Global Paradigms

The Nixon Center and the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy co-hosted on Wednesday an afternoon roundtable on the Hamas victory and its implications for U.S. foreign policy and especially the Bush Administration's democracy agenda in the Middle East. Alexis Debat, a French terrorism expert and I gave short presentations and Nikolas Gvosdev , the editor of The National Interest and Senior Fellow for Strategic Studies at the Nixon Center moderated the discussion that followed which was off-the-record. Let me also draw your attention to the new February 27, 2006, issue of The American Conservative in which I have a cover story that deals with the U.S. global democracy crusade. The new issue is not yet available on the internet but can be purchased in bookstores. Also, for those who are interetsed, here are the brief talking points for the presentation today: •The policy issue we are discussing today – the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary election and its effe...

Guys "offended" by what they read I'm pasting here a commentary of yours truly published today in The Australian . I'm aware that some of those who share my views on the Iraq War, might not agree with me on this. Sorry, but the fact that those who published the cartoons are or aren't neocons doesn't change my view that when it comes to our basic values of freedom of expression and press we shouldn't bow to pressure from anti-Western thugs who use violence against those who disagree with them. Period! I'm very much opposed to the notion of Clash of Civilizations. In fact, in 1993 I published a piece in the prestigious Foreign Affairs in which I challenged those fanning the fear of political Islam and the Cato Institute them published a long policy analysis ,"The 'Green Peril': Creating the Islamic Fundamentalist Threat" along those same lines. Needless to say that Daniel Pipes didn't like what I had to say then. So I really don...

I finally got to see Albert Brook's Looking for Comedy in the Moslem World on Sunday just as the Moslem world was projecting its not-very-funny face in the form of violent demonstrations against those "offending" cartoons. I'm not a great fan of Brooks who is a B Grade Woody Allen and the movie is not very funny. But what really impressed me was the somewhat "conservative" message that came out of the film. Instead of trying to preach to us that "of all the casualties of globalism, religious sensibility is the most hurtful," like Simon Jenkins does in a column full of tiring multicultural slogans in the London Times , Brooks basically conveys to us a reality in which we have to accept that not all cultures are the same; that while we do share many universal traits -- we all laugh -- our concepts of what is funny (or tragic) might not be the same. It doesn't have to lead to a Clash of Civilizations. I've been very critical of this self-fulf...

Diana Moon, whose blog Letter from Gotham I LOVE (!) emailed this version of John Lennon's "Nowhere Man." Well, if you've read my last post that is certainly an appropriate way to mark the generational link betwen Woodstock and Davos... Well, something like that. Davos Man He's a real Davos Man, Sitting in his Davos Land, Making all his Davos plans for nobody. Doesn't have a point of view, Knows not where he's going to, Isn't he a bit like you and me? Davos Man, please listen, You don't know what you're missing, Davos Man, the world is at your command. He's as blind as he can be, Just sees what he wants to see, Davos Man can you see me at all? Davos Man, don't worry, Take your time, don't hurry, Leave it all till somebody else lends you a hand. Doesn't have a point of view, Knows not where he's going to, Isn't he a bit like you and me? Davos Man, please listen, You don't know what you're missing, Davos Man, the ...

Little minds and lushy lips (plus Bill Gates) for a small world Davos: I should have found a seat next to the door. Really have to go to the potty Woodstock: It's so groovy -- man Now... Where would you want to be? For members of the 1960's generation it was the 1969 rock concert at Woodstock. If you were there, you were part of the countercultural "mini-nation" in which minds were open, drugs were all but legal and love was "free". Indeed, Woodstock became part of the cultural lexicon of the 1960's. As Watergate is the codeword for the national crisis of confidence of that age, Woodstock has become an instant adjective denoting youthful hedonism and 60's excess. "What we had here was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence," according to Woodstock "historian" Bert Feldman. "Dickens said it first: 'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times'. It's an amalgam that will never be reproduced again." And then cam...

And for thank for the provocative Brussels Journal edited by Paul Belien for providing me with an opportunity to (finally) see these "offending" cartoons (click the above image and link to the Brussels Journal). My advice to the "offended" Moslems: Just don't read the Danish and other newspapers!

