by Charli Carpenter | 6 May 2008 |
While I was in Japan last week interviewing government officials about their "human security" foreign policy agenda, I visited the Yasukuni shrine. Readers may be aware that this memorial to modern-era Japanese war dead has been controversial in the region: victims of Japan's imperial wars see it as a salute to war criminals, and the opposition in Japan considers any national monument to militarism a violation of the post-war constitution. A...
by Peter | 5 May 2008 |
Obama's losing streak is over, he won the Guam caucuses this weekend.Guam only has 9 delegates (8 half-votes plus 5 super delegates). Obama won the caucuses by 7 votes, Hillary and Obama split the 4 delegates, but it looks like Obama will come out 1 up with the super delegates.Now, no one is really talking about Guam. You could write it off as another small-state/territory caucus win for Obama, and its not even a state, really just a huge...
by Peter | 3 May 2008 |
How would this column read if David Brooks had actually read Rosenau?A skills revolution that drives elements of globalization-- it would be a fantastic new discovery if it wasn't an idea that could be old enough to vote.
by Rodger Payne | 2 May 2008 | Featured
I've been following the steroids controversy in baseball for some time. In 2005, major league baseball implemented a restrictive policy that was meant to be taken seriously. Since then, Congress has held hearings, many players have been outed as users, and even more draconian policies have now been adopted.Has the policy been working? Yesterday, a (relatively obscure) major league player was suspended for 50 days. That's interesting, but not...
by Dan Nexon | 1 May 2008 |
Some of our readers may have been wondering about the small flurry of Chuck Tilly posts in the last few weeks. Not long before then, many of his friends, colleagues, and former advisees learned for the first time that he was, once again, facing severe medical problems related to his lymphoma. Chuck subsequently moved to a hospice so as to maximize his comfort. He died yesterday morning.A few academic bloggers have begun to write memorial posts....
by Peter | 27 Apr 2008 |
Today's Washington Post has an excellent story that I strongly recommend on recent rise in food prices worldwide and resulting international upheaval.Its the exact story I would assign to my World Politics class-- an example of how this thing we call Globalization brings international trade, poverty, financial speculation, climate change, domestic farm subsidies, energy prices, and environmentalism together for a perfect storm of rising food...
by Peter | 27 Apr 2008 |
Yet another page in the continuing saga of the Secret Raid on they Syrian Reactor that maybe never was....As many loyal Duck readers know, I've been following this story with fascination since it broke. To recap: Israel bombs a "site" in Syria, Syria says nothing, 3rd hand reports indicate a North Korean nuclear reactor was the target, nobody talks.This week yet another bit of key information leaked out. Turns out, they had a video! The Video...
by Peter | 27 Apr 2008 |
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I've been sick all week and finally feel like myself again this afternoon, so I'm going to try to catch up on a few things that I had meant to mention but....First off: A must read from last Sunday's NYT (I had actually started the post earlier, but only typed 2 lines before I started coughing).So, to all those who thought that the US needed to do a better job in winning the “war of ideas,” it turns out...
by Charli Carpenter | 25 Apr 2008 |
Earlier this year, Hillary was leading Barack by 25 points in Pennsylvania; by April 22, Obama closed the gap to 9.2. Interestingly, this result has been largely interpreted as a loss for Obama, even by supporters. (Partly this effect was psychological - hopes were raised early in the evening last Tuesday when the networks claimed it was "too close to call," making a single-digit victory loss, which had always been more or less what supporters...
by Rodger Payne | 23 Apr 2008 |
Pundits have frequently compared the 2008 election to 1980. In both elections, the opposition party fielded strong candidates in the face of an unpopular president brought down by economic insecurity and foreign policy disaster. For his part, Senator Barack Obama has openly compared himself to Ronald Reagan -- not in substance, of course, but in transformational style.Reagan won the 1980 Republican nomination for President, but his main...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Apr 2008 |
Peter recently urged me to report from the Pittsburgh grassroots on the Pennsylvania primary. Well, word from Frick International Studies Academy in Pittsburgh is that middle-schoolers are split on who they hope will win tomorrow, and the divisions cut across grade-level. According to my twelve-year old daughter, lunchroom polls at Frick last week reported a majority of 6th-graders support Obama; a majority of 7th-graders support Clinton. The...
by Rodger Payne | 21 Apr 2008 |
Last week, in the much-maligned Democratic debate in Pennsylvania, Senator Hillary Clinton said that she would greatly expand the US nuclear umbrella in the Middle East: Well, in fact, George [Stephanopoulos], I think that we should be looking to create an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than just Israel. Of course I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United...