Notes From All Over

There are quite a few this time, so I thought it would be best to organize them by topic.

Ashley Tiller. Times of India. 30 January 2010.

I do not know how I missed this essay when it was first published. If you are going to read one thing about U.S.-Indian relations this month, make this the piece. Taking “what can India give the United States?” as a starting point, Tiller provides an insider’s view of the great transformation of American  perceptions of India’s strategic role that has occurred in the last decade and makes a compelling case for India’s relevance in America’s broader foreign policy agenda. Much recommended, if only because this is a relationship Western outlets pay so little attention to.

P.W. Singer. Foreign Policy. March 2010.

The Pentagon has embraced video games as a legitimate training and recruitment tool for the U.S. Army. While the long term consequences this will have on America’s military culture will not be known for awhile still,  Singer’s article is thought-provoking nonetheless.

William Easterly and Laura Freschi. Aid Watchers. 15 March 2010.

Everybody likes to talk about the “three D’s” of defense, diplomacy, and development. We are less ready to acknowledge the many cases where we face a trade off between the three. 

 Noah Shachtman. Wired. 22 March 2010.

Shactman identifies two sections of the NSA, by definition diametrically opposed to each other: the cyber-geeks that shore up our virtual defenses against hackers and probes, and the cyber-spies whose seek to play Big Brother in the name of our defense. Noting the difficulty these dual roles cause domestic companies and foreign allies, Shactman proposes that the agency be split into two. It is not often I smile upon new government agencies, but on this I have been convinced.

Jeffery Gettleman. Foreign Policy. March 2010.

Africa’s wars once has a purpose, argues Gettleman, but they do no longer. Warlordism has become its own reward. A well reasoned piece.

Brendan I. Koerner. Wired. 22 February 2010.

Charlie Carpenter. Lawyers, Guns, and Money. 18 March 2010.

Bryan Hoyt. Private Sector Development Blog 22 February 2010.

More evidence that we are privatizing the gains and socializing the losses. 

Jason Kuznicki. The League of Ordinary Gentleman. 19 March 2010.

The best piece of this nature I’ve seen. Outside of the general predictions made here I see little use in the predictions game –as nobody knows what is actually inside this bill it is all guess work anyway.

Julian Sanchez. Cato@Liberty. March 23 2010.

John Quiggin. Crooked Timber. 22 March 2010

Both Quiggin and Sanchez try to predict what long term changes the health care bill’s passage will have on American party politics. They serve as fair counterpoints to each other; I recommend reading both.

Kristo Miettine. American Creation. 14 March 2010.

“Agnostic”. Dusk in Autumn. 25 February 2010.

 John Adams on government and Adam Smith on the internet. Both made me smile.