Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers the keynote address at the 2014 Shangri-La Dialogue Image Source This weekend I finally had the chance to sit down and read the collected transcripts of the 2014 Shangri-La Dialogue. This year’s round of the Dialogue has garnered much more media attention than usual. The coverage has focused on the […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit.I have been much busier these last few weeks than expected. I did not have time to compile one of these lists back in February, so a few of these readings were published all the way back in January. TOP BILLING “The Play is the Thing […]
WARNING – EXTENSIVE PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD. This week the bloggers of Fabius Maximus have posted several times on the evils of Orson Scott Card‘s popular science fiction book, Ender’s Game. I figure I might as well pile on. I read Ender’s Game for the second time earlier this summer. I noticed it was included in […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING “How To Lose a War: A Primer“Mark Safranski. Zenpundit.com. 28 July 2013. Since Pakistan is now attempting to get its victory over the United States in Afghanistan formally ratified, now seemed to be a good time to reflect on the performance of American […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit.This one is a bit smaller than normal; there are a few other posts or essays that deserve to go here, but I hope to devote entire posts to them at a later date. TOP BILLING:“An Introduction to Historical Linguistics’ – Terry Crowley and Claire Bowern. Part […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. This collection is a large one. TOP BILLING Our Internet Surveillance StateBruce Schneier. Schneier on Security. 25 March 2013. The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the […]
“The primary objective of any COIN operation is to foster development of effective governance by a legitimate government. Counterinsurgents achieve this objective by the balanced application of both military and nonmilitary means…. Governments described as “legitimate” rule primarily with the consent of the governed; those described as “illegitimate” tend to rely mainly or entirely on […]
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 […]
Terra Cotta Soldiers — Image Source Via Zenpundit comes an interesting article written by Tonio Andrade for The Diplomat. This online magazine has some of the world’s best coverage of Asian-Pacific affairs and I always read its contents with interest. Mr. Andrade’s piece introduces his readers to the Sino-Dutch war of 1661, China’s “first” war with […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit.TOP BILLINGRue the IdesBurt Likko. League of Ordinary Gentleman. 15 March 2013.This is one of the best treatments of Caesar and his times yet published on the blogosphere. A few money quotes: After all nearly two centuries of history that preceded Caesar’s rise to power demonstrated […]
