How can a nation survive, can its institutions function, can it prosper and triumph, can the People experience or aspire to satisfaction without recourse at some point to such “tribalism”? The President cannot answer, because no one can.
International Relations
The Pathos of the Rational Leader: Goldberg’s Obama
Posted in International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, The Exception Tagged with: Middle East, Obama, Obama Doctrine
Melhem’s Compulsions (the two-sided failure in Syria contd.)
In an article published today in Al-Arabiya, Hisham Melhem devotes his main attention to the idea that the Middle East is becoming “less Arab” in a way that helps to explain a commensurate adaptation of U.S. policy. [T]he U.S. sees…
Should We Care That We Don’t Care More about Scottish Independence?
Do or should I care about Scottish independence? Do or should we care whether we care, and should we be gravely concerned about our uncertainty on that question? As a vaguely or occasionally proud member of the Clan MacLeod, which…
The 1.x-State Solution 2: “What the Conflict Is Really About”
A post by guest author KatherineMW at Ordinary Times, written on the occasion of the controversial Israeli decision to expropriate land connecting the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion to Jerusalem, explicitly as retaliation for the murder of Israeli…
Posted in International Relations, notes, Political Philosophy Tagged with: Israel, Palestine, Zionism
13 Tweets Instead of a Syria Strategy
IN THE SHADOW OF INSTEAD RT @rmslim: By far this is one of z best, if not z best analysis, of unfolding devepts in the Arab region penned by Yezid Sayigh http://t.co/zMW7oGUsKZ 09:52:10, 2014-08-29 #prt among most interesting aspects the…
IS/ISIS/ISIL/QSIS/Daesh-related links 2014.8.20-9
…plus a few observations as tweeted. I’m sure I missed a few good pieces (possibly while I was busy yesterday, for instance). Please feel free to link anything interesting or useful in the comments.
Posted in International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, Twitterei, War Tagged with: Daesh, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, neo-imperialism, QSIS, Syria
ever higher (interlude on Binladenism and Gaza)
(an interlude in the discussion of Osama Bin Laden’s interesting argument) Corey Robin denounces as “casuistry” and “the higher sociopathy” an attempt by Yishai Schwartz to justify the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Schwartz’s argument has the character of the public…
The 1.x-State Solution
Fred Kaplan’s critique of Israeli strategy or supposed strategic failures seems to be what Middle East scholar Michael Hanna has in mind when he urges us (on Twitter today) to consider an alternative view: Let’s be frank: we often talk…
Posted in International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, War Tagged with: Israel, neo-imperialism, Palestine
Hell and Greater Israel (Blog Version)
Also to be found on Storify.
Israeli realism/realism about Israel
“If you expected me to burst into tears, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I will not do that.”
Posted in International Relations, Twitterei Tagged with: Arnon Soffer, Benny Morris, Greater Israel, Israel, nation-state, sovereignty, Twitter