Scrolls containing the Seven Military Classics of the Chinese strategic canon. Image Credit. Last month I wrote a post on the difficulties Westerners face learning about China’s military history and expansive strategic canon. Reflecting on this military tradition, Martin Hewson (who blogs at Breviosity) posed a few interesting questions: Why does China have such a sophisticated tradition […]
The Capitol Building, c. 1910. Image Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, “Detroit Publishing Co. Collection” no. 039985. [Link] The corruption of the United States Congress by monied interests and its eclipse by the other branches of the federal government is a topic we regularly return to. [1] It is not difficult to show that this […]
How can America craft a new grand strategy? The example of Jia Yi – a famous Chinese statesman and thinker who failed to convince his dynasty to adopt the strategy he proposed – can help us understand the central role that culture and a sense of national mission play in the creation of national strategy. Jia Yi was a strategist born […]
In a recent post titled “The Rule of Law and the Ruling Class in American History” I suggested that observing which parts of the American people could break laws with impunity and which parts were certain to be punished for doing so can shed light on the inner workings of American society during any particular […]
Han Gaozu- Deified Founder of the Han DynastyImage Source Many drivers shape the course of world history. With a few exceptions, I lend little respect to those works that try to explain all of history as the result of one great thing – geography, genetics, climate, culture, class conflict, freedom, or whatever. Usually there is […]
“Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free governments the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.” [1] Thomas […]
Comparing our times with those gone by can be useful – but only if we remember what made those days different than our own. When we forget those differences then our analysis is fruitless. Attempts to understand economic inequality in 21st century America by comparing it with its ancient precedents inevitably runs befoul this truth.Over […]
A lesson from the business strategists: an organization’s strategy is a reflection of its culture, not grand plans made by its leaders. An example from Ancient China shows how this truth applies to crafting strategies of war and peace.I firmly believe that theorists of war and diplomacy have much to gain from studying the business […]
Many people point to the hyper-partisanship of national Democratic and Republican parties as the greatest challenge facing 21st century America. When seen through the lens of another vapidly partisan political system – that of Jacksonian America – we see that the real danger is not noisy partisanship, but the iniquity it hides: for them it was slavery; for us, plutarchy. Living amidst the raucous partisanship of contemporary times it […]
Google Labs has released a cool new tool: Google Ngram Viewer. CNET News explains how it works: Google’s Ngram Viewer: A time machine for wordplayLancey Whitney. CNET News. 17 December 2010. Courtesy of the folks at Google Labs, Ngram Viewer can work its analysis as a result of Google’s sometimes contentious digitization of vast quantities […]
