The Duck of Minerva

Peter

Dr. Peter Howard focuses on US foreign policy and international security. He studies how the implementation of foreign policy programs produces rule-based regional security regimes, conducting research in Estonia on NATO Expansion and US Military Exchange programs and South Korea on nuclear negotiations with North Korea.

Recent Posts

Kitty Hawk to India?

by Peter | 29 February, 2008 |

From Rob at LGM, via Kevin, via Winds of Change:The latest ROUMINT suggests that Secretary of Defense Gates, now visiting India, might give them the USS Kitty Hawk, CVN-63. The carrier is scheduled to be decommissioned soon, so rather than steaming back to the US, it could steam to India. Potential benefits to the US might include: parts and maintenance contracts, sales of planes to India from Boeing or Lockheed (F-18 and/or F-16), a strategic ally with a Blue Water navy in the Indian Ocean to help fight pirates and such.The coolest thing came from one of Kevin's comments:The Kittyhawk spent...

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Domestic Politics vs. the National Interest

by Peter | 20 February, 2008 |

If there is one domestic lobby that has captured US policy toward another country, it is the Cuba lobby that pushes for ever stricter sanctions on the Castro regime. The power of this lobby in Presidential politics can’t be overstated—it is a very large, issue specific, and highly organized voting bloc in Miami Dade county in Florida. Win Florida, win the White House, we all know that story well. Thus, we regularly see leading national politicians competing to out-tough the other in order to make inroads into the Cuban vote in south Florida.Today’s big news, that Fidel would formally step...

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Texas Two-step

by Peter | 18 February, 2008 |

Reading between the lines of a front page story in this mornings Washington Post:Hillary Supporters: Oh My Heavens! We just read the rules for the Texas primary and discovered that even if we win we might not win! Why didn't you tell us this earlier? How unfair is that?!?! Our big Texas strategy could fall apart because of these rules where our voters don't count as much as we need them too. Is there any way we could question the established rules to help our candidate win?Several top Clinton strategists and fundraisers became alarmed after learning of the state's unusual provisions during a...

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Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

by Peter | 16 February, 2008 |

Apparently so.The NYT has a book review that treads the familiar ground of why Americans are so dumb when it comes to supposedly vital information about the world. The old X% of Americans support a war in Iraq, but only Y% can actually find Iraq on a map... This is especially upsetting to the classic, old-school curmudgeons who think that a classic education involves knowing a lot of key names, dates, and classical cultural references. This particular thing, however, does not bother a number of my colleagues (I'll admit I'm a bit more on the fence about it than others...).* The argument...

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How is this a good idea?

by Peter | 15 February, 2008 |

I'm sure you've all be closely following the story of the 5000-pound, bus-sized top-secret satellite that is tumbling toward earth and set to re-enter the atmosphere in the next several weeks. The satellite, reportedly a top-secret NRO advanced imaging device launched in December 2006, died soon after launch. Its big enough that a sizable chunk is expected to survive the re-entry process. Obviously the most important question of the day is who will the satellite land on when it returns to earth....Today we learn that the Bush administration has decided to have the military shoot down the...

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Strike in the Dark

by Peter | 11 February, 2008 |

For the past 5 months, I've been following the strange story of Israel's bombing of a mysterious site in Syria. In this month's New Yorker, Seymour Hersh has an excellent look into the subject. Hersh takes a round-up of the major media stories of the event, analyzing how they advance the narrative of the episode, and adds some first-rate reporting from Israel, Syria, and Washington. While his article sheds new and important light on the subject, at its core, it remains a mystery:Morton Abramowitz, a former Assistant Secretary of State for intelligence and research, told me that he was...

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Jack Bauer to the Rescue!!!

by Peter | 5 February, 2008 |

Life imitates art, art imitates life, or the wondrous powers of our own Dan Nexon... The following takes place between 4:00 and 5:00 pm on the day of the California Presidential Primary:You might remember that the plot of Day 1 of 24 was today: The California Presidential Primary, when the first major African-American Presidential candidate stands to win a major victory that will propel him to the White House. In the show, special agent Jack Bauer took anti-terrorism to a new level when he killed (and tortured) terrorists in order to prevent the assassination of David Palmer. He did*, and...

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Superbowl ads

by Peter | 4 February, 2008 |

My favorite-- the Godfather take-off by Audi. I thought that was pure genius.The other ad I though was pure genius--Obama's spot. Apparently he bought it regionally instead of nationally, so you all might not have seen it, but it was on here in the DC area. Brilliant, I thought--a good ad, and there is no other event that will have so many viewers, so many potential primary voters 2 days before Super-duper Tuesday. Primaries in NY, NJ, Conn, and Mass--I'm sure viewership there was high.I thought it a pretty savvy move.

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Obama on campus

by Peter | 29 January, 2008 |

A first hand account of my brush with Campaign 2008.Barak Obama gave a big speech at American University today with the Kennedy's to receive the endorsements of Ted, Caroline, and Patrick Kennedy. The speech was announced to the campus community over the weekend, and it instantly cause a palpable buzz of excitement. Thousands converged on our campus to hear the speech.The speech was scheduled for Bender Arena (our gym / all purpose room) at 12:15, doors opening at 10:30. I teach from 9:55 - 11:10. Over the weekend, several students in my morning class emailed to say that they were skipping...

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Mr. Olmert, tear down this wall!

by Peter | 23 January, 2008 |

It was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this photo on the NYT site. Provocative (or maybe just dark humor), but potentially not that far off the mark.My short take on this is that I don't think its good for the Olmert government and their Gaza policy at all, and its a big win for Hamas. If nothing else, it hands Hamas a major legitimacy claim as the one group who cares about the regular person enough to blow open a wall to Egypt so people can bring back to Gaza much needed food, tires, cigarettes, and cases of Coke.First runner up for the headline: "Follow me! Follow me to...

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