...I'd go with the Steelers giving four points and also take the over (46.5) in Super Bowl XL tonight. My prediction--Steelers 28 Seahawks 21. Feel free to let me know your picks in the comments section.Filed as: Super Bowl XL

Mark over at Zenpundit has a nice post on the ongoing ridiculousness which is the Danish cartoon row. Andrew Sullivan has a link to the "extra cartoons" and the lowdown on the apparent propoganda roadshow that has helped bring the issue to the forefront in the Muslim world. For an interesting analysis of the pattern of the protests see 'Aquol. The discussion of Syria sounds eerily similar to the recent protests in China over Japan and the legacy of WWII. Additionally, while some of the early protest may have been politically orchestrated it seems to have played the role of a spark that is...

The US Quadrennial Defense Review is finally out (only a year late, but who's counting).Some of the highlights include a shift in the "two-war doctrine"--which envisioned the US being able to battle in two seperate wars with the option of regime change in one--so that one of the major conflicts can be a protracted war against an insurgency. The document also argues that the composition of US forces must shift, incorporating larger numbers (increase of 15%) of Special Operations Forces that can take part in numerous on-going operations around the globe simultaneously. The emphasis is on SOF's...

The world inched closer to confrontation with Iran today, but it is not yet clear what will happen next. One huge problem for security analysts is the question of Iran's motives. Would Iranian want to pass a bomb to terrorists, use one or more against great powers, or perhaps versus Israel? Patrick has argued in an academic work with Ronald Krebs that scholars, at least, cannot discern states' motives. He notes that Hans Morgenthau agreed with this position, though the typical realist response to this dilemma is for national policy elites to make worst-case assumptions about the motives (and...

[Hat tip here to Dan Nexon and the discussion going on at Crooked Timber]Does projecting the image that one is irrational actually confer that person with an advantage in bargaining situations, specifically when nuclear weapons are involved? This seems to be the question taken up by Lee Harris over at Tech Central Station, to which he answers "yes" (Glenn Reynolds provides the pom-poms, imploring the US to do this more often).Harris is concerned that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons it can use those weapons to extract favorable changes to the status quo since other states would view its...

I'm in Tampere, Finland, at a conference on the idea of a 'post-Western West' sponsored by some European colleagues. I must admit that it's extremely refreshing to be the only American -- and in particular the only American academic -- in the room, both because among Americans there's a shared political context that I rather easily get darn tired of talking about (war in Iraq, Patriot Act, terrorism, yada yada yada) and because among American social scientists there's a shared disciplinary context that I often find rather stultifying. It's just so nice to be in an environment where people...

I can't believe it, but I'm actually linking to a post from Daily Kos. One of their regular posters, georgia10, calls attention to something that's been bugging me ever since information about the illegal NSA wiretapping program began to surface. At first glance, doesn't it seem a bit like the Total Information Awareness program that Congress pulled the plug on back in 2003?On January 16, 2003, Senator Feingold introduced S. 188, the "Data-Mining Moratorium Act of 2003." His bill called for a moratorium on data-mining under TIA and "any other program." It also called on the Secretary of...

Hamas offers Israel an olive branch shaped like a scimitar.We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state that was established on our land," Meshaal, the Damascus-based head of the political and military wings of the militant Islamic group, wrote in a column titled "To whom it may concern," published in al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper.Hamas leaders have said they might heed a truce with Israel as an interim measure that could include the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, but would not abandon a long-term goal to destroy Israel."If you...