Category: Ethics

Posted on

Worth A Look: Harold Wilensky

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Methods & Process
Full Story Online
Full Story Online

This interview is part of the Institute's “Conversations with History” series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.

In this landmark work, the culmination of thirty years of systematic, comprehensive comparison of nineteen rich democracies, Wilensky answers two basic questions: What is distinctly modern about modern societies? In what ways are they becoming alike, and how do variations in types of political economy shape system performance? The book is being hailed as “a monumental work,” “an instant classic,” “a truly amazing accomplishment.”

  1. Background … influence of parents … impact of the Depression … importance of education … impact of World War II … interest in understanding society … education
  2. Working with Labor Unions … the labor movement … first research jobs
  3. Being a Social Scientist … graduate school at Chicago … skills … temperament … defining the problem so that it can be disconfirmed
  4. Research Methods … importance of interdisciplinary study … follow the problem … importance of comparative studies … qualitative versus quantitative research
  5. Comparing Rich Democracies: Theory … defining modernity and social change … convergence theory … mass society theory
  6. Comparing Rich Democracies: Examples … political economy structures … tax revolts … mayhem index
  7. Conclusion … advice for students
Posted on

Journal: One Man – One Bullet on the Table

09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Ethics, Law Enforcement, Military, Peace Intelligence

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

U.S. Needs Hit Squads, ‘Manhunting Agency’: Spec Ops Report

Noah Shachtman   November 3, 2009

CIA director Leon Panetta got into hot water with Congress, after he revealed an agency program to hunt down and kill terrorists. A recent report from the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations University argues that the CIA didn’t go far enough (.pdf). Instead, it suggests the American government should set up something like a “National Manhunting Agency” to go after jihadists, drug dealers, pirates and other enemies of the state.   . . . . . . .

Such a group wouldn’t just go after terrorists. “Human networks are behind narcotics trafficking, arms proliferation, piracy, hiding war criminals from authorities, human trafficking, or other smuggling activities,” Crawford writes. “Human networks also lie at the core of national governments, offering an increased potential to nonlethally influence state actors with precision. A robust manhunting capability would allow the United States to interdict these human networks.”

Continue reading “Journal: One Man – One Bullet on the Table”

Posted on

Journal: Outsourcing Honor, Losing Common Sense

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Communities of Practice, Ethics

Full Story Online
Full Story Online
Amazon Page
Amazon Page

The Best Allies Money Can Buy

By Thomas L. Friedman

November 4, 2009

In 2008, notes Stanger, roughly 80 percent of the State Department’s requested budget went out the door in the form of contracts and grants. The Army’s primary support contractor in Iraq, KBR, reportedly has some 17,000 direct-hire employees there.

The U.S. military is now proposing a huge nation-building project for Afghanistan to replace its dysfunctional government with a state that can deliver for the Afghan people so they won’t side with the Taliban. I might be more open to that project if we had a true global alliance to share the burden of an effort that will take decades. But we don’t. European publics do not favor this war, and our allies will only pony up just enough troops to get their official “Frequent U.S. Ally Card” renewed. We’ll make up the difference by hiring private contractors.

Continue reading “Journal: Outsourcing Honor, Losing Common Sense”

Posted on

Journal: Impact Investing

03 Economy, 04 Indonesia, 08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics
Full Story Online
Full Story Online

The idea that for-profit investment can have positive social and environmental impact has been talked about for some time, and is increasingly being put to practice. This phenomenon of Impact Investing has the potential to complement philanthropy and government in addressing to some of the planet's most deeply entrenched challenges, including climate change, agricultural productivity, shelter, and health, among others. By tapping the global capital markets, impact investing can unlock financial resources to address these challenges at a scale that government and philanthropy cannot match.

Continue reading “Journal: Impact Investing”

Posted on

Journal: Airplane Wings from Soy…Soon

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 12 Water, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Technologies
Full Story
Full Story

Not New, But Improved

Allison Arieff

Meet Stella.

At first glance, this little yellow giraffe looks like a lot of other kids’ bath toys. But Stella is made from Renuva, a little-known material that could change for the better the way hundreds of things, from upholstery to airplane wings, are made.

The story of how Stella came to be made from this material, a soy-based alternative to polyurethane (which is typically petroleum-based), provides a model for how stuff can be better designed in the future.

Phi Beta Iota: While folks focus on the Al Gore show and the important but isolated challenge of reducing our carbon footprint, the avant guarde is way down the road with sustainable design, green chemistry, zero waste, and so on.  It's all connected, we need to get truth on the table, and we need to do the right things righter.  Stella is a poster child for a new paradigm of ecological economics, natural capitalism, and conscious evolution.  Learn more about Renuva from Dow below.

Learn More
Learn More
Posted on

Journal: Chuck Spinney Sends–Katrina & Fear

03 Environmental Degradation, 08 Wild Cards, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military
Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinney

The Detritus of Katrina and the Paralysis of Fear:
A Metaphor for Contemporary Politics

The vast Mississippi Delta in Louisiana is sinking as sea water from the Gulf of Mexico seeps in to destroy its fresh water marshlands.  The Army's Corps of Engineers says it can not protect New Orleans from the inevitable storm surges caused by hurricanes (see the Guardian report attached below).

Some may dismiss this warning as alarmist hype, and the Army's Corps of Engineers certainly does not have an enviable track record in this regard.  That said, the Corps' warning does make evident the political-economic  detritus left over from Hurricane Katrina.  Inferentially, the warning also highlights the hollowness in the scare tactics used by global warming advocates to raise money for their far more costly ambitions, not to mention the paralyzing political-economic consequences posed by the politics of fear practiced by the Pentagon.

The reality of the Delta thus becomes a metaphor for the larger emptiness that now pervades American politics.

Below the Fold: Balance of Spinney Comment, Full Article with Highlight, Books
Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Sends–Katrina & Fear”

Posted on

Journal: Death to Idiot “Pay Walls”

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Newsday Columnist Quits Over Paywall, Wants To Be Read

One of the reasons why the NY Times eventually did away with its old “paywall” was that its big name columnists started complaining that fewer and fewer people were reading them.

The NY Times is reporting that Newsday columnist Saul Friedman quit and did so while publishing an open letter on why paywalls are a bad idea, while also telling the NY Times that he knew his column was popular with people outside of Newsday's footprint, and he was upset that those people would not be able to read his column and that he wouldn't be able to send out links to his columns.

Oh, one other thing? Mr. Friedman is 80 years old and worked for newspapers for over 50 years. In other words, he's not just some “young kid who thinks everything online should be free” as we're so often told is the real problem.