Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 2:55AM ARTICLE: Army experiments with foreign-assistance model, By John Milburn, Associated Press, March 8, 2009
Another good sign out of Army--Leavenworth, natch.
The one-off mentality on Iraq is just about completely gone out of Green (USA, USMC). Just Blue (USAF, USN) to work on, now.
(Thanks: Tyler Durden)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 2:51AM ARTICLE: Turn us into the 51st state? Why not?, By Matthew Norman, (London) Independent, 5 March 2009
Funny, but I'd take the UK as new states in a heartbeat: arguably 4 (England, Wales, Scotland, and as much of Ireland as would come). Their pols would rule this place in no time, and we'd have a serious foothold on the continent.
I'm being completely serious here, even if this guy isn't.
(Thanks: Patrick O'Connor)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 2:48AM OP-ED: Only Makes You Stronger: Why the recession bolstered America, Walter Russell Mead, The New Republic, February 04, 2009
Nice historical analysis that says simply, the more connected you are, the better the correction over the long haul, whereas the less connected you are, the more the damage is lasting.
(Thanks: Lexington Green)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 2:05AM ARTICLE: From AC to DC: Going green with supergrids , By David Strahan, New Scientist, 11 March 2009
Fascinating article, describing one of those great QWERTY effects where an inefficient design won early and established long-term dominance over other, better possibilities.
Until crunch time comes, then, the inefficient form holds sway.
Crunch time has come on energy in that we simply need to move radically beyond the low efficiencies of the past.
One of many changes to come.
(Thanks: Louis Heberlein)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 2:01AM Mike Nelson is reading Great Powers with a fine-toothed comb.
+ Page 205
"come to together to discuss"
+ Page 228
"hardly a uniform menace that needs TO be stamped out"
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 10:22AM No Quarter Radio at 9pm ET for an hour. Listen in live on the web or it will be posted to listen later.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 8:09AM You remember the column I wrote recently on the spy-ships clash off the coast of China (column #145). It was written with a heavy dose of sarcasm (by my standards), but no emoticons to signal meaning.
I figured anybody smart enough to catch the sarcasm would be an audience I wanted to speak to, and those who did not would read it merely as a ritualistic condemnation of the Chinese.
I did get one Chinese student in the U.S. sending me a long email saying that surely I had written this sarcastically, otherwise I was this complete war-mongering idiot! [Not that there aren't plenty of people out there who would vehemently subscribe to that description!]. So I wrote back and simply answered yes, and that chilled him.
Turns out I get an email from an acquaintance in Beijing regarding my upcoming trip there, noting that Global Times there ran a piece on the incident, citing an article by a noted Chinese expert in America who wrote an article that condemned the Chinese navy roundly. She was surprised to see the translated name as my own.
Apparently, I trusted the Chinese too much in their legendary ability to recognize language that seem to signify one meaning when it actually signified the opposite. [I find most such claims to be spurious, as everybody thinks everybody else is so much more strategic and subtle and clever than themselves, and--for the most part--nobody is.]
What I told her was that the piece was equally or more condemning of the U.S. side for this useless distraction, but that I did indeed criticize China for having a military that focused on small tactical stuff when its strategic interests are rapidly expanding.
I have never really written a sarcastic column before, or one that could be read in two very opposing ways. I asked Sean about it beforehand, wondering if I had left it too subtle, but he said he thought the meaning came through clearly enough.
I had not counted upon translations, though, so a slap on the wrist for me there.
Still, since both sides deserved a great big poke in the eye on that one, I don't have trouble with the outcome. If something like that were to cancel a trip or screw up publication of a book, then I'd just take it in stride (indeed, I always see the silver lining as being X-fewer long-distance air flights). Better to be who I am than to spend all my time avoiding the possibility of offending people.
Anyway, you'd think my recent interview would have been far more offensive in that regard.
But the usual rule must always apply: I am not here to tell people what they want to hear but what they need to hear. Doors open and close on that basis, but those that do close were never really open in the first place, so one does not suffer their apparent loss. You go where the receptivity takes you, because there are enough smart people out there to keep you busy but there aren't enough hours in the day for the serious idiots.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 3:35AM THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW: "Gary Becker: Now Is No Time to Give Up on Markets," by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, 21-22 March 2009.
Two bits:
What Mr. Becker has seen over a career spanning more than five decades is that free markets are good for human progress. And at a time when increasing government intervention in the economy is all the rage, he insists that economic liberals must not withdraw from the debate simply because their cause, for now, seems quixotic.
Here, here.
More to my tone in Great Powers:
"When the market economy is compared to alternatives, nothing is better at raising productivity, reducing poverty, improving health and integrating the people of the world."
Amen, brother.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 3:33AM ARTICLE: "South Korea, Singapore Tell IMF 'No Thanks' on Lending Plan," by Kanga Kong and P.R. Venkat, Wall Street Journal, 22-22 March 2009.
Don't want the stigma and would prefer to use their own resources.
Some New Core simply don't want the association or the implied sliding, no matter the cost.
A good sign.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 3:31AM ARTICLE: Iran's Supreme Leader Rebuffs Obama,
By Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post, March 22, 2009; Page A15
The truth is, the Grand Ayatollah is basically correct: we are not going to give him what he wants in either Iraq or Afghanistan (complete withdrawal) and Obama is playing the same exact--and weak--line as Bush on the nuke question.
