One of the most repeated, and most dubious, axioms about strategy is the notion that being proactive is wiser than being reactive, and that reactivity is something we should be allergic to. In the words of Briain's foreign secretary William Hague, 'the nation that is...
So the Culture appears to both want to pursue this knowledge for the sheer joy of knowing, and for the contribution that knowledge can make to deciding on a course of action. Both constitute recognizable grounds for action, both in the Culture and in our world, but as the novel unfolds, both are called into question.
If you haven't seen it, I did a (text) interview with SAGE about academic blogging and the awards. This was the source of my sense of déjà vu during my discussion with Rob Farley: some of the points...
General Warning: this is emphatically not a spoiler-free Forum! Hence all of the text all of the contributions will be safely below the fold, and only the identifying information for the author of...
I am a very bad Jew: the kind who not only married a shiksa, but pretty much only does Hanukkah and Passover. Well, the wife's out of the country for the entire holiday this year, but Lyra and I managed to have a nice little first night before rushing off to her tumbling-and-trampoline clinic. I always find Chrismukkah challenging. How do I distribute the loot? How do I prevent an avalanche of gifts? As Lyra gets older, it gets easier; the ratio of books (and graphic novels) to toys shifts in the direction of the former. This year she's also getting some novelty gifts, such as what might...
It's that time of year that Dutch people living outside of Dutchland are beginning to hate: the time of Zwarte Piet. To be fair, the feast of Sinterklaas, a holiday that displays none of America's advanced marketing techniques, was a couple of days ago, but that actually just means that Americans and others have been recently primed to make conversations awkward for their Dutch friends at holiday parties. (This is distinctly different from making awkward conversations at holiday parties, which is a cosmopolitan phenomenon.) The Dutch may have David Sedaris's classic monologue Six to Eight...
Musical Politics and Political Science: I'm currently downloading the free EP by Hey Anna, a well-reviewed band involving Mike Tierney's nieces. Hume's Bastard discusses PSY's profanity-laden anti-Iraq War stylings. More from Juan Cole. Apparently this is a big deal, or something, given the mass emails appearing in my inbox. Prosaic Politics and Political Science: Daniel Drezner weighs in on the political-science-job-market controversy. People other than Kindred blog at IPE@UNC! Check out recent non-Kindred posts. I hope this means less pressure on Kindred -- and not less of him. The New...
2012 interview with Barry Buzan.
This is a guest post by Sean Kay. Professor Kay is chair of the International Studies program and professor of politics at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is also Mershon Associate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University. He has written extensively on NATO and Europe, with his most recent book, Global Security in the Twenty-first Century: The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace (2011). In a recent Washington Post editorial, David Ignatius reported on a “big idea” that could “revitalize the U.S-European partnership for the 21st century.” The...
Driving in Russia: And also: Justin Gengler on... well... just go read. In a move sure (not) to keep NATO defense planners up at night, China and Belarus hold a joint exercise. Long-term US unemployment as a loss of weak ties? National Geographic reports on the wave of politically-motivated self-immolations in Tibet (via 3QD). Arms Control Wonk holiday contest: nuclear lyrics. War-on-terrorism termination? Jonathan Hafetz ruminates. John Little interviews (former Mossad officer) Michael Ross. It seems that every line of work has interminable conference calls (via via). Oh, Canada! Just...
Newsweek Japan asked me for an long-form essay on Korea’s economy for its December 5 issue (cover story to the left). Here is the link in Japanese, but I thought it would be useful to publish the original, untranslated version as well. (If you actually want the Japanese language version, email me for it please.) The essay broadly argues that Korea needs to move beyond ‘developmentalism’ toward economic liberalism, as a lot of Asia does in my opinion. Regular readers will see themes I have emphasized before. This was intended for the print edition, so there are no hyperlinks included in the...
Last Monday President Obama reiterated that Syrian use of chemical weapons would cross a US red line. Today brings multiple reports of the Syrian military preparing for their use. The government claims to have retaken two of Damascus' suburbs, but the consensus certainly seems to be that the tide is turning against the Assad regime. Marc Lynch worries about how the international community is handling Syrian refugees. Jay Ulfelder on Star Wars, "used futures," and institutional design, the extension of that analogy to Egypt's constitution, and more on the "forecasting wars." That's a lot...