The Duck of Minerva

Uncomfortable facts

by Dan Nexon

30 May 2007, 1312 EDT

I spent about ten minutes on WHRU (Hofstra University Radio) this morning discussing Iran, the Middle East, American Empire.

One of the first things the hosts asked me was to explain the broader significance of the first direct talks between the US and Iran in 29 years. I responded, more or less, that they suggest “that Iraq has turned into such a colossal disaster that the Bush administration will even talk to a member of the ‘Axis of Evil’ if there’s any chance that will help.”

One of the hosts, when moving on to the next question, remarked “ideology aside….”

Which puzzles me. There’s nothing “ideological,” in my view, about characterizing Iraq as a “colossal disaster.” We’ve realized none of the promised benefits of the invasion, life is now worse for many Iraqis then it was under Hussein, the country is a jihadist training camp, and there’s no question that the US will fail, for the foreseeable future, to commit the kind of resources necessary to ensure even basic security in the country.

Only the most partisan hack would insist otherwise.

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Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Website |  + posts

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

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