by Charli Carpenter | 23 Aug 2009 |
I spent ten hours today playing Risk with my son. What would normally have been simply a time-killer on a rainy Sunday became, after my earlier perusal of P. Michael Phillipps' treatise on the non-decline of the non-Westphalian-system, a day-long exercise in thinking about political geography. By lunchtime we had grown tired of the Classic version and took a break to run down to World Apart Games and pick up the 2008 version for an "updated...
by Charli Carpenter | 23 Aug 2009 |
Mark Safranski has a useful post up at Zenpundit critiquing LTC P. Michael Phillips' Parameters article Deconstructing our Dark Age Future."(I cannot remember the last time I saw an article written by a military officer, rather than a civilian post-modernist, whose title began with the word "Deconstructing.") Phillips argues (like many before him, not least Yahya Sadowski) that:The Westphalian state system is not in fact in decline; this...
by Bill Petti | 23 Aug 2009 |
[Cross posted at bill | petti)Christopher Penn crafts an interesting piece arguing that piracy (i.e. copyright infringement) is, among other things, a market signal:Piracy indicates that something is sufficiently valuable enough that it’s worth stealing. It’s worth making an illegal copy and spreading without compensating the creator.Do you want the most accurate, unbiased, unmanipulated measure of how popular and valuable something is? Go hit...
by Peter | 23 Aug 2009 |
David Rothkopf has a nice piece in today's Washington Post giving a positive review to Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State. He makes the prescient point that she has revitalized US Diplomacy by revitalizing both the department and its approach, taking on important yet not headline grabbing issues that will have a profound impact on the relationships that define the US role in the world in the coming decades. While the White House and...
by Bill Petti | 22 Aug 2009 |
Today's Wall Street Journal notes that the number of private military contractors (PMCs) current outnumbers the number of military personnel serving in Afghanistan, and the numbers are extremely close in Iraq:A few points to make:The data illustrate that with the troop surge in Afghanistan has come a slight uptick in the number of PMCs, but overall contractors have far outnumbered troops in that theater. What the article does not discuss is the...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Aug 2009 |
And now I can say that and support a good cause. This email came to me, through a colleague, from the American Political Science Association today. Members among the Duck readership, please send a brief email to the organization at apsabags@hotmail.com. Dear APSA member,Do you need the annual conference bag? The APSA Labor Project is concerned about the labor conditions of those who make the bags. We are also aware there are environmental and...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Aug 2009 |
I have just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's latest book Outliers. For those who haven't picked it up, yet, the key thesis is that extraordinary individuals are actually not extraordinary as individuals, but simply happen to be the lucky beneficiaries of chance, opportunity and social structures that unwittingly favor some over others by accident of birth - in ways we seldom recognize and even more seldom legislate to balance out.Bill Gates?...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Aug 2009 |
I was proud to get home from a five-week, 18-state trip without a single speeding ticket. Then I opened my mail to find a stern letter from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, with this photo and a citation for going 6 miles over the speed limit on the interstate:My first response was to feel a little freaked. Clearly the robot menace has moved from the battlefield to our highways a modest revolution in roadside camera technology has...
by Peter | 21 Aug 2009 |
During any Presidential Administration, there are heated debates, accusations of horrible mismanagement, and political intrigue, but they are actively papered over and downplayed by a powerful White House communications operation dedicated to protecting the image of the President. Once everyone leaves office, however.....It seems the floodgates of insider accounts that "make news" and tell heretofore unknown details about the good old days of...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Aug 2009 |
GUÉNAËL METTRAUX, a international criminal defense attorney in the Hague, published a modest proposal regarding the Guantanamo detainees in today's New York Times: instead of trying the detainees in military commissions or US courts, set up an international tribunal under UN auspices:Trying these men stateside would necessarily require the compromise of long-cherished principles of American law. Yet continuing to hold them without the prospect...
by Drew Conway | 20 Aug 2009 |
Today much of the world will be focused on Afghanistan, as that country embarks on its second attempt at a democratic election. With a constant threat of violence from the Taliban, the level of participation has been limited. Also, early reports state that police have been cracking down on journalists so information coming out of Afghanistan has been limited. There are, however, several good sources still operations, and I have put together a...
by Charli Carpenter | 20 Aug 2009 |
Afghans head to the polls today.Christian Brose at Foreign Policy's Shadow Government blog outlines a few worst case scenarios. One worst case outcome is the Iran scenario -- a disputed election result, allegations of fraud, and a drawn-out political fight laced with street protests and sporadic violence. This could be set off by either a narrow Karzai win or a suspicious Karzai blow-out (Ahmadinejad style). One could imagine days, even weeks,...