Dive into the archives.
- Stupidity is Expensive
Back in March, renowned scenario planner Peter Schwartz gave a talk for the John’s Hopkins series Rethinking the Future Nature of Competition and Conflict. In it he mentioned that Putin’s decision to cut off gas to the Ukraine and inadvertently to Europe, was a major mistake which would cost Russia round 10 trillion dollars over [...]
- Post-Colonial Bosnia
Foreign Policy’s blog notes the next major change in the Balkans:
The End of Trusteeship?
Bosnia’s international supervisor, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, has announced that his position will self-destruct by mid-2007. After that time, he’ll merely be the EU’s special representative to Bosnia. The post of High Representative was created in late 1995 as part of the Dayton Accords. [...]
- Someone is Ronery
From the Lonely Dictators department comes:
Belarus to Respond to Threat From West by Russian Nuclear Weapons
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday vowed a military buildup in response to what he said was a threat from the West, and said the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons could not be ruled out, Associated Press news agency reports. [...]
- Curzon’s Journey across the Far East
My overland journey through Vietnam, China and Japan finished half a year ago, but my in-depth report of that trip is finally complete. Six months in the making, this is the latest permanent feature for the ComingAnarchy.com travelogue library. I hope it was worth the wait.
Some of the features:
Two dozen travel pages.
More than [...]
- I don’t wanna be a hostage!
Picture this: Younghusband is curled up underneath his desk wimpering softly, clutching Mark Bowden’s detailed account of mock executions, beatings, solitary confinement and extreme boredom. These were the experiences of 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days at the US embassy in Tehran, from 4 November 1979 to 20 January 1981. Thanks to Mark Bowden, [...]
- The Dictator Strikes Back
Add this to the “entertaining dictators” category:
Belarus to Freeze Accounts of George Bush, Condoleezza Rice
Belarus is ready to freeze the accounts of U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Such is the Minsk response to an earlier decision of the U.S. to freeze the American accounts of President Alexander Lukashenko.
“We’ll apply [...]
- 10 Years after Khobar Towers
On June 25, 1996 terrorists exploded a fuel truck killing 19 US servicemen and 1 Saudi, and wounding 372 others.
Blogsofwar links to Michelle Malkin’s 10 year anniversary post on Khobar Towers. She asks:
How can we fight, let alone win, the “Long War” when we live in a short attention-span culture marinated in p.c. denial about [...]
- Independence Inc.
Not long ago, I discussed the idea of a coming wave of microstates. One of the objections of some to independence for small areas like Kosovo or Abkhazia not to mention huge obstacles, is a lack of qualified people to run a new government. Montenegro, for example, was largely independent from Serbia before declaring official [...]
- Institutional Meltdown at State, Part 2
In a follow-up to this post in February, I was recently listening to a Kaplan speech recorded on C-Span’s BookTV in October 15, 2005 and thought I’d relay this juicy quote.
I don’t want to stereotype, but I have to say: I’ve seen a lot of young Foreign Service Officers who are not up to the [...]
- If Necessary, Strike and Destroy
The Curzon Plan for a premptive strike at North Korea (articulated here and here) has now been suggested (more than a year later) by former Secretaries of Defense Ashton Carter and Bill Perry:
Should the United States allow a country openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable [...]
