Dan Trombly defends the relevance of aircraft carriers against Robert Haddick. This strikes me as Robert Farley territory.A new strain of wheat fungus discovered in South Africa.The quest to coin a phrase for Obama "grand strategy" continues. Meh. Matt Fay knocks around the Romney campaign's obsession with the Polish third site. I can't help wondering, though, if GOP advisors from the Bush Administration are merely angry that the Obama Administration undid what must have involved a lot of difficult diplomatic work.This strikes me as an odd way to frame Machiavelli's ethics.Andrew Gelman on...

Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church, died today. At the National Interest, Jacob Heilbrunn dissects John McCain's "Neocon Manifesto."The 3QD-Dialogue Advisory Group symposium on the "New Interventionism."Thomas Wright: "What if Europe Fails?" (PDF).Daniel Little summarizes a Tsinghua University conference on the "Great Divergence."Kindred Winecoff's #virtualAPSA2012 panel. The 2012 Hugo Award Winners. 

Luke Perez's #virtualAPSA2012 page now has more presentations. Check it out.In a backlash of sorts, people are having fun taking about #oldtimeAPSA on twitter. The China declinisms debate: Minxin Pei writes that the US needs to adjust to a declining PRC, while Daniel Larsen argues that Washington would run roughshod over Beijing in such a scenario.Chinese reporter "embarrasses" Victoria Nuland over the legal status of disputed islands in the East China Sea (via Taylor Fravel). Andrew Exum writes his final piece at Abu Muqawama before taking up his International Affairs Fellowship -- a very...

Bruce Jenltleson and Charlie Kupchan critique Romney foreign policy. Bill French piles on.James Lindsay complains about the lack of foreign-policy content in Romney's speech. "Wave" of cyberattacks hit energy companies. Lionel Beehner: "the realist case" for intervening in Syria. Hayes Brown on the UN arms-trade treaty.The history of the @, via 3QD.An evenhanded assessment of my disagreement with Fioretos [ed. for typo] over historical institutionalism.#virtualAPSA2012 expands to live events. Note that there are a variety of ways to do this. Contact me if you want suggestions, help, or to...

Josh Rogin examines how the Romney campaign has "doubled down" on treating Russia as a geopolitical foe. Some ideological habits are hard to break. In this case, the US-Moscow relationship is fraught enough to render the position wrongheaded but not completely insane. Jay on long-term democratization pressures in Russia. Noah Smith evaluates the nature of China's economic "landing." Jeff Colgan thinks highly of the SEC ruling that multinational petroleum firms will have to disclose their payments to foreign governments. Mark Leon Goldberg annotates the GOP platform's section on the United...

Paul Pillar at The National Interest on Leslie Gelb on the Obama Doctrine (an article that CFR flogged with multiple emails, I might add). An interesting set of readings that really do merit comment here, in one way or another. Read an interview with Richard Burger about his book on "Sex in China"Apply to be the "first ever US youth observer at the United Nations" The Afghanistan Study Group would like people not to forget Afghanistan (via PR).Phil Arean jumps into the food fight among PM, PTJ (also), Steve Walt, and our commentators. John Sides wants to know: are you going to APSA? I think...

Heather Hurlburt parses the RNC foreign-policy platform: "Politico found what seems to be a close-to-final draft on the RNC's website. The national security section, titled "American Exceptionalism" is here. Below I have gone through and blogged some of the more mendacious and ridiculous content. But what's the short take: the Middle East, Israel and Iran sections are more reasonable than an observer of recent rhetoric from the Romney camp might expect. The adults -- who know they might have to govern, and that better policy options are exceedingly hard to come by -- are firmly in charge."...