Words ’bout Yemen Worth Reading

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. […]

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COIN, Meet Democracy (And Your Doom)

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 […]

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Notes From All Over 23/01/2010

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 […]

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Forming a Region-Centric State Department –– From the Bottom Up

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 […]

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America’s Greatest Challenge — and Danger

The greatest threat to the safety and liberty of the American people is recognized by very few. Though formidable in their own right, this hazard is not posed by any state among the new class of rising great powers. Nor is the great danger to be found among transnational terror networks, violence caused by religious […]

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