By chance, I recently participated in the “Evolved Irregular Threat Project”, a series of wargames led by David Kilcullen and sponsored by the Rapid Reaction Technology Office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The process was interesting, bringing together experience from a multitude of areas: Department of Defense (DoD) scientists, military officers, physicists, […]
Preeminent international relations scholar G. John Ikenberry’s article ‘A World of Our Making‘ is his latest piece defending and promoting the extension of the liberal world order. Ikenberry is a strong believer in international norms and institutions that have been building since the end of World War II and supports the United States leading this […]
I wrote in a previous post that the IAEA Board of Governors was preparing to finally make a decision regarding referral of Syria to the UN Security Council for continuing to stonewall the IAEA and preventing safeguards inspectors from having a look at Dair Alzour. You will recall that this was the site of an […]
A senior Palestinian official told the Associate Press today that the Palestinian leadership is ready to drop demands for Israel to completely halt all settlement building in the Occupied Territories. So if negotiations are restarted, a full settlement freeze would no longer be part of the Palestinian preconditions. I wonder if they’ll stick to that […]
Global Zero, the international movement pressing for the phased and verifiable elimination of all nuclear weapons, has issued a report estimating that the 8.5 nuclear weapons states–North Korea is rated halfway there–will spend about $1 trillion dollars in this decade upgrading, expanding and maintaining their atomic arsenals. The study, which has received some notice in […]
Apologies for the lack of blogging. Other projects are taking up my time and energy, so radio silence is likely to continue for an indefinite period of time. In the meantime, there is plenty else going on in the FPA-o-sphere to keep you entertained and informed. So for the time being, I refer you to […]
I just watched President Obama’s talk on Afghanistan and thought I’d share my first thoughts. At this point it might be useful to review the President’s goals and objectives for Afghanistan as outlined in his December 2009 speech at West Point. “ Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda […]
AI is the future, and the leviathan is the past. AI and modeling can be of enormous benefit to the state in issues that involve the complex interplay between states, interests, and human dynamics. Although the state works because of human dynamics and the negotiations that occur between those who feed it, the problem lies in that one beast can often misunderstand the other. AI offers a radical promise for situations involving state interests because it would allow for speed and efficiency in matters that can be lengthy, drudging, contentious, and lead to abhorrent waste and loss of life.
Been consumed by family related errands in Alabama this week so in addition to having to deal with 100 plus degree heat, have not had time to blog. The heat gave me flash backs to my times in the Mideast desert during my military active duty days which in turn reminded me I have one […]
Glenn Greenwald lays out the “Libya’s About Oil” angle: Is there anything more obvious — as the world’s oil supplies rapidly diminish — than the fact that our prime objective is to remove Gaddafi and install a regime that is a far more reliable servant to Western oil interests, and that protecting civilians was the […]
I know I don’t need to point out how hectic our lives can be. Teaching our kids how to be ruthless; beating the presidential cook after s/he prepared a lackluster chocolate soufflé for our dinner party with the President of FIFA; or getting our son into an overrated, elitist Western university and (cross our fingers) getting him to graduate – these are all things that can take up an inordinate amount of time in our schedules, which of course lead us to take shortcuts that often backfire on us.
Last weekend, the Arab Spring came to India. Swami Ramdev, yoga guru and television celebrity, staged a massive hunger strike designed to protest government corruption. The event, which involved thousands of his followers, was ended by a police raid. This isn’t something new for India though. Thousands of people in multiple cities in India protested […]
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