This is a guest post by Eric Grynaviski, an Associate Professor of Political Science at International Affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of Constructive Illusions (Cornell, 2014) .He studies sociological approaches to cooperation and conflict,...
Halloween is not celebrated in Turkey. Yet if they were celebrating Halloween, Turks who support democracy, secularism, human rights, and the rule of law would not have a hard time finding a haunted...
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...
The Guardian article this week that disclosed the story of U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of several US allies said that the surveillance produced "little reportable intelligence."  This isn't...
Why do people pay this man for his commentary?Dan’s favorite commentator is back again, this time with an op/ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hanson essentially lays out what he sees as the talking points the Bush administration should be using in an effort to deflate criticism of the handling of the War on Terror. What follows is a long, snarky discussion of Hanson's latest drivel.VDH’s first problem lies with questions regarding how to deal with the prisoners at GITMO:“Take the uniformless and stateless terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay. To be sure, there are alternatives to the...
[UPDATED]I've been critical of the strategic wisdom of the IDF attacks in Lebanon, but some new developments suggest that it might work after all. Haagi at American Footprints:The Lebanese government appears to be throwing in its lot against Hezbollah, appealing for international help to change the dynamic in the south of the country:Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called Saturday for an immediate cease-fire with Israel, and asked for help in deploying the country's army in the south, from where Hezbollah has for days pounded northern Israel with Katyusha rockets."We call for an...
Courtesy of Coming Anarchy's Curzon. Someday we'll get around to implementing a nice design for the Duck.
My daughter's sick and I'm pretty tired - from writing and reading - so here's what's catching my eye...In the "Crisis in the Middle East" department, things seem to be getting worse with the death of eight Israeli civilians in Haifa. The IDF is also resuming strikes in Gaza. Mubarak claims he persuaded the Israelis not to launch a ground offensive against Beirut. Mossad's chief leaves for the US this week to discuss the Iranian nuclear program. That will certainly prompt some major speculation on the part of serious and conspiracy-minded analysts. Speaking of Mossad's chief, Steve Clemons,...
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah's chief pledged open war on Israel on Friday after it bombed his home, saying "look at it burn" when an Israeli warship that had earlier rocketed Lebanon was attacked and set ablaze."You wanted open war. We are going to (wage) open war," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a telephone message broadcast live on Hizbollah television after his house was hit as Israel ramped up the assault it launched after Hizbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.This is what war looks like.I heard a news reporter yesterday describe how camera crews had decided...
For an administration that likes to keep things secret they sure do pick some funny things to make public--like our military's operational weakness. This was accomplished in large part by partaking in a strategically questionable operation that begins with the letters I-R-A and ends in Q. This has long been a complaint of mine. Yours truly in January of '06:"...the Iraq War not only decreased the capability of the US to launch any kind of substantial invasion/occupation of Iran but it also demonstrated (and continues to demonstrate) this fact in the most public way. It is virtually...
Given how the US reacted to the traumatic 9/11 attacks -- wars against Afghanistan and Iraq that are still ongoing and adoption of a dangerous public doctrine of "preemptive" action that openly embraces preventive war -- security scholars ought to be thinking seriously about India's possible reaction to this week's Mumbai commuter train bombings. Indeed, this should be a central concern to security strategists as well. Why? Though the Indian government has not accused Pakistan of direct involvement in this week's commuter train bombings, officials like Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...
Foreign Affairs magazine has been running both a print and on-line forum on the future of US policy towards Iraq. If you haven't read it yet, get yourself over there and take a look.In my second experiment in videoblogging, I take issue with Chaim Kaufmann's contribution to the original forum. To be fair to Kaufmann, my response is oriented more towards his broader argument about ethnic partition as a solution to ethno-nationalist civil war than to his specific proposals for Iraq.Let me add some thoughts on videoblogging. I'm still not sure about this medium. Text provides a far more...