Fascinating BBC piece on Somalia

Go here for "Somalia: Ten Things We've Learnt"

Readings on globalization, population dynamics, and environmental issues

For Tuesday's class, we will cover natural resources and globalization - two big topics. We could devote one entire course to globalization alone, for instance. At least we will try to cover the major topics as well as some fascinating case studies.

Read one or two articles on natural resources and one or two pieces on globalization

Natural resources: Water as a resource crisis

Water may be the next big source of environmental conflict. We will look at Central Asia as a case study where fresh water is needed for irrigation by downstream countries while it is being dammed by upstream states. See this article (optional) from Radio Free Europe for an examination of the issue.

The Aral Sea has been described as "the world's number one environmental disaster." The catastrophe was not caused by globalized markets but by short-sighted planning in the former Soviet Union.

Optional: Here is a great, short article by Dave Holley of the Los Angeles Times. Dave writes about how the northern half of the Aral Sea is beginning to recover, thanks to enlightened environmental policies and a World Bank loan.

Blood diamonds, minerals, etc. A huge topic. Here are a couple of great pieces...

Required: See "The Dirt in the New Machine"which appeared ten years ago in the New York Times Magazine. The Coltan issue is still a painful one, and mining this mineral--which is in your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, etc--has fueled the African Civil War, the largest war since World War II. It is sometimes called "The Coltan War." The issue is still relevant and largely unresolved.

Resource curses, democracy, etc.

Be sure to ask about "resource curses" in class. What are they? Look into Thomas Friedman's somewhat controversial assertion that there is a negative relationship between the price of oil and democratic development - at least in oil-producing, authoritarian or semi-authoritarian states.

Required: Go here for his famous article on "petropolitics." And see one of his graphs below. Don't take it too seriously; it's an illustration designed to encourage discussion. You may have to register with scribd to read the article.

Population

I will discuss population growth at some length in class. There's already too much to read (given our schedule of meeting every day), but you might want to familiarize yourself with Thomas Malthus, especially his theory of population growth, sometimes called the "Malthusian Catastrophe" or the "Malthusian Disaster," etc. Here is a pretty good Wikipedia article on the subject. (This is optional reading.)

Female infanticide and sex-selective abortions

This is a huge problem in much of the world, including India, China, Russia, and the Caucasus.

Here is a brief guide to the issues from the BBC.

Required (if you have time): See this recent piece on the mysterious "birth ratio imbalance" in Armenia.

Readings on globalization

We will talk about the so-called "race to the bottom," which includes the scramble for cheap labor and natural resources. This too, is part of the globalization trend where corporations (and other actors) go where they can to minimize costs and maximize profits.

Required: Please read Nick Kristof's "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" which is available here. It's an eye-opening essay.

Sandmonkey on President Mursi the "human being"

Insightful, funny and sad commentary on what Mohammed Mursi has gotten himself into brought to you by Sandmonkey.

Readings on terrorism

Sunday night reading assignment:

Optional and fun: For laughs, go here for a compelling argument that many terrorists are "nitwits": http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-case-for-calling-them-nitwits/8130/

In a more serious vein, try to get a sense of a theoretical approach to suicide terrorism by reading at least one interview with Robert Pape, of the University of Chicago.

Read one of the following two interviews with Bob Pape

Either this: Interview with Robert Pape here: http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/jul/18/00017/

Or this: And here is another interview with Pape. Note his emphasis on democracies and why they make tempting targets for suicide bombers: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people6/Pape/pape-con3.html

Recommended: For an altogether different approach to understanding terrorism, go to this interview with Brian Jenkins in 2006, many years after the publication of his most seminal work. 

Optional - this is a cool piece in Wired on the "next-gen terror watchers" and their "granular" approach to understanding and combating terrorism.


Optional - This isn't assigned reading, but it's a definitive contribution to our understanding of terrorism by the always insightful Brian Jenkins. The article, a long, scholarly piece, is "International Terrorism: the Other World War," published by the RAND Corporation. Save a copy of the pdf only if you can use it in the future. 

