In the course of my internet wanderings I came across two very interesting syllabuses. The first was for a Harvard research seminar titled “Chinese Strategic Thought.” The second was for a MIT class named “Chinese Foreign Policy: International Relations and Strategy.” In essence, both classes serve as introduction to the Chinese strategic tradition. As I […]
In the post “Addendum to Dreaming Grand Strategy” I offered a tentative definition of the term “Grand Strategy”. It reads: “A grand strategy is any comprehensive strategy statesmen develop or utilize to fulfill their state’s chosen national purpose.” In crafting this definition I imagined myself quite original. Quite accidentally I happened across, “Saving the World […]
Much of what is written below is pulled from my comments on Zenpundit’s critique of my earlier post “Dreaming Grand Strategy.” If you have already read them, you will find little new here. In the post “Dreaming Grand Strategy” I set out to explain why America is suffering a crisis in grand strategy. Doing so […]
Recently I wrote a post where I attempted to define “tyranny” as the word is used here on the Stage. I have given the matter some thought since then, and would like to add few points to this earlier effort. I concluded the post with the following operative definition of “tyranny”: Tyranny can be found […]
Over the past few months this author has taken some heat for an allegedly liberal use of the word tyranny. As I do not plan on using this word less liberally in the future, it is prudent to have on hand a succinct explanation for what exactly is meant when I speak of tyranny. Tyranny, […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. THE REPUBLIC American Murder Mystery Hannah Rosen Atlantic Magazine. July 2008. Over the last decade crime rates in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago have all shrunk. A great American success story? Not quite. While the crime rates of the big cities fell, […]
Sometime last year I stumbled across a series of 500 word think pieces written by various professors of international relations, senior fellows housed in foreign policy think tanks, and other eminent experts on all matter of topics related to security studies. From what I could tell the series was a weekly affair; every week a […]
I have been a little busy this last week. Odds are that I will be busy over the next week as well. The wait should be worth it, however – I have written drafts of several posts that might just pique the readership’s interest. Later this week I should have time to hammer down their […]
If one political philosopher must be named my patron saint, it would be Alexis de Tocqueville. It is hard to read a page of that he has written without coming across a gem of wisdom relevant to today’s affairs. Take this small excerpt from the second chapter of Democracy in America: In most European nations, […]
“Who does not know that wars, the mighty tempests, the pestilence, all the ills, indeed which afflict the human race, do so through the agency of demons?” (Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, p. 83) So wrote the Saxon priest Helmold of Bosau nine centuries ago in his history of Eastern Europe, the Chronica Slavorum. I […]
