I wrote about The Brouhaha Over the Science a month ago, saying, among other things, that the premise, as posited in a particular “NY Times” article, that there are “two sides in the climate-change debate” is way off the mark. There is deep, broad and unequivocal science that has long since ended any reasoned contention […]
Readers of this space know there’s been a recent flurry of public activity by those who set the course of U.S. communications efforts with foreign publics. This week’s unusual Congressional hearing on the State Department’s public diplomacy programs featured not only the current ranking official for public diplomacy, Under Secretary Judith McHale, talking about her […]
Last Sunday, the New York Times reported on the wind energy industry in Wyoming (the eighth windiest state) and how the governor is pushing for a tax on wind energy. The wind power lobby has, of course, expressed its horror that the state would consider such a thing, practically comparing it to killing a newborn. […]
World War II was an epic conflict that touched the lives of nearly every citizen in every country involved. In the U.S., the war meant sacrifice and hardship for those on the homefront, as entire sectors of industry and commerce were transformed to aid the war effort. Women were “drafted” into the economy as never […]
Are you an international educator? Do you seek to teach or study abroad to strengthen both your skills and your knowledge on how to be a more efficient and effective international educator? The NAFSA (Association of International Educators) 2010 Annual Conference & Expo, in Kansas City, Missouri, is the place for you to explore the […]
Nuclear war is unthinkable, so conventional wisdom holds, but nuclear terror and blackmail are all too easy to imagine. As we drift farther into the nuclear age, it is increasingly clear that the proliferation of the capacity to cause mass destruction is but one part of the danger the world faces. The other is the […]
Birds of a political feather flock together. That’s the takeaway from a political science study that shows that people with a partisan slant get their news from partisan sources that reinforce their pre-existing views – e.g., moonbats follow DailyKos and the Huffington Post, wingnuts read Free Republic and the Drudge Report while watching Fox. As Evgeny Morozov has argued, […]
Last week, the official drug czar of Guatemala as well as the chief of national police were arrested for allegedly leading a police ring that stole cocaine from drug traffickers. Now that is deep-rooted corruption. Guatemala is caught in a vicious cycle. On one side, the police and security forces have become involved in organized […]
Wired reports that China and Google are close to wrapping up talks over the search giant’s threat to withdraw from the country if it is forced to continuing censorship of results. In the piece our old friend Mr. Anonymous Source suggests that Google would be willing to step up censorship of gambling and porn if […]
Preemption has become a dirty word. But this need not and should not be so. I bring this up because the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review has drawn the Bush administration’s so-called “preemption” doctrine into the news again. The only problem is the Bush administration’s preemption doctrine was not a preemption doctrine. Just ask the […]
China has eight non-communist parties under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). What at first seems like an oddity under an one-party system is not so once we understand the reality of the relationship between the CCP and these parties. Open political debates are strictly constrained in China. The CCP maintains its dominance […]
The Council on Foreign Relations has launched the inaugural Foreign Affairs‘ Essay Contest for undergraduate students. The contest gives the young leaders of tomorrow to show how they see key world issues and how to address them to create change across the globe. A panel from the Foreign Affairs editorial staff will select one undergraduate’s […]
Today, March 9, is the day about twenty countries, including Nigeria, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, who have signed on to the Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative (EITI) were supposed to finish and have filed their Validation forms. Validation is EITI’s “quality assurance mechanism,” a step toward achieving Compliance with the EITI standards. The Initiative is designed […]
I wrote a review of the book, The Hawk and the Dove, for Great Power Politics, a site run by fellow FPA blogger Patrick Frost. The book is an entertaining read about the Cold War debates between George Kennan and Paul Nitze. Check out my review here.
The Bush Administration used to say that the U.S. was bringing democracy to Iraq and hoping to inspire a democratic wave throughout the Middle East. Let’s agree to accept this uncritically and move forward to ask the following question: Has the recent national election in Iraq inspired the region and emboldened democracy movements? In this […]