The world cannot afford the diminution of U.S. power, but U.S. power is diminishing.
#neo-imperialism
Empire of Straw
I won’t attempt to characterize the diverse – or one might say combined and uneven – motivations of Kaplan’s critics, but I doubt that their approach does as much to advance the discussion, or the potential of any interesting and useful discussion at all, as his does, or as it might in some other intellectual world under a different ideological regime.
…and, Ultimately, to Destroy (4): Difference
For the destruction of IS to occur without our aid and participation would be for us not just to have shirked a responsibility, but to have declined to assert our existence, to have absented ourselves from the course of events. The alternative for us to a world in which we helped to destroy IS would be for us an unjust and absurd world.
…and, Ultimately, to Destroy (3): Acceptance
Collectively as individually, we may also like to think that at the limits we will know the truly unacceptable loss of control when we see it, or are compelled to view it, but we may surprise ourselves with our ability to look away from or to grow used to what formerly we found unbearable, just the latest cadaverized child in a Twitpic.
…and, Ultimately, to Destroy (2): Control
One pseudo-state calls forth another, as the goal of “mere control” constructs its own eventual failure, both logically and, it seems, practically.
us v is (What’s So Funny… 2)
…you do seem, at least, to be endlessly rationalizing U.S. imperial overreach, as if it were some sort of grand strategy upholding universal “liberal democracy”, where I tend to see incoherence, disintegration and devolution, on the part of grossly incompetent,…
Posted in Neo-Imperialism, notes, Political Philosophy, War Tagged with: IS, neo-imperialism, Syria, Turkey
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
Global Fight Club
What exists now is domestic & international momentum to finally address the larger Syrian conflict, and not just the limited problem of ISIL — Zeddonymous (@ZeddRebel) August 27, 2014 The Caliphate is an image or idea, expressed in a dogmatic…
Exceptionality vs Exceptionalism (Comment at S-USIH Blog)
Ben Alpers at the Society for US Intellectual History Blog provides a useful capsule history on American Exceptionalism: For most of the history of the term – which originally emerged in the 1920s in debates between Lovestoneites and Stalinists over…
Posted in Neo-Imperialism, notes, US History Tagged with: exceptionalism, exceptionality, neo-imperialism
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