by Bill Petti | 25 Aug 2006 | Featured
For those that haven’t been paying attention, the Bush administration has launched its 2006 midterm-framing campaign for dealing with the Iraq debacle. Not surprisingly it’s a familiar riff, one that has been analyzed at length here at the Duck as well as more prominent outlets: 'If you think things are bad now, just wait till the Democrats gain power—they will pull out of Iraq and show the world we lack resolve, which will embolden our...
by Peter | 24 Aug 2006 | Featured
Everyone knows that there are 9 planets:Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Plutowhich you remember by saying My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickels (or some variation on the theme.Except that now, there are only 8 planets.Pluto just got demoted.So, a once critical fact, an immutable truth about the nature of the solar system has now changed.Plus, I really feel bad for all those Pluto scholars out there...
by Rodger Payne | 24 Aug 2006 |
The University of Louisville semester started this week and I'm holding the second session of my two classes Thursday. One of those courses is new for me: "(Global) Politics Through Film." For the past 15 years, this class was taught without the (Global) by a now-retired colleague who was interested primarily in domestic American politics.Consider this post the first in a semester-long series relating to the class (find the syllabus here).Film...
by Rodger Payne | 19 Aug 2006 | Featured
Dan encouraged me to mention a new book that some Duck readers might find interesting, Hitting First: Preventive Force in U.S. Security Strategy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), edited by William W. Keller and Gordon R. Mitchell of Pitt's Matthew Ridgway Center for International Security Studies. Their chapter 1, "Preemption, Prevention, Prevarication" is available on the press website.Disclosure: the volume includes my chapter,...
by Rodger Payne | 18 Aug 2006 | Featured
"We're talking a whole lot worse than Three Mile Island," he said. "If an insider knows where the target sets are, in other words, the way to damage the reactor or to blow a hole in the spent fuel pool, it would be a hell of lot worse than anything we've ever seen in this country before." --- Peter Stockman, Senior Investigator, Project on Government Oversight (POGO)Widely read blogger-journalists Kevin Drum and Andrew Sullivan are noting the...
by Rodger Payne | 15 Aug 2006 |
Craig Murray was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan, until he was recalled in October 2004. His posting was supposed to run through November 2005, so he was clearly sacked from this position, as they say in the UK. In early 2005, Murray resigned from the Foreign Office.Before his dismissal, Murray was publicly criticizing the human rights policies of the Uzbek government -- and privately condemning the Blair government for emulating the US...
by Peter | 15 Aug 2006 | Featured
Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe-Mentum Lieberman was certainly seen as a watershed political moment, where the anti-war message toppled an incumbent. Given that incumbents in Congress have something like a 90-95% success rate in re-election (actually, I think its higher than that, but i'm blogging at 6 am and not inclined to look it up), defeating a sitting Senator, former Presidential candidate and Vice-Presidential nominee is a pretty...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Aug 2006 | Featured
An addendum (and yes, I still have internet access) to my post on progressive foreign policy. Ron Suskind, in his interview with Salon, gets it mostly right:One of the things that I think is clear about the moment we're in now is that in a way this is a new kind of war, a new kind of conflict we're fighting now, with a kind of global insurgency. We know insurgencies, we've seen many of them through history, and very often it's the case where...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Aug 2006 | Featured
The movers are here. My internet connection is scheduled to cut out any time now. I've had a great time at OSU. The Mershon Center is a wonderful institution, with terrific academics and staff. They've built an exciting intellectual climate. Thanks to everyone for having me out and for making my stay so interesting and productive. If you are looking for post-doctoral fellowships in international studies, then you should definitely apply to...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Aug 2006 | Featured
Numerous updates below the fold.The AP quotes Bush's address on the foiled airline bombing plot:"This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation," President Bush declared.Anyone who reads blogs or listens to right-wing talk programs knows that "Islamic Fascists"--and its clumsy neologistic spinoff, "Islamofascists"--has long been a staple of right-wing rhetoric....
by Dan Nexon | 10 Aug 2006 | Featured
LGM has been doing the important work that I might be tackling if I weren't in the middle of moving: taking on the "ghosts of 1972" interpretation of Lamont's victory over Lieberman. Scott tackles the problems with the underlying story (Marc Schulman articulates a more reasonable version of the 1972 analogy, but I still think he's wrong). Rob eviscerates Jacob Weisberg's muddled column.I have to wonder what kind of political activity Jacob...
by Peter | 8 Aug 2006 | Featured
Students in my Intro to IR Research and World Politics classes have, on occasion, heard me rant about Wikipedia and how it is not an appropriate research source for writing papers. While useful for background information and links to other useful sites, the fundamental nature of a Wiki undercuts its reliability as a source for scholarship. Students in that class will also be familiar with the three broad approaches to knowledge that I use as...