Tag Archives: International Relations

I spend most of my time on this blog mocking all the exaggerated nonsense which passes for political commentary nowadays. It’s a rare day that I come across something which is both stimulating and well-written. Fortunately, this is one of those days. Via Facebook (which has its uses), I was pointed in the direction of an excellent article by Patrick Lawrence in this summer’s edition of the magazine Raritan Quarterly, of which I had not previously been aware. I can recommend it to you all,...

"How can we open a Pandora’s Box?! Who opened this Pandora’s Box in 2008 having accepted, acknowledged and recognized the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo?!" Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze. This has been as influential in influencing the world order as the expansion of NATO toward the borders of Russia and the coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine, a coup that was immediately ratified by the West. But Kosovo was...

Useful backgrounder on international relations and the different schools of thought in the US, particuarly liberal internationalism, neoconservatism and realism.  QuilletteThe World According to RealismRyan Zielonka is an independent consultant and incoming PhD student at the University of Washington

Brad DeLong pulls up couple of letters from the files that are relevant now.Grasping RealityNikita Sergeyevitch Khrushchev to John Fitzgerald KennedyBrad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

If I had to recommend a single article for foreign policy decision makers to read, it would be Robert Jervis’s 1968 essay ‘Hypotheses on Misperception.’ As I’ve written before, many of the tensions between states derive from misperceptions. People misperceive others; misperceive themselves; and misperceive how they are seen by others. In his article, Jervis hypothesizes 14 misperceptions which are commonly encountered in international politics. Hypothesis number 9 is the following: ‘actors...

America’s way of acting in the world, the violence it often does to the truth while asserting its will, cannot be explained simply through its alleged “interests.” The U.S. acts the way it does because of the peculiar American way of understanding what gives life and action meaning. At the core of the American philosophy is voluntarism, the justification of action based purely and simply on the will. The distinguishing characteristic of voluntarism is that it gives pride of place to the...

Update on the situation in the Middle East. The backstory is the effect of US policy on Europe.Asia TimesSyria, Iran and ‘chaos in international relations’ Pepe Escobar

The war of words over American trade tariffs on Chinese exports and the expulsion of Russian diplomats may seem unrelated issues. But there is a connecting theme: the staggering US hypocrisy over its own aggressive behaviour. This blatant American hypocrisy – beyond reason and respect for international law – marks a fatal descent into barbarism towards foreign relations. Dialogue and diplomacy are repudiated with a “might is right” attitude.… Harsh. Strategic Culture Foundation —...

The take-away: "Negotiations must be equal, and China will not accept any consultation under unilateral coercion,” Gao said." China (and Russia) demand to be treated as equals, which would mean the US accepting multipolarity.  Is the US willing to go to the mat to maintain unipolarity? Stay tuned.ReutersChina warns U.S. not to open Pandora's Box, unleash trade ills on world Se Young Lee and Yawen Chen

Sunday reading. LobeLogUnipolar Strategy in a Multipolar World Paul Pillar Une parole francheMissile-gate Gilbert Doctorow | European Coordinator of The American Committee for East West Accord Ltd.Russian and Eurasian PoliticsPutin’s ‘Missile Speech’: Butter, Guns, and Security Discourse Gordon M. Hahn, Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, http://www.canalyt.com and a Senior Researcher at the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group, www.cetisresearch.org....