Depending on how one looks at it, the fact that some Democratic Hilary Clinton supporters are willing to betray everything she stands for in order to "punish" the party for nominating Barack Obama is either perplexing, amusing, or just plain sad.Not that there aren't plenty of reasons why someone would support McCain over Clinton and Obama. But the rank ordering of Clinton > McCain > Obama--for anyone with actual policy concerns--is simply...
Displaying Results for ""
Russia and BMD: The BFD
Even the most causal observers of US-Russian relations must have realized by now that the Kremlin is apoplectic over the prospect of US ballistic missile defenses (BMD) in Eastern Europe. How has the Kremlin responded to news of the US-Czech radar deal? They're not happy. Reuters: Russia warned after the signing on Tuesday it would react with unspecified military-technical means if the shield is deployed."The Czech side... voiced concerns over...
An “act of war”
Examine these two policy-related statements and see if you can spot the nuclear illogic in one of these positions.First, this is Iran's statement after its missile tests, as reported by The Scotsman: "The first US shot on Iran would set the United States' vital interests in the world on fire," said Ali Shirazi, a mid-ranking cleric who is Khamenei's representative to the naval forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. "Tel Aviv and the US...
Online package manuscript tracking
With apologies to xkcd:Image and original idea by Randall Munroe.
Base bargaining in the shadow of the 2008 election
Social-choice theory (or, in this context, public-choice theory) suggests that leaders sign international agreements as a way of "locking in" their preferred policies. Once a state signs such an agreement, the logic goes, future leaders will face greater costs if they want to change their predecessors' policies.It doesn't take a fancy degree to recognize that's what the Bush Administration has been up to in a number of arenas. Iraq is one of...
Punctuation
Major suicide bombing in Kabul targets the Indian embassy:he embassy is located on a busy, tree-lined street near Afghanistan's Interior Ministry in the city center. Several nearby shops were damaged or destroyed in the blast, and smoldering ruins covered the street. The explosion rattled much of the Afghan capital.Shortly after the attack, a woman ran out of a Kabul hospital screaming, crying and hitting her face with both of her hands. Her...
Peer review: a quick query
I've written before on issues related to the state of peer review. The topic comes up frequently on many academic blogs. But having just received the final report on a manuscript I reviewed (note: not that I wrote), I feel compelled to ask the following question:Given the ABYSMAL level of professionalism among peer reviewers, why do we continue to place so much stock in peer-reviewed publications in International Relations?I wish I could say...
The hazards of burning oil
Thanks to the calendar, the U.S. is about to celebrate the July 4 holiday with a long weekend. For many people, July 3 (today) will be like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or New Year's Eve. You might be in the office, but you aren't likely to get much work accomplished and you probably plan to leave early.In that spirit, may I offer an entertaining video that addresses something on most travelers' minds this holiday -- the supply of oil: Hat...
Geneva 1.5 (Or, So You Want to Bridge the Theory/Policy Divide)
After rejections from two other policy journals and ten days of wrangling with the editors, my first policy-article on the rules of war has just appeared in The National Interest. In a nutshell: "The arguments of the Bush administration when it comes to torture, prisoner-of-war status and extraordinary rendition have been met with outrage by the international community, constitutional scholars and human-rights organizations like Amnesty...
Must be the “new math”
Andrew Sullivan complains that:His plans for social security amount to essentially a massive new tax on the successful to keep FDR's system afloat:When Obama proposes to also apply the 12.5% levy to all income above $250,000, he’s doing nothing more or less than to raise the effective marginal rate on that income from its current 33 to 35 percent, to a maximum of 47.5%. Add in his already-proposed income-tax rate increase of 4.5% for high...
Blog note: new military offensive in Pakistan
The Pakistani military has launched a new offensive against militants in the Khyber tribal region. Kathy Gannon of the Associated Press:Pakistani forces bombarded suspected militant hideouts with mortar shells Saturday as the government launched a major offensive against Taliban fighters threatening the main city in the country's volatile northwest, officials said.The offensive in the Khyber tribal region marked the first major military action...
Blog note: North Korean sanctions
Bush just lifted sanctions on North Korea. Some conservatives claim that Democrats will now need to eat crow about his foreign policies. Some also claim that the North Korean policy shouldn't be extrapolated to Iran, because Kim Jong Il is "rational" and "wants to survive" (unlike those nutty Iranians).1) This is a triumph for the Bush Administration--and for Georgetown's own Victor Cha--but Democrats don't have to eat any crow; Bush succeeded...