David Shorr
...And Here's How You Do It
Having just argued, in agreement with Matt, that progressives need to get out there and argue for the vision that Matt lays out, I offer a playbook for that argument. Working with the excellent US in the World project,...more »
Posted on April 25, 2008 10:25 AM
What's The Big Idea?
In response to Blake, the good news is that our recent foreign policy disaster has boiled Jacksonianism down to its core base of supporters. Often when I hear people attribute right-wing views to the American public (except maybe on...more »
Posted on April 25, 2008 10:16 AM
Saving The Security Council
...will be really hard. I agree with Matt that reforming the UN Security Council would be "desirable." Whether it's achievable, I'm not so sure. This one goes in my if-I-could-wave-a-magic-wand category. If we could accomplish it by magic, I'd...more »
Posted on April 23, 2008 9:22 AM
Radical Doubt
With all due respect to Dan K, the debate about first principles is highly relevant to the content of policy, even if it leaves open key questions about hard cases. First of all, the policy of the last seven...more »
Posted on April 22, 2008 12:04 AM
For The Good Of The Order
First off, we needed this book, and Matt has done us a service in writing it so well. So thanks, Matt, for dealing with the root questions -- what does it really mean to be the superpower, what wrong...more »
Posted on April 21, 2008 3:02 PM
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On a longer time horizon, in a world of rising powers, the current composition of the central international political organ is not sustainable. We're agreeing to an unprecedented extent; I'm going to start getting disoriented.
Posted at April 23, 2008 2:35 PM in response to Saving The Security Council
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If we didn't have so many more things to do, I would want to go for it. I'm very sympathetic to Japan, India, Brazil's cases for UNSC membership, and L-20 or something like it is my answer. Looking at the list of FP priorities: deliberate withdrawal from Iraq, improving the situation in Afghanistan, re-doing detainee policy, rebuilding the State Department an USAID, talks with Iran, nuclear reductions and nonproliferation, global poverty reduction. Security Council reform doesn't make the cut.
Posted at April 23, 2008 1:14 PM in response to Saving The Security Council
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Actually, I agree wiith Dan about how much broader the current agenda is, or should be, and the importance of challenges other than what we've been focusing on. I would be more than happy to talk about other issues besides the use of force, but the question of intervention and preemption seemed to be exerting gravitational pull on the discussion.
I'm not sure what to make of our respective positions on the role of norms in the international community. On the one hand, Dan says that a desire to be seen on the side of justice and benevolence doesn't really factor into leaders' decisions and actions. But then he describes how self-interest serves as the basis for an alignment among powers that rationally (rather than morally) lays the ground for a stable and functioning world community / order. I guess we're differing over whether this is a purely pragmatic calculation, or whether it's driven at all by a desire to occupy the moral high ground.
Posted at April 22, 2008 2:50 PM in response to Radical Doubt
