by Charli Carpenter | 29 May 2009 |
From the Guardian: This autumn the UN general assembly will vote yes or no to a new "super-agency for women"; $1bn is being discussed as the starter annual budget.A major role for the new agency's work will be to close the gap between rhetoric and reality on existing international resolutions on sex discrimination and women's human rights. The priorities cover a lot of ground – to help women earn increased income, stay in education longer, have...
by Peter | 25 May 2009 |
Breaking news: North Korea has conducted a nuclear test, this one more successful and powerful than its initial test back in 2006.You can read some (very) instant analysis, but the short story is that this move seems puzzling, out of context, which is to say that it doesn't fit North Korea's existing pattern of telegraphing its moves and using its nuclear program to extract maximum bargaining concessions from the United States. An initial and...
by Peter | 24 May 2009 |
Sesame Street really has changed the way we think about our ABC's. My 2-year old is quite the fan, he's particularly into Ernie and Bert (though in our house, his Ernie has a special relationship with the teddy bear for some reason, not sure how Bert feels about that). Thanks to YouTube, we can spend a good half hour learning the ABC's. For your own entertainment, my current playlist:Elmo and India Arie do the alphabetSesame Street ABC’s Ray...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 22 May 2009 | Featured
This is just a quick observation for anyone who ever wondered about the value-added of IR theory -- "IR theory" being defined in the broad sense of "tools for systematically reflecting on world politics." The observation consists of four items, and deals with yesterday's non-debate between Cheney and Obama.1. theoretical claimAs a rule, not survival but other "national interests" are at stake such as the preservation of outlying bases and...
by Rodger Payne | 20 May 2009 |
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has declared war on current speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Why? Well, Gingrich says Pelosi lied when she claimed that the CIA withheld information from her about waterboarding in 2002 briefings.Here's Gingrich on Fox News, May 17: I was really surprised and even stunned by her comments yesterday, where she alleged that the American intelligence agencies routinely lied to the Congress. I know it's...
by Rodger Payne | 20 May 2009 |
Republicans say they don't want terrorists in their backyard -- even if their backyard is a federal maximum security prison. Apparently, Democrats in Congress are somewhat frightened by this stance because they have refused to provide $80 million to finance the closing of Gitmo. They will deny funds until the Obama administration provides a plan to provide justice for the prisoners at Gitmo. While that use of leverage might make some sense, the...
by Peter | 19 May 2009 |
There is a massive fight simmering just below the surface here in DC, one that looks to get really ugly, really quick, and with major long-term consequences for national politics. No, its not the pending SCOTUS confirmation fight, but the battle over the Pentagon budget. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has taken on one of the most powerful and entrenched political forces in Washington, the Defense spending lobby, and as Eisenhower had warned,...
by Charli Carpenter | 19 May 2009 |
This is an open thread about President Obama's remarks about abortion at Notre Dame's Commencement Speech. Comment away.
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 18 May 2009 | Featured
I finally managed to see the new Star Trek film yesterday. Unlike the terrible travesty that was the Watchmen film -- to which I had such an adverse reaction that I still can't manage to grind out a coherent blog post about it, despite having tried on multiple occasions to do so -- this re-imagination and re-invigoration of the franchise actually got it right, in my view: what we saw on the screen combined the best elements of classic Star Trek...
by Charli Carpenter | 16 May 2009 |
The latest Human Rights and Human Welfare roundtable is online at University of Denver's Korbel School website. This month, I and several other human rights scholars debate the value of Julie Flint and Alex de Waal's recent article condemning the International Criminal Court and, in particular, its Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo.My two cents:"Let us assume that Moreno-Ocampo erred, as has been ably described, in failing to launch a...
by Dan Nexon | 14 May 2009 |
by Charli Carpenter | 14 May 2009 |
My reaction to Obama's decision to block the release of detainee photos is up at LGM. In brief: It's not pictures that inflame anti-American opinion. Brutality has done that already. And trying to cover up that bad behavior only makes it look as if the new Administration is complicit. In short, this is the worst tactical decision I've seen Obama make so far, and I fear the grave consequences of associating his administration with the worst...