Whose who? You've got to love these kids... And their parents Their guys know how to pose Mass Murderer: Reem Raiyshi Mass Murderer: Baruch Goldstein

That smart? My online pal Dr. Leo Strauss (we were both enrolled at the famous Gymnasium Philippinum; but he graduted two years before I did, so we never had a chance to meet face-to-face) has a great post on his Stop The Spirit Of Zossen drawing my attention to a certain Dr. Weistein praising Dr. Condi for her remarkable geo-strategic vision. Perhaps Dr. Weinstein is hoping to get selected as America's pro-consul in Iran. In any case, Dr. Strauss is doing a wondeful job in demolishing the notion that Condi and the Bushies have joined the "realist" camp and that they have this plan to work with Kazahstan? to bring stability to Eurasia. To paraphrase Alfred Mackinder, "Who transforms AID commands the world." Or something along these lines. He notes that much of what is attributed to Condi by Weinstein has been plagiarized from the work by another great strategic thinker, Thomas P. Barnett, who has this theory that the international system is divided between na...

Two Men I admired: One was a scientist; the other was a political scientist The guys at Democratic Peace have responded to my response to their response to my response to their post which was a response to an op-ed I'd published about The Myth of Democratic Peace which was a review of a book by Jack Snyder and Peter Mansfield which was originally published in the Singapore Business Times and was then posted on LewRockwell.com.... A longer piece of mine on all the issues of Democratic Peace and against the backdrop of the great showcase for democracy in the Middle East, the Hamas electoral victory in Palestine, will be published in the next issue of the American Conservative. But let me respond here briefly to some of the comments posted on the Democratic Peace blog(their stuff is in bold). The Myth Of "The Myth Of Democratic Peace" This is a continuation of the exchange between Leon Hadar, a research fellow in foreign policy studies with CATO, and political scientist Pro...

From the January 30, 2006 New York Times "(Rice Admits U.S. Underestimated Hamas Strength" By STEVEN R. WEISMAN) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Sunday that the United States had failed to understand the depth of hostility among Palestinians toward their longtime leaders. The hostility led to an election victory by the militant group Hamas that has reduced to tatters crucial assumptions underlying American policies and hopes in the Middle East. "I've asked why nobody saw it coming," Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. "It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse." Immediately after the election, Bush administration officials said the results reflected a Palestinian desire for change and not necessarily an embrace of Hamas, which the United States, Israel and the European Union consider a terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction. But Ms. Rice's comments seemed to reflect a certain second-guess...

Playing now in Palestine and Iraq CACHE Repeat Performace: Now in Your Neighborhood Sometime in the early 1980's I was watching the film Battle of Algiers in a small movie theatre in Jerusalem. The West Bank and Gaza were relatively peaceful and quiet at that time, and when the movie ended I suggested to my companions that, you know, this could happen here. An uprising a la Algeria. They all thought that I was out of my mind. Since then we've been seeing that movie twice -- in Palestine and Iraq. I was thinking about the way the "Battle of Algiers" -- which was directed by an Italian communist -- provided us with warnings about our current reality, as I watching over the weekend the French film Cache in a big movie theatre in Bethesda, Maryland. It's directed by Michael Haneke with the magnificent Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in the central roles(above). It's a thriller and so I won't spoil it for you. The two play a middle-aged, successful liter...

Yes, Wal-Mart. I've never done shopping there. But I can't figure out why so many people hate it. It's Big, they say. And so is Microsoft. So are we going to break-up Wal-Mart into little Wal-Marts? Someone responded to my article by arguing the following: The point you missed is this: there is a visceral sense in 'small-town America' that the entire population of America has devolved into a certain gluttony. Wal-Mart promotes a mindless feeding frenzy- and an endless appetite for cheap crap. The rage against Wal-Mart has less to do with economics than a deep-seated fear of the loss of the American soul. So now Wal-Mart is responsible for the loss of the American soul... First, no one forces you to shop there. And secondly, "soul" is something that houses of worship, literature, arts, music, etc. are supposed to nourish. If you don't have to spend a lot of money on buying underwear, you have more dollars to spend on the really important things. It se...