Here is another RAND paper, published in 2006. It's a realist-oriented study of terrorism and is a valuable insight into how political scientists look at terrorism as a rational strategy. Don't bother reading it now (it's 36 pages) but it might be of use if you continue to study the topic. 

Clash of Civilizations

On Monday and Tuesday, we will discuss Samuel Huntington's provocative 1993 article "Clash of Civilizations?"

Think about these issues when you read his main essay: What is his hypothesis? How does he support his argument? What evidence does he use? Do you agree with him, or are there flaws?

On Monday morning: Read in depth the booklet "Clash of Civilizations."

It is 67 pages, but I don't expect you to read all of it. You can skip the following essays:

- The essay by Liu Binyan
- The essay by Albert Weeks
- The essay by Gerrard Piel

Apart from the other articles in the book, make absolutely sure that you read the first article on pp 1 - 25 as well as Fouad Ajami's response entitled "The Summoning," which appears immediately after Huntington's main essay.

Then definitely read Ajami's reflection on the Huntington thesis written in 2008 in the New York Times here. How has Ajami's thinking evolved over the years? Why? What arguments does he present?

Also, if there is time in the first hour of class on Monday, we may ask you to read this short but devastating critique of Huntington by Edward Said - the late, erudite English literature scholar and social critic.

Optional: If time, skim the final essay (by Samuel Huntington) including pp 62 ("Got a Better Idea?") to the end of the book.

For Monday afternoon and on Tuesday, we will apply Huntington to current "inter-civilizational" conflicts. We will look at the war in Chechnya as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh struggle between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We will also talk about ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Turkey is one of Hungtington's favorite case studies, and we will discuss Turkey in detail on Tuesday.

Optional for Tuesday:

Read this short piece by the historian Niall Ferguson in Newsweek magazine, published in late June, and compare Ferguson's main point with Huntington's thesis as well as with Ajami's comments in the final paragraph of page 29.

Oh, one more thing: On  June 22, 2012, two American Muslims were sentenced to long prison terms for threatening to kill South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone in retaliation for a South Park episode in which the prophet Muhammad was depicted in a zip-up bear suit. Remarkably, one of the defendants apologized to the court for "attempting to create a clash of civilizations." 

Op-Ed sources

You will write one Op-Ed. First draft due on Wednesday. Final draft due on Monday of the final week. I would like to see bibliographies, although real Op-Eds do not utilize them. You should use at least three legitimate (non-Wikipedia) sources. 

Op-Eds (Opinion Editorials) are guest editorials written by distinguished thinkers, former or present government officials, and other news makers. They are also written by columnists of distinction. For instance, the New York Times publishes Op-Eds not only by former government officials and Nobel prize winners, but also those written by a stable of reporters and columnists of note.

Here is a great resource for New York Times Op-Eds:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html

Scroll down to the lower right corner, where you will find a box labeled “OpEd Columnists.”

The best-known New York Times Op-Ed columnists are listed there. You can go to any of them and click on “Columns” for a new page with the latest Op-Eds by that columnist, along with a search menu for their previous Op-Eds. (For instance, you can click on “Columns” under Frank Rich, and then on the new page, you can enter “Iraq” in the search field. After you hit the “go” button, you will get all columns by Mr. Rich with the word “Iraq.”)

This is a gold mine that you should take advantage of.

I recommend Op-Ed columnists Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and David Brooks.

One very respected Op-Ed columnist and analyst is Charles Krauthammer, a fascinating fellow who is a physician, but who spends most of his time writing about world affairs.

Go here for a list of some of his Op-Eds: 

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/archive.shtml

More recent Krauthammer Op-Eds in the Washington Post are here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/charles-krauthammer/2011/02/24/ADJkW7B_page.html

Here is a very useful page of Op-Eds by faculty at the Kennedy School of Government: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/op-eds

Here is a resource for Thomas Friedman's columns: http://www.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.htm

Here are some of his Pulitzer Prize-winning articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/08/nyregion/_08commentary.1.htm?ex=1162702800&en=123c4911cffd3e26&ei=5070

Also, here is "The Daily Op-Ed," a compendium of Op-Eds from US newspapers, updated every day.

