Now certainly we can all agree that many of the most inflamatory, anti-Israeli statements from Iran's newest President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been targeted towards a certain segment of his domestic audience and possibly segments of the Arab world. This is quite common for politicians of all types, since their continued power relies in part on their ability to maintain support from relevant actors, and this is done through signaling. However, there is a right and wrong way to signal so that you minimize the amount of negative reactions from other audiences who are obviously...

A friend of mine emailed me a link to Barry Posen's "Exit Strategy: How to Disengage with Iraq in Eighteenth Months", which appears in the next issue of the Boston Review. Posen argues, citing familiar evidence, that the occupation is not going particularly well. The insurgency shows no evidence of diminished strength and the Iraqi government shows no signs of being able to take over crucial administrative responsibilities. At the same time, the US presence makes the problem worse.First, Iraqi politicians will not apply sustained pressure to their security forces to improve themselves so...

As I alluded to in my last post, I've been doing exploratory research for a possible blog piece on the general vapidness of the "network" metaphor in a great many popular writings on terrorism and global change. In the process, I stumbled upon a Belmont Club post containing this gem:However perfectly networked the US military battlespace ever becomes, it is still an instrumentality of a state, an organizational type that took form in the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.To which I say: No!Academics still debate the precise influence of the Peace of Westphalia (comprised of the Treaty of Münster...

Part of the Duck's ongoing mission is to highlight articles in academic international-relations journals that speak to topics of general concern among the blogging and blog-reading community. In that spirit, I want to call attention to the latest issue of International Security, which includes a provocative article by Alex Montgomery.Alex is a good friend of mine from our days together at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, so caveat emptor. In "Ringing in Proliferation: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Network," Montgomery slams current trends in US counterproliferation...

Speaking of orgiastic consumerism, here's EB Game's order page for the Xbox360:I guess you can't say they didn't warn you (although the duplicative "please read the bottom of the page for important information" suggests they weren't always quite so explicit that ordering an Xbox360 from them for Christmas wouldn't be such a good idea).Of course, my careful investigations reveals that EB Games is a "Happy Holidays" kind of company. That explains everything...Filed as: Xbox360

Another year, another faux controversy about the secular humanists, liberal atheists, and assorted no-goodniks stealing Christmas from the righteous and god-faring. Their methods haven't changed much from last year: preventing municipalities from establishing religious icons on public property without equal time for other religious displays and, most shockingly of all, forcing the employess of megacorporations to say "Happy Holidays!" rather than "Merry Christmas!"I'm actually quite sympathetic to the fundamental argument to keep "Christ in Christmas." The holiday is fun - and, as I...

What would happen to Iraq if America withdrew almost immediately?In other words, what would happen if Representative Murtha's proposal was implemented? Gary Boatwright at Seeing the Forest is taking this question seriously -- as is Nir Rosen in The Atlantic Monthly.The conventional wisdom, is that the violence would worsen as Iraq moves toward civil war. The Iraqi government would be unable to govern and Iraq might become a failed state. That's essentially the worst case scenario according to President Bush -- Iraq ends up replacing Afghanistan as the safe haven host state for international...

[updated on 12.4.05]I know I promised to comment on the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, but to be honest it isn't worth the effort and I don't know if I have the strength. Those who read this blog are intelligent enough to see the Victory Stratey for what it is--a transparent attempt to mollify the administration's critics and reverse the declining trend in public opinion for the war.The 'strategy' is simply a collection of regurgitated, vapid platitudes that offers nothing in the way of original strategy and fails to outline the tactics necessary to achieve each element of the...