Dan Drezner is among those who today bemoaned the absence of foreign policy content in President Obama's State of the Union Speech. He's not the only one. Max Boot calls foreign policy "AWOL" from the speech. Eric Ostermeir at Smart Politics has quantified the foreign policy content at only 13.9%. Whether they were very worried or not about Obama's foreign policy message, most commentators agreed it was a weak one relative to the domestic...
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Thinking about gender and foreign policy
I am, perhaps, the world's worst guest blogger. I do it rarely, if at all, and in a scattered way. I keep meaning to, but then ... Perhaps I am not suited for this medium of communication. Or maybe I am just distracted. With apologies to my colleagues for my flawed posting habits, however, I am not quite ready to give up on myself-as-blogger, and feel like weighing in on this question of "what to read on gender and foreign policy" might be a...
My IR Theory Syllabus, FWIW
Many of you were kind enough to share your thoughts on what I should assign in my IR Theory Seminar this year. Now that I've got something on paper, thought I'd provide the link so that those interested can see the current draft. Comments on this thread will no doubt be studied closely by my IR students as empirical evidence of ongoing debates about the constitution of our field. ;)
Macro rap — who knew?
I think I'm speechless:
The Afghan Detainee Abuse Scandal in Canada
For those of you who may be following the issue of detainee abuse of prisoners of war in Canada (or any other country than America), I have an editorial piece with Dr. Grant Dawson (Deuputy Director of the David Davies Memorial Institute at Aberystwyth) in the Ottawa Citizen today.A quick summary is that two different detainee scandles (one in the aftermath of the Somalia Intervention in the 1990s and the current Afghan one) are being confused....
Defining Corruption
So the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that limits on direct corporate spending for political campaigns violate the First Amendment rights of corporations (hey, corporations are people too!). The New York Times has a good overview, plus links to the actual decision. Since I've done some work on corruption in the past, and regularly teach a seminar on Corruption and Global Governance, this decision has resonated with me and I can't help being...
Hamiltonian Failure?
Yesterday, my class on U.S. Foreign Policy considered Walter Russell Mead's Hamiltonian School -- ostensibly an American realism grounded in the aligned interests of the state and business. The Hamiltonians have their roots in Alexander Hamilton. They have always believed that the American national strategy should be modeled on the British system: use your trade to make money through commerce; government should support large business; your...
Sam Eagle: The Original Neo-Con
If you’re asking me if I’m a little upset right now, you’d be right. The Economist has just reported what I’ve been saying for years. The Muppets have a secret conservative agenda.“What?!” You must be exclaiming. “Miss Piggy is a Palin Predecessor?”No. It’s not so simple. Jim Henson was no fool and I’m sure Kermit does not believe that Obama is a secret communist socialist muslim agent. Or at least I really hope so.According to the article...
Congratulations to “Kinshasa Symphony”
Congratulations to Claus Wischmann, Martin Baer, and the performers of the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra for their work on the documentary of the “Kinshasa Symphony.” The film has been selected to premier at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival “Berlinale Special” on February 17th 2010, 21:45h (rerun February 18th, 18:00h, Cubix 8) This is a beautiful project about the only symphony orchestra in central Africa - the “Orchestre Symphonique...
Scott Brown and the end of the Transatlantic Security Community?
One thing that hasn't really been addressed about our little election here in Massachusetts this week is the degree to which Scott Brown openly campaigned on his support for waterboarding, his opposition to any constitutional rights for terrorists, and his opposition to closing Guantanamo. His main campaign commercial ended with the line "I believe the constitution was designed to protect our nation and does not give rights to terrorists."...
Online Security Jam
I know I was asked to comment here on international political economy issues, but how can I pass up the opportunity to point you all to the Online Security Jam?Yes, on February 4, you too can participate in an online discussion of important security issues. You will "help make the world a safer place...online." The Jam is being co-produced by the European Commission and NATO, who are just so..so..cutting edge, yes? Well, ok, it's actually being...
“What to Read on Gender and Foreign Policy”
Over the break, Foreign Affairs posted my picks on which gender literature the foreign policy community should take seriously. Here's how the piece begins: Feminists have long argued that it is wrong to ignore half the population when crafting policies meant to secure a stable world order. Now foreign policy experts are beginning to grasp a different point: a "gender perspective" is relevant not only to those concerned with making the world...