Your Op-Ed can be written on just about any topic in international politics that interests you. It should be roughly 700 words – that is about two and a half pages, double spaced. Use the word counter on your word processing application. Easy.

Do not use footnotes in your Op-Ed. The Op-Ed style is not formal enough for that. It is the sort of article that should be both readable and well-argued. You can mention a source (and certainly mention evidence supporting your argument) in your Op-Ed, but tread lightly.

So you could do it something like this:

"Surely now is the time to end the mining of dilithium in Norway. Non-toxic, synthetic dilithium is widely used in Klingon and Romulan spacecraft, and according to the Federation Dilithium Study Group, continued mining of the mineral is not only unnecessary but will lead to genetic mutations of Norwegians for generations to come."

Notice how the author worked in the reference to the Federation Dilithium Study Group but did not do it in such a way that it was plodding or overly technical – nor was a footnote used.

Oh, this is why you should never use Wikipedia as a source for a paper:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm

The above is an article by journalist John Seigenthaler, who was defamed by false information published on Wikipedia.

Ironically, Wikipedia has an article of its own on the controversy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy

Readings on ethnic clashes in Russia and elsewhere

Readings for Tuesday's class: After we get comfortable with Huntington's model, we will apply the Clash of Civilizations hypothesis to various conflicts around the world. One place where we see this is in Russia, where the government is fighting what Huntington would call a "civilizational war," but might just be a (less catastrophic) nationalist struggle. 

So take a look at one or two of the articles below that report on recent developments in Chechnya. We will also see the devastating film, "Greetings from Grozny."

When warlord Shamil Basayev was killed, the Russians (and many others in the region) breathed a sigh of relief. Here is an article by Chris Chivers at the New York Times, summarizing Basayev's life.

Here is another piece by Chivers on the Chechen premier, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Very optional: here is a recently published scholarly article on the aftermath of the war, asking if Moscow has won. It's 16 pages, and is very readable. 

And our TA Lauren will have some enlightening comments on ethnic clashes in Russia, where some Russians have targeted national minorities, a disturbing phenomenon. 

Op-Eds and presentation notes: what you should do with them

Just to make this as clear as possible: When you've finished your first and final drafts of your Op-Ed, please a) give me or Lauren a hard copy (stapled), and b) email me a copy. Use this address: karlrahder at yahoo dot com. Re your presentations: I need to see the narrative you wrote that guided your oral presentation in class. This should include at least three solid, serious, non-Wikipedia sources. 

For your Op-Eds, I don't want to see footnotes, but I do need a three or four source bibliography. Same as the presentation - solid, serious, non-Wikipedia sources.

UN gets ticked off in DRC!!

OMG! UN peacekeepers shoot back in the Dem. Rep. of Congo - finally!

Reading on Asia/Pacific

Read if time:

Robert Kaplan has written a new book, Monsoon, on this increasingly important region. Go here for the text-only version of an interview with Foreign Policy magazine.

We will discuss several states in the region, with an emphasis on ethnic groups, resource competition, and alliance formation.

The following are optional - read what you like if there is time:

China is a multi-ethnic state dominated by the Han ethnic group. Among the areas of tension are Xinjiang, home of the Uighur people, and Tibet. Here are two NY Times articles that shed light on current Tibetan attitudes. Go here for article one on Tibetans who are "fed up" with peace, and go here for a piece called "The Terrified Monks," both by Nick Kristof.

This piece on the BBC site looks at the Uighur question.

The ethnic angle is fascinating since SE Asia, for instance, is home to dozens of ethnicities and tribes. Here is the web site of the Kachin resistance group, which has been fighting a guerilla war for independence against the totalitarian Burmese government for many years.

Apart from North Korea, Burma is the most repressive regime in East Asia. Go here for an interview with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winning human rights leader who has recently been elected to Parliament in a stunning concession by the ruling military junta.

Wikileaks Syrian cable site

Here is the main page for Syrian diplomatic cables. Navigate around to get used to how searches can be carried out. And go here for a narrative from Wikileaks on the cables and their meaning.

