This time it comes from John Bolton, who writes: One of Obama’s clearest aims in advancing “global governance” is drawing the United States ever more deeply into the International Criminal Court (ICC). Secretary Clinton lamented last year, as a “great regret,” that “we are not yet a signatory” to the treaty creating the ICC. In […]
–>Just wanted to pass on a heads up I received from PBS about a program being aired on their network this evening at 10 PM (www.pbs.org/pov/tvschedule). It’s THE OATH by Laura Poitras. Film synopsis: Filmed in Yemen and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, The Oath interweaves the stories of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, […]
China is an economically successful country. Growth rates of 8-11% per year. Fx reserves north of $2.4 trillion, closing in on 20% of US GDP. Investment rates that represent 40-50% of GDP (vs. 15-20% in the US). Private credit growth of 32.5% last year, vs. 5.6% in the U.S. A Human Development Index that now stands at 49.7, […]
In a recent post I expressed dismay about Jeffrey Goldberg’s “Point of No Return” article: its implicit suggestion that the United States should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities so as to save Israel the trouble of doing something so senseless and self-defeating, and the decision by The Atlantic to publish a piece of work that is […]
The Economist’s lengthy Special Report on Latin America last week is worth a read (see leader below), even though it failed to emphasize and adequately explain two critical causes of the region’s recent success — 1) the consensus among Latin American politicians that conquering inflation has benefitted the poor and strengthened democracy; and 2) the massive build-up in fx reserves that […]
Considering that war is perhaps the most horrific aspect of human society, one might think we’d some idea of why it happens. We’ve given it an honest effort. Much ink has been spilled and html text typed to attempt to get to the bottom of it. And there have been some valuable efforts, Stephen Van […]
The military has a process called “Lessons Learned”. Basically after the conduct of a major operation, be it an exercise or real world conflict, you study what worked and what didn’t. The purpose of the process is to constantly improve the way you do business by documenting what worked and what didn’t work. The hope […]
This is the new face of global organized crime–a criminal smorgasbord in which players energized by shifting motives still cooperate at intersections in their operational journeys, ‘hooking up’ for a day or an extra dollar when there are benefits all around.
Having already said so pretty clearly already, I saw few if any redeeming features in Jeffrey Goldberg’s treatment in The Atlantic of whether Israel might attack Iran. I’m not going to recant, but I do have to concede that the article had at least one redeeming feature after all: It got Fidel Castro’s attention and […]
And likewise, the Iraq War is still not over. Earlier this week, reports came out about the first U.S. combat operation since U.S. combat operations in Iraq ended. Such stories will continue, even after the withdrawal of the remaining so-called “advise-and-assist brigades” in 2011. As the New York Times reported last month, in 2011, the […]
Machiavelli, more than any thinker in history, made his name synonymous with a type of human behavior — self-interested, cunning, ruthless. He wrote about ancient Rome as well as Italy and the Mediterranean world of the 15th-16th centuries, extolling such leaders as Ferdinand of Aragon, the successful king of Spain who oversaw his empire’s aggrandizement, as well […]
As William Sweet of FPA Arms Control and Proliferation noted last week, India’s parliament approved a key portion of the U.S.-India nuclear pact but altered the deal to leave open the possibility of holding nuclear suppliers liable for damages resulting from accidents. This was the Bhopal tragedy rearing its ugly head, as Sweet notes. This […]
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