The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Lars-Erik Cederman, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Halvard Buhaug 5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY – a modern version of the causes of revolution literature from the 1970’s, January 12, 2014 I am absolutely delighted to see this book published, and to also see it win awards. In the 1970’s there was a strong political science literature …
Continue reading “Review: Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War”
Ian Bremmer 3.0 out of 5 stars Rooted in State Paradigm, Ignores Non-State World, January 5, 2014 I made a mistake buying this book. I let the marketing hype get to me. As soon as I got the book in my hands and saw that it had jacket blubs from Fareed Zakaria and Larry Summers, …
Continue reading “Review: Every Nation for Itself – Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World”
Below is a lengthy report on the Benghazi attack that just appeared in the New York Times. The report makes it pretty clear how ideological preconceptions implicit in the Orientation guiding the OODA loops of US policy makers prevented them from making a realistic appreciation of the situation in Benghazi, as well as a larger …
Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Benghazi & Domestic Politics”
Last week, Congressmen Walter Jones and Stephen Lynch introduced a resolution urging President Obama to declassify the legendary “28 redacted pages of the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry of 9/11” issued in late 2002, which point to official Saudi involvement in 9/11. After much lobbying, and under an oath of secrecy, Jones was allowed to read …
Worth a read, key insights apart from the summary of the books’ contents. Bunches of Guys Owen Bennett-Jones Decoding al-Qaida’s Strategy: The Deep Battle against America by Michael Ryan Columbia, 368 pp, £23.15, September, ISBN 978 0 231 16384 2 The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organisations by Jacob Shapiro Princeton, 352 pp, £19.95, July, ISBN 978 0 691 15721 4
My friend, Bill Polk, a distinguished historian specializing in the Middle East, is busily writing a series of extended essays aimed at increasing our understanding of the conflict in Syria and, by extension, our seemingly perpetual war with the Islamic world. I posted the first part of this series, collectively entitled Understanding Syria, on 8 …
The United States bears a moral responsibility for the murderous state of affairs in Iraq, but contemporary American grand strategy has become a self-referencing mix of arrogance, narcissism, and exceptionalism; so it is not surprising that most Americans have dismissed Iraq their minds (as they are now dismissing Afghanistan). Below is an excellent reminder of the situation …
