Over the past few days I have been engaged in an interesting exchange over at The Committee of Public Safety, an excellent site on strategic thinking and history. As the topic of this exchange is both timely and thought provoking, I would like to extend this discussion to the general readership of the Stage. The […]
Those of you new to the Stage may be unaware of this author’s deep seated sense of enmity towards parliamentary institutions. While I find them in most respects intolerable, there is one aspect found in most parliamentary democracies that I have always wished to be included in America’s presidential system: question time. Thus I found […]
The Business of Climate Change Conference 2009. Jeff Rubin. World Wildlife Fund: Canada. Posted 4 January 2010. “Stop thinking about what the Middle East is producing. Start thinking about what the Middle East is consuming.” The video is worth watching – for the first 20 minutes. Rubin is at his best when discussing short term […]
I authored a post earlier this month lamenting the lack of serious discussion concerning Yemen’s deteriorating security situation. Deeming it improper to not point out articles to the contrary on the rare occasions, I draw your attention to an excellent example of how we should be discussing the conflict: Yemen: Geography Matters! “Curzon”. Coming Anarchy. […]
It seems that the blogosphere has gone and blown itself up again. The catalyst this time around was a stellar (some have called it ‘epochal‘) essay-post by the ever erudite and timely Zenpundit, Mark Sanfranski. Zen has received much praise here in the past, and his latest tour de force does not disappoint. Titled, “The […]
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” A post on this theme of Hayek’s is in the works. Keep posted.
A few older essays – long, but still containing insight: Man from the Margin: Cao Cao and the Three Kingdoms. Rafe de Crespigny. ANU Faculty of Asian Studies. Posted 7 June 2004. Dr. de Crespigny quite literally wrote the book(s) on the later Han dynasty and the “great disunion” that followed its collapse. In this […]
The Boston Globe has published a powerful collection of photographs from Haiti. They say volumes more than anything I could ever hope to write.
A question: Why is it that when one of India’s more influential English-language policy journals devotes an entire issue towards “stepping up in Afghanistan”, nobody in the rest of the English speaking world notices? India’s role in the region means something, right? Now, the Indian Army quickly shot the idea down, but I find it […]
Matt Armstrong has written an impressive memo for the Progressive Policy Institute on the innovations needed to transform the Department of State into a competitive arm of the United State’s foreign policy machinery. The report is only five pages in length, and I recommend it without reservation to all of my readers. In the memo […]