First great catch-up on blog since book

Went through pile of unused articles and cranked a quick 27 posts today.

One thing struck me while going through so many recent headlines: Get a bomb and get respect from America. Kim blows one off and gets the offer of a peace treaty. Iran enriches uranium and fires off rockets and gets a low-level resumption of diplomatic ties.

Bombs really do work.

Comments

[Hope is Not A Foreign Policy]

Agreed. States certainly derive tremendous political benefits by demonstrating credible military power. The fact remains that states with proven nuclear capabilities are treated differently than those without them. The recent events with Iran and North Korea only help to vindicate the realist paradigm and remind us the military power is the central governing dynamic of the international system.

[Tom Barnett]

Hardly.

All it says is that nukes prevent regime chamge.

In the sum of globalization, these events are painfully miniscule.

[Eric Chen]

Professor Thad Russell: "Violence works", American Civilization after the Civil War, Barnard College (yes, Columbia students do take Barnard classes), Spring 2005. The idea was axiomatic in Prof Russell's class. He was teaching us about American history and his point was that diplomatic and collegial means of political advocacy could not match the change wrought by insurgent tactics, but I think it applies to human history in general.

[Tom Barnett]

Resist viewing human history through the soda straw that is violence. You can't think strategically by limiting your vision so.