Global Paradigms

Well, when I put it this way it sounds a bit crazy. Something that only Dr. Strangelove would consider. But try to think out of the box. And to help you do that here is an article, "Is Nuclear Parity with Iran a blessing for Israel?" that my friend, Trita Parsi, who (as his name suggests) is an Iran expert, published in the January 2006 issue of Jane's Intelligence Review Here are some of the main points that Parsi makes: * Israel's strategy of maintaining military might in the Middle East may not be the best way to bring peace to the troubled region. * While neither Iran nor the West has shifted their resolute stances in the nuclear stand-off, Israel is slowly starting to prepare itself for the "day after." *A nuclear Tehran will not only end Israel's nuclear monopoly, it will also shake a fundamental tenet of Israel's military doctrine -- the idea that Israel can only survive in the Middle East by maintaining military superiority. * An increasing n...

How about "Bhloging with BHL." I wish someone would do that. It would be a waste of time. But it could also be hillarious. Meanwhile, Steve Sailer posted a Garrison Keillor's entertaining review of Bernard-Henri Lévy's book on his blog . Here is a sample: And what's with the flurries of rhetorical questions? Is this how the French talk or is it something they save for books about America? "What is a Republican? What distinguishes a Republican in the America of today from a Democrat?" Lévy writes, like a student padding out a term paper. "What does this experience tell us?" he writes about the Mall of America. "What do we learn about American civilization from this mausoleum of merchandise, this funeral accumulation of false goods and nondesires in this end-of-the-world setting? What is the effect on the Americans of today of this confined space, this aquarium, where only a semblance of life seems to subsist?" And what is one to make o...

An interesting exchange on BHL between on Alan Wolfe and Franklin Foer on Slate.com And the folks at "Slate" also mentioned my blog in their blog review by Torie Bosch And I've been worried that only my mom and personal trainer have been reading the blog... Thanks, Torie! And btw that line about my mom and personal trainer resulted in several emailes, beginning with "I'm not your mom or personal trainer, but I've been reading your blog..." My response: "I can assure you that one (Jewish) mother and one personal trainer is more than enough in one's life-time...

Take an Existentialist/ Communist philosopher and add a New Age composer and what do you get? A New Philosopher Michael Brendan Dougherty has a great post on his great blog, Surfeited with Dainties on the French intellectual fraud, the "New Philosopher" Bernard Henri Levy. His politics of liberal imperialism makes him an ideological pal of Andrew Sullivan and the confused-about-Iraq editors of the New Republic.

Stephen Hadley: Not the Best and the Brightest David Ignatius, one of the best foreign policy analysts in the American press has been trying to rationalize his support for the Iraq war by arguing that President Bush and his aides actually know what they're doing and that things in Iraq and the Middle East will eventually work out for the best. Sort of. In a recent column in the Washington Post he even suggests that the Bushies, and in particular Secretary of State Condi Rice and national security advisor Stephen Hadley (who does LOOK -- those Big Glasses -- very smart) know what they're doing on Iran. He desecribes how the two are trying to figure out "how should the United States think about Iran? What explains the fanaticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and what can America and its allies do to change it?" These baseline questions are at the heart of an informal review of Iran policy that's taking place at the highest levels of the Bush administration. The...

Sebastian Mallaby teaches us how to do that: Rice's Blind Spot Monday, January 23, 2006; A15 Nobody doubts her star power. She speaks Russian and talks football, wears dominatrix boots and plays Dvorak, weaves her segregated Alabama childhood into speeches about geopolitics. But the strange thing about Condoleezza Rice is that, when it comes to the stuff that a professor-politician should be really good at, she can be oddly flat-footed. This was true when she emerged as George W. Bush's fitness buddy and foreign policy tutor seven years ago. It is still true now. In January 2000, as the Bush campaign got underway, Rice published a manifesto in Foreign Affairs that laid out the classic "realist" position: American diplomacy should "focus on power relationships and great-power politics" rather than on other countries' internal affairs. "Some worry that this view of the world ignores the role of values, particularly human rights and the promotion of de...

Two millions of your tax dollars to get this guy elected? That's according to a long piece in Sunday's Washington Post authored by Scott Wilson and Glenn Kessler: The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas. The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work. U.S. officials say their low profile is meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority receives public credit for a collection of small, popular projects and events to be unveiled before Palestinians select their first parliament in a decade. Internal doc...

...And I want to thank the people from the DP discipline from showing us the way to the promised land of democratic peace A colleague of Professor R. J. Rummel who is one of the most renowned and respected scholars in the field of political science has attacked me. I'm a political scientist and I do have a lot of respect for professor Rummel, who is not only an accomplished scholar and writer (he even authored very entertaining fiction) but who is also one of the few political scientists who is considered to be a "libertarian." His work is interesting, original and provocative. He is one of the leading figures in the very controversial field of research called "Democratic Peace" and argues (as the title suggests) the the spread of democracy worldwide helps strengthen the foundations for international peace. What can Mini Moi say? I salute Dr. Rummel. But... Unfortunately, a colleague of the same Dr. Rummel has read my review of a recent study in political scien...

I'm not a fan of Condoleeza Rice and have criticized her performance on the world stage. But that crazy Russian politician (and ex-presidential candidate) is taking it too far. The leader of the misnamed Liberal and Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), expressed his opinion on our beloved secretary of state in an "exclusive interview" with Pravda.Ru Condoleezza Rice released a coarse anti-Russian statement. This is because she is a single woman who has no children. She loses her reason because of her late single status. Nature takes it all. Such women are very rough. They are all workaholics, public workaholics. They can be happy only when they are talked and written about everywhere: "Oh, Condoleezza, what a remarkable woman, what a charming Afro-American lady! How well she can play the piano and speak Russian! What a courageous, tough and strong female she is! This is the only way to satisfy her needs of a female. She derives pleasure from it. If she has no man by he...

