Conflict or Cooperation? | Foreign Affairs

This article on Foreign Affairs looks at the three most important IR books of the post-Cold war decade (the ones by Fukuyama, Huntington and Mearsheimer), and tries to evaluate how the passing of time has reinforced or weakened their assertions.

Conflict or Cooperation? | Foreign Affairs

Why is America so rich?

Some interesting thoughts on what made (makes) the US so rich. Most interesting is the point about immigration

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/11/growth

Iran's role in Iraq

Meet Me in Baghdad | Foreign Affairs

An article on the Foreign Affairs website that describes how Iran's influence in Iraq has grown over the past few years, with Iran being very cunning in taking advantage of the possibilities brought about by the US invasion and the subsequent civil war.

Negotiating with the Taliban

Asia Times On Line has an interesting piece that describes how the (indirect) talks between Washington and the Talibans are being carried out.

the Pakistan army has already been in contact with top Taliban commanders, including Sirajuddin Haqqani. Information is then passed onto the Saudis, who in turn liaise with the Americans.

The aim of the US seems to be to separate the Taliban from Al-Qaida, and strike a deal with the former with a guarantee that the latter are not allowed safe haven in Afghanistan.
Trust-building measures seem to be revolving about the issue of 60 pakistanis held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay

The article then goes on to describe how Al-Qaida has evolved over the years, and how it has kept on operating (or rather, lending its brand to operations conducted) on a global scale

A few thoughts on the special relationship

You can now find in the "my writings" section of my website the translation of the final chapter of my dissertation:

A few thoughts on the special relationship

It tries to answer these questions: Can we really qualify the relationship between the US and Britain in the 1980s as “special”? What differentiates it from the relations that the US and the UK have with other countries?

Stoning in Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may end up as Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb

I wonder if what Alasdair Palmer says in this article on the Telegraph is true:

a large portion of Iran's leadership, and of its population, is not ashamed or embarrassed: they think stoning is entirely right and proper

You don't usually get to read this kind of things, and I appreciate the departure from political correctness:

This is the reality of multiculturalism: human rights are not universally recognised or accepted. Barbaric practices can be deeply embedded in the convictions of thousands, even millions, of people.

However, I'm not sure this can be applied to Iran. Do you think the people that took part in the mass demonstrations against Iran's president a few months ago have a "deeply embedded" convinction that stoning is a just punishment?

India

A summary of the situation in India by the Economist. Too high expectations after Mr Singh's party won the elections in May with a good margin, allowing him to be rid of the Communist party, which was in the coalition government before the elections. The incompetence is most clearly shown in the handling of the worsening problems in the Kashmir and with the Maoist rebels, but it encompasses many fields of (in)action. The economic reforms that had been promised have not been realized yet.

http://www.economist.com/node/16953189

Democracy and deficits: Competing with Dutch budgetary responsibility | The Economist

Looks like Dutch politicians are serious about it:
Democracy and deficits: Competing with Dutch budgetary responsibility | The Economist

Russia, NATO and Europe: Marching through Red Square | The Economist

The Economist analyzes Russia's new foreign policy
Russia, NATO and Europe: Marching through Red Square | The Economist

British politics: Britain's accidental revolution | The Economist

The Economist approves the new coalition government in Britain
British politics: Britain's accidental revolution | The Economist

The Geography of Chinese Power | Foreign Affairs

The Geography of Chinese Power | Foreign Affairs

Labour's record: Things could only get better | The Economist

The Economist looks back at 13 years of Labour in Great Britain
Labour's record: Things could only get better | The Economist

I'd like to read more about the "erosion of civil liberties" under Labour

Bagehot: Farewell, free stuff | The Economist

The next British election mark the beginning of the "post-free-stuff era"
Bagehot: Farewell, free stuff | The Economist

Economics focus: Default settings | The Economist

What happens in the case of a sovereign-debt default?
Economics focus: Default settings | The Economist

ASP Senior Fellow Dr. Bernard Finel column in Armed Forces Journal: An Alternative to COIN | American Security Project

