Tortured Ideas: a response to Harvey Sapolsky
IR – SO, WHO IS IT FOR? It is often said that the study of International Relations is either for the world’s people or for national politics. This cliché usefully explains the chasm between Harvey Sapolsky and myself. And anyone reading his Blogs and my own will recognise that we […]
Berlusconi turns off the light
Kant defined enlightenment as the proliferation and cultivation of critique and reason as the vehicles to intellectual, cultural and political evolution: an ethos based not on any one body of knowledge but upon a constant critical interrogation of the present and of ourselves. Dissent, contradiction, argumentation and debate are key to the betterment of society through democracy. If this is true, Berlusconi has turned off the light.
PROFESSOR VALE’S IMPORTANT LESSON
Professor Peter Vale’s provocative piece on “The Responsibility of IR Scholars” deserves comment which I suspect many e-IR readers will provide. Let me offer mine in this blog. I must say that I would hardly claim to be an IR Scholar as I was trained in political economy and government […]
The Silence of Fear Shattered by the Voice of Protests in Iran
For many people, February 14 is about exchanging red roses and expressing their sentiments to their loved ones. However, this year Valentine’s Day coincided with mass political activism in Iran, which reinvigorated the Green Movement. The regime has no interest in compromise and political reconciliation. Hence, they will increasingly rely on the politics of the iron fist to maintain power.
Tortured Ideas: The responsibility of IR scholars
Those eager to advise the prince often take the logic of Realist IR into dark places where fateful decisions are made. Why are so few voices in IR raised in dissent? And what must/should happen to those who carried the craft towards those fateful moments? And, most importantly, what’s to be done?
The EU and the Arab world: living up to the EU’s normative expectations
The external relations of the European Union with the Arab countries of the southern bank of the Mediterranean, institutionalised initially through the Barcelona process, then the ENP and today the Union for the Mediterranean, are predicated on the twin pillars of political stability and economic integration into a liberal free trade area. The approach is both a policy and a moral failure.
The evolution of Sarkozy’s foreign policy
As he approaches four years at the helm of France and of France’s foreign policy, three things come to mind with respect to an evaluation of Nicolas Sarkozy’s foreign policy. His ambition remains unchecked; he remains unceasingly on the top of his dossier; and he has calmed down somewhat, not only in his gesticulations and verbal excesses, but also in terms of what he expects to get out of foreign leader.
Whatever happened to the idea of globalization? A small defence of the idea.
I have a lot of sympathy for Peter Vale’s requiem for globalization. Too often, the idea means all things to all people. However, I want to make some defence of the idea. I will argue that while the theoretical post-mortem is convincing, the historical post-mortem is not.
Vietnam: Contemporary Development, Future Promise and the Legacy of the War
Vietnam. Mention the word to many a Westerner today and the reply you will get is more than likely to involve images of napalm, Hamburger Hill, Kent State and a whole other array of brutal and divisive issues that have so scarred the American psyche. However, there is another story, the legacy of the war on the Vietnamese themselves.
A Personal Perspective on the Tunisian Revolution
It was the first cyber-revolution, but it probably won’t be the last. While in the past it was more than common for leaders to rule their people through fear and threat, with increased education and accessibility to the internet, authoritarian leaders and dictators like Ben Ali will hopefully soon be known only in history.
