Weak nation, strong military? Sounds like a description of a third-world country, not the United States of America. But that is what the current overheated debate in Washington amounts to, according to two of the Pentagon's top strategists. "In July 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen asked me to look at grand strategy" in order to make sense of global trends, says Navy Capt. Wayne Porter. He is special assistant for strategy, working for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, the president's top military adviser. Instead of focusing on weapons systems or how the military ... Read More
Building Mosques: Realpolitik vs. Constitution
May 11, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The United States Agency for International Development published a proposed rule change in the Federal Register back in March that startled many legal scholars and civil libertarians. The agency, which is responsible for doling out the State Department's economic and humanitarian assistance throughout the world, wanted to update two paragraphs in a federal regulation governing who is eligible for U.S. aid money overseas. USAID funds, the updated rule proposes, may in the future be used "for the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of structures that are used, in whole or in part, ... Read More
Democracy No. 11 on Realpolitik’s Top 10 List
February 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
When pro-democracy protesters toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last Friday, American tradition suggests citizens and politicians in the U.S. would have cheered right alongside the revelers in Tahrir Square. After all, America is supposed to be the “shining city upon a hill” — a model democracy always eager to promote and welcome other nations to the club. The stateside reaction, though, has been much murkier. Egyptian democracy could make America less safe, warned former U.S. ambassador John Bolton. It could lead to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, feared Newt Gingrich. It ... Read More
Social Scientists Under Fire
February 17, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
In October of last year, a platoon from the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, strolled into the village of Baraki Rajan, 50 miles south of Kabul. The soldiers, deployed from upstate New York since January, held their rifles loosely, muzzles pointed down, deliberately not aiming at anyone. That was meant as a signal — a signal that the residents had, over time, learned to read. Afghans crowded around. The men, that is. As usual, women and girls remained inside, out of sight. The soldiers bumped fists with the boys and shook hands with the men and mangled the snippets of ... Read More
Laugh If You Want World Peace
December 13, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
As Alan Alda once said, "When people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other." A paper by Riikka Kuusisto at the University of Helsinki, Finland, suggests that framing global conflicts as comedies could contribute to a more peaceful world. Kuusisto argues that the two major plots that Western powers use to frame their "war stories" are those of the heroic epic or the sad tragedy. Conflicts in which Western powers play an active role, such as the Persian Gulf (1990-91), Kosovo (1999) and today's "Global War on Terror" are traditionally framed as heroic epics, in which there ... Read More
Iran: From Axis to Ally?
June 16, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Tehran-born Iranian-American scholar Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has testified several times in recent years before various U.S. Senate committees, emerging as one of the most vocal proponents of diplomatic engagement with Iran. Released on the eve of Iran's 10th presidential election, his Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs extends and elaborates on this theme, breaking dramatically with the Bush administration's infamous characterization of the regime in Tehran as part of an "axis of evil." Rather, Takeyh provides ... Read More
Meet the Real Islam
March 15, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
In the final Republican presidential debate last year, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaking about America's adversaries in the so-called "war on terror," told the audience: "This is about Shi'a and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate." So many powerful groups, representing hundreds of millions of people, united against freedom and moderation and democratic ideals. Quite a harrowing thought. Lucky ... Read More
Science Diplomacy: Trading Frock Coats for Lab Coats
February 9, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Vaughan Turekian is pushing an unusual suggestion for how to engage Iran, a country America has had no formal relations with since 1980. His idea is suddenly one of many on the topic, as foreign policy wonks, historians and politicians debate the merits of starting a new dialogue with some of America's longest-running antagonists. Should we send a low-level diplomat, the new secretary of state or the president himself? Turekian's suggestion — one that applies equally to isolated locations throughout the world — is this: Send a scientist. Deep-rooted suspicion (and a slew of fictional ... Read More
