by Robert Kelly | 29 Jan 2012 | Featured
Part one of my response to Obama’s 2012 State of the Union is here.3. The foreign policy section was weaker and more militaristic than usual. The opening bit about the Iraq war making us ‘safer and more respected around the world’ was jaw-dropping. I guess this really is a campaign speech outreach to the right, because I can’t believe any of the president’s 2008 voters actually buy that line. Does anyone believe that anymore, except for the...
by Charli Carpenter | 27 Jan 2012 | Featured
I was shocked, shocked to read Brian Rathbun's characterization of me in a recent Canard as a "robot" who has only been posing as a Battlestar Galactica addict as part of my cover (!):The academic and foreign policy worlds were rocked today by the news that Charli Carpenter -- prolific academic, policy wonk, and mom -- is in fact a robot. An anonymous source told this paper: "There were the academic writings, then all the policy work, the grant...
by Robert Kelly | 27 Jan 2012 | Featured
Each year I try to write on the SotU (2010, 2011). I know they are preposterously scripted, usually forgettable, and almost meaningless as a guide for the upcoming policy season/budget debate. But the political scientist in me thinks that showing the whole panorama of democratic government in one room is hugely instructive for the both US citizenry and for foreigners interested in the US, as well as a great example of how democracies differ...
by Charli Carpenter | 27 Jan 2012 | Featured
Even Brian Fratbun will have to admit this is pretty brilliant!More on the most anticipated Super Bowl Commercials of 2012.
by Brian Rathbun | 27 Jan 2012 | Featured
THE CANARD"All the fake news that fit to print."-- AmherstThe academic and foreign policy worlds were rocked today by the news that Charli Carpenter -- prolific academic, policy wonk, and mom -- is in fact a robot. She was taken captive this morning in a rare joint operation by the FBI, the CIA, and NASA.Friends were shocked, but not necessarily surprised. Dan Nexon, a professor at Georgetown University, said, "We always joked that Charli was a...
by Charli Carpenter | 26 Jan 2012 | Featured
LA Times' latest article on drones raises the spectre of "robot weapons" in relations to the X-47B, Northrup Grumman's new drone prototype with the ability to fly solo - part of an ongoing force restructuring as the US military cuts back significantly on human personnel. While one might well ask whether a robotic plane (i.e. one that can fly autonomously) constitutes a robotic weapon if a human is in the loop for any targeting decisions, what's...
by Patrick Porter | 25 Jan 2012 | Featured
Before I launch in, I just wanted to say quickly to Dan Nexon and all the folk at the Duck, thanks for letting me stay on board! I normally lose respect for institutions that decide to keep me as a member, but this is one exception.Its a little late in coming, but I wanted to post some thoughts on Peter Beinart's thoughtful recent description of President Obama's evolving approach to US grand strategy as 'offshore balancing.'Stephen Walt has...
by Charli Carpenter | 25 Jan 2012 | Featured
At ThinkProgress Alyssa Rosenberg shares a lovely new short film about robots and prejudice:No Robots from YungHan Chang on Vimeo.Rosenberg draws a distinction between the representations of robots in this film and the scarier representations in much popular culture:Often, when we see robots in popular culture, they’re actually more powerful than we are. If the Cylons were a metaphor for, say, Irish immigrants to the United States, they’d be...
by Charli Carpenter | 24 Jan 2012 | Featured
Peter Singer has an op-ed in the Times which carefully makes the case against drones by carefully putting forth the proposition that their use undermines democracy: What troubles me, though, is how a new technology is short-circuiting the decision-making process for what used to be the most important choice a democracy could make... We must now accept that technologies that remove humans from the battlefield, from unmanned systems like the...
by Alana Tiemessen | 24 Jan 2012 | Featured
Antony Njuguna / NairobiThe big news out of the ICC today was the confirmation of charges against four of the "Ocampo Six" Kenyan elites accused of orchestrating and inciting the country's post-election violence in 2007-2008. Ruto, Arap Sang, Muthaura and Kenyatta had their charges confirmed and are expected to appeal; charges against Kosgey and Ali were dismissed by the Court's judges because of a lack of evidence.The decision comes four years...
by Kate Weaver | 24 Jan 2012 | Featured
Has the worm finally turned? Reuters today featured a story on the emerging market economies' push-back against the status quo of Western-dominated global economic governance. The piece features an explicit demand (and overt exercise of financial leverage) for a power shift in the predominant international financial institutions, specifically in the context of the IMF's recent request for an additional $600 billion in resources from its member...
by Cliff Bob | 23 Jan 2012 | Featured
Over the past few weeks we’ve had to endure military brass and top government officials falling over themselves to condemn American GIs – first for urinating on dead Afghans, and more recently for beating a sheep. Earlier in the Iraq and Afghan wars, we’ve suffered through pious denunciations of soldiers who tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib or laughed as they targeted “dead men” with drones.How noble the sentiment! Criticizing ordinary...