by Rodger Payne | 24 Jan 2008 |
Does the press often serve as "government's little helper"?As you might guess, I am still thinking about the apparent failure of the public sphere (or "marketplace of ideas" if you prefer) to work properly during foreign policy crises. Many readers graciously provided interesting and helpful comments on my post from last week. Thank you! For now, however, I continue to explore the academic literature about the alleged timidity of journalists...
by Dan Nexon | 24 Jan 2008 |
Not long ago, Charli posted about Deborah Boucoyannis' provocative Perspectives on Politics article, "The International Wanderings of a Liberal Idea, or Why Liberals Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Balance of Power" (PDF). A number of readers and contributors commented on Charli's post and the article. Now, Deborah responds:Note: I've put the original comments she's responding to in blockquotes. Her comments are formatted normally.Yet...
by Peter | 23 Jan 2008 |
It was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this photo on the NYT site. Provocative (or maybe just dark humor), but potentially not that far off the mark.My short take on this is that I don't think its good for the Olmert government and their Gaza policy at all, and its a big win for Hamas. If nothing else, it hands Hamas a major legitimacy claim as the one group who cares about the regular person enough to blow open a wall to Egypt...
by Maia Gemmill | 21 Jan 2008 |
OK, so things are tense between Britain and Russia these days. But this breathless headline from the BBC is really over the top: "Russia warns of nuclear defence".The meat of the article is only a little less hysterical:Russia's military chief of staff has said Moscow is ready to use force, including pre-emptively and with nuclear weapons, to defend itself.Under what conditions would Russia use nuclear weapons?In a speech to a military...
by Charli Carpenter | 18 Jan 2008 |
So my Spring Semester class “Rules of War” has kicked off here at Pitt. I’ve been inspired by the Duck to foreswear Blackboard and get my students blogging (pseudononymously, of course) for their online participation grade. This week’s homework: evaluate whether Lieutenant Ehren Watada’s defense at his court martial last February constituted an accurate interpretation of the international rules derived from just war theory. Facts of the matter:...
by Charli Carpenter | 17 Jan 2008 |
This week I visited the Kennedy School to attend a symposium on Security Sector Reform (SSR). SSR aims to bring organizations with the authority to use or order the use of force better in line with the rule of law and the needs of ordinary people. The speakers at the symposium were particularly concerned with how to make security forces – police, peacekeepers, soldiers, the judiciary – more accountable to women’s needs, so that for example...
by Dan Nexon | 17 Jan 2008 |
Goldberg's definition of fascism:Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve that common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of...
by Rodger Payne | 16 Jan 2008 |
In preparation for a conference paper (warning: large pdf) due in a couple of months, I've been carefully reading a number of academic articles about the failure of the public sphere (or if you prefer, the "marketplace of ideas") to function effectively during periods of foreign policy crisis. The post-9/11 period featured limited debate about many foreign policy choices -- leading to the Iraq war, for example. Keep in mind that I'm a proponent...
by Charli Carpenter | 15 Jan 2008 |
A friend recently forwarded me this online essay by Martin Porter, compelling me to reconsider one of the quotes I had blithely posted on my website. My quote, attributed to Edmund Burke, read “the only thing necessary for the persistence of evil is for good people to do nothing.” It is commonly quoted by human rights scholars and activists to caution against the bystander effect.Porter’s essay, replete with exhaustive sources from multiple...
by Peter | 12 Jan 2008 |
The saga continues…(Updated to included the photo, from Saturday's Washington Post)Back in October, Israeli jets bombed a mystery site in Syria. While it was clearly a major operation, the silence by all parties was remarkable, and heightened the mystery. Some claimed it was a terrorist arms shipment, some claimed it was a nuclear site, and others thought it was a practice-run / signal for Iran. But, with everyone remaining silent, the story...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Jan 2008 |
Over at Foreign Policy Passport, Blake Hounshell quotes John McCreary:Several retired US military officers explained in an interview on NPR yesterday that the success of the surge is economic, not military. The US pays the 70,000-80,000 fighters better than the tribal elders and al Qaida. Al Qaida tends to pay based on piece work – per operation -- whereas the US has put the tribal youth on salary. Retired General McCaffrey is quoted as saying...
by Rodger Payne | 10 Jan 2008 |
Wednesday, in Slate, Phillip Carter looked at what he called the first post-surge offensive by the U.S. military. Roughly 10% of American forces in Iraq are conducting operations in the the Diyala province. However, as Carter cautions, this is "an attempt to clear an area without there being a sizable number of troops available to occupy it afterward."Carter documents that this is a sizable offensive force -- bigger even than what the US...