IR and Political Science links threads

[Cain]

This will be a sort of political science answer to Kai's excellent Weekly Science News thread, which Ithink is brilliant.  I was hesistant to do something like this before, but, well, with this forum now...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/the_2009_failed_states_index - This year's Failed States Index.  Failed states are usually bad (see: Afghanistan, Somalia) for more, and have a nasty habit of causing problems for everyone, since they are too weak to stop dangerous transnational actors, like terrorists or organized criminal gangs, setting up in them.  With the economic crisis increasing political instability, expect their numbers to increase.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/think_again_asias_rise - As the title suggests, Asia's rise is further away than many would have you believe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8125041.stm - The Republic of Scotland?  Not likely, but still possible.

http://undispatch.com/node/8517  UN SG Ban-Ki Moon is a very popular man, make no mistake.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8126555.stm - China offers a loan to Zimbabwe

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/aaaargh-onomics/ - The economics of pirate activity

http://www.globaldashboard.org/2009/06/30/maoisms-big-future-in-the-21st-century/ - A good reminder to keep an eye on the Naxalite rebellion in India.  Friends of mine travelling there a few year ago said to me that the Maoists have their shit together, are very good at the PR side of things (policing communities, providing food and water etc) and have a solid base of support.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/politics/29climate.html?hp - Obama seems to be trying to create some sort of fledgling global regime structure for dealing with issues of global warming and alternative energy.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/world/Iraq39s-dirty-squad-faces-acid.5408351.jp - The new face of the war in Iraq: the executive's personal death squads

http://www.acus.org/new_atlanticist/why-nigeria-matters - Well, the sudden rise in the price of oil is probably a major reason why Nigeria matters...

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/06/finally_kurt_ca/ - Kurt Campbell is finally swown in to deal with Asia.  Also, someone needs to take Sam Brownback behind a shed and put a bullet in his head.  That is how you guys deal with threats to national security, right?

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/blog/blog.aspx?id=4002 - Sarkozy is one of the few people who can actually get away with constructively criticizing Israel's actions and policies.  When his time as President is up, can someone give him special envoy status and bundle him off, preferably replacing Blair in the process?  PLEEEEEAAAAASE?

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN2649445  Just what Somalia needs: more guns.  No, you see, they....actually, snarky words fail me here.

[That One Guy]

Awesome, Cain! Lots and lots to chew through here and I look forward to more

[Cain]

Woo.  I'll probably update it every few days, to let the links build up.

[Jenne]

Cain, my husband relies on www.afghannews.net and http://www.aopnews.com/ for all things Middle East and Southeast Asian, fyi.  Not sure what you think about these.

[Pariah]

You might wanna sticky this

[Cain]

Set topic sticky

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6644817.ece - Iran's biggest group of clerics has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election to be illegitimate and condemned the subsequent crackdown.

http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Special_Forces_briefing_to_Congressman_Miller_exposes_involvement_in_19_Latin_American_countries_during_2009_including_Honduras%2C_17_May_2009 - Because it is always nice to know who is where

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/land-grabbing-food-environment - The acquisition of farmland from the world's poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe's farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=latin_americas_legalization_push - Mexico is leading the way on drug law reforms

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6638568.ece - "The enemy of my enemy" still has a place in IR, though note the poor sourcing of this story

http://anthonyclarkarend.com/internationallaw/biden-on-israels-sovereign-right-to-use-force/ - Joe Biden doesn't actually understand international law.  Its OK though - Rahm Emmanuel has made it clear he wont take any shit from Israel, just like pretty much everyone else in the goddamn world. And since its Rahm, people will go out of their way not to piss him off.  He's like Jack Bauer, only he really exists.

http://washingtonindependent.com/49478/help-the-iranian-people-by-killing-them The URL says it all.  John Bolton seems to believe bombing things is a cure for everything from the common cold up to actual death itself.

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/06/international_relations_101_on_iran_and_honduras - Drezner lays out a simple frameworkto examine why regional groups like the OAS may be able to exert pressure in certain coup d'etat situations, but not others.

http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35216&cHash=6b29ef08f7 - Russia is having fun in the Great Game.  With Azerbaijani oil, this time.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/03/world/AP-ML-Syria-US.html - Syria's major client state, Iran, is in turmoil.  That Assad is looking to Obama to soften the potential blow of losing Iran is not too surprising.

http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/03/missing_the_freedom_agenda_on_the_fourth_or_july - is the USA missing a "freedom agenda"?

http://www.belgraviadispatch.com/2009/06/post_121.html - Not really related to anything in particular going on, but read it anyway.  Greg Djerejian is mostly good people.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5641D720090705 - Woo, riots in Xinjiang, the mostly Muslim and Uighur populated region of China.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KG04Ag01.html - Russia is probably offering to help in Afghanistan due to the heroin trade having a pretty bad effect on the country.

http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2009/07/007-hes-not.html - Rolling a critical miss on BEING A GODDAMN SPYMASTER.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13961669 - Interesting, when you consider the quakes helping define Japanese policy decisions through history.  Given climate change issues, this is something that really needs to be considered in more depth.

http://www.jihadica.com/obama-is-more-dangerous-than-bush/ -Surprise!  Popularity and non-polarising tactics work better than ham-fisted pig ignorance in fighting terrorism.  Who would've thought it?

