May 01, 2009

The Year of the Ox II

First, going back to the year of the Golden Snake (nothing personal, George) -- April 26, 2001: REPORTER: Do we have an obligation to defend the Taiwanese? GEORGE W. BUSH:...
Posted by Don Bacon at 01:07 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

April 11, 2009

Why A Military?

Government programs normally have an objective, a goal. There are funded programs to educate children, help the elderly, provide housing for the poor, build bridges and highways, etc. These programs...
Posted by Don Bacon at 11:37 AM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

March 04, 2009

Divide and Conquer

Success in foreign affairs, where domination is the goal, is often accomplished withn a divide-and-conquer strategy. Conn Hallinan, 2004: It was "divide and conquer" that made it possible for an...
Posted by Don Bacon at 03:35 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

January 18, 2009

Israel, deterrence, and self-referentialism

Israeli leaders and analysts have proclaimed that one of the main goals of the ghastly, extremely inhumane war on Gaza was to "restore the credibility of Israeli deterrence"-- a credibility...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:23 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

November 29, 2008

Israeli analysts prepare next war against Lebanon

In the latest issue of its quarterly journal, Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) carries two (or three) articles debating in some depth whether-- in the event of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:56 PM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

September 14, 2008

Realism, war, and pacifism

Is pacifism the new Realism? Or is Realism the new pacifism? I've been toying with both arguments for a while now, including back in June when I made the first...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:38 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

July 30, 2008

Defining 'winning'

I've been writing quite a bit recently about war and its unwinnability. I've been thinking a lot more about this, and I want to clarify that in those writings I...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:42 PM | Fulltext link (29 comments)

June 25, 2008

Dan Twining (and Gvosdev and me) at USIP

I wrote yesterday about Dan Twining, the State Department official who was one of my two co-panelists at the event at USIP yesterday morning, that he made a number of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:46 AM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

June 24, 2008

Are foreign wars winnable? and other big questions

This morning I took part in a panel discussion at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Foreign Policy and the Next U.S. Administration The other panelists were Nikolas Gvosdev, editor...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:52 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

March 07, 2008

'Survival' and how we think about war

Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:36 PM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

February 24, 2008

Iraq vs. Afghanistan in the US election

Helene Cooper had a good analytical article in today's NYT, looking at the differing views on the "winnability" of Iraq held by, on the one hand, presumptive Republican candidate John...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:33 PM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

December 31, 2007

2008: The year of 'Human Security'?

Happy New Year, readers one and all! My chief hope for 2008 is that we can persuade a decisive proportion of people around the world-- but especially here in the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:40 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

December 29, 2007

"Winnability" in Iraq and Afghanistan: what does it mean?

For some time now (and certainly, long before last Thursday's killing of Benazir Bhutto), I've been intending to write a post here about the concept of "winnability", as it applies...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:28 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

July 23, 2007

Mapping and the will to power

Today I was looking at this map on Wikipedia: (You can click on the map for a larger version of it. Or click here for an even better (5 MB)...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:56 PM | Fulltext link (14 comments)

April 29, 2007

Highlights (and some low points) of my trip

This was another, most amazing trip. I do truly feel blessed to be able to travel so freely in the world and to have a profession that allows me to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:52 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

February 23, 2007

Depends what you mean by 'Honor'...

Blogger Will Bunch had a good post recently analyzing the statement Unca Dick Cheney made recently, namely that, "We want to complete the mission [in Iraq], we want to get...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:27 AM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

October 20, 2006

Choice time: Iraq or Afghanistan?

This was basically the message that Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt was posing when he spoke to The Daily Mail last week; and he was answering it in favor of Afghanistan,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:51 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 13, 2006

Patrick Lang: "The Best Defense..."

On 9/11, the Miller Center at the University of Virginia featured a talk by Colonel Patrick Lang - who returned here by reputation as a voice of reason, experience, "independence,"...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:28 AM | Fulltext link (13 comments)