Rethinking Republican Foreign Policy
The 2008 election was not a fluke. The days of Republican advantage on foreign and security affairs are over. The Democrats have learned to talk tougher on defense matters and to appoint Republicans and moderate Democrats to the senior posts. The Democrats now treat military preparedness, including Ronald Reagan’s missile defense, like the Republicans treat Social Security —with the self-preserving respect accorded electrified third rails.
On International Sponsorship
A relationship between international actors based on sponsorship differs from classical notions of clientelism and soft power, and is critical of exclusively statist conceptions of international politics. Sponsorship, I argue, becomes a mutual determinant and accelerator of globalisation.
Understanding the fall of the wall and other time tales
The 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall offers has understandably generated a number of opportunities to look backwards to what happened, and to ask why it was that IR specialists seemed unable to see what was coming.
Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy
Neoconservatism’s approach of democratising the Middle East via military intervention, tempering terrorism in the area, and dealing with Iran decisively has already formed the core of Obama’s policy package, all continuations from the Bush administration.
Ukraine’s Orange Revolution Five Years On
The story of how Yushchenko came to power with high domestic and international expectations that he largely failed to fulfill will be a fascinating area for future research.
Soft Power and the Persian Gulf
In October 2009, Iran was due to host athletes from the Muslim nations in order to celebrate “harmony” in the Islamic World. But Tehran has had to cancel the ‘Islamic Solidarity Games’ because Arab states demanded that the Persian tag should be removed from the competition’s medals and promotional posters – 27 countries led by Saudi Arabia refused to compete unless the famous waterway was called the “Arabian Gulf” instead of the “Persian Gulf”. What does this tell us about soft power and diplomacy in the region?
Burma after Nargis
One year ago Cyclone Nargis struck southern Burma. This ‘natural’ disaster brought about the death of at least 140,000 people, made homeless 800,000 more, and caused severe hardship for the inhabitants of much of the Irrawaddy Delta. The land of the Delta is Burma’s (and once the world’s) ‘rice bowl’, and so the destruction wrought here a year ago has been greatly damaging to food security amongst the poor throughout the country.
The ‘Cultural Turn’ in International Relations: Making Sense of World Politics
What do the Miss Universe competition, Sesame Street’s Elmo, and Fox’s television show 24 have in common? Aside from being phenomenally successful American cultural products, they can also offer us insight into the workings of world politics, in this case through their connections to the US military detention facilities at Joint Task Force Guantánamo.
US Military Doctrine since the Cold War
The American military at the end of the Cold War was a formidable force, large in size, very well equipped, and quite capable of meeting any conceivable Soviet warfare challenge, nuclear or conventional. Its recovery from Vietnam was total. Thoughts of honing its fast fading counter-insurgency skills or of a search to discover how best to participate in peace-keeping and nation-building ventures were far from its doctrinal priorities.
The upcoming elections in Iran
When Iran’s former president, Mohammad Khatami, announced that he would stand as a presidential candidate in the country’s June elections, there were hopes that once again he could use his charisma to mobilize voters in favor of a reformist program. So what caused him to stand down and support Mir Hussein Mousavi?
