I'm on an academic IR theory mailing list that frequently receives email about possible 9/11 conspiracies. Most of the time, I just delete these posts, but every now and then I click a link just to find out what the writers are claiming. One recent link led me to an August 2 Washington Post story that certainly raises interesting questions: Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a...

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 enemies'.When all is dark resort to reputational rhetoric and hope it resonates with your audience.The argument fails for a number of reasons, not the least...

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 who once studied the most mysterious planet and now just study a dwarf object or whatever. Its kind of like being a specialist on the Soviet General...

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, "Deliberate before Striking First?"There's a nice review in the July 20 edition of Pittsburgh's City Paper and I've blogged about the book throughout its...

"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 growing questions about last week's airline terror plot and arrests. Drum points to some sources who justifiably question the ease of making binary...

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 big deal. Its clear that the anti-war / anti-Bush vote is significant, not just within the Democratic party, but within Republican ranks as well. But...

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 gleaming armies come down from on high with banners waving and march in to some homeland or other to fight insurgents. It almost never works.Whatever...

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 Mershon. The bad news is that my book manuscript isn't quite done. I've still got some line-edit style revisions to complete. But that's also the good...