Bernard Finel argues that the decision to remain in Iraq after toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein was wrong: instead of implementing a strategy of nation-building and COIN, the US should have left Iraq: it was very unlikely, according to Finel, that the situation would have gotten worse than it did, and anyway, if a new threat for the US emerged, the costs of reintervening would have been much lower, both in dollar-terms and in US casualties. These arguments are brought forward from a very realistic point of view, where the interests of the US are the main concern.
ASP Senior Fellow Dr. Bernard Finel column in Armed Forces Journal: An Alternative to COIN | American Security Project

After Iran Gets the Bomb | Foreign Affairs

What to do to contain a nuclear Iran
After Iran Gets the Bomb | Foreign Affairs

Complexity and Collapse | Foreign Affairs

Complexity and Collapse | Foreign Affairs
A very fascinating article by Niall Ferguson on that most classical of themes, the rise and fall of great powers (incidentally, I'm reading Kennedy's book these days)

Greece's bailout

"If economic failure goes unpunished, then behavior doesn’t change"
‘PIGS’ in Rescue Lipstick Are Uglier Than Default: Mark Gilbert - Bloomberg.com

Pentagon QDR

A good short summary of the QDR issued by the Pentagon a few days ago, on the Japan Times

China

Two interesting articles on China:
the first one, on Foreign Affairs, is about China's economy and its problems. It claims that "there is no alternative to greater democratization if the CCP wishes to encourage economic growth and maintain social stability"

The other article is on the Economist: it's an analysis of US-China relations, in light of the recent events that have troubled them

Kissinger on Iraq

Henry Kissinger reminds us of the importance of Iraq in the geostrategic balance of the Middle East and beyond

Is Obama failing?

I suggest you follow and take part in a Oxford-style debate going on on the Economist's webiste.
Is Obama failing? David Boaz and Elaine Kamarck try to answer that question
http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/457

Oxford University debate

An interesting debate currently undergoing on the University of Oxford website: should military leaders have a say on the decision to go to war, or is it something that is best left to the politicians?
http://www.ox.ac.uk/oxford_debates/hilary_2010_war/

Munchau on Greece's financial crisis

What are the risks for Europe of Greece's financial crisis?
What are the options available? Munchau identifies 4:
-Greece defaults, and is bailed-out by the EU
-Greece defaults, and is not bailed-out by the EU
-Greece makes painful cuts to public spending, and raises tax levels
-"a fudge", some headline changes are carried out, but the problem is merely postponed


FT.com / Columnists / Wolfgang Munchau - Spartan solutions from Brussels will be fought by Athens

Krauss on nuclear strategy

How likely is a nuclear war? Far more than it was in 1992
Read article

Big government

Can western states afford to keep on spending without raising taxes?
How (in)efficient is government spending?
A long article on the Economist about these issues
(shorter version here)

book review: Grilli di Cortona 2009

I added on my website a review of Grilli di Cortona's book "Come gli Stati diventano democratici"
Click here to read it

A very good introduction to a much-debated issue

Zakaria on illiberal democracies

A very important article by Zakaria, on a 1997 issue of Foreign Affairs, about the distinction between "democray" and "liberalism", and the rise of illiberal democracies.

Charlemagne on Lady Ashton

Charlemagne has a very critical and rather depressing post on the EU's new foreign policy chief, Baroness Ashton

Afghan aid fails to feed the hungry

The BBC features this article on its webiste today, about malnutrition in Afghanistan. "on a UN scale of human development indicators, Afghanistan has slipped from 117th in the world, to 181st - second from the bottom - since the Taliban were ousted"

Mobile-phone culture

A very enjoyable piece on the Economist about mobile phones, how differently they are used in the world, what this tells us about cultural differences among the peoples of the world, and how all this may be changing

Terrorism and security systems

Jim Harper on how to react to the failed attack carried out by the "underwear bomb-plotter". How we react defines whether the attack actually succeeded or failed.

Waziristan: the last frontier

A long article on The Economist about Waziristan, the western province of Pakistan bordering on Aghanistan, which has seen a lot of bloodshed recently. The article makes continuous references to the British imperial times