by Rodger Payne | 27 Jan 2009 |
There's a new finger on the trigger, but the AP reports that Pakistan is still unhappy about U.S. missile strikes inside its territory: Pakistan urged President Barack Obama to halt U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida strongholds near the Afghan border, saying Saturday that civilians were killed the previous day in the first attacks since Obama's inauguration.Pakistani security officials said eight suspected foreign militants, including an...
by Peter | 25 Jan 2009 |
Stephen Walt, fresh off his compendium contribution, muses about the IR Hall of Fame. His criteria: over two tape-measure home run publications, which is to say, more than two articles or books that continue to show up on syllabi and citation lists for over a decade.His initial list: Waltz, Huntington, JervisHis comments generate a slightly more interesting list, adding folks like Keohane, Ruggie, Wendt, Gilpin, Fearon, Katzenstein, Bull, and...
by Charli Carpenter | 24 Jan 2009 |
In the mailbox today, I found my pre-ordered copy of Peter Singer's new book Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. NPR had an interview with Singer yesterday, which gives you a good sense of his argument and some of the fascinating and frightening changes coming down the pipeline in military affairs.I was excited to sink my teeth into this before the semester gets started, since I'm eager to update my...
by Rodger Payne | 22 Jan 2009 |
Laura Rozen has confirmed reports that Princeton Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter will become "the first woman to head the State Department's Office of Policy Planning, Foggy Bottom's in-house think tank."If Slaughter ever publishes an anonymous insider account about US foreign policy in Foreign Affairs, her obvious pseudonym is XX.
by Rodger Payne | 22 Jan 2009 |
Barack Obama may not have formally ended the war on terrorism, but he's certainly making dramatic changes in the way it is prosecuted. From Spencer Ackerman this morning: take a look at his first not-even-48 hours in office. He’s suspended the Guantanamo Bay military commissions, a first step toward shuttering the entire detention complex. He’s assembled his military commanders to discuss troop withdrawals from Iraq. He’s issued a far-reaching...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Jan 2009 |
It was full of gloom and doom, which is not what some of us might have expected from the "hope" President, but just the kind of realism the nation needs to hear. Finally someone who will ask us to step up to bat and make the sacrifices needed to turn the planet around! (And frankly the enormity of the mess we're in was hit home to me when my kids and I, desperate to see Obama sworn in during a layover in Charlotte, were told by the manager of...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 21 Jan 2009 | Featured
The other night, before the inauguration, I found myself involved in yet another discussion about the relationship between theory and decision-making. Old, familiar territory for us, but slightly altered in this iteration by two factors: the fact that I'm finally teaching an undergraduate course in IR theory (check out our class wiki here) this semester, and the fact that "change" is very much in the air in Washington DC these days. Especially...
by Peter | 20 Jan 2009 |
Watching the Inauguration on television, I'm amazed at the sheer number of people packed in the mile and a half between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building. Last night, watching the cable news, I was amazed at the crowd just hanging out on the mall, wanting to "be there" in the moment of this monumental event. I think its quite clear that the inauguration of Barak Obama as President of the United States is becoming more than just...
by Charli Carpenter | 20 Jan 2009 | Featured
by Rodger Payne | 19 Jan 2009 |
Obviously, it is slow around here over the long holiday weekend.Here's my brief winter holiday weekend report:1. My wife and oldest daughter left Louisville early Saturday morning to attend the Inaugural. They do not have tickets to any events, so they will be among the masses tomorrow. However, they did have a well-placed friend for a pre-Tuesday function. As a consequence, they already met the President-elect and the rest of the Obamas! More...
by Rodger Payne | 15 Jan 2009 |
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says "for a couple of years now the British Government has used neither the idea nor the phrase 'war on terror'." Miliband was in Mumbai, speaking (transcript here) at the recently targeted Taj Hotel. He made a number of points that new American leaders should embrace. For example, a "war on terror" creates an enemy that does not exist: ...ultimately, the notion is misleading and mistaken...The notion of...
by Peter | 15 Jan 2009 |
Ezra's post on Texas A&M's proposal to reward a faculty member with $10,000 for the highest score on its teaching evaluations has generated a whole lot of response across the blogosphere, much of it from fellow university faculty who do in fact take teaching seriously.I too wanted to chime in with how foolish this idea is, and how little understanding of what we, as faculty, actually do (or what my colleagues do because I in fact do something...