So why is he smiling? Apropos my previous post (and to let you know that not only talk the talk, but also walk and walk), for the last two years I've been active in the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy and the Committee for the Republic , two groups that include academics, think tankers, journalists, and former diplomats and other foreign policy types, who have been trying to promote a more Realpolitik-oriented foreign policy to replace the current neoconservative agenda. From time to time members of these groups tend to get excited when they read about the signs of "realism" in the Bush Administration. The following article published in the Financial Times suggests that the Coalition and the Committee are going to be in business for at least three years. Critics of 'utopian' foreign policy fail to weaken Bush resolve >By Guy Dinmore >Published: January 13 2006 02:00 | Last updated: January 13 2006 02:00 >> The Bush administration's strat...

"Democraticialis, it's for my man whenever he wants it" We tried almost everything. Reading together the Weekly Standard and holding hands while watching Bill O'Reilly. We even signed up for one of those Restoration Weekends in Florida that David Horowitz organizes and were hoping that Jim Woolsey's address would arouse my husband to take up this white woman's burden. But his imperial drive remained dormant until a friend, "Scooter" told us about Democraticialis ("Judy loves it," he said). And it was shock and Awe from then on... A Regime Change for My Man whenever and wherever he wants it... Democraticialis, experience the neocon difference. *** *** Side effects could include anti-Americanism, terrorism, bloodshed, chaos, violations of civil rights, and rising budget deficits. If you experience an insurgency that lasts for more than four years, please consult Dr. "Dick" Cheney. The insurgency may be in its last throes. Ja...

I was interviewed on the topic on the Voice of America and am quoted in the following piece to which you can listen by linking here . And also read my Measuring the Arab World: Check the Christian Barometer . Christians are Leaving the Middle East By Zlatica Hoke Washington, D.C. 17 January 2006 Zlatica Hoke's Report, 2.68 MB Zlatica Hoke's Report, 912 KB The region where Christianity was born is rapidly losing its Christian population due to low birth rates and emigration. Some analysts warn about the negative consequences for the region. Christian Populations in the Middle East If exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continues in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Christ's birthplace There are between 12- and 15-million Christians in the Middle East, almost half of them living in Egypt. The exact figures are hard to establish because of the lack of official records and continued migration. Lebanon, with slight...

Very interesting news analysis on the Iran situation by Howard LaFranchi in the Christian Science Monitor in which I'm quoted: from the January 18, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0118/p01s04-wome.html On Iran, West looks for a Plan B If US allies balk at sanctions, it's harder, but not impossible, to slap Tehran for nuclear aims. By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON - Iran may yet end up on the docket of the United Nations Security Council for restarting its nuclear-fuel program. But even if the international community can agree to punish it with economic sanctions, will those actions succeed in stopping Tehran's pursuit of nuclear technology - and possibly a bomb? Many doubt the current diplomatic efforts will have the desired effect, prompting some officials and analysts to lay out a range of Plan B's for coping with the crisis. For some experts, the time is ripe to prepare the world economy for living without I...

When it comes to espionage thrillers, I prefer George Smiley over James Bond, but I'm still a fan of the FOX 24 hit series which kicked off its fifth season this week. And Kiefer Sutherland is back as Jack Bauer, a crack but controversial US federal agent working for something called CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit) which for some reason is based in L.A. Over the last four years — one day at a time, Agent Bauer has saved humanity (located mostly on the West Coast) from Serbian and Middle Eastern terrorists as well as drug dealers and nasty guys who usually speak in bad British or German accents. I know. I know. He also beats confessions out of suspects, shooting them in their kneecaps, shocking them, breaking fingers, one by one, without institing on getting in advance the legal protection from the government, emphasizing that he is willing to be punished if and when his bosses conclude that there wasn't any compelling reason for Bauer's brutality, say, a nuclear bomb ticking...

The Age Of W Is Not Over Americans overwhelmingly lack confidence that Iraq will have a stable government in place within the next year, and more than half say that the war has not been worth its cost, according to a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll . Fewer than one in five, or about 19 percent, of the 1,003 adults quizzed said they believe Iraqis can assemble a sound, democratic government in the next 12 months that is able to maintain order without the assistance of U.S. troops. Seventy-five percent said they didn't believe that would happen. The poll also suggested that most Americans remain skeptical about the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with 52 percent telling pollsters it wasn't worth going to war. However, this is a marked decrease from a poll taken fewer than two months ago, indicating that 60 percent of Americans didn't think the war was worth the cost. So...is it over? In fact, Congressman Jack Murtha is predicting that "Vast majority of US troops to leave ...

All things considered...I'd rather have "Mossi" The Eurasia Group warned this week that the nuclear stand-off with Iran was the "greatest source of political risk in 2006" and could lead to military strikes by the U.S. and/or Israel in early 2007. Readers of my column are aware that I put my own credibility as a political analyst on the line and made the same prediction this week,that "the news this year will be dominated by the growing confrontation between Washington and Tehran" (and to think that the guys in this respected international consulting group probably spent several weeks and received a lot of bucks to come up with this forecast; I won't reveal to you how much I get paid for my column...). In fact, there was a very interesting op-ed piece in Thursday's New York Times in which the two authors make very similar arguments to the ones I raised in my column, especially with regard to the perception by the Iranian leaders that the B...