I have an essay online at Current Intelligence on Michael Gross's recent book. Moral Dilemmas of Modern Warfare explores the ways in which "new wars" are challenging the existing law of armed conflict. I'll have more to say about his proposals in a forthcoming Foreign Affairs essay, but in this piece I focus on his characterizations of "asymmetric war" and on his notions of "norm change." I think the asymmetries to which he refers may be more...
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On Why There is No International Law Against Using Very Large Rocks in Battle
I have a new article in the journal International Organization entitled "Vetting the Advocacy Agenda." It tries to explain why some issues get noticed by transnational campaigners and others don't, using weapons advocacy as a focal point of study. Key argument: it matters which organizations take up the issue; the global agenda is as much a function of structural relations within advocacy networks as of relationships between advocacy groups and...
This ain’t gonna cut it….
Friends at the National Priorities Project have a quick assessment on President Obama's budget. Here's their take on the defense and security budget:Defense spending, which accounts for roughly 58 percent of discretionary spending and 20 percent of total federal spending (both based on FY 2011 estimates), will continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace than in recent years.The $553 billion base-line Department of Defense request is approximately...
Random Thought of the Day
"Much contemporary post-prefixed critical theory seeks to re-enchant the word."Oh, I see that this is old news.Behind the times, as always, I suppose.Still, I bet there's a Zombie connection here somewhere.
Call for Nomination: the 2011 Yale H. Ferguson Book Award
The Internnational Studies Association-Northeast is pleased to announce the inauguration of its book award, named for Yale H. Ferguson. Information on the award below the fold. The Yale H. Ferguson Book AwardThe Yale H. Ferguson award, presented by International Studies Association-Northeast, recognizes the book that most advances the vibrancy of international studies as a pluralist discipline. Any book or edited volume published within the...
Fortune-Tellers of Foreign Policy
Congressional hand-wringing over America’s inability to forecast the Egyptian and Tunisian revolts is unsurprising given the foreign policy hubris that dominates in Washington today. How can it be, the cry goes out, that America, was blindsided by these earthshaking events? Doesn’t “exceptional” America see further and act more wisely than other nations? Sadly, that arrogant and delusional mindset is unlikely to be changed even by this...
Obama and Egypt: The Power of Inception?
On 4 June 2009 US President Obama went to Cairo to make a speech to the Muslim world, where, among other things, he addressed the question of political reform and democracy in the Middle East. In February 2011 one Al-Jazeera columnist has associated the tumultuous changes in Egypt and Tunisia to the persuasive technique Inception, the film in which Leonardo DiCaprio tries to plant ideas in individuals’ minds by infiltrating their dreams. Larbi...
We are all Khaled Said, We are all Mohammed Bouazizi
Apparently separate and relatively peaceful revolutions have now toppled dictatorial regimes in two North African states. What provoked these events? While there are a wide range of political and economic factors as well as organizations that had been building for years, the proximate causes that triggered the call for protests were quite similar.A cartoon by Carlos Latuff depicting the lateKhaled Said's revenge on President Hosni MubarakThe...
Political Models vs. Current Events
Noah Schachtmann at Wired:In the last three years, America’s military and intelligence agencies have spent more than $125 million on computer models that are supposed to forecast political unrest. It’s the latest episode in Washington’s four-decade dalliance with future-spotting programs. But if any of these algorithms saw the upheaval in Egypt coming, the spooks and the generals are keeping the predictions very quiet.Instead, the head of the...
Who’s Your Grand-Advisor? Crowdsourcing an IR lineage map
There are a series of jokes floating around academia about "academic relatives," most recently this little bit of brilliant whimsy from Jorge Cham's Piled Higher and Deeper entitled "Your Academic Genealogy." Funny, yes, but there's also something potentially important here about the lineages of academic thought, so I did a little digging and thus far have been completely unable to locate something that I would have thought that someone would...
Good N’ Red Plenty
Henry Farrell mentions Francis Spufford's new book Red Plenty. Before proceeding, you should know three things:I have no connection, social or otherwise, with Francis Spufford.I am a philistine made almost incapable of reading literary fiction by years of journal articles and serious journalism.I am in no way an expert in any aspect of Soviet culture, politics, or history.Bearing these facts in mind, let me give the book my highest...
Mubarak’s Ceausescu Moment?
Marc Lynch calls Mubarak's speech "The Worst Speech Ever." His assessment: With the whole world watching, Mubarak instead offered a meandering, confused speech promising vague Constitutional changes and defiance of foreign pressure. He offered a vaguely worded delegation of power to Vice President Omar Suleiman, long after everyone in Egypt had stopped listening. It is virtually impossible to conceive of a more poorly conceived or executed...