MetaFilter posts tagged with foreignpolicy and politics

When keeping it real(ist) goes wrong

aheckler — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:38:22 -0800

Back when he was younger, Jay-Z was a merciless, ruthless killer in the "beefs" which define hip hop politics. [...] As Jay-Z got older and more powerful, the marginal benefits of such battles declined and the costs increased even as the number of would-be rivals escalated. Just as the U.S. attracts resentment and rhetorical anti-Americanism simply by virtue of being on top, so did Jay-Z attract a disproportionate number of attackers.

Marc Lynch compares international relations to rap feuds, with Jay-Z as the hegemon and up-and-comer The Game as the "insurgent." Lynch's article inspired several reactions, and landed him an interview with NPR earlier today.

The Axis of Upheaval

homunculus — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:49:20 -0800

The Axis of Upheaval: A special report on the coming age of instability.

Leadership for the 21st Century

daHIFI — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:56:38 -0800

Leadership for the 21st Century Harvard Business School hosts moderator Charlie Rose in a roundtable discussion concerning the credit crisis, housing, American leadership and foreign affairs. Participants are the 2008 HBS Alumni Achievement Award recipients, including eBay (and McCain advisor) CEO Meg Whitman, GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Venture Capitalist extrordinaire John Doerr, Indian business juggernaut Anand G. Mahindra, and former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn. This aired on PBS last night and it was some of the most honest, intelligent, and inspiring discussion I have heard in some time. While the only transcript I could find is a paid one here, this 100 minute video should be required viewing for anyone working in a fortune 500 company, or those interested in politics, environmentalism, technology, foreign policy or the election. I only caught the tail end of last night's airing, (and I'm watching the whole thing as I post this) but a couple of things that really stood out for me: Mahindra's statements regarding the schizophrenia of India toward America; Doerr's excitement on the potential for future innovation around climate change technology and call for the restoration of DARPA; and the general optimism of the participants, especially that of Immelt, whose company's stock is at a 50 year low. If the last half hour of this could light a fire under my butt, then I would love to see what the whole thing does to the Mefite population.

The Stakes

homunculus — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:34:17 -0800

The Stakes, 2008. Eight of the Washington Monthly's contributing editors "consider the looming challenges that America is likely to face—in the economy, education, the courts, and other areas—during an Obama or McCain presidency, and how, based on what we know about the two men, they are likely to handle them." Also in the Washington Monthly: The Grand Bargain: Five presidents have treated Iran as a threat. The next needs to think of it as an opportunity.

Admiral Fallon

homunculus — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:59:59 -0800

The Man Between War and Peace. "As head of U. S. Central Command, Admiral William 'Fox' Fallon is in charge of American military strategy for the most troubled parts of the world. Now, as the White House has been escalating the war of words with Iran, and seeming ever more determined to strike militarily before the end of this presidency, the admiral has urged restraint and diplomacy. Who will prevail, the president or the admiral?" [Via Think Progress.]

A Solar Grand Plan

homunculus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:16:55 -0800

A Solar Grand Plan: By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions. [Via Gristmill.] Previously mentioned here.

America to the Rescue

homunculus — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:55:12 -0800

Three Generations of “America to the Rescue.”

In Defense Of Foreign Policy Reptiles

Sticherbeast — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:01:16 -0800

Learning From Ike: What a Republican realist could teach George Bush. "If we hope to succeed, we manage evil. We minimize, mitigate, and manipulate evil. But efforts to pre-emptively eliminate evil are prone to end in overreaction and destabilization, with consequences that are often worse than the original problem."

Clued-in people talking about the crazy world

blacklite — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:35:06 -0800

Passport is the name of a recently-launched blog written by the editors of Foreign Policy magazine, covering the same wide range of topics as the magazine itself does. Updated frequently and around the clock, informal and personal — I don't know if it's just because it's new, but they're doing a great job, and if you're a world politics and news junkie like me, it's fantastic.

A priest, a rabbi and a Hamas leader walk into a bar. .