Remember, as of early July this huge reservoir of information is just a trickle. Watch the world's best newspapers for in-depth articles on particular aspects, but it's going to take a while for this process to really get into gear: 2.4 million cables is quite a lot of information, and the total size of the inventory will be 100 times greater than the US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks earlier.

"Why Russia Supports Syria"

A no-nonsense analysis by a Russian political scientist - really hones in on the Realpolitik motives of Putin, here at the New York Times/International Herald Tribune.

"The Dictators Are Smarter Than You Think"

Go here for a review of Will Dobson's new book ("The Dictator's Learning Curve") on why dictators are not an endangered species and how they adapt.

Why Iran Should Get the Bomb

Ken Waltz, realist par excellence, on why Iran should get nuclear weapons: pretty standard "they can be deterred, and besides, it will stabilize the region" stuff. Go to the current issue of Foreign Affairs, although to get the entire article, go through the Skidmore College library site. Type in "Foreign Affairs" in the "journals" field and then choose Academic Search Elite of any other database that takes you to the current issue. 

Why the US and Russia are estranged - from Foreign Policy.

Go here for a great little thought piece by Michael Weiss today in Foreign Policy, provocatively entitled "Putin's Got America Right Where He Wants It."

Cool, quirky map source!

Wow! I just found out about Geocurrents, and if you are interested in the ways that human events can be mapped (pizza delivery, corpse transportation, "overlooked news events, Hungarian hyper-nationalism" etc, etc), you should definitely check out this site!

A good article on the meaning "appeasement" (with references to Munich, of course!)

Here is the full-on version, written by Yale historian Paul Kennedy. And here is a condensed version, written for the History News Network.

More on the Munich analogy

Had enough on the Munich analogy? Of course you haven't! 


First up are two articles on the Munich analogy and the 2008 Russo-Georgian war. This Op-Ed by a British journalist, entitled "'Munich' Shouldn't Be Such a Dirty Word," takes a careful and skeptical look at the analogy used for decades by presidents to justify going to war. Conversely, here is a letter to the NY Times from an American professor who argues that doing nothing to punish the Russians for attacking Georgia in 2008 is disturbing similar to appeasement at Munich in 1938.

And go here for an essay on the History News Network on mis-use of the analogy.


Here is an analysis by Robert Kaplan of those two favorite evoked sets, Munich and Vietnam. 

Finally, here is a New York Times piece on the use of the Munich analogy in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Russian warships headed for Syria

This is one reason the Russian government is so obdurate on the Syrian human rights issue: they have a naval base there! And now they are sending warships to Syria, just in case the west gets any ideas...

And here's another piece (June 19) on the Russian naval base from Radio Free Europe.

Things get nasty in Russia

Summer term is approaching, and I'm posting again in anticipation of Session 1 at Skidmore College. Here is the latest news from Moscow on mass protests today and sudden arrests by Russian police of opposition figures. 

Here is a guide to a few of the major opposition activists, including talk-show host Ksenia Sobchak. 

On the Middle East

On Wednesday of this week we will discuss in depth the Israeli-Palestinian issue, going back at least to the 1967 war (and actually as far back as 1948). After that, we will talk about what is going on in the Arab world today.

Note: not all of this is required reading. Once you log on and look around at, say, the BBC web site, feel free to navigate to areas that interest you. The point here is to educate yourself on two topics: Israel-Palestine and the Arab Spring. No one is an expert on the latter since it is a work in progress, so pick and choose from the reading below during study session.

For some of the articles below, you will have to register at scribd.com. Do it please.

On Israel/Palestine: first, familiarize yourself with the background.

Go here for a timeline with maps:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_israel_palestinians/maps/html/default.stm

Click on the various time periods to familiarize yourself with the chronology and how Israel and the region have changed.

For the latest information (2012), go here and navigate for various topics.

The two most important UN resolutions concerning Israel are UN 181 (which formed the Jewish and Palestinian states) and UN 242.

We will read UN 242 together in class. Please don't look it up on the web.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has a website here.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has a site here.

Required: Make sure you read this by Thomas Friedman and understand what the the "one state solution" and "two state solution" are.

Required: On the future of Jerusalem, go here for an interesting Op-Ed (scribd.com registration is required). 

