Remember, Remember, the 5th of November

Today is Guy Fawkes Day, which I’m ok with ignoring, since he was 1. British and 2. possibly a terrorist.  But it did remind me of an entry I wrote for a blog I had before this one, We Are Publius.  I started it back while I was still involved in Citizens for Global Solutions because I wanted to write, because I specifically wanted to read the Federalist Papers and chronicle them, and because I thought it would be interesting to discuss federalism from a more… liberal perspective than the Federalist Society.  It was a pretty successful blog, at least in terms of my commitment to it, but it ended up being too narrow for my purposes, and I eventually switched to the EI.  Still, the work I did there, and with CGS, helped push me towards the work I’m doing now at Georgetown, and with D&S.com.  Maybe someday I’ll get back to it.

In the meantime, here’s the Guy Fawkes post.

Election Day, Nov. 3, 2009

It’s the first Tuesday in November, and over 30 states are having elections, which means that a lot of people need to vote.  If you have already, congratulations!  If you haven’t, find your election center at Rock the Vote’s site.  Vote!  Participate in the great polity we call the United States of America.

CCT 754 Blog Post: R2P and International Norms

There are many kinds of institutions – networks of relationships – today.  There are networks of both domestic and international activists, some with cross-cutting ties between the two levels.  There are the networks of state relationships – trade, security, law, culture, through institutions such as the WTO, NATO, the UN, countless formal bilateral agreements, as well as bonds of friendship and statesmanship between leaders.  On the one hand, these institutions may be said to be very effective, as they have allowed us to go 60+ years without a World War, have allowed us to respond to countless emergencies and horrors, from September 11, 2001 to tsunamis in South-East Asia.  On the other hand, these institutions have failed to enact new international norms, including environmental standards (Kyoto), common agreement over the management of oceans (Law of the Sea), or the forceful condemnation of the targeting of civilians in violent conflicts, whether with a genocidal purpose or simply to inflict mass casualties (R2P).  Furthermore, norms that once stood solidly, such as the Geneva Conventions, are now at risk as more and more states openly torture, led by the US.

CCT 754 Paper Topic

It’s getting the time of the semester that profs start requesting paper topics be chosen.  For CCT 754, I have to actually post a brief intro/outline of my paper topic, and do so tonight, which means that I should probably actually chose a paper topic.  My current top contenders are:

1. A continuation of my previous post on R2P: how does the existence (and complete failure) of the R2P doctrine stymie the international discussion on conflict intervention?
2. Under which circumstances does technology democratize international relations, especially activism, but also diplomacy?

#1 seems like a fairly straightforward (and possibly easier topic), but since it is a networks class, I’ll probably have to look at the networks of military action and international diplomacy at a bilateral and also regional/international level (NATO, UN) and then of course historical/colonial ties and how those influence current events.

#2 is a more recent, and probably farther reaching question, and one that I definitely intend to pursue, but I’m thinking that I’ll write about #1 for this semester.  R2P is a subject I’ve been struggling w for a while, and it feels good to be motivated enough by the assignment to finally begin work on it again.

So there’s my paper topic.  Now to write an actual summary of it for class….

R2P or Not(2P); That Shouldn’t Be the Question

NB: This post for CCT754 is admittedly very incomplete.  I’m working on an idea for a final paper for the class, and this post serves, not even as an introduction to that idea, but as an intro to the universe of ideas from which it comes.  I ultimately don’t think I will write about R2P, but I’ve needed to say some of these things for nearly 2 years now, and finally did.  As the topic evolves, I’ll be sure to post.

The Human Evolution Explosion

My best friend and I are attempting to put together a List of books spanning the entirety of human history, knowledge and literature. One of the potential books for the List is The 10 000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, by Cochran and Harpending.  Although I don’t agree with all of their conclusions (they actually argue more on the side that evolution advanced civilization far more than civilization advanced evolution), they make some excellent points, many of which revolve around tipping points, phase transitions, and of course, fitness landscapes and levels.  Cochran and Harpending make their argument by looking at the past, without extending it into the future, but of course human evolution will continue in starts and stops.  I think we are approaching such a time when evolution may need to make a few leaps forward in order for humans to survive.

National Press Club Presents ‘Africa’s Daughters’

“Africa’s Daughters” and “Equilibrium City,” movies that take viewers far away and close to home, will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, as part of the NPC summer film series.

“Africa’s Daughters,” a film by broadcast journalist Natalie Halpern, captures the journey of two Ugandan girls with one big dream: to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. To do that they must challenge cultural traditions and graduate high school, something nearly impossible for most African girls. The half-hour film begins at 7 p.m., followed with a filmmaker question-and-answer session until 8 p.m.

“Equilibrium City” tells the story of Baltimore developer Jim Rouse and his vision to bring racial equality to America during the height of the civil rights era by building “a new kind of city,” which became Columbia, Md.

Told through the eyes of early residents like Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize-winning author and “Spiderman 2″ screenwriter), the film explores how despite death threats, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and extreme racial unrest in the 1960s, Rouse built a city open to all Americans regardless of race, color, or creed. Columbia resident Josef Sawyer completed the film as his graduate thesis project while attending the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. The film starts at 8 p.m., with the Q&A ending at 9 p.m.

Free for all who attend. Reservations at 202-662-7501 or reservations@press.org .

Questions about the series may be directed to Press Club Events Committee members Matt Spangler at mbspangler@cox.net or Alan Bjerga at albjerga@hotmail.com .