Daniel Korski

A few weeks ago, Gordon Brown appointed former first minister, Jack McConnell MSP, as a Special Envoy for Conflict Resolution – provoking accusations that the move was "blatant political manipulation" to avoid the possibility of a by-election defeat in McConnell's Motherwell and Wishaw seat. The idea had originally been to appoint McConnell as the High Commissioner in Malawi - which would have sparked a by-election. Instead, the Scottish politician will have a non-resident, part-time role as a special envoy for the Prime Minister. But what his exact job will be apparently remains unclear and the subject of some debate across Whitehall. There is no reference to the appointment – or Mr. McConnell’s terms of reference – on the No. 10 website.

With an Obama administration almost statistically inevitable, attention is turning to the post-election struggle for positions and power.  His current aides include Gregory Craig, Scott Gration, Ben Rhodes, Richard Danzig, Samantha Power, Tony Lake, and Susan Rice - a team which is said to funnel through Denis McDonough, an Obama confidante, who briefs the senator. But when it comes to populating the administration’s key slots, many of these aides may have to take a back seat in favour of more well-known and politically-connected candidates. Joe Biden has warned that an Obama administration would face an international challenge in its first six months.

This week William Hague is visiting Bosnia, trying to highlight the problems in the country 13 years after the Bosnian War that saw 100, 000 civilian die. His visit provides welcome attention to the country’s slide towards conflict; while he can helpfully distance the Tory party from the dastardly Conservative policy at the time, which saw Douglas Hurd argue against aiding the Bosnian Muslims. So what is happening in Bosnia? A lot – but hardly any of it is particularly positive. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, a moderate-turned nationalist, has adopted a secessionist agenda. His long-term policy seems clear, the peaceful secession of the Serb province as Milo Djukanovic did it in Montenegro.

The appointment of Sir General David Richards as head of the British army, effective from August 2009, is the government’s first inspired military appointment for a long time. A former Nato commander in Afghanistan and the “Saviour of Sierra Leone”, General Richards will bring to the job a keen understanding of the military’s new tasks and, from his last assignment as Commander-in-Chief Land Forces, insight into the real state of the British army. Richards is probably the closest thing the British army has to David Petraeus – a soldier with an appreciation of politics, an eye for a good photo opportunity, but also someone who can develop a strategic vision.

Peter Mandelson is to take his seat in the House of Lords on Monday following his surprise return to the cabinet. But for one week he held the job of Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform without having a seat in either the Commons or the Lords. He was presumably allowed to take the job by the rule-keepers because he is a member of the Privy Council. Many traditionalists will say that the constitutional anomaly will be corrected once Mandelson is made a peer and the Business Sectary can be held to proper account. But scrutiny of ministers in Parliament is becoming increasingly lax. PMQs is a merry-go-round of insults, planted questions and parried queries.

The appointment of a new Defence Secretary is one of the best things in Gordon Brown’s reshuffle. Des Browne had grown tired at the MoD, struggling to maintain the respect of the rank and file, battling to oversee two ministerial portfolios and failing to manage crises, like the Iranian capture of British sailors. John Hutton’s appointment is a chance for new thinking. So what should the new defence secretary do in his first 100 days? Here are five ideas. 1) As Charlie Edwards says over on Global Dashboard, John Hutton needs to get himself to Iraq and Afghanistan and take the measure of both campaigns.

With the departure of a Commissioner who is seen as an intellectual New Labour-style cop, there will be a desire for a copper’s copper at the head of the Met: someone who has risen up through the ranks, commands respect on the beat and is seen as focused on crime, not convention.  But the Commissioner’s job has become very political, requiring not only the support of one’s Bobbies but of a range of ‘stakeholders’. There are, of course, serious inside candidates who fit this bill - like Northern Ireland’s Hugh Orde or the Met’s own Paul Stephenson - and outsiders such as David Veness, who used to work for the Met and is shortly leaving his job as the UN’s security chief.

The crisis in Georgia is now moving into the next phase, with the European Union about to deploy a team of unarmed monitors to police the EU-brokered agreement reached between Georgia and Russia. Further talks are expected to start up in Geneva in a month’s time between the parties, under the stewardship of French EU envoy Pierre Morel.   Against past practice, the EU looks set to get its monitoring mission off the ground quickly, having received promises of personnel and kit from the 27 EU member states. The mere fact of its deployment on 1 October will, in one sense, achieve a primary objective: triggering the beginning of the withdrawal of Russian troops. But nobody knows what will happen afterwards.

David Cameron’s recent visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan received relatively little press attention; showing just how exceptional the amount of coverage that Cameron’s statements on Georgia and trip there garnered were. In his address in Pakistan, Cameron once more set out his ‘liberal conservative’ agenda. Here’s the key passage of the speech: “A liberal Conservative approach…recognises that democracy must be built around the institutions, habits and culture of each country. Democracy should be the work of patient craftsmanship and not of a uniform mass production line, if the final product is to be of a quality that endures.” In other words, states are not built; they develop over time.

A few days after the EU summit to discuss Russia’s aggression in Georgia, debate across Europe is dividing into two camps. Not between those who back Russia and those who are baying for conflict, although this dividing line exists and is well-reported. The real division is over the meaning of the war for the future of European politics – and it’s likely to be even more aggressively contested.