INSTANT HISTORY
Picked up both of these on a lark on Saturday, as I cruised through Border’s with The Son of Zenpundit, who was getting some independent reader level books about Spider-Man fighting -well- some villain or other. The usual suspects.
Any thoughts from readers as to how high these tomes merit being placed on the “Must read” pile ? I’m currently innundated with things to read, so prioritizing is a must.
ARABISM, NATION-STATES AND ISLAM
This should intrigue readers with a range of research interests and disciplinary perspectives. Reading it right now as I post.
Dr. Christine Helms – “Arabism And Islam: Stateless Nations And Nationless States” (PDF)
Hat tip to Colonel Lang.
RECOMMENDED READING
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday…where blog reaction is the attraction!
Sean Meade – “Catch-22“
Sean puts away his proofreader’s blue pencil and dons the Hat of Literary Criticism to make an (accurate) point about generational zeitgeist.
Global Guerillas – “ON OPEN SOURCE GUERRILLA VANGUARDS“
Great theory post by John Robb. I’d say that the Maoists exploited a latent crisis of legitimacy rather than created one “ex nihilo”. Both the Chinese Communists and the Kuomintang were a reaction against the collapse of the Q’ing and the inability Yuan Shih-kai and various warlords to step into the breach. The history of China from the Boxer Rebellion to Mao’s triumph in 1949 was a laboratory for questions of 4GW, state-building, state failure, foreign intervention, guerilla warfare theory, counterinsurgency and many of the issues with which statesmen and military commanders are wrestling with in Iraq.
Shane and Curtis at Dreaming5GW – “5GW in Clausewitz’s Trinity” and “John Robb: “On Open Source Guerrilla Vanguards”
Respectively, Shane is expanding on the exchange here over Fabius Maximus and Curtis delves into the above post by John. Speaking as a historian, what we know about about Soviet and American decision-making during the Cuban missile crisis offers a serious caution regarding game theory assumptions of rationality. Excomm was an exercise in attempting rationality but the “fog of war” was so dangerously opaque as to render such intentions almost moot. The problem of information was redoubled on the Soviet side due to the nature of the Soviet system and Khrushchev’s political conflicts within the Presidium
Dave at The Glittering Eye – “Obama’s Proposal to Break the Impasse on Iran (Updated)“
Dave gives his trademark serious evaluation to Senator Obama’s proposal to give a presidential-level investment in diplomatic talks with Iran and he’s right about Obama’s monocausal explanation of Iranian behavior.
While I am in favor of serious diplomatic negotiations withIran, I’m not crazy about a foreign policy neophyte like Obama a) taking a personal, presidential, lead in negotiating strategy – that’s what the secretary of state is for when the president is green; and b) staking a brand-new administration’s prestige on the outcome of negotiations with as difficult and hostile a diplomatic adversary as the Iranians. We don’t need to unilaterally ratchet up the pressure on ourselves for a deal when enough real-world, strategic concerns abound.
Dan of tdaxp – “Automaticity (Automation of Schemata)”
Dan’s research is investigating a crucial cognitive process, one without which we’d have been hard-pressed to have gotten out of the stone age.
Shlok has been published in Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review with an article on Naxalite Rage ( no link). Congrats, Shlok !!
CKR – “The Strategery Article“
Cheryl Rofer identifies strategic paralysis at the heart of the Bush administration, for which she blames the president. I agree, though for different reasons. One reason would be the self-crippling, insularity of the information-flow around Mr. Bush and his key advisers (which ultimately, is also Bush’s fault. A president pretty much gets the national security process he really wants to have). Only part of this distortion is ideological, much of it is court politics to keep control of the king’s ear, so to speak. Hadley’s origins as a national security expert, for example, were in the Kissingerian-dominated Ford administration, yet he reputedly leads the pack to “shoot the messenger” on Iraq, among the inner circle.
That’s it!
BEOWULF
John Malkovich, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie. Hmmmmmmmmm…….
MORE 4GW
Wolf Pangloss has a series of interesting posts on 4GW and information operations that readers might care to consider in light of the discussion that has ensued in the comments section of the post on the strategic analysis of Fabius Maximus. Wolf’s posts are:
4GW Jihad and the role of the World Media
Zenpundit is a blog dedicated to exploring the intersections of foreign policy, history, military theory, national security,strategic thinking, futurism, cognition and a number of other esoteric pursuits.
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