Its hard to miss the prevailing idea that American hegemony is in a precipitous decline. Earlier this year, Parag Khanna was “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony” in a New York Times Magazine cover story. In Foreign Affairs, Fareed Zakaria recently argued that America needs...
Jon Stewart's guest last night, Bill Bishop, makes an argument about US political culture in his book The Big Sort: both about our tendency to "cluster" with those who think as we do, and its...
The big news story of the day seems to be the "demise" of Scrabulous. "Scrabulous is dead," claims Slashdot. "Scrabulous No More," begins the equivalent post at Digital Savant. Well no, Scrabulous...
This post is to briefly announce my departure from University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and relocation to the Department of Political Science at University...
Sunday, the Washington Post launched a 4 part series giving an in-depth look at Oil. Sunday's part 1 gave a very solid primer on the global Oil economy, and today's installment looks at the impact that China's growing consumption has on both China and the world Oil market.Oil is a complex thing. It ties together nations who otherwise would have little need to interact. It turns regions into strategic security choke points, it lifts and crashes major economies, and it, broadly speaking, shapes an entire way of life. It brings together some of the most important issues in international...
David Brooks has an Alanis Morisette moment (except this one really is ironic): But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.But when it comes down to it, Brooks is just being lazy with this column...
Lots went on in international criminal justice this past week. A few thoughts about three big news stories and a smaller one are below the fold.1) Omar Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court. I was less surprised by the fact that a sitting head of state might be charged than that the list of charges actually included genocide. Not because the facts on the ground don't suggest they should, but because of the nature of the crime and the nature of the court. a) Genocide is an "intent" crime - to convict you have to prove not just that atrocities occurred, but that they were...
Yesterday I was running a short simulation exercise on the Cuban Missile Crisis for students in my summer program, and lo and behold, what appeared in the paper, but:Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons could be deployed to Cuba in response to U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, a Russian newspaper reported Monday, citing an unnamed senior Russian air force official.The report in Izvestia, which could not be confirmed, prompted memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the United States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war...
Hasn't it occurred to any of these idiots that adopting Nazi iconography and aesthetics is the last thing a US Presidential candidate would want to do to improve his popularity in Germany?Unless he's aiming for that all-important 14-25 East German demographic, half of whom apparently believe that "National Socialism had good sides" (meaning that the other half believed it had no positive qualities whatsoever, I might add).As Haaretz reported:A poll published Wednesday showed a quarter of Germans believe there wereat least some positive aspects to Nazi rule - a finding that comes after a...
I have a very difficult time getting worked into a lather because John McCain has, on more than one occasion, referred to "The Czech Republic" as "Czechoslovakia" (video). I'm less than half McCain's age, and I often slip (during lectures no less) and call Russia the "Soviet Union" and substitute "Soviets" for "Russians." Shockingly enough, I almost always do this, like McCain, in contexts when I'm discussing nuclear deterrence, ballistic missile defense, and other issues that were, um, rather salient during the Cold War. In fact, Howard Dean made the same mistake at a session of Hardball,...
The BBC reports on a new study finding that drummers are "top athletes" (also available on video):Burke was connected to equipment to measure his heart rate and oxygen uptake, and the levels of lactic acid in his blood.He found that during a performance, his heart averaged between 140 and 150 beats a minute, peaking at 190, levels comparable to other top athletes.However, Dr Smith said that while top footballers were expected to perform once or twice a week, drummers on tour would be doing it every night at a different venue.Drummers burn 4-600 calories per hourHe said: "Footballers can...
The Abkhazia plan proposed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been getting close to zero press in the United States. Which may be appropriate. As a Kommersant headline sums it up: "Russia Signs On to German Plan, After Abkhazia Rejects It."Russia has given high marks to the plan for a Georgian-Abkhazian settlement proposed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and called it “conceptually absolutely correct.” That practical support from Moscow for Germany’s intermediary efforts comes immediately after the plan was rejected by Abkhazia and was a sensational...