On September 15, 2002, when it was becoming increasingly probable that the US was gearing up to "liberate" Iraq, The Washington Post ran a front page story about the future of that state's oil. Reporters Dan Morgan and David B. Ottaway noted that Iraq had the world's second largest supply of...

ALex Motyl summarizes the answer to the debate on Crooked Timber both eloquently and effectively:The United States expanded westward in a variety of distinctly imperial ways. But by eliminating local Spanish and Indian elites, extending U.S. military, legal, and administrative organizations into...

A new year brings new revelations. Erich Lichtblau and James Risen of the New York Times reports:WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 - A top Justice Department official objected in 2004 to aspects of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and refused to sign on to its continued use amid...

Oh, goody! Another round of "is America an Empire?" in the academic blogsphere. Our path begins with Adloyda's criticism of Linda Colley's appearance on the BBC and her essay in the Guardian called "The US is now rediscovering the pitfalls of aspirational imperialism." Colley, whose book Captives...

Interesting little flare up on the IR Rumor Mill "job-market discussion" thread over whether or not qualitative security scholars are "wasting their time" studying the British Emprie instead of doing work on "interesting" and "relevant" topics:I was really nonplusssed by the offerings of...

Over at my blog, I've just published a followup to Bill's post last month on the William and Mary survey about the field of IR.After examining the list of the 25 most influential IR scholars in some detail, I've invited readers to answer these questions: What are the most influential IR books and...

Courtesy of Jenny, an interesting advice column from salon.com entitled "Should I leave grad school to be an activist?" [subscription, or watch a short ad to get access]. In a nutshell, what we have here is a philosophy grad student coming to grips with what most of us realize at some point in the...

US District Court Judge John Jones ruled today that the policies passed by the old Dover PA school board forcing the teaching of Intelligent Design are unconstitutional. (For the full-text of the judgment click here.) Halleluiah. The best part about the ruling is that it is written by a Bush...

A hypothetical conversation between Kristol and Schmitt.Kristol: Gary, this is bad. What can we come up with in a few days?Schmitt: Well, Bill, I've got some arguments sitting around about how the President actually has unlimited powers in times of crisis...Kristol: Is it the old...

I have very little to add to the just hues and cries of outrage after Bush's press conference. Kieran Healy nails the narrative. Ezra Klein overviews the deceit:So Bush's only justification for his program is speed. Fine. Which is why this can't be said enough: FISA allows for immediate...

Did you catch the President tonight? I cannot believe he did not specifically address the issue of domestic spying, though I realize it was the subject of Saturday's radio address. Before long, he may regret both yesterday's defiance and today's silence. We'll see.In any case, the President did...

More outrage from conservatives and liberals alike. Tony Arend rounds out some of the legal issues. It becomes more clear by the hour that Bush's actions were illegal, despite the spinning (and weaving, and dodging) of his defenders (hit tip: LGM).The current line of counterattack is twofold....