Smedleyman — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:37:28 -0800

"If Hamas fails to agree to a permanent ceasefire, we will have to create another leadership, just as we did before with Sheikh Yassin." Former head of the double ISO (Mossad), Efraim Halevy Spoke at the Middle East Forum in Boston last week (yes, he's selling a book) and had some interesting things to say. Earlier post here. (More inside).

The Year of Living Utopianly

loquax — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 21:49:08 -0800

The Utopian Nightmare : "What is utopianism? It is promising more than you can deliver. It is seeing an easy and sudden answer to long-standing, complex problems. It is trying to solve everything at once through an administrative apparatus headed by “world leaders.” It places too much faith in altruistic cooperation and underestimates self-seeking behavior and conflict. It is expecting great things from schemes designed at the top, but doing nothing to solve the bigger problems at the bottom." Also, be sure to check out the the 16 ideas, values and institutions that may not be with us 35 years from now written by a variety of interesting people and compiled as part of Foreign Policy's 35th anniversary (although not all are free or available without registration).

A Spreading Treason

mk1gti — Wed, 25 May 2005 07:43:35 -0800

A Spreading Treason The vagaries of U.S. involvement in the Middle East were surely brought home to First Lady Laura Bush on her recent trip to Israel, on a tour of Jerusalem's holiest sites. At the Wailing Wall, where she placed a note in the Western Wall – as is the custom – she faced surly throngs of protesters shouting "Free Pollard Now!" The Pollardites also showed up earlier that morning, as Mrs. Bush paid a visit to the home of Israeli President Moshe Katsav: "Pollard, the people are with you!" they chanted.

Q & A with former Israeli Mossad chief Efraim Halevy.

ori — Mon, 16 May 2005 15:04:10 -0800

Q & A with former Israeli Mossad chief Efraim Halevy. Halevy fields questions from readers around the world. See also his article "The coming Pax Americana".

An Interview with Chalmers Johnson, Parts 1 & 2

y2karl — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 11:38:21 -0800

If we were having this conversation in 1985, and I had said to you, “Four years from now the Soviet Union will collapse and in six years it will disappear,” you would have thought, “This is not a reliable observer.” But the U.S.S.R. is gone -- disappeared -- and we didn’t predict it. Russia today is a much smaller country than the former Soviet Union. The CIA had all the wrong data. We also made a mistake when we concluded that we had won the Cold War. We had almost nothing to do with what happened in the Soviet Union: there were internal issues and it certainly wasn’t Star Wars. We now know in detail how Gorbachev brought Sakharov out of exile in Gorky to address the Politburo on, “What would you do about a ballistic missile defense?” Sakharov said, “It’s easy to overwhelm it with missiles. I wouldn’t spend a ruble on it.” And they didn’t. But in mistakenly thinking that we won the Cold War, we strongly imply that we did something to cause that. Instead, the Soviet Union collapsed because of overstretch, a case of imperial overstretch. An Empire of More Than 725 Military Bases
An interview with Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and The Sorrows Of Empire (More Inside)

The Power of Media?

DrDoberman — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:03:23 -0800

The Power of Nightmares sets out to claim that the Islamists and the neocons are, in reality, soul mates. Fact or fiction? Check out this series from the BBC using this handy Bit Torrent!
[Via: PopBitch]

Anti-Americanism

gd779 — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 15:02:03 -0800

The World's Most Dangerous Ideas: U.S. and European goals on most issues are quite similar. Both want a peaceful world free from terror, with open trade, growing freedom, and civilized codes of conduct. A Europe that charts its own course just to mark its differences from the United States threatens to fracture global efforts—whether on trade, proliferation, or the Middle East. Europe is too disunited to achieve its goals without the United States; it can only ensure that America’s plans don’t succeed. The result will be a world that muddles along, with the constant danger that unattended problems will flare up disastrously. Instead of win-win, it will be lose-lose—for Europe, for the United States, and for the world.

