by Peter | 27 Aug 2007 |
The NY Times is reporting that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has tendered his resignation.This is a pretty big deal, I think-- Gonzales was under fire for all kinds of activities, many stemming from a secret intelligence program that includes spying on American targets without a warrant. He had lost a lot of credibility and ability to function effectiviely as the nation's highest law enforcement officer. However, one thing that sticks in...
by Dan Nexon | 24 Aug 2007 |
Duncan Black posts what should be the final nail, but won't be, in Friedman's credibility:I hold out some vague hope that this is out of context.But if it isn't: there you have it, Friedman's underlying rational for the war was an incoherent revenge fantasy based on the "paper tiger" theory of coercive diplomacy. Afghanistan wasn't enough to prick "their bubble," so we had to find another example. Could have been Saudi Arabia, could have been...
by Peter | 23 Aug 2007 |
Several days ago, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) returned from a visit to Iraq and called for the ouster of Prime Minister Maliki, calling him "non-functional."On the one hand, Levin makes a critical point. The main problem in Iraq is political, not military, and the dysfunction of the Iraqi government is not really helping to solve the problem. Indeed, the Iraqi parliament is indicative of the sectarian and political...
by Maia Gemmill | 22 Aug 2007 |
I'm back in town after having been blissfully detached from the news cycle for two weeks. I seem to have missed quite a lot: resumption of long-range bomber flights, the bombing of the Nevsky Express, yet another (alleged) Russian incursion into Georgian airspace.I'm still working on catching up with everything. In the meantime, here's something for your viewing pleasure: manly man Vladimir Putin goes shirtless in the Siberian forest. Note the...
by Dan Nexon | 20 Aug 2007 |
I am shocked and very sad to learn that Steve Poe, an international-relations specialist at the University of North Texas and the editor of International Studies Quarterly, has died. The following email just went out over the International Studies Association mailing list:Dear Colleagues,It is my extremely sad duty to inform you that Steve Poe, our editor in chief of ISQ, a friend, and a major contributor to our profession, passed away last...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 17 Aug 2007 |
Kenneth Turan, movie critic for NPR and the Los Angeles Times, weighs in today with a review of the latest remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Having not seen this newest version yet, I can't speak to the quality or accuracy of his review (and I probably won't be able to until the DVD comes out -- hard to get out to non-G-rated movies with young children, sigh). But I would like to call attention to one rather striking omission from...
by Dan Nexon | 17 Aug 2007 |
How awesome is this?
by Dan Nexon | 16 Aug 2007 |
I've expressed skepticism in the past about the idea that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization represents counterbalancing against the United States. And I still believe that the primary purpose of the organization isn't to function as a NATO-like block, but more as an alternative or "exit" option for public goods provided by the US. But The rhetoric certainly sounds an awful lot like, if not balancing, then some sort of proto-balancing....
by Dan Nexon | 14 Aug 2007 |
For those who might be interested, my lecture notes from my address at Prophecy 2007 follow. Keep in mind that I departed a great deal from the text, particularly when talking about nationalism and not all of my notes add up to coherent sentences. Also, the notes I've reproduced below constituted prompts rather than text to be read verbatim. I may clean it up one day, but I don't really have the energy to do so right now.The clever subtitle of...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Aug 2007 |
Remember when critics of the impending Iraq War argued that it would divert our attention from Afghanistan... and received a thunderstorm of mockery? Remember when an unprecedented number of international-relations specialists raised red flags about the conduct of the Iraq War, pointed out that we were headed for real problems in Afghanistan, and got dismissed in the national media with a quotation from conservative think-tanker Joshua...
by Dan Nexon | 10 Aug 2007 |
Ivo Daalder's and Robert Kagan's "Concert of Democracies" opinion-editorial has been generating waves of derision from the left coast of blogland.I've already argued that Kagan's 'Cold War II' outlook on the liberal-authoritarian divide amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy--although the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's activities suggest that we're already heading in that general direction. So I'm certainly not going to defend every aspect...
by Dan Nexon | 10 Aug 2007 |
Will we look back on all those arguments about how unipolarity is stable, American primacy is secure, and traditional balance-of-power politics don't work in hegemonic systems as quaint artifacts of the late 1990s? Will we conclude that US primacy died in the sands of Mesopotamia, or that secular economic and technological trends ended hyperpower? Or will we see, in retrospect, that Russian assertiveness, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,...