THE MADMAN, THE FUTURE AND THE EYE

Important blogroll update ! Three new links to some interesting blogs that I strongly encourage you to check out:

The first is Madman of Chu by a professor of ancient Chinese history, Andrew Meyer. I stumbled upon Madman of Chu via a recommendation by KC Johnson at Cliopatria on HNN. Here’s a sample of Dr. Meyer’s writing on Iraqi Shiites:

“If Shi’a Islam is so intrinsically political, how could anyone predict that Iraq will not become a Shi’ite theocracy? The chief historical example appealed to by predictors of a future “Iraqi theocracy” is that of Iran. In Iran in 1979 the utopian impulses of Shi’a Islam burst forth into violent fruition, resulting in the founding of the world’s first Islamic republic. Given that the Shi’ite clergy of Iran have so clearly blueprinted the political trajectory of a Shi’a revolution, why would anyone doubt that the same thing would happen in Iraq under the right conditions?

The answer is simple. Such “right conditions” will never come, because the very powerful hold of Shi’ite ideology upon Iraqis will always exist in irresoluble tension with the equally powerful hold of Arab nationalism. The nature of Shi’a jurisprudence and the Shi’a ulama preclude the Iraqi Shi’ite community from disaggregating itself from that of Iran. The Shi’a ulama are not a sacramentally sanctioned heirarchy like that of the Roman Catholic Church, they are a consensual community held together by appeal to precedent and tradition. The jurisprudential procedures adhered to by the Shi’a ulama rely upon a broad body of learning, decisions and precedents akin to the Jewish Talmud. Just as with the Jewish Talmud and rabbinate, the expansive community of Shi’a ulama that produced and continues to interpret this ever-widening body of jurisprudential lore does not recognize political boundaries, it flows freely over the national frontier seperating Iraq from Iran. The two great centers of Shi’a learning (which house the institutions that set the standards of training and accreditation for the global “Twelver” Shi’a ulama) are Najaf in Iraq and Qom in Iran. Virtually all Shi’a ulama of any stature have studied in both centers of learning (Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini spent most of his formative years in Najaf, while Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani spent his in Qom). The Iraqi Shi’a ulama are thus all deeply enmeshed in networks of patronage and authority that tie them inexorably and inseperably to their counterparts in Iran (and vice-versa). ”

My second nod goes to Marc Shulman’s The American Future, like Zenpundit, The American Future is centered on foreign policy and politics. Here’s a sample of Marc tackling the reasoning of Senator John Kerry:

“The bottom line is that Kerry is a convinced multilateralist. During the debate, he reiterated his position that he would never let other countries exercise a veto over actions undertaken to safeguard our national security. Iraq was a national security issue; disgreements were over how grave and imminent a threat it represented. This raises a profound question: in a Kerry presidency, how grave and imminent would a threat have to be for him to dispense with his natural multilateralism in favor of unilateral U.S. military intervention?”

An important question that no one is likely to ever see Kerry have to answer unless he consents to be interviewed on FOX or if Bush raises it himself in a subsequent debate.

Last but far from least is the well regarded blog The Glittering Eye by fellow Chicagoan, Dave Schuler whose perceptive observations have been appearing in my comments of late ( I’m still chasing down the psycho-epistemological implications of Diglossia on the Arab-Islamic world). Here is Dave’s take on the shallowness of the recent presidential debate:

“But of all of the omissions the one that bothered me the most was China. China was mentioned only as an appendage to the discussion of the North Korean situation.

China is the most populous nation on earth, a major trading partner and competitor, a major nuclear power, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council i.e. they have a veto.

So let me list some of the reasons that China should be getting a lot more attention.

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