Politics inhibiting science

 Posted by  Disasters and Tragedies, Europe, Foreign Policy, Israel and Palestine, Middle East  3 Responses »
May 302006
 

The largest academic group in England has called for boycotting the work of Israeli academics because of disagreements with Israeli occupation policy. For the moment, lets leave aside personal beliefs about whether Israeli policy ought to be condemned (and why Israel is singled out as opposed to other countries with considerably worse human rights records).

This means, that if a biochemist makes a discovery about how proteins work, the scientific community should ignore it. If an engineer develops a faster microchip, the designs shouldn’t be published. If an art historian develops an interesting juxtoposition of Arab and Israeli art forms which might be used to promote peace, forget it. Because an academic happens to be working in Israel (and Israel has some of the top universities in the world) they are to be considered persona non grata.

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American Hegemony

 Posted by  Central and Southern Asia, East and S.E. Asia, Europe, Foreign Policy  No Responses »
Apr 202006
 

In case you hadn’t heard, Chinese President Hu Jintao is meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office this morning. As one might expect, this has ignited the usual chorus of people concerned that the United States is losing its competitive edge, or that China is becoming a global threat, or that they will soon be more powerful than us. So I thought this would be a perfect time to remind everyone out there about two key facts:

Fact #1: The United States will not remain the most powerful country in the world, either economically or militarily, forever.

Fact #2: No other country in the world will catch up to us any time soon.
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Nuclear Proliferation

 Posted by  Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Europe, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism  3 Responses »
Jan 132006
 

With all the controversy surrounding Iran and the IAEA, I thought it might be useful to talk about nuclear proliferation. Trying to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a lot like trying to contain a river after its started raining. All you can do is pile sandbags as fast as you can, but eventually one of two things will happen: either the river wins or it stops raining. Fundamentally, all it takes to develop nuclear weapons is a critical mass of intelligent people and money, both of which can be accumulated over time. Which means that, as much as the United States, the IAEA, and anyone else wants to prevent proliferation, if a country has the patience and the desire, all we can really do is delay the inevitable. So, with that in mind, here is a list of the current nuclear powers in the world:
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Knowing is Half the Battle…

 Posted by  Europe, Foreign Policy, Judicial System, Terrorism  No Responses »
Dec 062005
 

Condaleeza Rice was in Germany today, trying to defuse European complaints about America’s handling of the “War on Terror”. She once again asserted that the CIA policies of rendition and of operating secret prisons in Eastern Europe were reasonable and useful policies that make the world a safer place, and once again asserted that the United States does not torture. More importantly, however, was what Secretary Rice did not say; specifically, she declined to refute comments made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the United States had admitted making a mistake when it rendered and held Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen, for five months upon suspicion of working for al Qaeda. Instead, Ms. Rice simply made oblique references to the fact that all policies, even useful ones, are fallible.
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Disarming the IRA

 Posted by  Europe, Foreign Policy, Terrorism  1 Response »
Sep 252005
 

So much of what we read about in the news and talk about on this blog is negative, so its a nice change of pace when I can talk about something good. This morning I was quite pleased to read that the Irish Republican Army has completed disarmament. The IRA hasn’t received much media attention lately, what with Al-Queda running rampant and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there was a time not to long ago when the IRA was one of the most feared terror organzizations. The fact that its violent time has apparently passed is great news for the world. The question now is to see if we can learn from the lessons of peace coming out of Northern Ireland, and apply them to Israel, Chechnya, and other terror hot spots around the world.

Kudos to all involved in the Northern Ireland peace process.

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