So it's been quiet around here. I could excuse myself by saying that I've been busy working on my dissertation and teaching my own course for the first time -- which is true -- but the reality is that I just haven't been all that interested in things that have been going on lately. Still, for the sake of keeping the lights on, here is what I think about some of the news of the day:
1. Romney will still win the GOP nomination, and it won't be especially close.
2. The eurozone continues to muddle and buy time, but the problem isn't fixed. I still think something big happens in 2013, and I still think that citizens in democracies will eventually refuse to finance the sort of transfers that will be necessary to keep Greece in the union.
3. If an intervention into Syria were to work, it would require a large, credible, and open-ended commitment from the international community to the security and stability of a post-Assad Syria. This would most likely need to include the U.S. That commitment is pretty much impossible to make given the current political environment in the U.S. and elsewhere. Nor is it clear that an intervention would lead to less bloodshed, or a more appealing political outcome, than non-intervention.
4. I find it pretty difficult to muster outrage about Rush Limbaugh, the coverage of Catholic insurance, or any of that sort of thing.
5. China continues to weaken, and it's another reminder that there is no ready successor for U.S. hegemony.
6. I don't care what Obama said in college, and I don't care if he hugged someone once. Politics is structural people... even if he were a Marxist Islamist atheist dedicated to destroying the U.S. he'd be unable to actually do so. So cheer up.
7. Things are generally getting better in the U.S. and worse in most other places. Except parts of Africa, maybe.
Hopefully more regular posting will be forthcoming.
IPE @ UNC
IPE@UNC is a group blog maintained by faculty and graduate students in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The opinions expressed on these pages are our own, and have nothing to do with UNC.
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Saturday, March 10, 2012
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