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Trump, Israel, and the Security Council: Fiasco
The fiasco of the Security Council’s resolution on Israeli settlements in the West Bank was a fitting end to 2016. It featured lots of what’s wrong with the world today. Here is my take.
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There Is No Salvation In The Electoral College
In my post on the electoral college a few weeks ago, I gave a little bit of the historical background, including a reference to Federalist 68, in which Alexander Hamilton described the college as, more or less, a group of wise men who could be relied on to exercise sound judgment and ensure that no……
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Remember the Melians
Remember the Melians? Melos was a city-state on an Aegean island that was besieged by Athens in the Peloponnesian War. During the siege, the Athenians and the Melians held a parley, which Thucydides dramatized in his History. Thucydides’ dialogue is one of the urtexts of realism in international relations. The Athenians gave the Melians an……
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Sneak Attack!
For a long time, President-elect Donald Trump has long made it clear that he views unpredictability in foreign policy as a virtue and a strength. At a recent rally in New Hampshire, Trump promised his supporters a foreign policy that neither they nor America’s enemies could ever anticipate. “I want to be unpredictable,” Trump declared.……
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Letters Blogatory’s Trump Listening Tour
A conservative blog called MercatorNet (“Navigating Modern Complexities”) was kind enough to repost my post-election reflections, where I focused on the need to reach out and listen to Trump supporters. Well, some Trump supporters, and some conservatives who did not vote for President-elect Trump, took the time to respond, for which I’m grateful. I think……