RECOMMENDED READING
Dr. Barnett – ” Transcript of my Esquire interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld” This post is 100 % vintage Rumsfeld. A must read.
Collounsbury on what I would call Hughes of Arabia. Amusing and informative – even pretty merciful for Col.
Matt McIntosh on ” The Marginal Futility of Austrian Economists“. Aside from Matt’s usual thoroughness with intellectual topics, I’m just pleased to see someone who is not a nut discussing von Mises seriously.
Information Processing on ” Hedgehogs, foxes and Feynman” . Dr. Von should like that one.
PLS at Whirledview on the death of al Majal ” Killing the Goose That Spoke Arabic“. A superb post.
That’s it.
Addendum: Title of Matt’s post is corrected. Curses to lingering dyslexic brain snafus !!!
September 30th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
It’s okay, you can blame the error on the power of puns to temporarily incapacitate one’s brain. đŸ˜‰
September 30th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
Well, I have no reason as of yet to go to town on Hughes. It sounded like a honest go at the problem getting off on the wrong foot because bloody State department politicos don’t like to listen to MENA expertise and like their own self-dealing fantasy stories.
Hughes might break out of that.
Or might not.
October 1st, 2005 at 1:58 pm
Hey Col
Hughes is a good message-builder – in an American context.
Whether she can make the jump intellectually to other culture will depend on her ability to internalize certain major precepts so that she won’t make clueless gaffes while going through her scripted performance. More than just listening to specialists but actually learning something along the way.
Secondarily, public & cultural diplomacy policy cannot be built on any one person, however talented, it needs to be an institutional strategy. It’s not very expensive to do the right way either. One more good example on how Congress has cost us a great deal in order to save a few pennies at State ( West Virginia needs another Coast Guard/Navy training station don’t you know)
October 2nd, 2005 at 12:09 pm
I very much agree and I rather expect Hughes’ team will not do as I hope, and build a team that knows how to wrap the message in the right wrapper.
And of course it is no surprise useless domestic pork trumps useful but invisibile overseas security and communications efforts. Almost a law of nature.