It’s been a bizarre week in international politics. First, the story that is still gradually being revealed about the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai: now widely thought to have been perpetrated by the Israeli secret service, Mossad. As if that isn’t outrageous enough there is an extra twist in the tail for us in the UK as we hear that those responsible were travelling with British passports. A story worthy of a Bond movie, surely.

And second the rather peculiar visit of the Dalai Lama to the US. Well it’s not so much his visit that was peculiar but his reception at the White House with President Obama. This is the Obama who made such great use of social media networks like Facebook and YouTube during his election, who emphasised the need for greater openness and transparency in government. So you would have expected that the whole print media, TV and radio, along with the internet would be awash with images, both still and moving, of the two great men greeting one another in the Oval Office and discussing international affairs. Instead we get one photo of them – in the map room. It seems that China can push more than just Google around these days.

Both these stories are about power and how it is used. The first touches upon the use of extreme physical violence that ended up with someone being murdered. Now we can all understand that Israel feels the need to defend itself against Hamas – but when will they realise that violence only begets violence? Revenge cannot be too far away, resulting more than probably in the deaths of Israeli people. The cycle thus keeps turning. The second story may not include physical aggression, but it is still about the misuse of power. The Dalai Lama represents a people who have suppressed by China for a long time. If they could silence him they would. And they never fail to put pressure on governments who decide to welcome him to their shores. So while he should have expected a grand reception in the Oval Office, he gets a quick chat in the map room and China’s power and influence are once again displayed.

Last night saw the second in Michael Cockerel’s excellent series on the BBC about the great offices of state in the British government. His focus was on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and how imperial power had gradually been lost since the second half of the twentieth century. The misuse of power was evident throughout the film especially during the Suez crisis in the 1950s. If the above two stories are bizarre then they are nothing compared to the then Foreign Secretary’s secret visit to a Paris suburb to plan for an invasion of Egypt in order to take back the canal. Apparently, in order to travel undetected to this meeting Selwyn Lloyd wore a disguise that included a false moustache.

Of course, Suez is a story of fading imperial power, for Britain was humiliated as it did not have the financial wherewithal to pursue its policy to completion. It asked the US for help and it, rightly, refused. Empires come and empires go. In the early twentieth century it was Britain; then America; and today China. That’s what power is like in this age – it never stays in the same hands for long.