Someone recently asked me whether, in the wake of the Richard Goldstone's qualifications of his infamous report, the UN was losing its credibility to issue fact-finding studies on humanitarian law violations. In my view, no matter how "credibly" a study is conducted, it is vulnerable to such critiques under the existing system - in which all humanitarian law reporting is partial, ad hoc and selective. That's because unlike other international...
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Bin Laden and the Paradoxical Logical of War
Strategist Edward Luttwak once observed that strategy has a paradoxical logic. The best way forward may be the longest way round, offence can be the best defence, and a seemingly victorious course pursued indefinitely will lead to over-reach. This is produced by the limitations of human strength, the resistance and friction of conflict, and the sheer dynamism and chaos of war.This dynamic surfaces in the insurgency in Afghanistan and the...
Breaking News: International Relations Expert Nexon Responds to Leak of Dirty Pictures
The Canard"All the fake news that's fit to print"Warning: This story is intended for mature audiences only.Washington, D.C. -- Racy pictures emerged today of noted international relations professor Dan Nexon. The academic, whose book The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009) recently won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best...
Structural Realism and the British Liberal Democrats
In the Duck tradition of offering analysis of elections in countries where we do not reside or where we have no citizenship, I offer you this. During the last UK election, I remember remarking that there was no way that the Liberal Democrats would form a coalition with the Conservatives. This went against everything that I have always written about parties -- that they are policy-seekers as much as they are office-seekers, that parties don't...
The 2003 Iraq War will not be forgotten
The killing of Osama bin Laden allows political leaders to further disentangle Iraq, Afghanistan and the whole war on terror concept; to wind down some operations and refocus others; to bring some stories to light and push others aside, to be forgotten. But how do those who served in these wars feel about this? In today’s New York Times Captain Shannon P. Meehan, a US veteran of the 2003 Iraq War, published a powerful statement of alienation on...
Blegging: Did no one complain about the Soviet Use of landmines in Afghanistan from 1979-1989?
I am trying to find examples of humanitarian organizations that spoke out against the use of landmines by the Soviet Union during its invasion of Afghanistan from 1979-1989. Landmines were big as one of the weapons issues put up for debate in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the UN General Assembly. The first specific legislation against them was Additional Protocol II to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons. (A regulatory treaty as...
In Praise of Straw Men
How many times have you been accused of making a straw man argument? How many times have you deployed that rhetorical trump card against a foe? In blogs, in debates, in academic conference rooms, the straw man charge is a tried and true way of undermining an opponent and advancing your own position. To accept the claim that, yes, my argument is a straw man, is to admit defeat. However, I come not to burn straw men, but to praise them. To...
We were Winning the War on Terror!
So he wasn't armed, and maybe it wasn't legal, and we should have found him a long time ago. But we are missing the point. Our soft power was winning the war on terror. We just had to give it some time.The Financial Times reports: "Shopkeepers remember the [Osama] household demonstrating a preference for Coke, Pepsi and imported juices." No one can resist the allure of American culture, not even Mr. Death to America. See! He really didn't mean...
MIcro-Finance: Crisis and Response
For years, microfinance appeared to be one of the most promising means of fighting poverty and underdevelopment worldwide. With all the hype, it then became a kind of global movement—a hybrid combining social good with economic goods, morality with moneymaking. A few years ago, the Nobel Peace Prize committee hopped on the bandwagon and laureated Yunus. Over the last year, however, MF has faced a growing crisis, primarily in parts of India and...
Mindless Empiricism
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" -- Mark Twain. If we don't get to see a photo, how will we know with certainty that Osama bin Laden isn't simply living in a retirement community with Hitler, Jim Morrison, Elvis, Andy Kaufman, Tupac, Princess Diana, and Michael Jackson? I hear that they mostly talk about the good old days, the JFK assassination, and the 2004 election results in Ohio. Personally, I'll be satisfied when I see the...
Thoughts on Bin Laden, #47
I'll make it quick.1. He's dead. But that won't stop the vast, academic industry around this war. We academics really have done very well out of the war on terror for the most part. We have a strong professional interest in not facing up to the raw strategic reality, that Al Qaeda has become largely a third-order nuisance, dangerous but mainly in terms of baiting us to do stupid things, and a diversion from much more difficult and serious...
Was “Justice” Served?
In the wake of the jubilant response to bin Laden's killing, it is heartening to see such a quick discussion erupt over its legality. The State Department has released its legal rationale for the operation here. The Atlantic Wire summarizes various arguments. Ken Anderson considers what the debate itself tells us about international law development.My views on extrajudicial execution are well known, but I'm not sure I agree with Paul Campos...