General David Petraeus advises Americans and their allies to be coldly realistic about what force can achieve. Oddly, he also advises them to prepare for a future where small wars are pretty much inevitable, where America must intervene early to prevent worse things happening later on, and where ‘stabilisation’ is a core part of war itself. Because, ultimately we sometimes have no choice. Looking back on the ‘lessons’ that have been ‘written in...
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Friday Morning Linkage
Are we headed to war in Syria? The media seems to be going all in on the chemical weapons "red line" justification. How close are we to moving to implement a no-fly zone? Hezbollah is the real Red Line. Drezner: realism trumps liberalism again. Behind yesterday's UN Syrian Casualty Count. Sunni clerics call for jihad against Assad and Egyptian government says Egyptians have freedom to travel to Syria if they'd like. Meanwhile:...
The Challenges of Dissent: A Dissenter’s View
The commentary on Edward Snowden over the past several days and the various discussions on dissent, resignations, and whistleblowing have given me a lot to think about. I'll leave discussion of the merits of Snowden's actions to Dan's thread below. Here I want to think about the process and pitfalls of whistleblowing and dissent. Twenty years ago this summer I had my own moment in the spotlight for resigning from my position at the State...
Does Snowden Pass the Test?
As you've probably noticed, I'm working through two competing concerns: (1) the legal and ethical obligations that come with holding a security clearance and (2) the ethical and moral obligation to bring deeply problematic government action to light. In comments elsewhere, I've put forth two examples of what I think are relatively straightforward kinds of cases: Publicizing war crimes that the state is covering up; and Indiscriminately dumping...
Abenomics is Not more Dangerous than the North Korean Missile Program
I continue to be amazed at how the Korean government won’t admit that Japan’s revival is really good for democracy in Asia and the prevention of Chinese regional primacy. No less than the SK finance minister (pic) actually said Abenomics is more dangerous to SK than the NK missile program. Wait, what?? The worst totalitarianism in history gets a pass when the Bank of Japan prints a lot of cheap money? Come on. That's unbelievably...
New Journal: Political Science Research and Methods
Cambridge University Press has un-gated the inaugural issue of Political Science Research and Methods, edited by Cameron G. Thies and Vera E. Troeger. Thies and Troeger have implemented a textbook journal launch, complete with major names in the field and strong articles.Go take a look.
Jarrod Hayes on “Bridging the Gap”
Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Jarrod Hayes, who is is an assistant professor of International Relations at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research broadly focuses on the social construction of foreign and security policy. It deals with the International Policy Summer Institute, which has also received coverage at The Monkey Cage. I have had the great pleasure and honor to attend the Bridging the Gap/International Policy...
Thursday Morning Linkage
There has been plenty of commentary on Edward Snowden (Nexon, Toobin, Roger Simon, interesting counterpoint from Jack Shafer here), but I'm a little bit amazed that important government secrets are entrusted to a 29 year old high school dropout who unilaterally gets the chance to decide what's in the national interest. I respect the idea of whistleblowers, but something about the tone of interviews with this guy struck me as dime store...
What Exactly is Rational Choice?
I sometimes surprise people when I say that I have no idea what rational choice is.1 How can a game theorist say such a thing? Especially one who spends so much time on the internet arguing about rational choice? Well, of course I have some idea what it is. The point is that there is no coherent body of work which possesses the properties so frequently attributed to "rational choice." Approximately 99% of all statements I've seen made about...
Marriage Debate in France Strikes at the Heart of the Republican Consensus
A Guest Post by Michael Bosia, Associate Professor of Political Science, Saint Michael's College In a startling juxtaposition, neofascists killed young leftist activist Clément Méric in the first days when city halls across France opened for lesbian and gay couples to marry. And perhaps the debate on marriage weakened President François Hollande despite his victory. That is because no one anticipated the revival of a moral intransigence and...
Post-Hiatus Killer Robot Blogging and Other Related Questions
Many of you know that I've been traveling (and blogging) much less this past year while completing my book manuscript on neglected advocacy campaigns (and steering a daughter through a tough junior year). However one trip I managed to make recently was the April 22 NGO Conference for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which preceded the public launch of the campaign at Parliament. Humanitarian disarmament groups see this as the "next landmine...
Syria and the Politics of Prudence
According to the Washington Post, the Obama Administration is meeting to "reassess" US policy toward the Syrian conflict. Hezbollah's intervention appears to have tilted the balance in favor of the Assad regime. Sectarian violence is on the rise. This has, naturally enough, led to hand-wringing about growing Iranian influence throughout the region. Defenders of the Obama Administration's foreign policy sometimes stress its general commitment to...