International Relations, Ethnic Conflict, Civil-Military Relations, Academia, Politics in General, Selected Silliness
Not to worry, Robin, for we have multiple Bat-cakes to meet the occasion. This week, I am celebrating 60 years of ... me. I have always used birthdays and anniversaries to justify lots of movies, restaurants, and, this year, cakes. This is an especially round number marking so many things:= Leaving middle age for whatever the next thing is: late middle age? Time to start getting discounts. My…
A couple of weeks ago, I got into a running skeet spat because I argued we ought not valorize a military member for protesting the Trump administration while in uniform. I argued that the US military has long stayed out of politics, and I meant partisan politics, even though it and any govt agency, especially armed ones, are inherently political. Politics: the basic definition involves the making…
NATO issued a six paragraph communique https://www.nato.int/en/about-us/official-texts-and-resources/official-texts/2026/07/08/the-ankara-summit-declaration A big improvement over last year's? Sure, one para more. In the days of yore, I would watch folks at the expert forum side party comb through pages of paragraphs, trying to figure out what the summit addressed usually over 100 issues. Last…
I have spent the last week in London, the first time in 14 years and only the second time since my seven week experience after my junior year in college. I was here for the very first Civil-Military Relations Network workshop (or any other endeavor of our new network/grant), as Phil Lagassé is leading our Command research agenda. The workshop featured historians and political scientists, so we can…
I am in London, having finished a two day Civil-Military Relations Network workshop, our very first, on Command. Run by Phil Lagassé, it considered from many angles and all over history what it means to command a military and who has the authority and such. The moment resonated quite a bit for many reasons: that Phil couldn't get any Americans who specialize in this kind of stuff because they…
It does not take an IR scholar or an historian to note the significance of Donald Trump signing onto a "deal" with Iran while he's at Versailles, site of the treaty that temporarily ended WW1 and set up WW2. I have a few thoughts to add to this perfect illustration of how dumb and tragic this war has been: The costs here are understated: Trump alienated allies by starting this war without giving…
I have been arguing that the heart of NATO, Article V, has been dead for since January 2025. It took a while for the Europeans to believe it: Anton Hofreiter, a German lawmaker, said: “NATO’s main problem is that, as long as Trump is president, there is no longer any faith that the U.S. would come to the Europeans’ aid in the event of an emergency.” NYT This quote comes from an article discussing…
Perhaps it is unfair to call Pete Hegseth a bad faith actor since he seems to be a real believer in Christian nationalism. But many of his arguments have been of bad faith--that the standards he applies to others he does not apply to himself. That part makes him fit in really well in the Trump Administration. Much of the Christian Nationalism does as well, as Christian nationalism is far more…
Lots of stuff happening the past week or two: Canada decides to buy a Swedish plane (no, not that one), rather than the American one. Rumors have abounded of Canada cutting its F35 buy and getting 60 Gripens instead. Canada finishes the contract on the HIMARS launchers I attended a conference on Canada diversifying its defence procurement, with former military folks mostly wanting to get "the best…
I am looking for help: with the help of a fantastic RA, Alireza Mamdouhi, I have created a googlesheet to crowdsource a list of violations of American Civil-Military Relations norms by the Trump Administration. My inspiration was hearing about a panel on US civ-mil during the Trump era that concluded that it ain't so bad. Um, yeah, it is. Because so much has happened over the past 16 months, it is…
I read a terrific piece by my partner in crime (I am sure some members of some legislatures will consider our latest book* criminal due to our discussion of their, um, lack of relevance), Phil Lagassé, but took a heap of umbrage at his footnote: I dislike the term ‘expert’ when it comes to academics who study topics such as mine (defence policy or machinery of government), where practitioners are…
Yesterday was a pretty special day. Carleton's Faculty (equivalent to College of) of Public and Global Affairs held its annual award ceremony. My school, NPSIA, had two profs recognized: Lama Mourad for teaching excellence and myself for Public Commentary. I joked that hers was a quality award and mine was a quantity award--she did great and I did a lot. Lama is a terrific teacher It was great to…
