by Rodger Payne | 11 Mar 2009 |
Over the weekend, the AP ran a story based on high-level Israeli sources suggesting that Iran's nuclear program has "crossed the threshold," which implied that the program is now militarized: Iran is now capable of producing atomic weapons, Israel's top military intelligence officer said Sunday, sounding the highest-level warning that Israel's archenemy has achieved independent nuclear capability.At a Cabinet meeting, the chief of military...
by Charli Carpenter | 11 Mar 2009 |
On the Report tonight, Stephen Colbert gave a long, funny, monologue about how he is more hip-hop-pop-cultural-savvy than Michael Steele. Then, in the following segment on Node 3 of the International Space Station, he (and his screenwriters) seemingly demonstrated a surprising lack of cultural literacy. How else to explain their disbelief at the fact that "Serenity" beat out "Colbert" as one of the most-recommended names for Node 3? Watch the...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 10 Mar 2009 |
In other depressing academic-job-market-related news, Wisconsin Lutheran College has apparently decided to eliminate its entire Political Science department. Indeed, they appear to be removing Political Science entirely from their list of offerings:[A spokeswoman] noted that current majors will be able to take political science at other colleges in the area, at Wisconsin Lutheran's expense. And she said that the college determined it wasn't...
by Dan Nexon | 9 Mar 2009 |
When are we going to come to the collective decision that there's almost no rationale that justifies keepinging chimps in zoos?
by Peter | 8 Mar 2009 |
For any students out there who aspire to graduate education to launch a career in this discipline, allow me to offer the one bit of advice that no one wants to tell you: Don't. I really hate to be the one who rains on the parade, but the stark reality is that the Academy is a collapsing profession--while we seem to be producing more and more PhD's, the academy has fewer and fewer jobs to ply the trade of "academic." We don't appreciate or...
by Dan Nexon | 7 Mar 2009 |
Most of the time I look at the Obama Administration and think, with much relief, how nice it is to have grownups back in charge. When it comes to diplomatic protocol, however, the last few days have been pretty much amateur hour. At least the Russians took State's SNAFU with a bit more humor. Sue Plemming of Reuters:U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a red "reset button" to symbolise...
by Dan Nexon | 6 Mar 2009 |
Although we just got the CD yesterday, I'd been listening to Neko Case's new album (currently #2 in music on Amazon) pretty much non-stop via NPR for a bit. Quick and dirty: not as consistently good as Blacklisted, but an excellent album nonetheless.Noel Murray's review pretty much nails it, but Jon Pareles' review in the New York Times deserves a quotation:On the surface Ms. Case’s songs qualify as alt-country or Americana. The production...
by Dan Nexon | 6 Mar 2009 |
Get thee over to The Monkey Cage. Once there, read Henry's summary of the debate in the current issue of the Review of International Political Economy concerning US IPE monoculture. The thematic issue, which has been in the works for quite some time, could not have come at a better moment. With the discipline of Economics shaken by the irrelevance of much of their work to recent events, I have to wonder if, and when, those who have designed IPE...
by Dan Nexon | 6 Mar 2009 |
If I were to speculate on what circumstances might lead to a significant curtailment of central bank autonomy in the United States, I imagine I would come up with a scenario that looks something like this one. If Josh Marshall's informant is right, it might be pitchfork time for the Federal Reserve:Josh, your reporting on the AIG credit default swap/counterparties issue has been spot-on. But to understand what happened there, you have to...
by Charli Carpenter | 4 Mar 2009 |
When Foreign Policy's Morning Brief hit my inbox today, the top story was the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for President Omar Bashir of the Sudan.FP's header gets the charges wrong, however - Bashir is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, but not with genocide. The distinction is legally and politically significant - crimes against humanity include a host of horrible acts, when widespread and/or...
by Rodger Payne | 2 Mar 2009 |
Yesterday, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN interviewer John King that he thinks Iran has enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb. He said: "We think they do, quite frankly." Meanwhile, on NBC, Defense Secretary Robert Gates apparently said the opposite: "They're not close to a stockpile, they're not close to a weapon at this pointPolitico noted the discrepancy. What's going on here?The LA...
by Peter | 2 Mar 2009 |
Its winter wonderland blogging from DC! It looks like we’ve got about 6 inches of snow on the ground so far, and its still falling. The University is on a delayed opening, so my morning class is canceled, leaving some time for NSC blogging.Late last week, the Obama NSC released NSPD-1, the traditional presidential order structuring the National Security Council membership, committees, and operating procedures. As was promised, Obama has...