Here's where things stand: Nominees for Best Blog (Group): Abu Muqawama Arms Control Wonk Crooked Timber The Disorder of Things IPE at UNC Mideast Matrix Kings of War Nominees for Best Blog (Individual): Abu Aardvark’s Middle East Blog (Marc Lynch) Chris Blattman...
The ISA-NE conference scheduled for 2-3 November in Baltimore, Maryland will take place as scheduled. Official emails are going out. Hope to see attendees there.
The ISA-NE leadership hopes to make a decision by 1200 EDT concerning the status of the conference. While the DC area looks like it should be navigable by Thursday, we don't have good information...
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated last Sunday that every Australian child should learn Mandarin, Hindi, or other regional languages as part of Australia's embrace of the Asian Century....
You may have heard that Romney referred to Russia as America's "number-one geopolitical foe" and plans to double down on this rhetoric during his big speech in Poland.The speech on the "values of liberty" at Warsaw University on Tuesday is expected to seek to rekindle the flames of US cold war righteousness by featuring a strong attack on Russia and President Vladimir Putin's rollback of democratic gains, while also criticising the US president, Barack Obama, for allegedly sacrificing the interests and security of central European democracy in favour of realpolitik with the Kremlin. Romney...
I am happy to guest post my friend Dave Kang of the University of Southern California. I think Dave’s work on east Asia and IR theory is excellent; I would start with this or this if you’re interested. REKConfucian North KoreaFigure 1. Korean Worker’s Party symbolIt is easy to caricature North Korea as a “bizarre” “land of no smiles” full of brainwashed robots. In the past few years, North Korea has become somewhat prominent in popular culture either as a salacious joke or a freak show of a country. (And yes, I refuse to give you too many links to articles I think are misinformed...
Russia seeks to revive its power-projection capabilities by establishing overseas naval facilities. Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times describes the experience of being a drone pilot. Apparently selling F-35s will "cement" US alliances (via a twitter source that I can't recall, but who was equally skeptical of the direction of causality). RPI relates views on whether or not China will have a soft landing. Dan Rodrik on manufacturing convergence.SEK disabuses us all of our erroneous belief in the existence of a movement called "Social Darwinism."Io9 provides an uninspiring list of...
2012 interview with Phil Arena.
The battle for Aleppo continues. Barbara Walter doesn't think much of Syria's "chemical weapons bluff."David Axe explains how German Typhoons took on US F-22s.BJ Keefe calls attention to an hour-long talk by Richard Rhodes, nuclear-weapons historian extraordinaire. Patrick Nielsen Hayden calls this piece on Machiavelli and Florence "one of the best pieces of historical writing I have read on a blog." It is awfully good, but there's something inherently wrong with mentioning The Prince without any acknowledgment of the existence of The Discourses. As, um, we do in virtually every "Intro to...
The battle for Aleppo continues. Al Jazeera interviews captive members of the Syrian secret police. Pankaj Mishra argues that the anglophone powers need to shake off their obsession with "neo-imperialist dogma," as Asia is having none of it (via). Richard Muller describes his abandonment of climate-change skepticism in a New York Times op-ed (via). Harvey Sapolsky reviews a new collection of essays on military innovation. Sarah Kehndzior helps readers understand the violence in Tajikstan. Registan is always a useful resource for this kind of thing.Part of IV of Abahaci's series on the...
Syrian forces are massing in preparation for possible ground assault in Aleppo. Goldberg at the UN Dispatch argues that "'Aleppo' may soon become shorthand for mass atrocity in the 21st century'"Philip Coyle at the National Interest provides evidence that US missile defense systems don't actually work. The attitude in the Pentagon is precisely the opposite. Jennifer Earl on how technological change facilitates not just political repression by states, but by private actors as well. If I were less pressed for time, I'd probably note that this sort of thing has broad implications for naïve...