On the Arab Spring: we will discuss the situation on Wednesday and Thursday.

Try to read some of the following:

Here is a great interactive timeline of the Arab Spring, courtesy of The Guardian, one of Britain's finest newspapers.

Required: Go here on the demographics of the Arab protests (good stuff on youth bulges, etc).

On the powerlessness of the US to influence events in the Arab world, read this short OpEd in the New York Times.

Facebook was crucial in starting and sustaining the Egyptian revolution. Here is an informative article from the New York Times.

Here is an Op-Ed from the Los Angeles Times on what the US response to the Egyptian revolution should be (written in February).

This article from the Atlantic does a good job of looking at Egyptian attitudes toward the Muslim Brotherhood.

Also, here is a thought-provoking piece on the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine and whether it legitimizes the NATO intervention in Libya. 

Of interest but optional: This penetrating analysis by Joshua Kurlantzick looks at what the Arab Spring really means in the context of the trend toward democracy since the end of the Cold War. Kurlantzick is a skeptic about this "trend" for good reason.

Reading assignment for Tuesday night

For Wednesday, we will begin our discussion of Russia. Our book "Russia and the Near Abroad" is almost too complete; there is a wealth of material, so for tonight, let's all try to read at least the following:

Article 2 - The Kremlin Begs to Differ

Not required, but very interesting: Article 4 - To Die for Tallinn, by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan

Article 8 - Pride and Power

Article 10 - The Incredible Shrinking People


If time read (or if not, skim) Article 11 - NATO and Russia


In general, the first 100 pages of the book consist of an admirable history of Russia, with sections on domestic life, politics, demographics, foreign relations, etc. Read the articles above, but if you have the inclination, delve into those first 100 pages. I'd recommend p 65 (starting with the Russia-Georgia conflict) to p 72 (domestic violence against women) as a good overview for the purposes of our class. You might want to skim pp 46-49 or so on Putin's authoritarianism.

Reading assignment for Monday evening July 18

Steve Walt, "Alliances..." to be distributed.

John Mearsheimer, "Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War."

Richard Haass, "The Age of Nonpolarity," to be distributed and also read the chapter on "Europe, the Second Superpower" if there is time.

If time, skim chapter 32 in your Global Issues book: Robert Kaplan, "The Revenge of Geography." But it's not required.

For Thursday, July 7

We will discuss Afghanistan as a case study of a failed state and then in the afternoon we will talk about terrorism.

Afghanistan: The US has been involved in delicate negotiations with the Taliban for some time now, with full support from the US military. Go here for a brief update.

Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic state, and the Hazaras, of Bamyan Province, are physically distinct from the Pashtuns and Tajiks and Uzbeks. Since the Hazaras are Shi'ite Muslims in a largely Sunni country, they have been the object of not just discrimination, but ethnic cleansing during the reign of the Taliban. Go here for a good overview of the Hazaras, from the National Geographic.

Here is a piece by Ben Skinner on Bamyan Province, the home of the Hazara ethnic group and of Afghanistan's only female governor.

Bamyan is where the ancient Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Go here for a video.

One of the under-reported stories out of Afghanistan is the threat posed by the increasing poppy production. Here is an amazing piece from Radio Free Europe on addiction in Afghanistan. (The RFE video can be found here.)

We will try to listen to this NPR piece on female addiction if we have time.

Three fun indexes for revolutions in the Middle East!

When political scientists (and sociologists and journalists) have too much time on their hands, they come up with inventive quantitative indexes for predicting and measuring the propensity for revolts. The Arab Spring has really fueled this sort of thing as of late. Here are the three most talked-about tools, all created since the Arab Spring.

First is the "revolting index" by Alen Mattich at the Wall Street journal. You can see it here at his blog.

Just as fun (even more so?) is Chrystia Freeland’s "uprising index" here.

The downloadable spreadsheet and narrative are here.

Note that Azerbaijan, according to these tools, is ripe for an Arab Spring-style revolution. (It's ranked the third-most likely country to revolt in Freeland's index!)

The Economist Intelligence Unit brings us a quantitative tool for predicting revolts in the Middle East only. Fun to look at, and you can change the weights of the factors by clicking on the "interactive shoe-thrower's index."

