I’m often asked, at short notice, to be interviewed for Press TV on a range of topics and events. In those interviews, I try to provide global context — something seldom offered by media outlets incentivised to focus on the minutiae of the drama rather than on what drives those with power and wealth to act as they do. The focus falls on short-term symptoms, rather than the underlying, structural causes.
Continuity is essential, even as the evolving framework of shared understanding improves and refines that context.
And finally: I care about all those involved, particularly the victims of violence, whether structural or dynamic.
Context, continuity, care — the same three commitments hold whether the format is a live interview or a written one.
In interviews, this approach risks being ignored or dismissed as irrelevant to whatever is being discussed. Recently, though, I was asked to respond in writing to a set of questions from a group of researchers focused mainly on UK and European economics — an opportunity, I hope, to bridge the gap between geopolitical perspective and structural reality.