We may get some movement by ratcheting down on the nuke issue, offering economic ties and normalized relations, and starting a careful dialogue on cooperation in both interventions, because that package would enhance regime legitimacy in Iran.
And that's all the Ayatollah cares about: keeping his regime.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 3:27AM FRONT PAGE: "Mexico Strikes Back in Trade Spat," by Greg Hitt, Christopher Conkey and Jose de Cordoba, Wall Street Journal, 17 March 2009.
U.S. NEWS: "U.S. Moves to Patch Mexico Rift," by Christopher Conkey, Wall Street Journal, 21-22 March 2009.
This is direct payback for caving in to the Teamsters on restricting Mexican trucks from entering the U.S. and transporting their cargo directly to destinations. It was only a pilot program for now, but the signal was loud and clear.
This is by far the dumbest thing Obama has done to date, and it's substantial. It was slipped into the $410B spending package he just signed. That alone should have triggered the veto.
Doing this while Mexico suffers so badly from our drug war dynamics, and while we're trying to stabilize the global economy--really dumb.
And then, just when my faith in Obama drops dramatically, he moves to make amends with this pilot program, as his administration "began efforts Friday to ease an erupting trade dispute with Mexico by starting work on a new program to give Mexican truckers broader access to U.S. highways."
You start messing with NAFTA and Mexico retaliates with tariffs, and then you decide to fulfill your commitments.
What did the pilot program show? No major accidents and Mexican drivers pass inspection at a higher rate than American drivers.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:18AM ARTICLE:
Inside the Afghan tech boom, JASON STRAZIUSO, AP, March 3, 2009
This, when paired with Zakaria's piece, is why I remain optimistic on the enclaving demand/phenom: everybody wants the walled garden at first blush, but then the young kids give you fits!
My point on the generational patience: let them have their distinctions and their taboos and their controls, and then let the opportunities afforded by connectivity pull in the young and then watch those controls wither.
(Thanks: Michael Griffin)
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:14AM POST: Iran Going Nuclear? Get Over It, Strategist Says, By Nathan Hodge, Danger Room, March 03, 2009
Tom was recently featured in this post. Here's the lead:
Iran's nuclear ambitions are on the minds of every world leader -- including President Barack Obama, who tried to cut a deal with Russia to help disarm Iran.
Strategist and Pentagon consultant Tom Barnett's view? Get over it.
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:12AM ARTICLE: Huangpu river tunnels, Marc van der Chijs, Shanghaied Weblog, March 02, 2009
Important example of why Morgan Stanley's rather fantastic prediction of $22T in infrastructure development in a decade will likely still hold, despite the global slowdown--it becomes the stimulus of choice.
(Thanks: Steve Epstein)
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:10AM "The Biggest Threat Is not Social Unrest but Societal Breakdown, by Sun Liping, Inside-Out China, March 1, 2009
Interesting for its widespread appearance on the Web in China. Worth reading for its basic point: it's social decay and not social unrest that is China's bigger threat right now.
(Thanks: Steve Epstein)
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:07AM ARTICLE: Chechen leader imposes strict brand of Islam, AP, February 28, 2009
This is a version of Russia cutting a cultural enclave deal with their own Muslims. Unable to thoroughly tame this "badland" by force and incapable of serious economic integration, Moscow--in effect--gives up and pulls a FATA-like arrangement: if you stop being a problem for us, we'll let you enclave your population with rules we'd never allow in our own system.
This is--as always--a temporizing solution. It's just that sometimes the "temporary" goes on forever.
(Thanks: Craig Nordin)
Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:02AM ARTICLE: Premier: Regression in Sino-U.S. relations not in line with historical tide, Xinhua, Feb. 28, 2009
An interesting read as Grandpa Wen speaks with some openness to Netizens of China.
Just the sheer fact that he feels compelled to reach out is quite a sign of how things change with the Web.
Also liked the bit about Sino-American ties recently regressing, but that that trend is ahistorical.
(Thanks: historyguy99)
Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 6:15AM Find it here on Reuters.
Setting the non-ideological terms for negotiations.
Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 2:42AM Threat of great power war recedes
While difficult to keep in mind amidst today's economic nationalism, a global middle class of unprecedented size rises in the emerging markets of the East and South. This accomplishment logically ensures the continuation of great-power peace, as America's grand strategy of spreading its liberal trade order reaches its global apogee.
Countering this view is a growing cohort of academics and analysts who insist that such rising consumer demand will inevitably trigger "resource wars" among the world's great powers, with climate change as an unforgiving accelerant.
Read on at KnoxNews.
Read on at Scripps Howard.
Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 4:56AM Visited my two aunts in Phoenix last week, and saw how my Aunt Mary views the blog every night via her WebTV, which turns the old tan highlight into a nasty yellow.
She no like and told me so!
So I tell Sean to shift to grey (tan was a holdover from the PNM cover) and now I expect Aunt Mary to render a verdict--as in, thumb up or thumb down.
I am aware I have plenty of older readers and that's why we've always avoided too much clutter and background coloring. Like my slides, the pages are meant to be viewed by eyes of all age ranges, no matter the delivery mechanism.
