Climate Engineering
It may be August, when many policy wonks take vacation in Washington and other capitals, but Bjørn Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center is in the midst of releasing a series of papers analyzing potentially affordable solutions to global climate change.
STRATEGICALLY LOST IN AFGHANISTAN
The Obama administration seems to be having big second thoughts about Afghanistan. President Obama in his election campaign promised to make Afghanistan the central front in our unnamed war.
Investment bubbles and climate politics
If you didn’t read Matt Taibbi’s piece “The Great American Bubble Machine” from Rolling Stone, then this is a good time to check it out. The article, which argues that the investment firm Goldman Sachs has been behind a series of disastrous speculative bubbles in recent years, has received a great deal of attention.
Climate change and security politics
This past weekend, The New York Times ran an interesting story, “Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security.” The entire article was obviously provocative as it created a bit of a stir in the blogosphere.
Does Obama believe in democracy for all?
I have been running a few ideas through my mind and with a colleague about President Obama’s attitudes to democracy promotion and I think I have reached an understanding that I want to share with you. The paradox that has been taunting me is this dilemma between the idealistic tenets […]
TIME TO LEAVE — KOREA
There is talk about US forces leaving Iraq early, in 2010 rather than the scheduled date of 2011.Terrific.But before one gets too enthusiastic about that prospect, one should consider the Korean case.The war in Korea started in 1950 and is still technically on although shooting incidents are rare events.
WHOSE MORALE COUNTS?
US Secretary of defense Robert Gates said recently that coalition forces have about a year to turn around the war in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent, or risk losing support in America.Just a few days later the US military command in Afghanistan announced that action reports will no longer mention enemy casualties
Cartoons and International Relations
Perhaps the energetic young folk running this interesting website might run more IR cartoons and, who knows, the ISA or BISA might invite cartoonists to talk on their takes on our world.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE USAF
The Air Force was for a long time the guiding star of US military doctrine, but it seems to be fading fast of late. Air power did not win the Second World War, but the USAF did, gaining its independence from the Army, a large share of the defense budget, and prominence in the Cold War with the promise of easy victory
NO TO THE HUMANITARIAN AID STRATEGY
Some parts of the American military, perhaps a bit underemployed, propose humanitarian aid missions as a central component in America’s national military strategy. Admiral James Stavridis, the new NATO Commander, in his last assignment, Commander US Southern Command, was certainly an advocate of this approach.