Kerry Faces the World

lazaruslong — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 22:07:06 -0800

This month, in The Atlantic Monthly, Talking Points Memo's Joshua Micah Marshall writes an interesting article discussing the potential aspects of Kerry's foreign policy. The article itself is thought-provoking and erudite, and of equal if not more interest is the 3-part interview with Senator Joseph Biden (D) of Delaware, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Part One is here, with Parts Two and Three to be released later this week. Biden speaks about foreign policy in an overbearing, yet refreshingly intelligent, articulate, analytical manner.

assess your global beliefs

mathowie — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 11:03:14 -0800

American Choices is a pretty cool new site that guides you through a series of questions aimed at telling you where you stand in terms of foreign policy philosophy. It reminds me a lot of the Selectsmart presidental voting thing that matches you up with a candidate.

Breaking the silence

donfactor — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 05:45:19 -0800

Breaking the silence Last night ITV1 in the UK ran a documentary that is unlikely to be shown in the USA. It is by a respected journalist called John Pilger and amongst other tidbits it shows Colin Powell saying in 1991 that Iraq poses no threat and also Condoleeza Rice confirming the same thing. It also quotes some US officials that the current bunch who seem to be running US foreign policy were known during the administration of Bush senior as "the crazies". Plus much more.

Frontier Psychology

Argyle — Wed, 30 Apr 2003 10:45:02 -0800

Frontier Psychology - Does Frontier Psychology drive America in a direction that the rest of the world cannot comprehend? Roughly defined as "the effort on the part of Americans to come to grips with untamed elements of nature and, by taming them, to reorganize their society" We see it everywhere, even in Buffy. Europe appears to value stability over mobility and change, in opposition to America. Prof. Richard Slotkin has written extensively about these concepts. An interiew with audio clips is here. (Real)
Are America's recent domestic and international policy decisions attempts to tame "untamed elements" around it?

French Muslims Influence Government Policy on Iraq

Postroad — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 10:22:21 -0800

French Muslims Influence Government Policy on Iraq This piece from an on-line Arab source helps us to understand the French reluctance to want a war with Iraq. And you thought it was only about French oil interests, but non.

Direct action

Nicolae Carpathia — Sun, 02 Feb 2003 15:23:19 -0800

It seems that there is some disconnection between the foreign policies of the American administration and the beliefs of a significant part of the population. In many countries, direct action is seen as a normal response. Will that happen here? Or here?

sheauga — Thu, 03 Oct 2002 08:02:49 -0800

US Foreign Policy Goals - Condoleeza Rice. Only $29.95 from C-SPAN, well worth it. Will clear up many misconceptions. Unfortunately, thanks to macho chest thumping and grunting by prominent talking heads on camera, the Rice message isn't getting across. (Free transcripts instead of $29.95 tapes might help.) Intelligent criticism of the sea change in foreign policy, from elder statesman George Kennan. What good does it do us to have information available on the web if we can't afford to buy it?

fold_and_mutilate — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 13:15:33 -0800

U.S. Foreign Policy: Attention! Right Face! Forward, March. "...with no foreign policy experience, Dubya was essentially a blank slate, and U.S. foreign policy has been up for grabs since he took the oath of office. As everyone now knows, the main contestants consisted of two factions: one headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who represents continuity of policy with both Bush's father and Clinton; the other, led by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, whose vision is far more sweeping, not to say Manichean. Since September 11, the latter faction has emerged as dominant and is using the 'war against terrorism' to impose its own, quite radical ideas on U.S. foreign policy and the global order. At their core, those ideas call for a world order based on U.S. supremacy and enforced by U.S. military power--a unipolar world in which the U.S. imposes the rules but, because of its own self-evident goodness, is not necessarily bound by them."

Ah, not quite lebensraum (yet), but "benevolent" Bushists bearing bratwurst abound.

jack-o — Thu, 04 Apr 2002 15:11:22 -0800

Bush plays peacemaker. Having refused to honor several international treaties since taking office, the Bush administration sees itself as a legitimate peace broker. Opinions solicited, is this likely to improve the situation or cause it to deteriorate further?