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

The Mitchell Report and Global Governance

by Peter | 14 December, 2007 |

Obviously, the Mitchell Report is all the big news in the world of sports, culture, and politics this morning, and is receiving saturation coverage. Rather than try to add my 2 cents as a baseball fan, I thought I might try to tease out an interesting IR angle to the whole thing.As I was driving home yesterday, I heard Selig in his press conference assert that Baseball had one of the most stringent testing drug policies (now) of any major sport. The radio commentators were discussing this and said, well, if by major sport you mean NFL, NBA, and MLB, then yes. But, compared to the testing at...

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Oh Dana…

by Peter | 10 December, 2007 |

From today's Post: White House spokeswoman Dana Perino revealed on NPR this weekend thatDuring a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- and she didn't know what it was."I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."So she consulted her best source. "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh,...

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Ducking the Issues: $97,000 isn’t as much as it used to be

by Peter | 8 December, 2007 |

Time for another installment of Ducking the Issues, where we here at the duck take a closer look at issues in the 2008 campaign.David points out an interesting article, reporting a study by the Heritage Foundation that asserts that the Democrats are now the “party of the rich.” When combined with a discussion between Obama and Clinton in a debate in Las Vegas the other week, you end up with an interesting and revealing set of income and class dynamics at play in the presidential election.As the Post reported:The two front-running Democratic presidential contenders, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.)...

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Elections, Democracy, and USFP

by Peter | 5 December, 2007 |

Last week there were two major elections, in Venezuela and Russia, and looking back on them together offers a moment to discuss democracy and US foreign policy of democracy promotion.This allows us to ask the question—are Russia and Venezuela really democracies? The US has been highly critical of Hugo Chavez and his political revolution in Venezuela, and somewhat less critical of Vladimir Putin and his power grab in Russia. Both purport to be democracies, but the US is challenging that assertion in each case. The elections mark a chance to interrogate our notions about the definition and...

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Happy Chanukah

by Peter | 5 December, 2007 |

And if you just can't get enough, you'll of course want to watch Part II and Part III!

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MEPP take 2

by Peter | 27 November, 2007 |

A US President, needing a signature policy victory, faced with a hostile Congress controlled by the opposing party, nearing the end of his term, seeks ensure his legacy and make a major foreign affairs statement by brokering a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. He brings them together for a big meeting here in the US, hoping to put together the structure of a deal to bring peace to the region.Sounds familiar. It could be George Bush, presiding over the Mid East Peace conference in Annapolis that starts today. Or, it could be Bill Clinton, making one last push for peace at...

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Almost Completely Insanity

by Peter | 19 November, 2007 |

In today's NYT, Fredrick Kagan and Michael O'Hanlon editorialize that:We need to think — now — about our feasible military options in Pakistan, should it really come to that.Insanity. Near total insanity on almost every level--except one.Now, granted, they are only talking about a worst case scenario here:The most likely possible dangers are these: a complete collapse of Pakistani government rule that allows an extreme Islamist movement to fill the vacuum; a total loss of federal control over outlying provinces, which splinter along ethnic and tribal lines; or a struggle within the Pakistani...

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Condi hates on Al Gore and his Inter-Web

by Peter | 13 November, 2007 |

Front page article in today's Washington Post on Condi Rice's management style as Secretary of State.Yeah, all the usual stuff about Blackwater, Baghdad, and Passports, but here's the zinger, as far as I'm concerned:Condi Rice does not use email.Seriously? Not at all?How on earth does she communicate? Is she a Luddite? Is she too busy going hither and yon to sit down at a computer? Or, is she too paranoid that anything she writes emails will one day be subject to a FOIA (or worse)?How on earth does anyone manage a large, global organization without email these days? I know some senior...

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Extended rant on Bush, Pakistan, and total hypocrisy

by Peter | 7 November, 2007 |

(Kaplan and Arkin make pretty much the same point, but I'm rather exercised about this whole deal, and hence the following)I'm not really angry with Musharraf for his crackdown--he's a barely legitimate dictator who took power in a coup trying to hold on to power and keep his fractured country together. Like so many in his position before him, he sees his country in danger and thinks that only he can hold it together, so he holds onto power and takes what steps he can to eliminate the most pressing threats to his power. In this case, the threat is the Law, in the form of lawyers and the...

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place

by Peter | 4 November, 2007 |

In Pakistan today, General / President Pervez Musharraf declared martial law, sacking the Chief Justice of the supreme court, suspending the constitution, and doing all the other things generally associated with martial law.Now, both Bush and Musharraf are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place, up the proverbial creek without the requisite paddle. For Musharraf, you have the same situation he's faced in Pakistan for nearly his entire rule: "extremist" Islamists very sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda on the one side and a secular elite that wants a return to actual (or at...

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