Why is it that women represent 70% of the world’s people living in poverty? What does it mean to have economic stability? How do international structures interact with local structures to produce or disturb that stability? Is economic stability something people (or...
PTJ has one of the most sophisticated ways of thinking about different positions in the field of International Relations (and, by extension, the social sciences), but his approach may be too...
Alex Cooley and I on Bahrain and US autocratic allies:U.S. officials should make efforts to decouple the rationale of a given basing relationship from support for a particular regime. This means...
The more I think about it, the more atrocious it is that a three year old burn victim in Pakistan or Libya cannot automatically access morphine. Imagine being such a child's parent, watching her...
The Canard"All the fake news that is fit to print"Rochester--Local game theorist Zofran Economakis is afraid of making a credible commitment to his longtime girlfriend, Lisa Johnson, his girlfriend reports. "He tells me that he loves me," Johnson told the Canard, "but how do I know he means it? He has incentives to dissemble. I need a credible signal of his love for me. Like a big fat diamond engagement ring. And he better engrave my name on it, so he can't sell it on E-Bay if we break up."When contacted, Economakis explained that he taken a serious of escalatory steps to demonstrate his...
Alyssa Rosenberg has a good discussion of the anti-torture themes in the Harry Potter series. But she neglects two other ways in which J.K. Rowling critiques the US conduct of the war on terror: Azkaban and arbitrary detention. Harry's disdain for the ministry in The Half-Blood Prince focuses on their detention of Stan Shunpike in Azkaban -- Stan's obvious innocence doesn't deter Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour from scapegoating the young man as part of his effort to create the illusion of security in the Wizarding world. Indeed, Azkaban itself could be any number of soul-devouring...
My reaction to the news was essentially that of a five year old after a long car ride -- can we be done now? I am very tired of the war on terror, on multiple levels.First, the obvious irritations. The airport security with two children, whose liquids must be regarded a priori as toxic substances. The shoes and the belts. Can't I at least keep my coat on? Don't we have scanners that can pick out an explosive device from my inside pocket? This from the country that put a man on the moon? Yes, I would feel differently if there were another attack tomorrow using fake breast milk as a...
There will be a lot of time to think about Bin Laden's death, but I thought I would add a few quick thoughts while I catch up on the coverage online. There are a bunch of surprises and non-surprises.First, in retrospect, the non-surprises are:Seal Team 6 (the super-special operations forces) did the job, not a drone. This is not a surprise, because the US always wanted to have complete proof that it was Bin Laden and that he was dead. A drone cannot do that.... yet.That the US took the shot. Yes, there are tradeoffs involved, especially backlash against the US and within Pakistan, but...
POTUS speaking to the nation this evening:11:40: "They took care to avoid civilian casualties." Hmm. No word as to whether they succeeded.11:41: "Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims." That was good.11:43: "Today's achievement is a testament to the greatness of the American people." I see. Killing this individual is on par with walking on the moon. We can all be very proud. The "war" will continue. My immediate take: they've done a masterful job at playing the media and making a huge story and enormous nationalistic success out of a single operation in a vast...
Canadian democracy rests in this man's hands. Yesterday I provided a fully superficial background and survey of developments regarding the 2011 Canadian Election. The short version is 1) We’ve had a series of minority governments. 2) Stephen Harper probably thought he could get a majority, and now that does not seem likely though it is still possible. 3) The NDP has ‘surged’, probably at the Liberal’s expense, but also very much at the expense of the Quebec nationalist/separatist Bloc Party and possibly even that of the Tories (who may have expected disappointed Liberals to flock right...