Washington’s 2-level-game
This past weekend, Carol Browner, Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy proclaimed that the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate bill (which passed the House this summer) is not going to become law prior to the upcoming climate negotiations.
Nuclear Disarmament: The Case Against
As US President Barack Obama outlined his ambitious vision of a world without nuclear weapons, this essay proposes to analyse whether nuclear disarmament is indeed a more serious policy option today than at the dawn of the atomic age in 1945 or at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
Private Military & Security Companies and the Pursuit of Legitimacy
Junio Valerio Palomba provides an alternative insight on the nature of private military and security companies and their activities. Specifically, he demonstrates how recent changes in the organization and structure of the market for force – such as the disappearance of combat operations – can be interpreted and explained through the theoretical lens of legitimacy.
Tribute to William Safire (1929 – 2009)
On Monday 28 September 2009 it was announced that William Safire, Pulitzer Prize Winner, speechwriter and columnist had passed away. The loss of Safire deprives enthusiasts of Presidential history from a player that oversaw one of the most tumultuous yet successful American Presidencies of the Cold War. It is in his indelible role as speechwriter for the 37th President of the United States Richard Nixon, that Safire most notably left his mark.
Public War, Private Soldiers
On September 16, 2007, the issue of private military firms exploded out of the dry confines of academic debate and into the public consciousness as bright, bloody pictures blanketed the newspapers and television networks that had long ignored the subject. Seventeen Iraqis had been violently killed and more than twenty others wounded while they went about their business in Nisour Square, in the heart of Baghdad’s once fashionable Mansour District.
Pleading for national regulation in the aftermath of the Subprime-Crisis
In the aftermath of the banking crisis, many commentators are calling for new global regulation regimes. This essay argues that prudent banking supervision on the national level can be considered more effective than global alternatives, and is able to prevent national banks from establishing risky business practices. International regulation efforts, by contrast, have proved damaging.
Re-discovering Kwame Nkrumah
The recent centenary of the birth of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, passed without murmur in this little corner of the continent. Why this happened has both puzzled and, yes, hurt me a little.
Dirty energy subsidies
Last August, the UN Environmental Programme reported that “around $300 billion or 0.7 per cent of global GDP is being spent on energy subsidies annually.” These subsidies are particularly important because most are devoted to fossil fuels.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE NATION BUILDERS GONE?
Six months ago the US military was being praised by many security specialists as finally having gotten it – understanding that its future was counter-insurgency best practices which means nation building under fire from insurgents in the world’s toughest neighborhoods. Yes, it had taken a while, but the military’s top leadership had finally seen the light.
The Understanding of the Rights of War and Peace in the Thought of Thomas Hobbes
An analysis of Thomas Hobbes’ the ‘Leviathan’ will focus on introducing the importance of the state of nature as an image of life without government. By using contemporary examples, the aim is to illustrate how states behave in the international paradigm in terms of ensuring self-preservation.
