I recently wrote about the misuse (or, more to the point, apparent schizophrenic understanding) of reputational logic in the war on terror. Administration officials have repeatedly utilized rhetoric which rationalizes US policy against terrorists and rogue states on the basis of maintaining a reputation for resolve--i.e. we need to show our enemies that we won't back down just because the going gets tough, therefore staying the course is...

Through the magic of podcasting, I've been able to listen to a number of pre- and post-game interviews with baseball players and managers as I go for my morning run -- subscribe to the daily MLB podcasts through iTunes, plug in my iPod, and when I get up in the morning there they are, ready to go. (Of course, now that the baseball season is officially over -- congratulations, White Sox, even though I wanted the Astros to force a game 5 so that...

In my post on Stanford's iTunes store, I mentioned that Patrick has always been on the cutting edge of integrating technology into the classroom. Well, Patrick's just been featured prominently in a Chronicle for Higher Education story on the costs and benefits of podcasting (subscription only). Here are some key excerpts:Lectures on the GoAs more colleges use 'coursecasting,' professors are split on its place in teachingBy BROCK...

Couldn't resist (thanks to Brian Levy for the link):Strauss Guides Sox From GraveFiled as: Leo Strauss, White Sox

Iranian officials, not surprisingly, defended President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments at a conference Wednesday called "The World Without Zionism" where he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Their argument: It has been Iran's policy since the 1979 revolution. Oh, well that does it I guess. World leaders, including many in the Arab world, condemned the statement. The Washington Post has a great article which discusses the context of...

As if on cue the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, yesterday released the US National Intelligence Strategy of the United States (NIS). The WP has a nice article which summarizes the report as well as notes what is different from past reports. Most of the rhetoric in the report is unremarkable. However, the portion of the report getting the most attention is the appearence of democracy promotion as a main strategic objective...

The latest issue of Foreign Affairs contains a review by John Owen IV of Ed Mansfield's and Jack Snyder's Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War. Mansfield and Synder contend, among other things, that a transition from authoritarian to democratic regimes can make states more war prone than it would otherwise have been. As Owen argues, this has profound implications for Iraq:The Bush administration's desire to break with its...

A growing number of professors use podcasting - or the functional equivalent - to distribute their lectures, overviews of readings, and so forth. When I have the time, I know that I want to supplement blogging with podcasting. Our very own Patrick Jackson, on the other hand, has long been on the cutting edge of using technology in the classroom. Perhaps some day he'll tell us about what he's been up to.Meanwhile, Stanford is testing the waters...

Mother Jones recently had a brief note about the Roosevelt Institution, which is a progressive think tank organized by and for college students: The Roosevelt Institution takes students’ ideas out of the filing cabinet and places them on the desks of reporters, civil servants, and politicians so that students’ ideas change public policy. One of the ways Roosevelt brings the innovative ideas of brilliant students to an audience capable of...

Adesnik's latest post confuses me.Much of the incoherence at the heart of Jimmy Carter's foreign policy reflected an inability to reconcile realist anti-interventionism with an idealist commitment to human rights. Today we tend to think of Carter as exclusively a dove and an idealist, but his strongest supporters included liberal realists such as Harvard's Stanley Hoffmann.When Reagan embarked on a crusade against communist Nicaragua, his...

Here's the AP's headline:Lawyers Condemn Oil Tycoon's New HomeWhat's the story about?Lawyers for imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky condemned his being sent to a penal colony in Russia's Far East and said Friday they would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.In early October, after his appeal of the conviction on fraud and tax evasion was rejected, Khodorkovsky was transferred out of a Moscow jail. But the oil magnate's...