As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
EU development policy: Time to articulate the Commander’s Intent
EU development policy: Time to articulate the Commander’s Intent, Europe's World, July 2010
This is a second-hand idea, but it bears repeating. The key to leadership is to communicate strategic intent in simple words. In the US army, apparently, this is called the Commander’s Intent. John F Kennedy illustrated the principle, when he called on the US to ‘commit itself, before this decade is out, (to) landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth’. The instruction was clear, unambiguous, and served to motivate thousands of individuals contributing to a huge and complex project. Bill Clinton’s advisers had the same idea: ‘there has to be message triage’, they told him, ‘if you say three things, you don’t say anything’..... (click on the link above to see the full article)