by Dan Nexon | 22 Apr 2007 |
Over at Foreign Policy Passport, Preeti Aroon repeats--not once, but twice--the invidious comparison between contemporary Islam and pre-Reformation Latin Christiandom. Now, I've written on the general silliness of this line of comparison before, but Aroon asks an important question:Yesterday's program mentioned that the Protestant Reformation was accompanied by its share of violence, which took place over centuries. (Bloody Mary and Catholic...
by Peter | 20 Apr 2007 |
Part 17 of Why its so damn difficult to have any sort of meaningful debate about the future of US policy in Iraq, and part 34 of why the Bush Administration has a serious credibility problem when it comes to anything Iraq related.First, Bush says we can't leave:President Bush warned Thursday that pulling out of Iraq too soon would trigger a bloodbath akin to that of the Cambodian killing fields of the 1970s...."I want to remind you that after...
by Dan Nexon | 18 Apr 2007 |
Via John Holbo.Image from https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/bensanaz/All-Star%2024/AllStarComics24-01.jpg.
by Dan Nexon | 18 Apr 2007 |
Is it the James-Bond resume? The oh-so-sexy firm hand of quasi-autocratic leadership? The way his soul shines through his eyes? Vlad's allure will forever remain a mystery to me.President Vladimir Putin may be in the newspapers every day and on the television every evening, but for some that is just not enough. Portraits of the president are not uncommon in homes and offices alike."He is our president, and I like having him in our office," said...
by Dan Nexon | 18 Apr 2007 |
I am currently watching an hour-long PBS documentary called "The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom". I assume this is the "balance" episode of the eleven-part series "America at a Crossroads", since Richard Perle narrates, debates people, then explains in the voice over why he's right. Perle's arguments range from the sensible to the cynically dishonest. But the amazing thing is that Perle's losing to his interlocutors in his own documentary....
by Peter | 17 Apr 2007 |
I don't have anything that intelligent or insightful to say about the shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday. I was teaching when it happened, and one of my students with a laptop was checking the news and reported the still breaking story to the class.As this is an international relations blog, I thought that this story in today's Washington Post (which, for those of you not from the area, is treating this as a local story-- VA Tech is 4 hours...
by Peter | 12 Apr 2007 |
Two lead articles in today's news reveal severe trouble for the Administration with respect to Iraq policy. Both are "inside-baseball" type of articles, but they are indicative of real problems with the overall direction of the course of the war.The first was the Washington Post's front page story:The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon,...
by Peter | 7 Apr 2007 |
National Security is all about prioritizing tough decisions. Often, an administration can get away with avoiding the really tough calls, but from time to time, issues arise that force policy makers into pragmatic trade-offs between vital values and interests. Those choices are very instructive and insightful as to how a President sees the world. The NY Times reports that the Bush Administration faced just such a choice between its key goals of...
by Rodger Payne | 3 Apr 2007 |
What do other states think of America's nuclear arsenal and strategic posture? Defense analyst Lewis Dunn, with coauthors Gregory Giles, Jeffrey Larsen, and Thomas Skypek, recently completed a project sponsored by the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office (ASCO) of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency that looked at this and related questions. Their report is available on the web: Foreign Perspectives on U.S. Nuclear Policy and Posture (warning:...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 31 Mar 2007 |
Stuart and my article -- which I blogged about a few days ago -- has generated a decent amount of discussion over at Crooked Timber, as well as some here at the Duck. A few people have also e-mailed me privately too. All of this has sparked some further reflection on my part -- which I present below the fold for your reading pleasure.I'll take up three points: Henry Farrell's suggestion that we need political action to make space for...
by Peter | 31 Mar 2007 |
Lets see how much I can type before I need to abandon blogging for the night and feed, change and put my new child back to sleep.So, yes, I've been out of touch for a while because I'm now a dad. First child, boy, born March 12. Very cute. Sleeps all day, does not yet like to sleep at night. Quite exciting.I will say this much-- it makes me appreciate the brilliance of Wittgenstein all the more. That which we cannot understand we pass over in...
by Rodger Payne | 31 Mar 2007 |
Why the lack of posts? Well, I've been under two writing deadlines in recent weeks. For both projects, I've been working on pieces about the domestic and international politics of global warming -- one for a magazine and one for a textbook. Here's some news from that research worth serious discussion:A report released last week by Beijing authorities indicated that as its economy continues to expand at a red-hot pace, China is highly likely to...