by Dan Nexon | 7 Dec 2006 |
Yes, my headline is unfair. But the phrase "national reconciliation" appears 45 times in the ISG report. It even gets its own subsection (pp. 64-69).I'm far from the only blogger to note a certain fantasy-island quality to the ISG report: it calls for lots of different actors--the Iraqi Government, Iran, and Syria--to adopt policies that they either can't or most likely won't implement. In particular, it seems to assume that the Iraqi...
by Dan Nexon | 6 Dec 2006 |
Earlier I wrote that:We're still waiting on the actual document, but if we believe preliminary reports then we shouldn't hold our collective breath.The report is now available (PDF) for experts, reporters, and bloggers to parse. Whatever else, I expect that the fact that we'll be talking about it for a while demonstrates the agenda-setting power of the ISG.I'm reading the report right now and I don't see a great many surprises. But there are...
by Dan Nexon | 6 Dec 2006 |
I'd like to call a moratorium on the genre of "Islam needs a Reformation" arguments.Contra Andrew Sullivan, the Protestant Reformation did not lead Christians to realize that "their best interests" lay "in forgoing the bromides of fundamentalist certainties for the messy, secular, banal success of liberal democracy." It left Europe filled with autocratic rulers, many of whom got to enjoy the additional benefits of controlling established...
by Dan Nexon | 4 Dec 2006 |
I have mixed feelings about the Amazon "affiliate program," mostly because I have mixed feelings about Amazon. Nevertheless, I've just changed the Duck of Minerva Bookstore to an Amazon aStore.I'm actually more interested in using their aStore feature as a way of easily creating lists of recommended books on specific topics.I hope that I, and my co-bloggers, will be able to construct some lists for specific topics in international-relations...
by Rodger Payne | 2 Dec 2006 |
Film #15: "Hotel Rwanda" (2004). We viewed it Tuesday.Reading for Thursday: Gareth Evans, “The Responsibility to Protect: Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention,” Address to The American Society of International Law, 98th Annual Meeting, Panel on “Rethinking Collective Action”, Washington DC, 1 April 2004. The class returned to the question of humanitarian intervention (HI) in this final week of the semester. Back in week #5, we viewed "Black...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 1 Dec 2006 |
After the sudden cancellation of the planned three-way meeting between President Bush, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki, the always-incisive Abu Aardvark quipped: US Hegemony, RIP.Not sure that this follows. Yes, I agree, the US is in trouble internationally, but two leaders canceling a dinner with the President in what looks like a diplomatic snub is hardly the decisive piece of evidence in that regard. It's not even a...
by Bill Petti | 29 Nov 2006 |
As previously mentioned. It seems this line of reasoning knows no partisan bounds.Today's Washington Post: As Iraq Deteriorates, Iraqis Get More Blame
by Rodger Payne | 29 Nov 2006 |
University of Ottawa professor Roland Paris has won the 2007 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. The prize is worth $200,000. One of the members of the final selection committee outlined the main argument of Paris' book in Tuesday's local paper:Charles Ziegler, chairman of U of L's political science department, said Paris' "institutionalization before liberalization" theory is an important contribution to international thinking...
by Peter | 27 Nov 2006 |
I have this thing about Definitions. In short, I hate them. Perhaps its the influence of Wittgenstein in my work, but nothing irks me more than people who lay out a dictionary definition, as if its obvious, and proceed with a political or academic analysis, leading logically to some conclusion. As those people say in debates, well, if we could only agree on defining terms..... well, sure, then the debate would be all over.Within IR, one of the...
by Rodger Payne | 26 Nov 2006 |
Film #14 "The Whale Rider" (2002). We viewed it Tuesday.Reading: Ann Tickner, "Man, the State, and War: Gendered Perspectives on National Security," Chapter 2 of Gender in International Relations; Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security (NY: Columbia University Press, 1992). (CIAO subscribers only)Ann Tickner's book is perhaps the best-known feminist treatise in the field of international relations. In the assigned chapter, she...
by Bill Petti | 23 Nov 2006 |
...I would like to wish all my fellow members of the Duck and our loyal readers a happy and safe Thanksgiving.That's all.
by Dan Nexon | 23 Nov 2006 |
Despite the many important global developments of the last few weeks, I haven't been blogging much lately. Nor have I accomplished a great deal of the last substantive rewrite I need to do for my book manuscript.Today, I hope, marked the culmination of my increasing lack of focus.Yes, I did wear these shoes all day. I discovered them when my daughter wanted to walk on my shoes and pointed out that "you're wearing this shoe on this foot, and...