The llamas were greedy but sweet. On my way home from a week plus of research and tourism in Chile. One of the things I forgot from last time is how far away Santiago is: six hours from Panama City, which is about the same from Newark. So, a long last flight here and a long first flight home on an airline that is only loosely associated with the one with which I have status. So, some minor hiccups…
The truly amazing thing of the time in which we live is that we have so much information, yet people buy the bullshit mis and disinformation. People are making incredible (as in unbelievable) claims, and people are buying them, doing so much harm. Of all of this, the most angering, the most infuriating for me has to be the anti-trans bullshit promoted by the Republican Party, JK Rowling , the New…
After three days of briefings in Manila with all kinds of sharp people, I found myself thinking about some of the bigger implications. To be clear, I am not an Indo-Pacific expert, so some of this might be common knowledge, widely accepted wisdom, or incredibly dim, uninformed stuff. But that is why this is a Semi-Spew--no lit reviews, all half-baked thinking. You let me know which ideas have…
The last day of this familiarization tour was perhaps the best. And not just because I finally got the french toast I had been seeking. small sat receiver for the CAF unit The first session was over at the targeting tent: four of the five eyes countries had units in a tent (ac-ed, thankfully) doing the targeting for the upcoming exercise (later this week, a very big, multilateral military exercise…
After so much travel in non-English speaking countries, hanging out in a former American colony is quite a shift in gears. I have said thank you in Portuguese and Spanish as a reflex when everyone I have encoun tered is very fluent in English. What else have I observed in my week in Manila and on the road to a volcano or 47 (yes, apparently 47 vents or volcanoes or something, I don't know the…
Today, we had a series of high level briefings, and we got a good idea of where the Philippines stands in this part of the world: on the edge of a World War. Ooops, too dramatic? The day was mostly based on two sessions--one with senior civilian folks and one with senior military officers. We then met with some think tank folks, but I was pretty tired and left early. In the first session with a…
Today was our first day of briefings in Manila. Our small team of two DND Public Affairs people, me, and a think tanker joined a group of Colonels/Navy Captains from the Canadian and other armed forces as well as civilians. That group is from the Canadian Forces College as they run an extensive end-of-the-term trip. The group hit Japan first and will be going to other places out here after they…
I knew that Japan's occupation of the Philippines was brutal, but my education of World War II history tended to be focused on Europe and the Pacific sub campaign. I got a clearer idea of what happened here in Manila 81 years ago when I was listening to the Unauthorized History of the Pacific War podcast episode on the Liberation of Manila. So, I was keeping my eyes open for memorials of that…
National park I am in Manila, capital of the Philippines, as the Canadian Department of National Defence is running a junket of experts or influencers or whatever I am to learn about the new headquarters they are standing up for a three star officer and to get a better understanding of the Indo-Pacific. To be clear, the flight, hotel, and much of the food is on me and the other participant. This…
Yesterday, April fools day, the Canadian Defence and Security Network helped the Embassy of Türkiye hold an event about the future of NATO. Türkiye is the host of the next NATO summit (if it happens, see my next post), and they wanted to have an event in Ottawa to help set up the forthcoming event. This event happened precisely day after our seven year SSHRC Partnership Grant officially ended.…
I missed the last two meetings of the International Studies Association as I was in Berlin for a couple of winters. So, I was eager to get back to the ISA and see lots of folks. Alas, it was only partly successful as a combination of events/dynamics limited the attendees: those outside of the US avoiding Trump's border police those still trying to get here denied by flight challenges in Toronto…
I don't remember all of my dreams, but last night, I had one that stuck with me. I was at some kind of event where the media* were egging on a crowd, using fear to get the m more and more angry. I popped out of a car, ran over, and started to try to jolly the crowd out of their fearful and angry mood. Both within the dream and after I woke up, I thought about fear and anger, the moment, we are in…
Canada has a base in Kuwait, a legacy of the counter-ISIS mission and part of a program having spots around the world facilitating potential operations. It got hit by Iranian missiles, and opposition parliamentarians are outraged that they were not told. Fun grandstanding, sure. But what's going on here? Yes, the government may have chosen to hide the attack because they didn't want criticism of…