-state actor odi.org/en/insights/...

Fred Carver reposted

Eugene Chen

@casquebleu.org

21 Aug

The peace operations review report is out at long last. TL;DR: it effectively argues for the status quo. In this reaction piece, I highlight the areas I thought the report got wrong, the items that are missing entirely, and what member states should do now. casquebleu.substack.com/p/nothing-ne...

casquebleu.substack.comNothing new in the peace operations reviewJust entities protecting their interests and passing the buck

leilacancode.github.io/everythinggo...

18 Aug

leilacancode.github.ioEverything Good About Jason ArdayFirst-hand accounts from people who knew him. Collected by his students.

casquebleu.substack.comAre peace operations enabling authoritarian conflict management?It's not too late to do something about this

7 Aug

"Participation in peacekeeping should not be a financial burden to contributing countries. But it should not become the means by which to bankroll and cultivate the tools of authoritarian conflict management."

Eugene Chen@casquebleu.org

Over the past few decades, UN peace operations have been subverted from their original purpose of promoting liberal peace towards becoming tools of authoritarian conflict management. This week, I look at how this happened and ways to counter the trend. casquebleu.substack.com/p/peace-oper...

Fred Carver reposted

Michela Wrong

@michelawrong.bsky.social

1 Aug

The Continent magazine has published an investigation I carried out alongside Kenyan journo James Okong'o exposing how Rwanda's government manipulates social media - secretly paying influencers - in support of the M23 occupation of DRC. Thank you @pulitzercenter.org for your support.

foreignpolicy.comCompromised CandidatesHow backroom deals shape the race for secretary-general and prevent U.N. reform.

28 July

And now in @foreignpolicy.com with @benaldson.bsky.social foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/28/u...

Fred Carver@arbeider4fred.bsky.social

The first ever full second term for an HCHR. Aside from the usual suspects surprised by Trinidad, and Guyana's absention presumably has something to do with CRB's candidacy (maybe to keep the US sweet, maybe she wanted to pick her own HC?)

Lou Charbonneau@loucharb.bsky.social

🚨 #BREAKING - UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approves second 4-year term for UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk after rejecting attempts by US & #Russia to derail his reappointment -- 144 in favor, 10 against, 13 abstentions. @hrw.org reaction coming shortly!

casquebleu.substack.comFred Carver on Blue Helmets, Red TapeI'm very grateful to Eugene for his thoughtful engagement with our report (Backroom Deals), and I'm glad that you were impressed by the research. Coming from you that means a lot. I'm replying in a p...

Really grateful to @casquebleu.org for his thoughtful engagement with our Backroom Deals report. I've replied here. casquebleu.substack.com/p/living-wit...

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... with no regard for the fact that much of the time strategies stop working if you spell out loud how they work! It seems to be that in many instances looking smart matters more than winning, and I don't want to fall into that trap. But at the same time one can be too precious about this stuff...

After all this isn't some cunning sly superplan, this is Advocacy 101. Anyway that's all by the by to my discussion with Eugene, which hopefully speaks for itself.

Really grateful to @casquebleu.org for his thoughtful engagement with our Backroom Deals report. I've replied here. casquebleu.substack.com/p/living-wit...

resolutionfoundation.orgDirector • Resolution FoundationThe Resolution Foundation is seeking a new Director, to work closely with the Chief Executive to develop and deliver the overall strategy of the organisation; to drive the next phase of the Foundation...

To be honest I'm particularly grateful because I've been wanting to write something about theory of change for a while. I've been a little reluctant to do so because I do think a particularly bad downside of the cult of savviness is that people are far too willing to talk about strategies ...

Fred Carver reposted

Tom Clark

@tom-clark.bsky.social

29 June

A top job at a top think tank And at a moment where there is suddenly a whole lot of policy thinking to be done! Come & help @ruthcurtice.bsky.social lead @resolutionfoundation.org www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/opp...

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Direct PDF link here static1.squarespace.com/static/5399c...

passblue.comBackroom Deals Behind Secretary-General Candidate Races - PassBlueBackroom Deals Behind Secretary-General Candidate Races - PassBlue

And Ben and Aditi have an op-ed in @passblue.bsky.social with the key points passblue.com/2026/06/24/b...

We were so lucky to have some really rich and insightful conversations with some 40 odd people with a wealth of knowledge and experience. What we uncovered is a mixture of fascinating and revealing detail and I believe some actual honest-to-god scoops

Starmer had two big problems, the first well known, the second maybe somewhat overlooked: 1) if you win a mandate, even a landslide, on an entirely negative campaign around what you are not which advances no vision then you have no core ideological support to see you through the hard times

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And then I might not like it but the Mcsweenyist late 90s tribute act of basically Charles Haughey's domestic policy with Tony Blair's foreign policy was at least coherent. But if you try and do both you sound silly and end up doing neither.

