by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2008 |
From Damien Mansell of Swansea University:The cabin was situated on the top of a ridge, at the bottom of a large valley looking out to the Arctic Ocean. The Ocean met large ice-cliffs and nunataks, which stared back at us from across the water.We shared out all the necessary equipment and supplies amongst our packs and pulkas (sledges). Those who skied ahead of us had the coal and fire wood and we were welcomed by a toasty warm fire.Adam and I...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2008 |
Although I've played around with Wordle (h/t Daniel Little) before, I admit that I never thought of using it for a particular form of academic navel-gazing: generating text-clouds of one's books. Thus, following in the immortal footsteps of Henry Farrell, Kirean Healy, and Steven Taylor, I present....The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University...
by Charli Carpenter | 22 Jul 2008 |
Well, I was all set to blog this morning about having my faith in international institutions renewed by the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, but then I discovered I'd been "tagged" by Dan Drezner to blog about my favorite "guilty pleasure" songs. I have explained to Dan I have a committed relationship with pleasure but only an occassional flirtation with guilt, so the five songs he requested will be hard to come by.Still, there are those that...
by Peter | 20 Jul 2008 |
Eight years later, and we're back to the same spot with North Korea.Lets review:After a nuclear crisis that nearly results in war, the Clinton Administration reaches a nuclear deal with North Korea. After up and down implementation, North Korea lashes out with an ICBM test. Negotiations eventually resume, resulting in a more robust deal and further cooperation by North Korea. Things go so well that Secretary of State Madeline Albright visits...
by Rodger Payne | 19 Jul 2008 |
The figure at right is borrowed from a U.S. government website of Dennis A Wolf, a statistician with Oak Ridge National Lab. This particular image relates to a short article: "Assessing Fish Susceptibility to Predation." As anyone can clearly see, fish exposed "to a startling stimulus" do not flop. Rather, they exhibit "the characteristic C-shape (see figure)... behavioral response." They start swimming in a completely different...
by Dan Nexon | 18 Jul 2008 |
Ethics and pragmatism sometimes align in matters of war and peace, and other times they work at cross purposes. Two recent examples illustrate this rather banal point:1. Brian Ulrich calls attention to what might be charitably described as a misguided Israeli tactic for dealing with Hamas in the West Bank:It's long been said that Hamas is popular because of its social services. Israel's defense establishment is now on the case:"Israeli military...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 17 Jul 2008 |
Donald Douglas replies to my post on neoconservatism, which was of course a reply to his original post. Unfortunately, he does so by misreading my argument on two key points. First, he claims that "Jackson wants to argue that neoconservatism can't be foundational in American foreign policy because it violates an inherent 'liberal internationalist' conception of American exceptionalism that is purportedly the only legitimate kind" of...
by Dan Nexon | 17 Jul 2008 |
Dr. iRak has a terrific discussion of the increasingly confusing information concerning whether or not Maliki called for a US withdrawal from Iraq.It makes good reading in conjunction with today's New York Times article discussing the ambivalence many Iraqis feel about a possible Obama victory.I made a brief case against a US pullout from Iraq lat December. But I also see the wisdom behind Obama's plan to use a phased withdraw as a way of...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 17 Jul 2008 |
Donald Douglas over at American Power weighs in with a laudatory post about Brian Rathbun's recent article -- an article in which neoconservatism is equated with and defined as "moral nationalism." "Moral" here means that neoconservatism offers something other than a set of factual observations on which to base foreign policy, but instead spins out a normative justification for the rectitude of particular policies, particularly policies...
by Charli Carpenter | 17 Jul 2008 |
Due to more than one misinterpretation of the original version of this post, I have altered the title and extended / clarified the argument, which now reads as follows:In the wake of Mugabe's "re-election," political violence in the country is on the increase. Jake Farr Wharton has a modest proposal: "Mugabe’s forces violently bullied and intimidated the people of Zimbabwe into a second election. Last week, Tsvangiri withdrew his candidacy,...
by Dan Nexon | 16 Jul 2008 |
I don't post a great deal on Israel-Palestine issues. I basically want to see a peace deal that involves an equitable variant of the two-state solution and that empowers moderates on both sides. I don't have much sympathy for those who want to paint the conflict in black-and-white terms, and I get sick of the way that advocates of one side or the other spotlight the various infractions of their opponents.But f*ck it, this is just...
by Dan Nexon | 15 Jul 2008 |
Although I failed to make the connection, thanks to D we now know of the sinister connection between the Svalbard and Zombine menaces. Given accumulating evidence that climate change will increase Zombie activity, this is a truly frightening development and may help to explain the broader relationship between the Panzerbjørn and the Zombies.But recent weeks have also seen a flurry of suspicious activity around Svalbard, including:• An increase...