I learned quite a few new things about military law and the rules of war at the Cornell Bombing Workshop I attended last weekend (political scientists who study war law often do when sitting down with actual military practitioners and international law professionals). A short round-up of additional insights will follow, but this one merits a slightly longer post: the International Law Association has released an expanded report on the...
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Can Elmo Save Pakistan?
In the latest attempt to project its "soft power" in South Asia, the US government has approved a $20 million project to bring a local adaptation of Sesame Street to Pakistan. Time magazine notes:"'The idea is to prepare and inspire a child to go on the path of learning,' said Faizaan Peerzada, a collaborator on the Pakistani version of the show. "This is a very serious business, the education of the children of Pakistan at a critical time."...
“I Don’t Care What You Believe In, Just Believe In It.”
Although reports that he is insufficiently feminist appear to have been exaggerated, Joss Whedon does appear to be insufficiently Browncoat. Or so it would seem since he recently blocked the first fan-based effort to acquire the rights to a television series by nixing Unstoppable Signals’ movement to revive Firefly, the one-season hit space western whose film sequel Serenity just beat out The Empire Strikes Back for Best SciFi Film of All Time...
Is Peace Enforcement Cool Again?
In prepping for a fortuitously timely class session on humanitarian intervention, I reread Madeline Albright's op-ed from 2008 on the "end of intervention." The claim, which I bought at the time, was that the perceived illegitimacy of the Iraq War had resuscitated the norm of state sovereignty, which had taken some hits since the end of the Cold War. Implicit in the piece was that the invasion of Iraq had disillusioned formerly "liberal hawks,"...
Horrorphilia (Or … I couldn’t resist weighing in on the zombie debate)
Though I clearly swim in the shallow end of the pool of those who think about Zombies in International Relations - in fact, I learned what a zombie is from Dan Drezner's book. At the same time, I can't really resist a brief observation on the popularity of the Zombie book, and follow-up journal articles, blog posts, and ISA panels. I don't mean this to engage all of the relevant issues, but can't resist a few reflections.Dan Drezner asks what...
More blogfare on lawfare
In my Friday post I forgot to give a shout out to Ben Wittes and the Lawfare Blog who have been writing about this since last fall. In particular, they had an excellent series of posts on the concept (but way of a discussion of the Rule of Law in by Brigadier General Mark Martins (in Centcom and apparently in Afghanistan) on the concept here, here and especially here. (He offers his own interpretation of “lawfare as COIN”). It’s a very...
Music with a conscience from Ivory Coast
Some late Friday night blogging... Music tells us a lot about different places around the world and I love to collect it from my students and use it in the classroom. Worth noting that Ivory Coast has long had a great, socially aware, music scene. Zouglou started during the student protest movements in the 1990s (the protests initially began over the rolling electrical blackouts during the exam periods but spread to broader political demands)....
Buffy, Feminism, and the Importance of Paying Attention
Natasha Simon at The Mary Sue argues that Joss Weedon Whedon's shows are insufficiently feminist. Shani O. Hilton says most of what needs to be said about Simon's odd reasoning, particularly with respect to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But she misses one crucial point that, from my perspective, renders Simon's interpretive skills highly questionable (via).Simon writes:Buffy, for all her killing vamps and breaking stuff, is rather a weak character....
Bombs. Away.
I will be a attending a workshop at Cornell University on bombing norms for the next few days. (Presumably after I get back, I'll never again bomb anything I'm not supposed to.) On this note, readers may be interested to have a look at this new memorandum Stephanie mentioned from Human Rights Watch on incendiary weapons, which follows up on an earlier report by HRW's Arms Division. The campaign I've been tracking for the paper I'm presenting is...
How fares “lawfare”?
There has been so much going on with the international law front, it’s kind of hard to know where to begin. In sum:The Obama administration has decided to put Khalid Shiek Mohammed on trial at Guantanamo rather than New York City.The Obama administration has released a legal opinion on the Authorization Use of Military Force in Libya. The ICRC is concerned over unexploded ordinance in Libya (UXO).The ICRC will be releasing it’s update to the...
Why We Fight?
Steve Walt asks an interesting question: Is America addicted to war? He gives five reasons why we find ourselves in constant war: 1. Because we can2. Because we have no serious enemies3. The all volunteer force4. It's the establishment stupid5. Congress has checked outThe first three and the last point all speak to the limited international and domestic structural constraints the United States faces on the use of force. The fourth speaks to the...
What the hell is going on in Europe?
So I spend a few years writing a book on American foreign policy and stop paying attention to European politics, only to return and find the whole thing in chaos. I am finding three developments going on in Europe fascinating (if despicable and disgusting).First, the Financial Times recently ran a story on Sarokozy's plan to launch a debate in France on the importance of secularism, which is really just a way to pick on Muslims and draw votes...