This is a guest post by Dr. Sherrill Stroschein, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Politics, Department of Political Science, University College London We have all been driven to understand what is going on over the past few days. Some of these discussions...
It is cold in the scriptorium, my thumb aches. Actually, it isn't. I've just always wanted to use that line from the end of Name of the Rose. In fact its about room temperature in the American...
Because we are late with Friday Nerd Blogging, we have a two-fer--one that is mocks a TV program to come and one that mocks an old show but lovingly so: And for the kids out there, Bosum Buddies is...
As sleet and ice descend upon Austin, Texas this Thursday evening, here are some stories in keeping with this wackadoo weather. Rick Perry and weed at Davos with Kofi Annan, Downton Abbey goes on...
David Bosco has a terrific post (and a promised series) on "Can Conservatives Learn to Love Multilateral Organizations?" (Short answer: no, especially not in an election year). It is a timely entry after the recent Republican debates on US foreign policy, during which the candidates did their very best to beat each other at the age-old game of beating up the principle of multilateralism. Much to my horror (but not surprise), Texas Governor Rick Perry took the cake when he promised that, if elected, he would "zero out foreign aid" and instead allocate aid based upon countries' "support for...
With approximately 1000 World War II veterans dying every day, and the absolute numbers from more recent wars increasing steadily, it's important to give some thought to what we offer those who have served or are serving... and to what they offer us. On the first score, a new report from Rand represents an example: this is a new effort to account for programs to treat traumatic brain injury due to armed service. (The report finds such programs are proliferating, but much more attention must be paid to which ones work.) I am interested if anyone knows of a similar report or dataset that...
When I was young (ca. 2001), I was very much in Matt Drudge's target demographic, and for various reasons (I like tabloids, I like celebrity gossip, and I like to keep up with the echo chamber without subscribing to Fox News), I've stayed a loyal Drudge reader for years.Drudge is a window into the right-wing's id. And so it's always amazing to me to see things like this:First, there was a time when being a Republican meant celebrating your loyalty to Nixon. Anyone can like Reagan, but only a real s.o.b. can like Nixon. Second, if there's any historical analogy that springs to mind for...
Twitter inspired a conversation today with Starbuck about Eliot Cohen, who wrote a very important book on civil-military relation, Supreme Command. It features case studies where civilian leaders over-rode military officers, focusing on Lincoln, Churchill, Clemenceau and Ben-Gurion. Clemenceau had said that war was too important to be left to the generals, and I agree. I found Cohen's book very persuasive despite:the extreme selection bias: no cases of civilians making bad decisions and over-riding good military advice. What would do the trick? Including an Iraq chapter where Rummy...
Over on the other side of the methods divide, Andrew Gelman shares a tip: Caffeine, a lightweight and free app for Macs that keeps them awake even when you haven't clicked on them for a while. But let me double down on Gelman with a tip that, if used improperly, could destroy your computer: Insomniax, which doesn't just keep your Mac awake but actually disables its sleep function. In other words, if you have to move from one place to another while you're running calculations, or if you just want iTunes to keep playing when you close the lid on your MacBook, then Insomniax is the solution....
The US does not negotiate with terrorist groups.*^*This statement does not yet apply to the Haqqani Network in Pakistan; even though its founder and senior leadership have all been individually designated as terrorists. [ Oh, come on Vikash, the US negotiated with "reached out" to that group before Admiral Mullen's testimony to Congress. Until that testimony we had no idea that  a group founded and led by people we call terrorists could actually be considered a terrorist "group."  Sure the Haqqanis are vicious individually, but as a group they're like the Cub Scouts. Seriously, though it's...
On Friday, I gave some remarks in Dallas, Texas to a group of young leaders from different professions as part of the Next Generation Project organized by the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. For this diverse  audience, I tested what I described in my last post a "Go Right" messaging strategy on global warming, designed to appeal to partisans and nonpartisans alike.  You be the judge if this effort was successful. I've added some hyperlinks of sources I drew upon to write the speech.It’s great to be here with all of you and to have the opportunity to participate in another...