The Duck of Minerva

The Washington Post has an interesting story regardingt the LDP, Japan's ruling party, and their formal plans to revise the Consitution. These revisions would allow the country to posses a "formal military" for the first time since the end of the second world war. Up till now, Japan has been limited to fielding a "self-defense force" (SDF), an organization that was operationally limited to defending Japan's home islands as well as taking part in some limited multilateral peacekeeping operations.So does this portend a more assertive Japan? Will the region become more or less tense?My own view...

Those doors are tricky in China. Damn commies will do anything to make you look bad.And yes, I am a streak-poster.Filed as: President Bush

As I sat down to write this post I paused for a moment and thought, “do we really need another Iraq post?” This was a very sincere thought. Rodger and Dan have done a good job discussing the politics surrounding the Iraq conflict. I have written a number of posts regarding my own view of the war's rationale and how it fits in to a broader grand strategy*. And we never want for new developments covered in the media—whether its controversy over yellow cake, brutal character assassination in the House, or the ongoing struggle to reach a political settlement. In short, we are inundated with...

I cannot think of any other way to characterize the remarks made by Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) during debate yesterday on the House floor. The lower chamber was debating a procedural rule connected to a Republican-proposed measure that attempted to make Democrats go on the record in favor of a measure similar to the one proposed earlier this week by Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), which called for the immediate withdrawl of US troops in Iraq. While I do not support Murtha's proposal (I am not yet convinced that pull out is the best strategic option at this point), the notion that...

The current issue of Foreign Policy includes an interesting study titled Inside the Ivory Tower. The story discusses the composition and nature of International Relations education in the United States. I would link to it directly but unfortunately it is behind a subscription wall so you will have to pick up your own copy. Some of what is reported is expected. For example, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton and Chicago made up the top 5 PhD programs. One thing I found surprising is that MIT was ranked 11th. Given the strength of that program's security faculty and the students they have...

I recently wrote about the misuse (or, more to the point, apparent schizophrenic understanding) of reputational logic in the war on terror. Administration officials have repeatedly utilized rhetoric which rationalizes US policy against terrorists and rogue states on the basis of maintaining a reputation for resolve--i.e. we need to show our enemies that we won't back down just because the going gets tough, therefore staying the course is paramount lest we encourgae and embolden these actors. Rob Farely over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money followed my post with an excellent one of his own....

Couldn't resist (thanks to Brian Levy for the link):Strauss Guides Sox From GraveFiled as: Leo Strauss, White Sox

Iranian officials, not surprisingly, defended President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments at a conference Wednesday called "The World Without Zionism" where he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Their argument: It has been Iran's policy since the 1979 revolution. Oh, well that does it I guess. World leaders, including many in the Arab world, condemned the statement. The Washington Post has a great article which discusses the context of the statement as well as outlines the early difficulties President Ahmadinejad has encountered being a foreign policy novice (hell, even Ayatollah Ali...

As if on cue the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, yesterday released the US National Intelligence Strategy of the United States (NIS). The WP has a nice article which summarizes the report as well as notes what is different from past reports. Most of the rhetoric in the report is unremarkable. However, the portion of the report getting the most attention is the appearence of democracy promotion as a main strategic objective of the intelligence community (pg. 4). Apparently, this is the first time this kind of language was included in an intelligence mission statement....

Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Marines who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. In that speech he, of course, reminded the audience that the Bush administration will vigorously pursue terrorism “in Iraq and every other front”. While this is nothing new, nor too surprising, it was what else he said that is most interesting.The Vice President claimed that the terrorist attacks of September 11th were in essence caused by the repeatedly week response to previous terrorist attacks directed against the United States over the past twenty...