Frank Jacobs and Parag Khanna look at new states and mutating borders of the near future in an article for the New York Times Magazine. We have stressed the permeability of national borders in class and the artificial nature of the Westphalian system, and these two authors speculate about areas where national self-determination, combined with weak states, may create a "new world."
In class, we also looked at Ralph Peters' article "A Better Middle East." Jacobs and Khanna may have read the Peters article, but their piece has an interactive map and is a fun read.
Kaplan talks to RFE about maps, geographic determinism, the Munich Analogy, Vladimir Putin - basically everything we studied in class. It's a standard (but lively) Realist approach, and Kaplan has been down this road before, but worth reading nonetheless.
What would it take to cripple Iran's nuclear weapons program? This CSIS study concludes that an Israeli attack would be little more than a nuisance. If Israel were joined by the US in a massive strike, Iran's plans could be derailed for a decade.
