There’s been a fascinating debate in recent days over the relationship between liberal principles and Paul-ite libertarian thinking (that’s Ron Paul, not St. Paul), and whether Paul’s largely odious and/or asinine overall platform* should disqualify liberals from appreciating and applauding … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Security
Defense Spending and Innovation
With something vaguely resembling resource cuts looming for the Department of Defense, there have been discontented rumblings about the effect such cuts could have on U.S. innovation. Defense spending has, historically speaking, been a driver of technological progress in some … Continue reading
Conflict at the Periphery is the Price of Empire
Matthew Kroenig has an article in Foreign Affairs arguing for an attack on Iran. I don’t agree with his logic. Largely for the reasons Steve Walt and Michael Cohen outline. I’ll leave it at that. Underlying his narrative, along with the … Continue reading
Plutocracy and Mechanisms of Government Capture
James Kurth has a great piece in The American Interest on the foreign policy of plutocratic states and the manner in which a plutocracy’s dominant economic-institutional form (industry vs. finance) affects the kinds of international regimes those states seek to implement. … Continue reading
History, Strategic Commitments and Signalling
Matt Yglesias has a post up talking about Chinese perceptions of America’s strategic rationale in Afghanistan, noting that – shockingly – they tend to think it has a lot to do with the U.S.-China relationship and an American effort to … Continue reading
Timing and Libya
Shadi Hamid has a post up at the Atlantic taking meta-stock of the events in Libya so far. Like most everyone, I’m quite happy to watch Qaddafi’s regime fall, and like most sensible people I’m pretty nervous regarding what comes … Continue reading
Stuxnet as an Act of War?
Eric Martin has a quick piece over at the Progressive Realist arguing that, by the standards of America’s own cyber doctrine, the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s Natanz facility was an act of war. While the internationally-accepted legal definition of “acts … Continue reading
Poor Thought Process Mr. Huntsman
I’m still not entirely sure what path John Huntsman sees to the Republican nomination. After spending two years as the Obama-appointed ambassador to China, he’ll have to be pretty radioactive to most of the Republican base. That said, politics is … Continue reading
Readings on Civil-Military Relations
If anyone has been missing Disunion, the New York Times‘ ongoing series chronicling the breakup of the Union on the eve of the Civil War, they should stop missing it. It’s a fantastic reminder that the road from Dredd Scott … Continue reading
Does the U.S. Need a Peer Competitor?
Because of Blogger is bad at basically everything, this post was inexplicably deleted. I have no desire to rewrite it, but you can find it over at the Progressive Realist.