THE BLOGOSPHERE’S VON CLAUSEWITZ REVIVAL
The literary kriegsherr is enjoying a bit of a revival lately:
“An Interview with Martin van Creveld” by DNI ( compared here with Sun Tzu)
” Clausewitz and War” by Teflon at Moltenthought
“God of War” by Younghusband at Coming Anarchy
A classic does not go out of style it seems.
GLOBALIZATION AND WAR REBUTTAL AND COMMENTARY: CURTIS WEEKS
This is not a rebuttal per se of the roundtable but Curtis Gale Weeks of Phatic Communion weaves in a number of economic, political, cultural and philosophical questions related to globalization and American foreign policy that readers may find his post intriguing and challenging.
Link Preface:
“The Gaps in Globalism
by Curtis Gale Weeks
Globalism continues to be a hot topic, with reason. Most of the flux currently being experienced, throughout American society but also worldwide, is a result of the conflict of paradigms brought about by the growing connectivity that slices across these paradigms.
“Probably the most common use of the word paradigm is in the sense of weltanschauung. For example, in social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. Social scientists have adopted the Khunian phrase “paradigm shift” to denote a particular social phenomena rather than what was originally meant by Khun’s study on the practices and development of science. Even occultists, notably chaos magicians, use the term – to describe a shift in personal belief systems concerning magic (magic theory).
Some language purists feel that among “business philosophers” and advocates of any type of change whatsoever, the term paradigm is so widely abused that it bears no meaning whatsoever. Some believe it should be abolished from the English language, and formal studies of this show it as one of the most disliked words in English. “
[Webster’s Online Dictionary: Rosetta Edition]
The looseness of the term paradigm is probably a reflection of something much deeper — as well as the general dislike of the term. Phatic Communion reader Anne suggested in a recent comment on another post a simmering conflict between relativists and moralists, which might account for the flux or at least be a symptom of the flux we are currently experiencing: The looseness of the term is advocated by relativists; the support of strong paradigms (as explanations, motivations) is common among moralists even if they do not use the term.
Controlling, overarching systems either shape society or are shaped by society; or, both. The degree to which we may control the creation of these systems is hotly debated, as is the configuration of whatever systems may be created or modified (if any; extreme relativists and extreme moralists do not seem to believe we can do either.)
For the purpose of this entry, I’ll utilize the term paradigm to signify the various modes by which the world and world events are viewed and explained — although I don’t expect to use the term very much beyond this opening. Suffice to say that
Favorite paradigms represent static worldviews, and
The current flux occurs because differing paradigms are coming into conflict at a high rate, and
Although new paradigms may ultimately form during this process of flux, I will question whether the current flux will or should ultimately resolve into a final paradigm or collection of paradigms. (Although, given my penchant for meandering thought, I might not do so in so many words.)
——————————————————————————–
Flux: a result of the conflict of paradigms brought about by the growing connectivity that slices across these paradigms.
A return to the word, flux.
The term actually comes from the Latin for flow even if it is not always used to denote a flowing environment. The paradox is key. The scientific use of the word often represents a rate of flow of particles or energy; and, the idea that a rate can vary, causing and/or caused by various changes in substance, leads to the common idea of change for the term flux. We may translate this idea for use in understanding world paradigms — or, world views — and the present conflicts brought about through changing rates of connectivity. Various levels of insularity in the past limited the cultural, intellectual, and economic flow between different sets (or, sects) of world views, which in turn led to standardized and accepted modes of interaction, or the flow of these things between the parties. With an increased complexity of interactions, or of networking between parties — or of flow between parties — various paradigmatic elements began to also flow between parties at a greater rate. This has led to a destabilization of static world views. Taking again from the scientific view, we might consider what happens when new data is introduced which conflicts or modifies prior knowledge of a given event or substance: controversies occur at first, then new models are created to account for the new information, and these models persist until another introduction of new and controversial data arrives to upset that model. With greater connectivity between societies (and even, within societies), static world views also undergo such perturbations; and, with the increase in the rate of information being transmitted between societies, the cognition loop of controversy — remodeling — stasis cycles at an increasing rate.
Importantly, when considering whole societies ….”
PONDERING THE MEANING OF THE MUJAHIDAAT
Defense and The National Interest has a fairly regular though anonymous contributer
“Fabius Maximus” who reacted to this report on female suicide bombers by the Jamestown Foundation with this commentary(PDF).
FM has a 4GW analysis on female Islamist suicide-bombers which he ties rather nicely to the unsavory but expedient Gap practice of press-ganging child-soldiery into various rebel armies. FM is treating the phenomenon of the ” mujahidaat” as a natural evolution in military practice resulting from the disintegration of the rule-sets that govern such things as wars and nation-states.
