In an article last week in the Financial Times on "Sex, Lies, and the Pitfalls of Overblown Statistics," John Kay bluntly wrote: "Always ask yourself the question: where does the data come from?" It's a good question, and one I frequently ask myself when I read yet another story about the hottest craze in the international development aid business today: the Open Data Initiative of the World Bank. Don't get me wrong. I think the World Bank's...
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Priorities, priorities, priorities….
I have good friends a few miles north of here in Vermont who will be reeling from Hurricane Irene for months. One of my favorite places, Wilmington -- just south of Mount Snow ski resort -- was completely flooded and Route 9, the major road to the town (and all East-West travel in southern Vermont) will be out for weeks. It's going to be a long haul getting back. Despite the devastation, we now hear that House Republicans are holding FEMA...
Armadillo
Last night PBS' POV program aired the Danish documentary film "Armadillo" (filmed 2009; released 2010) about a Danish-British Forward Operating Base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.Although much of the documentary portrays standard tropes and follows a time honored narrative arc from a long line of war films, Janus Metz's work sparked debate in Europe because it appeared to depict Danish soldiers "liquidating" wounded Taliban fighters and...
Assessing the Arguments Against GI Jane: The Combat Exclusion for Women Part I
As American troops trickle back from Iraq and-eventually- Afghanistan, it seems like the perfect time to examine the lessons learned from the last decade of warfare. One of the policies requiring a review is the combat exclusion for women. Although most positions within the US forces have been opened up to women over the last 50 years, there has been adamant efforts to sustain rules which prohibit women from joining the so-called front lines of...
Late Summer Tour of NATO
Happy NATO Day! Okay, this is not an anniversary of anything NATO-esque. But heaps of posts a-twitter about NATO, its members and so on. So, some semi-random shots at some semi-random NATO members and NATO in general.First, France is the best-est ally ever! Lots of people linking to this article. Yes, the Libyan adventure certainly raises France's profile as an active contributor, assertive military and the rest. But to be fair to the...
Stuff Political Scientists Like #8 — feeling terrible about themselves, or APSA
Every year political scientists make a remarkable pilgrimage towards a large American city -- Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia. Against all odds they push upstream trying to make a name for themselves. There is only room enough for a dozen or so great names in political science, those whose names will one day adorn a plaque in a graduate student lounge. We speak their name in hushed tones -- Dahl, Skocpol, Waltz. But this does not deter...
I canna think of a good title, captain!
As the forces of nature marshall for an attack on the east coast, I thought I'd call attention to Belfer's new blog, Power & Policy (via SW). If it becomes a breakout hit, we just might have to think our whole lack of institutional affiliation approach.(I thought of making some kind of lame "power" joke. Something along the lines of, "better check them out until they're just "policy." But then I thought better of it.)My parents got an advanced...
Semantic polling: the next foreign policy tool
George Gallup - what have you started? The traditional methods for a state to know what overseas publics are thinking are changing. Instead of relying on your embassy staff’s alertness, your spies’ intelligence and the word of dissidents, we’re reaching the point where foreign policymakers can constantly monitor public opinion in countries in real-time. The digitization of social life around the world – uneven yes, but spreading – leaves...
Quote of the Day
Krugman:In short, there’s no reason at all to consider microeconomics the “real” economics and macroeconomics some kind of flaky impostor. Yes, micro is a lot more rigorous — but if it’s rigorously wrong, who cares?
Precision Guided Words? Libya and International Law
Guest Post by Betcy Jose-Thota, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado-Denver. According to al Jazeera’s English language website, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Mahmoud Jibril, head of the National Transitional Council, met on Wednesday to discuss what a post-Gaddafi Libya would look like. After the meeting, Sarkozy told reporters that NATO would continue its military operation in Libya as long as Gaddafi remained a threat, stating:...
What Exactly is the Point of Foreign Policy Analysts?: Lessons from Libya (and any other crisis in history)
I don't follow the news as closely as I should. I am not up on everyone's blogs. I don't check the Brookings Institution for every new report it issues. I am a lazy blogger. But I do seem to recall when this whole Libya thing started and didn't end successfully immediately that all kinds of "foreign policy analysts" came out of the woodwork to say it wouldn't work, that we were merely facilitating and prolonging a protracted civil war...
What Not to Do in Libya
I am pretty much as ignorant about Libya as the next person, so let me just suggest a few generic lessons learned from other conflicts:Don't hold elections immediately. Everyone likes to do so to give the new folks legitimacy, but then it usually means empowering those who might not be the best folks to be empowered (see Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan). Think carefully about the guys with guns on both sides. Biggest mistake in early Iraq was firing...