This last weekend, on June 21, I heard both an NPR reporter and a Guardian reporter argue that the border between Syria and Iraq had disappeared, and the conflict is now a single conflict spanning both countries. Humvees which had been supplied by Americans to the Iraqi government were abandoned during their hasty retreat, and […]
I don’t post blogs often, because of my teaching and writing load. However my last post, six weeks ago, seemed prescient. There was striking evidence of the remarkably low legitimacy of the Maliki Government in the eyes of the Iraqi people. It seemed, at that time, that the entire American project in Iraq since 2003
ISIS, Kurds, Iraq, and Syria Read More »
We often discuss “neoliberalism” in the abstract, because it is a movement with so many different dimensions. Here I want to look at just a few specific points. For more than two centuries there has been a rich tradition of public complaint about government waste. But it has intensified in the U.S. since the election
What Bush bought for $2 trillion in Iraq Read More »
I really like the BBC! I often visit their news pages because they cover science and technology issues better than the New York Times. If you want to learn the latest achievement of NASA, ask the Brits… As another example of their broad-spectrum interests, a headline on their homepage asked, “Do world’s 85 richest people
Stats and the question of justice Read More »
Up to late 2011, there was relatively little discussion of drone policy and its political implications in the American popular press. Perhaps the best exception is Jane Mayer’s 2009 article in the New Yorker. However, scholars and policy analysts paid close attention to the political and legal implications of the new technology: Bergen & Tiedmann
Drones, warfare, and policing Read More »
For those of you who have read Ocean Howell’s brilliant article “The poetics of security,” one of my students in USP 470–Helen Keomany–points out that this debate continues to this day. She referred me to the 99% Invisible blog, where Roman Mars posted an article on LOVE Park in Philadelphia. Worth a read, and the video
Skateboarding as public-space use Read More »