Forming a Region-Centric State Department โ€“โ€“ 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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Copenhagen: a Failure of American Statecraft

After a few weeks hiatus, I am now able to devote some time to blogging. The world has not held still in my absence; over the course of the last month the Lisbon Treaty was ratified, Washington decided to send 30,000 men to Afghanistan, Andhra Pradesh fragmented into two parts, MEND rebels drove Shell out […]

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Video of the Day 27/11/09 โ€“ Massacre in Mindanao

Philippines ‘witness’ recounts killings Al Jazeera. 26 November 2009. This video is the best I have yet seen on the Mindanao massacre. Al Jazeera has once again has trumped Western news organizations in investigative ability. The composure of Ismael Mangudadatu is astounding. To lose a wife and a sister and still have the fortitude to […]

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Our Esteemed Ally, the Executioner of Sorcerers.

Human Rights Watch sent this gem to my inbox today: Saudi Arabia: Witchcraft and Sorcery Cases on the Rise.Human Rights Watch. 25 November 2009. (Kuwait City) – The cassation court in Mecca should overturn the death sentence imposed on Ali Sabat by a lower court in Medina on November 9 for practicing witchcraft, Human Rights […]

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