Freedom House's Least Free Places on Earth

Kinda what you'd expect: Chad, Somalia, N. Korea, Burma...

Here's what they said about S. Ossetia:

‎"When the would-be state of South Ossetia broke off from Georgia in August 2008, it touched off a brutal war between Georgia and Russia that killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands. Despite international criticism, Moscow recognized South Ossetia's independence from Georgia and proceeded with a political and economic takeover. After the war, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity replaced most of his cabinet with officials from Russia, and Russian forces barred ethnic Ossetians from entering Georgia. The conflict caused the displacement of about 26,000 people, most of them ethnic Georgians. South Ossetians face the challenges of a Russia-funded, highly corrupt elite. All NGOs in the country operate under close government scrutiny. Accusations of corruption were leveled against Kokoity and Moscow-backed Prime Minister Vadim Brovtsev in 2010."

Go here for the list.

Medvedev warns against rule "by one man"

See this brief fragment from an extraordinary speech in which President Medvedev warned that rule by "one man" is dangerous and in the past has led "to civil war."

Russian colonel who murdered Chechen girl is shot in Moscow

He had been convicted for strangling an 18 year-old Chechen girl in 2000 and after a trial was sentenced to only ten years in prison. He was released early in 2009, but this week, an unidentified assassin caught up with him and the colonel is now dead. Go here for the story.

"Anonymous" leaks 10,000 Iranian diplomatic email messages

Go here for details: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/anonymous-leaks-10000-top-secret-iranian-govt-emails/

Apparently, there is more to come from Anonymous...

Research databases at Skidmore

Skidmore College has an excellent assortment of scholarly/academic databases, accessible from the library home page. Go there at http://lib.skidmore.edu/library/index.php/researchdatabases . You will see a huge list in alphabetical order. For the most part, these links take you to research databases that are searchable. For example, you might want to write a paper on corruption under the rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Where should you begin your search? Hard to say, but use the list of good sites below. Let's say you start at Academic Search Complete. When you go there, you will see a page with search fields. So you can enter "Mugabe" and "corruption" (without the quotes) in the same field. Then click on "search."

Unfortunately, this returns only one result, an article in Time magazine. So you go back to the database page and try something else, such as JSTOR. This database has older articles, so you won't find terribly current sources. The search with the terms above yields 17 results - much better, but not great. Notice that the first one is from Foreign Affairs magazine, an excellent source. And there's a PDF of the article!

So we move on to PAIS International and enter Mugabe in the first field, then go to the field underneath and enter corruption. Why? Because this is the way to search on PAIS for two separate terms (Mugabe + corruption). And voila! 159 results! And many of them have PDFs!

A search on Project Muse with the same terms (mugabe in one field and corruption in the field below it) yields similarly impressive and recent results in journals such as the "SAIS Review" and "The Journal of Democracy."

Why do a search in the scholarly databases? Because these are the most serious and painstakingly-researched articles, by professors or journalists or others who are experts in their fields. If you can't find enough information using the links on our class blog, then go to the Skidmore database page.

I recommend these databases:

• Academic search complete
• CQ global research
• Country watch
• EBSCO Host (huge database!)
• JSTOR (very large, has PDFs)
• Lexis Nexis Academic
• PAIS International
  
• Political Handbook of the World (not scholarly articles, but good general site)
• Project Muse (good database)

Barack Obama: realist or idealist?

Steve Walt is one of America's most influential realist political scientists. And he's very readable. Steve has a blog at Foreign Policy magazine here. And last year he examined the Obama White House through the realist/idealist prism. The discussion was triggered by a visit by Joe Biden to Georgia, where President Shaakashvili opined that in America, "idealists run the show." As you might imagine, a realist like Walt disagreed. Go here for his essay.

Russian journalist's body found

Yet another sad day for freedom of speech in Russia. Go here for the BBC story about the discovery of the body of Russian journalist Natalia Estemirova, who had been covering human rights abuses in Chechnya.

UN Cartographic Service

Excellent cartographic site, a nice complement to WorldMapper and the University of Texas map library.