A Last Chance for Iran: America Should Give Diplomacy a Last Shot-While Preparing to Use Military Force (Richard Nephew)

For two decades, hawkish voices in Washington have called for the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear program. And for two decades their calls have been rejected. That is because for most of that time, the argument against military action was compelling and straightforward. Iran’s nuclear capabilities were immature. The international community was united on …

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Why South Korea Should Go Nuclear: The Bomb is the Best Way to Contain the Threat from the North (Robert E. Kelly and Min-hyung Kim)

South Korea has long relied on the United States to keep the North Korean nuclear threat at bay. Pyongyang began taking fitful steps toward a nuclear weapon during the Cold War, tested its first bomb in 2006, and today regularly issues nuclear threats against its southern neighbor. Seoul, meanwhile, shelters under the American nuclear umbrella …

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Tracking War Crimes in Sudan (Sanjana Varghese)

The perpetrators Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary — both armed by foreign powers — have spent almost two years at war, and their battle has laid waste to the country. Many tens of thousands of civilians have been killed. Close to 12 million people have been displaced. There is famine. The U.S. and the …

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An American massacre—1,200 dead (Alex J. Kay)

After Wounded Knee, before My Lai, the US Army slaughtered over a thousand men, women and children in the PhilippinesHow can a nation perpetrate atrocities yet retain the conceit that it is acting as a force for good in the world? This is the “simple question” that Kim Wagner, professor of global and imperial history …

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Francis Fukuyama, What is Development? (Stanford CDDRL)

Fukuyama, in defining the state using Max Weber’s definition, still believes that the government’s function is providing order, as Thomas Hobbes did. Yes, maintaining order is one of the government’s functions, but what they do not get right is that it is a secondary, not a primary function. The government’s primary function is enabling society …

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At RAI Public Pensions Conference, Scholars Envision New Approaches to Reform ( Center for Revitalizing American Institutions State and Local Governance Initiative)

After getting walloped in the years after the Great Recession, US state and local employee public pension funds are slowly climbing their way back to healthy funding levels. Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) –  After getting walloped in the years after the Great Recession, US state and local employee public pension funds are slowly climbing their …

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Hoover Institution Convenes Leading Scholars Of Executive-Judicial Branch Relations (Cener for Revitalizing American Institutions)

Scholars of political science, law, and government gathered at the Hoover Institution under the auspices of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) on June 6–7 to discuss the relationship between the executive and judicial branches of the US federal government. Stanford, CA – Scholars of political science, law, and government gathered at the Hoover Institution under …

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