Fabius Maximus may be correct in his reading. On the other hand, enlisting women into combat has seldom been the tactic of the winning side in a war – instead it usually keeps the conflict going until the damage to the side employing women becomes irrevocable. The Israeli experiment with female combatants in 1948 was so bad as to have never been repeated. Enlisting the entirety of its population did not save Paraguay in the Paraguayan War of 1864-1870; instead Paraguay lost more than half its total population ( and 98 % of its men) and it never really recovered. The ferocity of Germanic and Gaullish tribesmen -including their women – only inspired the Romans to undetake decimatory pacification campaigns.
Much like Robert E. Lee’s 11th hour proposal to free and arm the slaves to replenish the ranks of the Confederacy, that the Islamists are now reaching for female suicide bombers to attack wedding receptions bodes poorly for their cause.
U.S.-RUSSIA MOVE TO CORNER IRANIAN HARDLINERS ON NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The United States, Russia, the IAEA and other major powers moved toward establishing an international nuclear fuel bank that would remove any legitimate need for Iran or any other non-nuclear state to reprocess nuclear fuel – a step that can be used for both nuclear reactors as well as to make nuclear warheads.
“Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN nuclear monitor, said on Monday he had won commitments from the US and Russia for an initiative to create an international nuclear fuel bank. He said only such an international approach could resolve the problem of countries being able to develop a nuclear bomb through their own development of the fuel cycle.
“You can’t target one country,” he told a Washington conference hosted by the Carnegie think-tank, referring to international pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Mr ElBaradei said he was «very close» to being able to establish an assured supply of nuclear fuel, under IAEA management, within the next year.
The US made a commitment in September to supply 17 tonnes of highly enriched uranium that would be blended down to 290 tonnes of lightly enriched fuel. Russia would also give material from dismantled weapons.
Japan ’s multi-billion-dollar nuclear facility, to be built at Rokkasho, could also become part of a global fuel bank system, he suggested.”
While Iran’s regime can be expected to balk at this alternative given that their nuclear program is obviously and primarily for the acquisition of nuclear weapons, establishing this kind of bank erodes the “plausible deniability” for the mullahs for even the determinedly gullible in the West.
RECOMMENDED READING
Just two tonight, despite a backlog of excellent posts to tackle. Sometimes less is more.
Bruce Kesler’s ” From Every Mountain Top Let Freedom Ring” at The Democracy Project. an excerpt:
“The World Summit on the Information Society meets in Tunis this week to attempt to place the Internet under international controls.
Is freedom divisible? Less and less so, as national and individual actors have the technology and ease to slip near and across borders. Borders are less barriers today than weakening filters.
…Yesterday’s London Times quotes me, with respect to the effort to place control of the Internet under U.N. control:
“ ‘This issue, this outrageous putsch attempt, deserves an uproar heard around the world on the internet,’ wrote blogger Bruce Kesler at Democracy Project. He criticized the EU for its ties to ‘such stalwarts of smothering internet freedom as China, Cuba, Iran.’ ”
The London Times also quotes two leftist bloggers, one calling this “the US conservative spin machine turning this into a battle between the democracy-loving US Government protecting the internet from censorship from the dictators and thugs who run the UN,” and another, the leading leftist blogger Markos Moulitas of Daily Kos, saying, the U.S.’ “international belligerence” undermines the world’s faith that the U.S. should regulate a “global medium.” The U.S., unmentioned, has not regulated, but invested in and maintained a completely open forum, anathema to tyrants and those who travel alongside.”
Bruce has been beating the drum on this issue and he’s completely right – the U.N. is neither capable of governing the internet well in a technical sense or a political one – as the states most anxious for UN control are the ones most alarmed by the internet’s freewheeling nature.
I also have note that while there are a lot of smart, thoughtful and persuasive liberals in the blogosphere, Moulitas, on the other hand, is only a hop, skip and a jump from the crackpots over at The Democratic Underground. If the Bush administration were feeding the hungry, the DailyKos would find a kind word for starvation.
From Chirol ” A PNM Take on The Riots” at Coming Anarchy. An excerpt ( but click the link for Chirol’s beautiful graphic ilustration of the concepts).
“France’s minorities, living in ghettos separated from the rest of society have developed their own culture and implicit rule sets. On top of that, French law, i.e. explicit rules, according to reports, does not extend very far into these areas. Thus, we have weak enforcement of explicit rules in the form of police presence which simultaneously reinforces the growing ghetto rule-set. Thus, this violence is NOT an abberation but rather a norm in sync with the gap’s rule-set. However, it’s now spilling over into the core, instead of staying inside the gap.
Instead of concentrating on the specifics here, think back to the basic Core/Gap theory and the blueprint for action needed to connect these areas and keep them connected. Instead of thinking of poverty or radical Islam as problems, think of them as symptoms for disconnectedness. France needs to take a hard line jailing and deporting who they can, but at the end of the day, their job is to connect these ghettos and like Barnett said, the boys aren’t coming home. Granted we aren’t talking about soldiers here, but his point stands that a sustained effort over a long period of time will be necessary to increase the “flows” and ultimately connect France’s gap.”
Chirol has out-Barnetted Barnett !!
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