Sunday, September 18, 2005
RECOMMENDED READING
From Peter Lavelle, on the potential relationship between American oil majors, President Putin and the development of Russia's natural gas sector; and secondly,his weekly round-up of Russian affairs experts examine the break-up of the " Orange Revolution" coalition in Ukraine.
Former House Speaker and influential G.O.P. insider, Newt Gingrich, argues that America's interests require " a fundamentally limited, but honest and effective UN. ". IMHO we can manage the first, rarely the second and sometimes the third but never all three at once. Too many states with endemic incompetence and corruption use their slots in the UN bureaucracy to exile their intra-regime rivals, reward idiot relatives and enjoy the leisurely lifestyle of a diplomat in Manhattan. Not to mention the slots that more serious countries fill with professional intelligence agents who hardly can afford to make their official UN duties a priority.
Dr. Dan Nexon of The Duck of Minerva asks " was effective opposition to the Iraq War impossible?" . My unflattering analysis as to why was roundly ignored in the comments :o)
Havery Sicherman, President of FPRI, examines " King Fahd's Saudi Arabia" in American Diplomacy.
Virginia Postrel of Dynamist Blog has a series of posts on the virtues and flaws of think tanks here, here, here, here and here. This outpouring was inspired by Dan Drezner's post here.
The entire " connectivism" concept series of posts from Connectivism Blog and the article:
" Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation"
I may have to critique this last one closely in a future post.
That's it. ¶ 7:40 PM
From Peter Lavelle, on the potential relationship between American oil majors, President Putin and the development of Russia's natural gas sector; and secondly,his weekly round-up of Russian affairs experts examine the break-up of the " Orange Revolution" coalition in Ukraine.
Former House Speaker and influential G.O.P. insider, Newt Gingrich, argues that America's interests require " a fundamentally limited, but honest and effective UN. ". IMHO we can manage the first, rarely the second and sometimes the third but never all three at once. Too many states with endemic incompetence and corruption use their slots in the UN bureaucracy to exile their intra-regime rivals, reward idiot relatives and enjoy the leisurely lifestyle of a diplomat in Manhattan. Not to mention the slots that more serious countries fill with professional intelligence agents who hardly can afford to make their official UN duties a priority.
Dr. Dan Nexon of The Duck of Minerva asks " was effective opposition to the Iraq War impossible?" . My unflattering analysis as to why was roundly ignored in the comments :o)
Havery Sicherman, President of FPRI, examines " King Fahd's Saudi Arabia" in American Diplomacy.
Virginia Postrel of Dynamist Blog has a series of posts on the virtues and flaws of think tanks here, here, here, here and here. This outpouring was inspired by Dan Drezner's post here.
The entire " connectivism" concept series of posts from Connectivism Blog and the article:
" Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation"
I may have to critique this last one closely in a future post.
That's it. ¶ 7:40 PM
Comments:
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I leaved the network-learning article. Not only is the blogosphere more informative than a graduate school of political science -- it points you to better journal articles, too!
I'll reread it before Tuesday's cognition and instruction class. There's a lot of concept-sharing between the two, and I look forward to having my understanding of the material increased by this article.
So far my thesis looks like it's going to be a study of early Christianity as a 4GW/5GW movement that used pragmatism (behavioralism), legitimacy (cognition), and international law within a hegemonic system (social cognition) to win. This fits right in.
Thanks again.
Dan tdaxp
I'll reread it before Tuesday's cognition and instruction class. There's a lot of concept-sharing between the two, and I look forward to having my understanding of the material increased by this article.
So far my thesis looks like it's going to be a study of early Christianity as a 4GW/5GW movement that used pragmatism (behavioralism), legitimacy (cognition), and international law within a hegemonic system (social cognition) to win. This fits right in.
Thanks again.
Dan tdaxp
Hey Dan,
Glad you liked it. As you may have noticed I have an eclectic set of interests.
I'd love to hear what your thesis adviser says to that proposal !! I like the theme a lot, the scope however may meet some resistance from your prof - they like neat and tight at the MA level - then again, he might be a freer spirit.
Let me know how your pitch goes Dan.
Glad you liked it. As you may have noticed I have an eclectic set of interests.
I'd love to hear what your thesis adviser says to that proposal !! I like the theme a lot, the scope however may meet some resistance from your prof - they like neat and tight at the MA level - then again, he might be a freer spirit.
Let me know how your pitch goes Dan.
It'll be interesting. ;)
A Computer Model of National Behavior ran into a lot of faculty skepticism for my MA in CS. It ended up being the longest thesis the department ever accepted, not because of my loquatiousness but in response to skepticism on one point after another (lots of appendix pages ;) ).
One thing that helped me was that I changed the vocab I was using, but not the idea: "Clouds" became "Fuzzy sets," etc. I imagine something similar will happen here. For my polisci seminars, I've been trying to keep track of when ps buzzwords equate to things I've read about on the blogosphere.
At least there is some familiarity with these concepts in the department; John Arquilla applied-for-and-rejected a position here, and the docs who talked to him where impressed.
Dan tdaxp
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A Computer Model of National Behavior ran into a lot of faculty skepticism for my MA in CS. It ended up being the longest thesis the department ever accepted, not because of my loquatiousness but in response to skepticism on one point after another (lots of appendix pages ;) ).
One thing that helped me was that I changed the vocab I was using, but not the idea: "Clouds" became "Fuzzy sets," etc. I imagine something similar will happen here. For my polisci seminars, I've been trying to keep track of when ps buzzwords equate to things I've read about on the blogosphere.
At least there is some familiarity with these concepts in the department; John Arquilla applied-for-and-rejected a position here, and the docs who talked to him where impressed.
Dan tdaxp
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