The following is a guest-post from Martin Edwards, professor at Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations. Martin’s website is here. How do Americans think about the United Nations? The results of recent surveys by the Pew Research Global Attitudes...
There's been a lot of discussion, here (1)(2) and elsewhere (3)(4) about the value of networking. Dan Drezner suggests that the best kind of networking is doing good research, and that there is a...
The world would be a better place if more academic papers included this caption--in bright neon letters and all caps. (via Dani K Nedal, as XCKD long ceased to be on my regular reading list)
The New York Times recalls her as a post-9/11 public intellectual who served as an "intellectual beacon" and "guiding light for policymakers" during a tumultous political era. The Atlantic describes...
The film "Zero Dark Thirty" has touched quite a cord in this country, such as with Peter Henne's post below that responds to my own post further below. To his credit, he opens up another strand of the wider debate this film has touched off. My own reflection delves into the torture controversy writ large, as well as the the purpose and role of art in film making form. Peter uses the latter to widen our view into what this film has to say about civil-military relations in American society. Peter, I wonder if I could draw you out further on several facets of your observation. First it...
This is a guest post by Peter S. Henne. Peter is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. He formerly worked as a national security consultant. His research focuses on terrorism and religious conflict; he has also written on the role of faith in US foreign policy. During 2012-2013 he is a fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. I appreciated Jeffrey Stacey’s recent post on the debate over “Zero Dark Thirty.” It’s useful to point out what is being obscured by the criticism of the movie’s depiction of torture. But I think his piece missed a broader aspect of the...
We're a bit over a week away from selecting the finalists for the awards. As of today we are no longer likely to honor new ballot requests. Those of you have already received a ballot should cast it. I have an interview up with Ramez Naam about his well-received technothriller, Nexus. If that's your kind of thing, the Kindle edition is on steep discount. Dan Drezner's morning evisceration of Tom Friedman is a wonder to behold. Cheryl Rofer explains the grounds for skepticism concerning reports of chemical weapons use in Syria. Tim Burke provides long-term perspective on the conflict in Mali....
Anyone who did not see "Zero Dark Thirty" on its opening night was smart, as it was mayhem in theaters everywhere. The film shot to #1 at the box office overnight and is there still, for the plain and simple reason that it's a must see (no spoiler alert here because we all know at least a little about eliminating Osama bin Laden). Zero Dark features a razor sharp screenplay by Mark Boal, top form directing by Kathryn Bigelow, and higher than high stakes drama from start to finish. This film, however, is sufficiently controversial that there may soon be Congressional hearings about it--Sen....
Like sausage, you don't want to see links being made. Inauguration: Josh Marshall sums it up. [Talking Points Memo] On Facebook I called the president's second inaugural the most radical address ever and I stand by that. Kevin Drum argues it was also partisan. [Mother Jones] Nickel book reviews: The Victory Lab, Sasha Issenberg. So good I changed my course syllabus for January 2013 after reading this book in December 2012. Seth Masket [The Mifchiefs of Faction] has more. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of belief, Lawrence Wright. Interesting and well-reported. Clearly...
Here is part one of this post. The following will make more sense if you start there. I noted that I am participating, today in Seoul (attend if you can), in a USC-CSIS project on Korean unification. This is the final ‘phase’ of their Korea Project on unification. I thought I would post my thoughts on the previous USC-CSIS Korea report (available here) which provided all sorts of suggestions for reconstruction. It’s useful reading if your area is East Asia or Korea, but I actually disagree with a fair number of the analogies of NK to Iraq and Afghanistan. I think Germany is a better model...
In honor of the drum major for peace, here's your (rather abbreviated) MLK Holiday edition of Monday morning linkage: Some reactions to Zero Dark Thirty are, well ... rather predictable... since Islamophobia has become the tolerated form of bigotry in the West and particularly in 'Merica. Novelist, Teju Cole, writes Seven [Really, Really] Short Stories about Drones on Twitter. Zack Beauchamp doesn't really get it. Not boring and nuanced enough. FFS it's a series of tweets! .... By the way don't tell him about Daisy Rockwell's Little Book of Terror. Hamid Dabashi asks "Can Non-Europeans...
Bruce Whitehouse provides a roundup of developments in Mali. John Owen on US decline. He claims that he thought he was doing an interview for a dissident magazine, not a "regime-approved" publication. Yeah, right. We all know John's in the tank for the Mullahs. Jay Ulfelder argues that the Libyan intervention is not responsible for core events in Mali. China's military on the rise. Peter Henne discusses the relationship between religion and suicide bombings. Xavier Marquez: "the deification of Hugo Chávez." Jeffrey Lewis examines "confused" accounts of North Korea's missiles. Jeffrey...