Second Time A Tragedy (Like the First)

Second Arab Spring? Not Quite, Newsday, April 14, 2019. "There is a second Arab Spring in the air in North Africa. In Algeria and Sudan, two of the most miserably repressive dictators on the African continent have fallen to popular protests. That sounds hopeful — but we know the catastrophes the first Arab Spring brought after 2011. The second Spring promises worse."

Samatha Powers and the Hypocrisy of the Atrocities Prevention Board

Atrocities Prevention Board, One Year Later, Contentions, April 23, 2013. "It’s about as likely that the U.S. will develop the ability to predict atrocities before they happen as it is that we’ll develop the ability to predict events like the Arab Spring before they happen. It’s all too easy to make a list of places where bad things are more likely to happen: any place where government is either really strong or really weak is a contender to head the list. Nor is there any secret about where the world’s atrocities are happening today: Syria, North Korea, Iran, the DRC, and Sudan, among others. The usual suspects. The problem is not that we lack the administrative tools to recognize this. It’s not even that this administration has in practice been more interested in cozying up to Russia, downplaying radical Islamism, and kicking the can down the road in Syria and Iran, though all of that will feature heavily in the work of a future Samantha Power. It’s that these are, in Power’s own words, problems from hell, and you don’t address problems from hell with a nice, well-mannered, invisible inter-agency board."

The Other Ones

The Dictators We Forgot, Contentions, March 4, 2011. "In the face of the Middle East’s revolutions, it’s easy to believe that the world’s dictators are comprised of autocrats we worked with (Mubarak), dictators we were trying to (Gaddafi), and dangerous regimes that won’t play ball (Iran). If only. The biggest category of all is the dictators we forgot."

Qaddafi's Academic Toads

London School of Economics’ Ties to Libya the Tip of the Iceberg for Academia, Contentions, March 4, 2011. "The Director of the London School of Economics, Sir Howard Davies, has resigned after fresh revelations of LSE ties to Libya emerged on Thursday morning. The LSE was already under intense fire for taking a donation of 1.5 million pounds from Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, who studied at LSE and — it appears — may also have plagiarized his thesis."

More Good Choices at Yale

Yale Names Its World Fellows, Contentions, April 30, 2010. "Yale’s just announced its 2010 class of World Fellows, its pallid imitation of the Rhodes. Two biographies caught my eye . . . ."

The Diplomacy of Solipcism

Time for Action, Not Words, Mr. President, Yorkshire Post, November 4, 2009. "What, in the year since he was elected, has Barack Obama actually done? Making speeches doesn't count. It's certainly part of the President's job to make them, and he's not disappointed. According to CBS News, in mid-July – and less than six months after his inauguration – he gave his 200th speech, and, if anything, the pace has only accelerated since then. But it's a cardinal error to mistake giving speeches for getting things done." This op-ed was written in my personal capacity.

The UN Teaches A Lesson In Sudan

When Disarmament Equals Death, Contentions, July 11, 2009. "David B. Kopel, the Research Director of the Independence Institute, and two of his colleagues related a fascinating and depressing story about the disarmament process in Sudan. In 2005, the U.S. brokered the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which is supposed to devolve most power in southern Sudan to an autonomous government. Part of this process was the disarmament of civilians, and of militias that were not to be incorporated into the Sudan People’s Liberation Army."