For almost two centuries, rationality has been a central postulate of social sciences. There are various ways to determine whether a certain behavior is “rational”, but, in general and at least since Enlightenment, we think one is acting “rationally” if one tries to maximize one’s own “utility”. Like Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, this highly rational being, the homo economicus, free from...
Here is the latest from InTrade on the likely continued GOP control of the Senate and House. Both graphs (click to enlarge) reflect the buy/sell price from 10/05/05 to 10/24/06 for continued GOP control following the mid-term elections. The money appears to favor continued Republican control of the Senate, but strongly favor Democratic control of the House. ...
Phil Carter, who contributes to one of the smartest military blogs over at Intel-Dump, speculated about the recent announcements regarding possible changes to the security situation in Iraq. Here is what Carter suggests: I'm still trying to figure out why, after so many statements that we were succeeding, the U.S. would decide to say that we needed a course correction....
Today October 24th is United Nations Day, the anniversary of the United Nations Charter entering into force in 1945. I have to admit I was ignorant of this holiday until just now. I might support it if we can get the day off, but I am unaware of any events around here that mark this date. In any event, here...
An increasingly common IL curricular offering in law schools comes in the form of a workshop series, with students enrolled for credit. This is a great format, around for probably a decade now but proliferating in the last two or three years. I co-hosted one last year at UGA with Dan Bodansky (the line-up here), and will be...
The blogosphere is abuzz about the Republicans' latest attempt at fearmongering, an homage to LBJ's classic "Daisy" advertisement. Here's how CNN describes the ad, which is entitled "The Stakes": The ad features al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, speaking, but the only sound is a ticking clock in the background. The terror leaders'...
Last week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, John Dugard, presented his report to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the United Nations General Assembly (the Committee's account of his presentation can be found here and a draft if his report here). Dugard's mandate is somewhat odd....
The news that Jan Pronk, the UN Special Envoy for Sudan, was no longer welcome in Sudan raises important issues about the authority and wisdom of diplomats who give public expressions of their personal views. Jan Pronk's blog is quite good, and offers frank, personal insights about the ongoing crisis in Sudan. But on October 14, 2006 Pronk got...
Sticking with the munitions theme, Israel reversed course today and admitted that the Israeli Defense Forces have used white phosphorus against Hezbollah military targets. Previously, Israel had claimed that the IDF had used the weapon only to mark targets or territory, uses generally pemitted by international humanitarian law (IHL). Israel continues to deny allegations — made repeatedly...
Human Rights Watch continues to investigate war crimes committed by both Israel and Hezbollah. In July, the organization reported on Israel's indiscrimate use of cluster munitions in Southern Lebanon. Now HRW has released a report detailing Hezbollah's use of similar munitions against Israel — attacks that are, according to the organization, "at best indiscriminate, i.e., they violated the...
The government of Sudan has announced that it will expel Jan Pronk, the senior United Nations official there, for what he has written on his blog. My first reaction was “UN officials have blogs?” (Actually, I am struck by this—it used to be that diplomats shunned attention, now public diplomacy is becoming a crucial part of modern diplomatic strategy.) But...
A few days ago I had a very lively discussion with a senior disarmament specialist, someone involved for quite a long time with efforts to stop nuclear proliferation. Of course, the North Korean nuclear test was the spark. It was the classical discussion where one sees the glass half-full and the other half-empty. He claimed that the North Korean blast...
