by Charli Carpenter | 5 Mar 2008 |
The Pentagon's "less-than-lethal" weaponry is finally going mainstream. Though the Active Denial System (ADS) has been under development for years, 60 Minutes has finally reported on it as if it's the newest thing around. (Click here to see the 10-minute segment from Sunday's show.)Not exactly a hand-held phaser, and it doesn't painlessly knock you out. Instead it sends a wave of directed energy at a person or a crowd that vibrates the water...
by Peter | 3 Mar 2008 |
A focus on foreign policy has returned to the campaign, and the Washington Post had an telling series of articles yesterday and today on what the next President might do in the Foreign Policy arena. A column in Sunday’s Outlook section speculated on what lies ahead:The next president will inherit a turbulent, intractable world that sharply constrains the room for creative new U.S. initiatives, according to many foreign policy experts of varying...
by Rodger Payne | 1 Mar 2008 |
Some of the remaining presidential candidates are this week debating the role of al Qaeda in Iraq. Senator John McCain points to AQI to justify his pro-war position, Senator Barack Obama points out that al Qaeda would not be in Iraq if the US hadn't invaded. It was not in Iraq before the US invaded.If the US abandoned Iraq, McCain says, then AQI would not just be "establishing a base." No, he says, "they'd be taking a country." President Bush...
by Dan Nexon | 29 Feb 2008 |
I just sent my book manuscript, provisionally entitled Religious Conflict, International Change, and the Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe, to Princeton University Press, sans a few "final status" maps. The blurb I wrote for it (but not the one they'll use):In 1517 Charles of Habsburg, ruler of the Netherlands and Franche-Comté, arrived in Castile to claim the thrones of Castile and Aragon-Catalonia. That same year, Martin Luther...
by Rodger Payne | 29 Feb 2008 |
George W. Bush had this exchange at his press conference, February 28, 2008: Q Mr. President, Turkey's ground offensive in northern Iraq is now a week old with no end in sight. How quickly would you like to see Turkey end its offenses, its incursion? And do you have any concerns about the possibility of protracted presence in northern Iraq causing further destabilization in the region?THE PRESIDENT: ...I strongly agree with the sentiments of...
by Peter | 29 Feb 2008 |
From Rob at LGM, via Kevin, via Winds of Change:The latest ROUMINT suggests that Secretary of Defense Gates, now visiting India, might give them the USS Kitty Hawk, CVN-63. The carrier is scheduled to be decommissioned soon, so rather than steaming back to the US, it could steam to India. Potential benefits to the US might include: parts and maintenance contracts, sales of planes to India from Boeing or Lockheed (F-18 and/or F-16), a strategic...
by Dan Nexon | 28 Feb 2008 |
The seed vault opens. World dignitaries, oblivious to the danger, hailed the Doomsday Vault:"This is a frozen Garden of Eden," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, standing in one of the frosty vaults against a backdrop of large discs made of ice.Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the vault an "insurance policy" and added his own biblical comparison: "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for...
by Charli Carpenter | 22 Feb 2008 |
Steven Ratner has written a "Think Again" piece on the Geneva Conventions in the new issue of Foreign Policy. (This explains why FP rejected my proposal for a Think Again piece on the same topic about three months ago.)Ratner's list of assumptions that should be rethought include: "The Geneva Conventions are Obsolete""The Geneva Conventions Don't Apply to Al-Qaeda""The Geneva Conventions Turn Soldiers Into War Criminals""The Geneva Conventions...
by Charli Carpenter | 21 Feb 2008 |
Went on BBC World for the first time yesterday to talk about protecting children born as a result of sexual violence in conflict zones like Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda, East Timor, you name the conflict zone where rape has been endemic, you'll find a host of children growing up in the aftermath. The segment just before my interview focuses on children conceived during the Rwandan genocide. As I describe in my interview and as the volume of essays I...
by Rodger Payne | 20 Feb 2008 |
Let me followup Peter's post on Cuba. Legendary and colorful retired pitcher Luis Tiant had this to say about the Cuban embargo: "I think it's crazy," Tiant said. "Everybody does business with Cuba - Latin America, China, everybody - and what is the difference? We are 90 miles from Cuba. We don't have a relationship with them. That's crazy. It makes no sense to me."The people have suffered enough. They've gone through a hard life. Forty-six...
by Dan Nexon | 20 Feb 2008 |
The fallout continues:"If things are not going in the direction of actually halting settlement activities, if things are not going in the direction of continuous and serious negotiations, then we should take the step and announce our independence unilaterally," Mr Abed Rabbo told Reuters.Palestinian leader Abbas and Israeli PM Olmert in Jerusalem 19 FebruaryAbbas and Olmert met but there is no news of progress"Kosovo is not better than us. We...
by Peter | 20 Feb 2008 |
If there is one domestic lobby that has captured US policy toward another country, it is the Cuba lobby that pushes for ever stricter sanctions on the Castro regime. The power of this lobby in Presidential politics can’t be overstated—it is a very large, issue specific, and highly organized voting bloc in Miami Dade county in Florida. Win Florida, win the White House, we all know that story well. Thus, we regularly see leading national...