Henry marked the end of the year in his latest post:

“Every new order has been preceded by an epochal war. The tide of history is blood-dimmed.

The war on terror has to be won by legitimate means. If the war on terror is not shared by many others, the world sees only a superpower pursuing its own interests. A nation state is still a property that can be seized by despots who mesmerise and terrorise their people, firing their hatred of others, winding up their tribal instincts. Our planet still has no institutions or structures to enforce, or even legitimate, action in pursuit of human rights and states of consent.

Islamists aim to create a virtual nation with no frontiers but which also oppresses and terrorises those who resist. This is a huge and different challenge. Winning will need smart new strategies, unlike those we have used in the past. We have hardly begun to identify these strategies.

There have been no epochal wars in Syria and Iraq, no new orders. The cost in blood and treasure was too high. We just have wrecked countries and lives, and new horrors, crawling out of the ruins…”

I asked Henry about this post. He said the leading strategy must be intelligence sharing and other kinds of support. “We must be ready to help any state threatened by terror groups with intelligence and technology and physical support..”

“What if that state is also an autocratic state or an abuser of human rights? What if the terror groups ally themselves with a freedom movement?”

“Precisely the sort of problem I’m talking about….,” said Henry. “But military interventions are failing…”

I learned that Henry is 84 which means he was born in 1929. He is a bachelor.

He keeps his cottage clean, cooks up big stews with meat and vegetables which he says last him a week, and has a great library.

Yesterday he told us he’d bought a box-set of “Breaking Bad” and had reached Series 3.

He asked us, please, not to tell him what eventually happens to Walter White.