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A selection of photos from Bosnia, mostly just west of Sarajevo, October 2014. All Rights Reserved. See also https://govt396.com/2014/10/19/back-to-bosnia-part-1/, https://govt396.com/2014/10/22/back-to-bosnia-part-2/ and http://observers.france24.com/en/20141030-back-bosnia-electoral-observer
After 17 years away, I returned to Bosnia last week as part of the OSCE Election Observation Mission. It was in part exciting, rewarding, and disheartening.
Much was improved from 1997, to be sure. In Sarajevo, there were not tanks on the street corners. The library has reopened, and one Wednesday night in the old part of the city, Baščaršija, dozens of small and medium-sized restaurants were crowded with customers. Across much of the country there is very good mobile phone service, and in even small hotels and cafes outside Sarajevo is plenty of free Wi-Fi. Continue reading “Back to Bosnia, Part I”
Thanks to BlueForceTracker for republishing.
BlueForceTracker is a useful bridge between military and civilian understandings of current events, providing insightful analysis by military personnel and veterans. But in one recent article, the prolific Nolan Peterson skips a couple of important items.
In “Yes, countries with McDonald’s do go to war with each other,” Peterson effectively identifies human nature as a source of interstate conflict. He joins classical realists like Clausewitz and Hans Morgenthau, and Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes before them. As a military pilot, diplomat, and journalist, Peterson has seen more of human nature’s dark sides than most people. But he omits some of the important parts of the framework – the “McDonalds peace” – in which he structures his argument. Continue reading “Casus belli”
A summit of leaders from churches across the Middle East began today (Sept 9) in Washington, with representatives from Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Melkite Greek Catholic, Chaldean, Antiochian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Assyrian Church of the East, and more. It continues Sept 10-11.
The format of the opening prayer service was apparently one which was last done by St John Paul II in 1987, and had never been done in the United States. It was based on 3rd and 4th century customs, and in several languages.
The messages were simple, and clear: history divides us but faith [and desperation?] unites us; we must fight the most difficult way: with love; when in doubt, follow the Golden Rule. The homily was one from St John Chrysostrum: you are the salt of the earth and St Matthew calls you to work for the whole world. Continue reading “In Defense of Christians”
Last year, President Obama supported the idea of two-year law school programs. This past May, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia railed against two-year law school programs (compared to the traditional three years). He argued that two years is not sufficient for training for the profession of law, but treats law school instead like a trade school.
This week, liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seconded Scalia’s motion, using essentially the same language:
Two years—it does reduce the respect, the notion that law is a learned profession. You should know a little about legal history, you should know about jurisprudence. [Two years] makes it more of a craft like the training you need to be a good plumber.
Not sure why she thought to make a crack against plumbers. Time and US News and World Report say the average plumber makes about $50,000 per year – not much less than a local prosecutor or public interest lawyer. Moreover, Time notes that a good plumber in Cincinnati with seven years experience can make $100,000 or more.
In any case this gives us a chance to mention the Notorious R.B.G. tumblr. Just because we can.
Thanks to Geopolitical Monitor for publishing this short intro to what’s going on in and around northern Iraq.
Whatever language you use – observers, air support, trainers – President Obama is sending the American military back to Iraq.
But the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) is not like the rest of Iraq….
… With difficulty and 
errors, but with determination, they have tried to build the foundations for a peaceful, prosperous, and even democratic society. They have protected their own people, their minorities, and refugees. After years of successfully attracting international investment, and even tourists, they now need the rest of the world more than ever.
More on Geopolitical Monitor…
As students return to their universities this month, and as many leave the bubble of high school for the first time, health officials are offering lessons about globalization and public health.
American University explains that it has students from around the world and scholars that travel the world, including West Africa. It offers a basic explanation that Ebola is difficult to transmit, and a link to the relevant CDC web page.
American University’s Associate Professor Susan Shepler spent this summer in Ebola-affected Sierra Leone and Liberia. A scholar on youth and conflict, she offers some advice about Ebola.
Don’t need to comment on this, except to say how much fun it will be asking students to find their own irony, allegory, or applications of global political economy theory….
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/shark_cable/?mbid=social_twitter
With back-to-school timeliness, Slate posts an excerpt from the new book by William Deresiewicz, asking What do students want? He concludes that they want a mommy and daddy. Well, not exactly. More precisely, he offers that students “crave” mentorship, validation, and connection from “parental figures other than their parents.” Elaborating:
…there are two things, above all, that students want from their professors. Not, as people commonly believe, to entertain them in class and hand out easy A’s. That’s what they retreat to, once they see that nothing better is on offer. What they really want is that their teachers challenge them and that they care about them. They don’t want fun and games; they want the real thing. Continue reading “What do students want?”
You know how your phone works on wifi, everywhere? You don’t care what kind of wireless router Starbucks or the airport or your office has, or who their ISP is. And those places don’t care if you have an iPhone or Android, or who your carrier is. Imagine if you could only call other people that had an iPhone, or only people on Verizon?
WiFi works with everyone because of an 1997 agreement, or standard, called IEEE 802.11. All the relevant parties agreed to make their stuff work with each other. Now, as we move toward an Internet of Things, they will be many more players. Will they lay nicely together? IEEE Spectrum investigates.
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