by Charli Carpenter | 25 Dec 2008 |
From the text of Virginia O'Hanlon's letter to The Sun and the editor's response, printed September 21, 1897:"We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:"Dear Editor--I am 8 years old."Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus."Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.'"Please tell...
by Peter | 25 Dec 2008 |
One of the benefits of a high-powered player appointed to lead State is that you can get someone willing and able to be assertive about the place of diplomacy in the conduct of US Foreign Policy. This, I think, is on balance a good thing, as the NYT reports:Even before taking office, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking to build a more powerful State Department, with a bigger budget, high-profile special envoys to trouble spots and an expanded...
by Charli Carpenter | 22 Dec 2008 |
by Peter | 22 Dec 2008 |
Sufganiot and Latkes for all. As I am perhaps the only one of the Tribe who dislikes latkes, I fully embrace the jelly doughnut as a religious celebration today.Last night, my wife and I were out at Barnes and Nobel, and ended up buying a book for our son. We had picked up a Dr. Seuss classic, as he's really starting to enjoy them.In line I was making a slight mockery of the Chanukah cards that they had displayed. Its not exactly a holiday you...
by Charli Carpenter | 19 Dec 2008 |
This issue of International Studies Quarterly contains an interesting article about the effect of donors on both the agenda and strategies of human rights NGOs. Here's the abstract:"Focusing on the flow of funding to human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs), we begin in this article to broach one of the least studied issues pertaining to transnational regimes—namely, their material underpinnings. Through an analysis of the patterns of...
by Peter | 18 Dec 2008 |
Yglesias points out an interview Condi Rice gave where she claimed:And I’m especially, as a political scientist, not as Secretary of State, not as National Security Advisor, but as somebody who knows that structurally it matters that a geostrategically important country like Iraq is not Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.Matt astutely points out that:My colleague Ryan Powers reminds us that, in fact, many of the leading lights of the international relations...
by Charli Carpenter | 17 Dec 2008 |
On the last day of class in "Rules of War," I ask my students what kinds of things are needed to strengthen the regime governing the conduct of war. They come up with all kinds of nifty ideas, and then I ask them what they'll personally do to move the world in that direction. For awhile they struggle to come up with anything more concrete than "raise awareness," but after awhile they will say things like, "run for office," or "join the State...
by Charli Carpenter | 16 Dec 2008 |
This weekend, I traveled to Washington with five of my "Global Agenda-Setting" students for their final exam. It consisted of an oral presentation of their collaboratively authored strategy paper at the headquarters of the NGO for whom the document was prepared, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. It was an extremely polished brilliant presentation, the culmination of an enormous amount of work, and I felt enormously tremendously...
by Dan Nexon | 15 Dec 2008 |
I've been buried under a lot of work, but I want to surface long enough to say:"GwaaxppptghGHHHHHHawArrrrrrrgghhhhhhhhhpxt!!!"At least we're drawing the line at the UAW. Can't have those guys pulling in an extra few bucks at taxpayer expense.
by Peter | 14 Dec 2008 | Featured
Apparently journalists in Iraq. See Rodger, below.I couldn't resist!
by Rodger Payne | 14 Dec 2008 |
President Bush made a secret, surprise visit to Iraq and the local reaction wasn't entirely friendly:In other news, serious analysts might want to take a look at the draft of a federal report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The New York Times has the text online.
by Charli Carpenter | 11 Dec 2008 |
Sixty years ago yesterday, in response to the atrocities committed in World War II, the U.S. joined world leaders in supporting the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Campaign to Ban Torture asks us to celebrate by supporting a petition for an Executive Order by Barack Obama reversing US policies that violate those principles: "Over the past seven years, the use of torture and cruelty has resulted in a swift departure...