Dive into the archives.
- Naxalite rage
Our pal Schloky has fired up his new site naxaliterage.com and I just wanted to give him a shoutout.
Shlok Vaidya was in India this summer investigating the vulnerability of the Indian railway system. His interest lies in the Naxalite insurgency, systempunkts and the effects on the global economy. Naxalite Rage is his new blog to [...]
- …on the other hand…
One of the more popular (by counting number of comments) posts on this blog asking “Is fluency in a language required for regional expertise?” My answer was a resounding “yes,” concluding “Language expertise does not automatically make a person’s analysis valid. And a person without language expertise can offer insight and valuable opinion. But [...]
- Superstates
Chirol’s previous post on the dynamic between nation and state reminds me of this map from Strange Maps.
Although drafted recently by a Russian nationalist Mikhail Yuryevas a work of fiction in his book Third Empire, the belief that the world was heading towards political consolidation similar to this map was widely believed 30 to 50 [...]
- Maturing Japanese foriegn policy analysis
It is interesting how soon nuance enters the analysis of IR theorists. After the cold war many analysts had dire outlooks on Asia. Predictions of Japanese rearmament and war were abound with such book and article titles as The Coming War with Japan and The Coming Confrontation between China and Japan. Yet nearly two [...]
- Which Came First: The Nation or the State?
While many people use the words state and nation-state interchangeably, there is an important difference between the two responsible for increasing tension and domestic turbulence all over the globe. Nationalism has been the source of countless conflicts around the world yet the current political makeup of the globe is fairly new, historically speaking. Despite the [...]
- Hog Pilots Reviewed
That’s probably one of the stranger post titles I’ve ever written, but I’m of course talking about reviews of Kaplan’s latest book, Hog Pilots and Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground, the “sequel” to Imperial Grunts.
First comes this favorable review from HNN in West Virginia [...]
- Al Gore Nobel Peace Prize? Cool it!
Saint…? Anti-Christ…? Or neither?
In the public debate on environmental policy and global warming, there appear to be only alarmists and deniers. There are those who feel that global warming is the greatest threat facing humanity today, that we must devote all our resources to countering its effect to prevent utter catastrophe for [...]
- Uncommon Sense II
Continuing from my previous post…
Iraq is a mess:With the world so polarized and so much media coverage on the matter, it’s no surprise Iraq is a black and white issue. As always, reality refuses to agree with anyone in particular. First of all, instead of discussing Iraq, one should instead be discussing Kurdistan, al-Anbar, greater [...]
- Confused yet?
The current state of the national security debate in Japan:
Government: Japan must be a part of the War on Terror! We must extend our refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. Remember ‘911?
Opposition: No! We are American lapdogs! The mission is a violation of the pacifist constitution. Troops home now (erm… after Nov 1)!
Gov: No! Let’s [...]
- From Yemen to Djibouti via Bin Laden
Recently, we along with many others have been discussing the new African Command (AfriCom) of the US military. It’s temporary quarters is here in Stuttgart, Germany. Yet, a rather interesting geopolitical development could be threatening its mission, namely a bridge linking Yemen and Djibouti.
Where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden, a mere 17 [...]
