Category: International Relations

Chomsky is, to say the least, a controversial figure in the blogosphere. I have read so many criticisms of Chomsky, many very eloquent, I have become very wary of his ideas. I have read many of his books, but to be honest so many of them repeat what previous books say, I will probably never…

Kieran Healy is reading Robert Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes, something I have been meaning to read for some time. He is the father of Will Skidelsky, whom I met while interning for the New Statesman. Interesting stuff that I did not realise about Wittgenstein – the Tractatus is somewhere very far down my books to…

Kevin Drum poses the question: Should the Geneva Conventions apply to captured Taliban fighters? And if you think they shouldn’t, why not? I think he may also mean to terrorists in general, not just Taliban fighters. He also adds that: If you want to argue that it’s because war on terrorism is somehow more critical…

Glenn Reynolds points to a lengthy article in the Financial Times by one of the more interesting authors out there, Philip Bobbit. I had a great time reading the Shield of Achilles, and am looking forward to his new book. I also met him briefly at a debate in Hoxton, London, last Summer. This article…

The new secretary-general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, with his vision for the immediate future of the alliance. He is keen to get Afghanistan right, and seems to advocate expanding NATO ever eastward, into the Caucases. I remember reading about the NATO ‘Response Force’ before. I have no doubt it will become one in…

Richard P. Cincotta and Robert Engelman write an interesting article on how young men in a society drive conflict. The solution to conflict? Encourage family planning and smaller families. It would help if governments – especially the U.S. government – began to think of investments in international family planning and AIDS prevention not as political…

James Wilsdon of thinkthank Demos believes that the recent US enthusiasm for space is down to old fashioned reasons – to maintain its dominance in space technology over Russia and China. He discusses all the recent developments, the new GPS system to be developed by the ESA, Russia and China, and possible US plans to…

Nicholas Eberstadt has an essay in the latest edition of Policy Review. It’s a detailed essay, as one would expect, and is very well worth the read. I’ll have to do one of my old in-depth analysis pieces on this one.

Teresa, over at Kate’s blog, links to a speech by Charles Krauthammer. An interesting issue while reading Frank Fukuyama.

Well, I finally got it. The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama. It’s getting old now, Frank originally started the discussion back in in 1989, but I think it should be an interesting read. I have disagreed with Fukuyama on a few occassions, and I am thinking that I will disagree…