The Scholar's Stage

Signal Like Its 1711: James Addison on Partisan Signaling, 18th Century Style

30 May, 2015By The People, Electoral Intrigues, Europa Regina, History, Narrative

Portrait of Joseph Addison (1672-1719), by Godfrey Kneller, c. 1712 Image source: Wikimedia I sometimes complain that 21st century American political culture has been hijacked by hyper-partisan signaling. It is easy to forget that this is not a new complaint. You can find political signaling spirals rearing their ugly head many times in humanity’s past–at […]

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Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (II)

28 May, 2015History, Narrative, Political Theory, Strategy, The Middle Kingdom

This post is the second in a series. I strongly recommended readers start with the first post, which introduces the purpose and methods of this essay. That post focused on what is published in English on Chinese strategic thought. This post focuses on what has been written about Chinese strategic practice–that is, the military, diplomatic, […]

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The Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (I)

26 May, 2015History, Political Theory, Possessions For All Time, Strategy, The Middle Kingdom

Mao Zedong writing On Protracted Warfare (Yan’an, 1938) Source: Wikimedia. INTRODUCTION Last fall I wrote a popular series of posts outlining the history of the eight decade war waged between the Chinese Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu (old style: Hsiung-nu) nomadic empire. My posts were a response to a prominent American strategic theorist who misunderstood […]

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When Modern War Met an Antique Art

08 May, 2015Dogs of War, History, Japan, Narrative

Kobayashi Kiyochika, “In the Battle of the Yellow Sea a Sailor Onboard Our JapaneseWarship ‘Matsushima’, on the Verge of Dying, Asked Whether or Notthe Enemy Ship had been Destroyed” (October 1894) [2000.109a-c] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The earliest extant woodblock print was uncovered in a 7th century tomb excavated in the outskirts of […]

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Introducing: Asabiyah

02 May, 2015Dogs of War, History, Near East, Political Theory, Steppe and Sown, Tyranny

If mankind is, as has been claimed since ancient days, a species driven by the narrow passions of self interest, what holds human society together as one cohesive whole? How can a community of egoists, each devoted to nothing but his or her own ambition, thrive? Or for that matter, long exist? Thomas Hobbes of […]

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Health Isn’t Wealth, pt. II

25 April, 2015Complex Systems, Epidemiology, Narrative, Romans and Grecians, Wealth

Dolia, an example of one type of pottery common in Roman times that completely disappeared from Western Europe after the fall of the empire. “Ostia Antica Dolia” by AlMare – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.Image Source. Economic history blogger Pseudoerasmus published an interesting pair of posts earlier this month titled […]

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The Road to Beijing Runs Through Tokyo

21 April, 2015Diplomacy, Entangling Alliances, Japan, Military Affairs, The Middle Kingdom

Image Source. As much of the material here at The Stage narrates the history of Chinese warfare, diplomacy, and strategic thought or analyzes contemporary Chinese politics and international relations, I am occasionally asked a question that goes something like this: “Mr. Greer, if you had to recommend one book to help me understand how the […]

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Traveling

07 April, 2015Site Announcements, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

I ask my readers to excuse me for the relative dearth of posts over the last month or two. The back log of posts is reaching intolerable levels, but it cannot be helped. In two weeks I will be moving away from the Hawaiian islands. Preparation for this move has swallowed up most of the […]

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Health ≠ Wealth

22 March, 2015Energy, Epidemiology, History, Narrative, Wealth

Jun Fujita, “National Guardsmen Questioning African American, 1919,” 1919, Photograph, Chicago Historical Society Archives. Chicago. Image Source. A week or so ago I came across a short Pacific Standard column by Jim Russel on Twitter. The article highlights a new paper by economists Dan Black, Seth Sanders, Evan Taylor, and Lowell Taylor on the early twentieth century “Great Migration” of African Americans away […]

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A Civilization Is at Stake Here

27 February, 2015Arabia, Culture, History, Near East, On Humanity, Persia, Religion, Tyranny

Perhaps the most predictable fall-out of Graeme Wood’s influential cover article for The Atlantic, “What the Islamic State Really Wants,” is another round of debate over whether or not the atrocities committed by ISIS and other armed fundamentalist terrorist outfits are sanctioned by the Qur’an, Hadith, and other Islamic texts, and if not, whether these […]

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