I was actually intending to do a more thoughtful post inspired by this, (or maybe a more sarcastic one inspired by this), but, as I scanned over the NYT website, I actually gawked--out loud--in disbelief as I read this:President Bush took aim Wednesday at lavish...
Much of my academic scholarship is concerned with the idea of deliberative democracy. Nayef Samhat and I have argued, for instance, that norms of transparency (or openness) and participation (or...
I actually did watch the SOTU on Tuesday, in part because there was nothing else on television, and in part because I figured it might be a good topic to discuss in class. Wednesday night I was the...
I didn't watch the "State of the Union," but I skimmed much of it already and will read it soon. I noticed that President Bush has again somewhat ambiguously suggested that Iran has provided...
I haven't been posting much lately. I blame many developments for my paucity of quality commentary here. I've been grinding away at my book manuscript, maintaining blogs for my classes, dealing with some final revisions to various articles and chapters, getting a series of research assistants up and running on what will probably be my next major project, and so forth. For the last week, however, I've had a new excuse: the premature seizure of my desk by Georgetown facilities and management prior to the arrival of my new work surface. Since my home office is now by daughter's playroom (or, as...
One of my graduate students e-mailed me recently with the following question:"Yesterday I got an email asking me to be a discussant at ISA. I've never done this before and I want to do a good job. Do you have any tips on being a good discussant?" [ISA, for our non-IR readers, is the International Studies Association, and their annual meeting is the central annual professional conference for IR scholars.]With the student's permission, I am posting my reply, in hopes that it might generate some reactions or discussion."Indeed I do.First of all, I'm not sure that it's a good idea for graduate...
Yesterday as I was driving home, I caught the better part of President Bush's interview with The News Hour's Jim Lehrer (full transcript here).I found it quite interesting-- a very different Bush than I had heard before. Different in tone, different in style, and somewhat different in substance. Here, Bush admitted openly and honestly that he and his administration made real mistakes in Iraq: Part of the failure for our reaction was ourselves. I mean, we should have found troops and moved them.The purpose of the interview, along with others he's been giving this week, is to sell his new Iraq...
How many innocent people have died in Iraq as a result of the war?That number is a political hot potato -- and not merely for the reasons you probably think.The Bush administration asserts that the violence in Iraq, "particularly in Baghdad," has reversed the political gains that were reflected in the 2005 elections. By stabilizing the situation in and around the capital, they assert, the U.S. can help the current government control Iraq -- and then presumably prepare to bring American troops home. President Bush, in his speech last week said:The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is...
There is only one prime-time network TV show that I watch regularly, and the season premier was tonight: Jack Bauer is back for another season of 24. Sure, its a bit far-fetched, and sure, no one can get around LA with no traffic in the middle of the day and always find available parking, and sure, Jack was just tortured 15 minutes ago and is now torturing someone else. But the show is great. Its perhaps the best suspense-driven, action-oriented weekly show around, and the real-time thing still works (for the most part).It also captures (ok, makes an effort to portray, but they do a better...
If you haven't already picked up a 2007 calendar (and I certainly have not yet done so), you may want to check out the National Counter-terrorism Center's 2007 Desk Calendar.The US National Counterterrorism Center is pleased to present the 2007 edition of the Counterterrorism (CT) Calendar. This edition, the largest since the Calendar first appeared in a daily planner format in 2003, contains many features across the full range of terrorism-related issues: terrorist groups, wanted terrorists, and technical pages on various threat-related issues. The Calendar marks dates according to the...
The President was on television last night, selling the Iraq war.**As he has often in the so-called "war on terror," the President relied upon fear appeals: Failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits. They would be in a better position to topple moderate governments, create chaos in the region, and use oil revenues to fund their ambitions. Iran would be emboldened in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Our enemies would have a safe haven from which to plan and launch...
About 10 years ago, Thomas Friedman (before he was Mr. Globalization and was merely Mr. Middle East Peace), offered his view of what it would take to bring real progress on peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.* In a nutshell, each side would need to fight (and 'win') a civil war before either could reasonably make progress on Peace.Friedman said:In the Arab world the internal struggle pits on one side those who want to open their societies and link up with the global economy. They view peace with Israel not as a good in and of itself, but as a necessary ritual if they want to...