Posts tagged as:

security

Defence Policy, International Security and the Military: Time to Talk

May 16, 2011

South of the border, there have in recent years been a growing number of voices expressing serious concern over the militarization of American life.
I certainly share that sentiment.
Is an F-16 fly over and trooping the colours  really appropriate for the opening of the Super Bowl?
The USA is apparently becoming the Praetorian pole in an increasingly  [...]

Read the full article →

Cairo Burning: Implications for the Defence vs. Diplomacy Debate

February 4, 2011

The following commentary, based in part on my “Ferment in North Africa” entry, was posted by the University of Southern California’s Public Diplomacy Blog 02 February:
This is one of those rare, defining moments in world history. In Egypt – as well as Tunisia, Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere – change is unfolding at [...]

Read the full article →

Looking Forward, Looking Back: Cautionary Vignettes

January 17, 2011

The outset of a new year, and indeed, of a new decade, is as good a time as any to pause and reflect.  As far as I can determine, the roiling, whirling forces of globalization which have been dominant for at least twenty years continue to cut all ways.
Consider, for instance, this initial sampling:

Long-serving Tunisian [...]

Read the full article →

A Role for Science Diplomacy? Soft Power and Global Challenges – Part I

November 15, 2010

Readers of Guerrilla Diplomacy will know that in that volume I argue that if development is the new security in the age of globalization, then diplomacy must displace defence at the centre of international policy.
Were policy-makers to accept this formulation, then diplomacy, and in particular public diplomacy (PD), would be placed front and centre in [...]

Read the full article →

Diplomatic Surge? Part II – The things we carry

February 22, 2009

I would attribute the running down of diplomacy in recent years to a trio of developments related to the carry-over from the Cold War of certain habits of mind, or intellectual baggage, which have been hoisted into the globalization age from the preceding era. In a nutshell, in the face of the complex threats and [...]

Read the full article →