The Duck of Minerva

Syria: Richard Betts cuts to the core of Obama's challenge on Syria:  "To the extent that any policy is strategically sensible, it is unlikely to be politically palatable; to the extent that a policy can be accepted as politically legitimate, it is unlikely to be of much strategic merit." I can't see how Obama is going to secure Congressional support -- here are the latest numbers. Here are some numbers on public opinion from around the world. Samantha Powers' comments yesterday at the UN. Richard Price thinks the chemical weapons taboo will hold without a strike. Memories of Kosovo:...

Syria updates: The White House's public assessment of last week's chemical weapons attack. Deborah Avant -- Action is not synonymous with intervention. Is there a moral argument for intervention? Tony Lang unpacks some of his comments on various threads hereat Duck below with his own post at Carnegie on the case for punitive action. Given all the discussion surrounding chemical weapons, Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction ed, by Sohail Hashmi and Steven Lee  is the most extensive ethical IR discussion on the topic and should be required reading. A set of commentaries from CNAS Tim Hoyt...

Update on the international community's reaction to events in Syria: Russia calls on Assad to cooperate with the weapons inspectors. Says it has evidence the attack was propagated by the opposition. Pressure building in Washington and Europe to do something. Obama announces that the time frame for U.S. action  may have shortened. Kerry's diplomatic efforts.  Congressional doves rethinking Syria. The view from Ankara.  And Lebanon. Early analysis from the BBC of the video footage of the attacks. Syria Deeply has a discussion on possible intervention. One million Syrian children are refugees....

Still trying to make sense of Benghazi. Some inside info on the mixed messages coming from Obama's Syrian policy.  Meanwhile, Assad opens an Instagram account. More mixed messages from the Obama administration on drones, too. This can't be good.  A lot of congressional staffers don't see a link between diplomacy and national security. Two years of statehood and things are getting messy in South Sudan. What's at stake if Obama cancels the summit with Putin.  Frenemies? Interns at The Nation bite the hand that doesn't feed them. And, after nearly forty years, Philip Schrodt is retiring from...

Sissi's call for massive pro-coup demonstrations in Cairo today is a risky move.  Why did he do it?  Steve Negus looks for answers. The logistics of cutting military aid to Egypt.  It's not easy.  Cutting aid to the UN though?  We'll see.  The House and Senate really are at odds over State and Foreign Operations appropriations.  Still getting our money's worth in Afghanistan -- $2 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in the last three months alone. Which means we've hit rock bottom in approval for the war in Afghanistan. None of the above probably compares to the $60 trillion price tag of...