Whoever comes next will likely inherit the precarity of a shallow landslide with no core support, but should at least be able to avoid some of those internal contradictions and be coherently ... something. But they do need to pick something. At this stage almost any vision is better than none

2) Starmer was chosen by the Labour Together faction to be their face because they saw him as a credible blank slate. But actually his personality and their vision were completely incompatible.

He's a pre-digital pedantic legalistic stickler, they're techbro curious Atlanticists who think rules are for nerds and losers. I do think there could have been a coherent Starmerism which presented the UK as the last save haven for rules, long term thinking, and reliability. Mr slow and steady etc

davidgraeber.orgThe Center Blows Itself UpPolitics, in wealthy countries, is increasingly becoming a war between the generations. While the support for smaller parties in the UK (Liberal Democrats, Greens, the Scottish National Party, even Br...

17 June

This is useful. I do keep going back to Graeber's the revolt of the caring classes to understand how we got here davidgraeber.org/articles/the... but I think this usefully maps out where (the UK at least) now is

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theanarchistlibrary.org/library/davi...

16 June

theanarchistlibrary.orgThere Never Was a WestDavid Graeber There Never Was a West Or, Democracy Emerges From the Spaces In Between 2007 From the collection “Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy,...

Owen Jones@owenjones.bsky.social

The US and Israel lost their war with Iran. My new book 'The Fall of the West' exposes the real reasons the West is falling - and who is really responsible.

Fred Carver reposted

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly

@seamas.bsky.social

12 June

The New Statesman asked me to put down a few thoughts about Belfast. On the politics and media that have failed everyone, and how much, and how little, has really changed. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

newstatesman.comThe Belfast riots: new targets, old hatredThis is the story of a hardcore loyalist element which has stewed for decades in far-right ideology

Fred Carver reposted

Genevieve Carver

@gen-carver.bsky.social

6 June

My book is out now! An adventure story for kids aged 8-12 featuring ancient rituals, a journey across the sea, and water spirits…@oneworldbooks.bsky.social

img1.wsimg.comimg1.wsimg.com

5 June

Was an absolute pleasure to contribute to @ibvprev.bsky.social's visits to Greenland and Denmark at the start of this year. It informed this wonderful report on the role of resilience in democratic defence and European security img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/13...

oneworld-publications.comThe Ocean and the Bones | OneworldIn a pre-historic world where the spirits are fickle and the people are cautious, Little Meg is a Sunhealer's apprentice. She must learn to read the signs of nature and commune with the spirits to gui...

4 June

My sis's book comes out today it looks amazing oneworld-publications.com/work/the-oce... @gen-carver.bsky.social

iww.orgIndustrial Workers of the World

1 May

Happy International Workers' day: what better way to commemorate Spies, Parsons, Fischer, and Engel than by joining the IWW? www.iww.org

reuters.comUAE refers Sudan general and others to court over ammunition shipment for Sudanese armyThe United Arab Emirates has referred the chief of staff of Sudan's army and 12 other defendants and six companies to its ‌State Security Court over an alleged attempt to move ammunition through UAE ...

1 May

Bleakly funny www.reuters.com/world/middle...

1 May

Reminds me of that Private Eye bit "I always felt a bit sorry for Mark Thatcher. I mean we were all illegally selling guns to Iran, he just picked the other side"

Happy REAL World Book day to everyone except the UK who do it wrong

latimes.comCartel war takes surprising turn as CIA involvement in Mexico surfacesAccording to sources familiar with the operation, the raid of a clandestine drug lab involved four CIA agents, raising questions about the scope of the agency's activity in Mexico.

Is it really all that surprising?

Los Angeles Times@latimes.com

Cartel war takes surprising turn as CIA involvement in Mexico surfaces

devex.comNo more backroom deals at the UNOpinion: The race for the next U.N. secretary-general must tackle the practice of national monopolies for top U.N. roles for certain member states.

In Devex alongside @benaldson.bsky.social and @plataformacipo.bsky.social teasing a report we've been working on which should be out shortly on the history of the backroom deals that underlie, and sometimes undermine, Secretary-General selections www.devex.com/news/no-more...

1for8billion.org1for8billion.org

I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure the Parsons/Waldheim story hasn't been in print before now, and there should be a few more bits of new history in the report when it drops too. Watch 1for8billion.org in a few weeks!