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/07/in-defense-of-neo-con-bashing.php - Matt Yglesias offers up a reason why "Neo-Con bashing" is still important, and its a good one.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6644667.ece - Global recession set to get worse, Brown warns global leaders.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/china-looks-to-undermine-us-power-with-assassins-mace/ - Looks like the Peoples Liberation Army has been paying close attention to the advice of Unrestricted Warfare.  Going head to head with the US is a recipe for disaster, better to neutralize its technological advantages

http://www.drewconway.com/zia/?p=1104 - Drew questions the methodology of the previously linked Failed States Index.


And, your bonus, comedy IR links for the day

1.  http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3736806/he-doesnt-get-it.thtml - Israel is Czechoslovakia, Iran is Hitler's Germany and Obama is Chamberlain.  Hilarity in a single column, truly.

2.  http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/06/11/for_fathers_day_the_ir_guide_to_parenting - The IR guide to parenting.  Rule 1: pay attention to the balance of power.

3. http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/02/auto_tune_leave_this_town - People don't realize that counterinsurgency can be punk as fuck.

[Kai]

Cain, I just Ctrl-C Ctrl-V for mine, so that makes yours by default fifty times better and more awesome still upon reading.

[Cain]

Its not that much work, really.  Many are in my RSS feed, so when I click on them the text appears anyway.  Except for those jerkasses who make sure their site only shows like, two lines of text so you have to go to the real thing.

[Kai]

Ah. I wish I could RSS feed mine.

[Cain]

Its pretty easy.  I could walk you through it, so long as you know of some sites where they frequently update with science news.

[Kai]

Its pretty easy.  I could walk you through it, so long as you know of some sites where they frequently update with science news.

Well, where I get mine is from an email that my adviser sends out from the Sigma Xi, the society that puts out Scientific American (no wonder some of it is pretty sensational). He gets the email from them and sends it out to his graduate students.

BUT, I found out that theres a feed on the sigma xi website. So thanks for recommending that because I'll no longer depend on email for my science news updates. Should be more regular from now on.

[Cain]

I was going to update this last night, then my connection failed, and now I'm on the new computer, setting up RSS feeds.  Might take a few days longer than normal. 

[Requia ☣]

Given that I'm still working through the first post I think I can wait.

[Cain]

http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2009/07/limits-counterinsurgency-afghanistan.html  Like the title suggests, one of the blogospheric kings of the COINdinista, Abu Muqawama points out a corrupt Afghan government is as big a problem as the Taliban.

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2392/dprk-nuke-verification-will-require-drilling Was North Korea faking a nuclear test?

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/07/24/powerpoint-the-anti-social-being/ Guns don't kill people, but power point slides do.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/russian-navy-declassifies-cold-war-close-encounters/ Close encounters of the Soviet kind.

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/23/a_tangible_measure_of_obamas_soft_power Soft power: Obama has it.

http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35319&cHash=717367d3ea Gazprom has money problems

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/27/is_it_so_bad_that_pyongyang_wants_bilateral_talks What a surprise!  North Korea acts in a provocative manner, then wants to resume talks!  Who could have forseen this?

http://www.globaldashboard.org/2009/07/27/the-monday-map/  Lots of people who still haven't caught onto the distribution angle of the drug trade fail to realize exactly how powerful the Carrillo Fuentes cartel actually is, because of the small amount of territory it controls.  Perhaps this map can make it clearer.

http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/23/cracking_down_on_moderate_islamists Personal suspicion: knocking out the moderates discredits the MB overall, allows for the power brokers in the military to decide on the succession without democratic interference.

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/23/wanat_viii_an_army_report_finds_a_major_coin_failure Incredible military FAIL here

http://www.undispatch.com/node/8679 Blame China, and their authoritarian-enabling politicians.  Buying up autocrats around the world, with cushy loans.

[Cain]

Political science BUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRNNNNN!

A former national security advisor once confided to me his frustration after reading Kenneth Waltz. Even granting Waltz's claims that bipolar systems were more stable, he observed, such a statement was probabilistic and said nothing about the likely outcome of the one bipolar conflict that interested him: the Cold War. Nor did it offer any policy guidance.

Not from a link, but a general quote I thought I should share.  Its from Richard Ned Lebow's The Tragic Vision of Politics, and it just made Neorealists everywhere cry.