Weekly Digest – 3/10/10
Four years after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities, the Soviet Union explodes its first nuclear weapon at a test range in Kazakhstan. That the Soviet Union obtained “the bomb” is not surprising, but the timing of the test is. Most U.S. intelligence assessments at the time concluded Moscow was at least three years away from the technology. This timeline by the Council on Foreign Relations explores the history of the Soviet/US arms race. [more]
Ruben Oliven, an anthropologist from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, took stock of one of the most predominant aspects of American culture – money – in a recent talk titled “The Money Rhetoric in America: A Brazilian Perspective.” [more]
The Oscar-nominated film, The Hurt Locker, portrays one such team working in Baghdad. Critics say the film skews reality by depicting soldiers as thrill-seekers and rebellious and by portraying combat inaccurately. The following are a selection of photos from Iraq and Afghanistan of real explosive specialists — and the very real explosives they work with. [more]
Self-proclaimed waterboarding fan Dick Cheney called it a no-brainer in a 2006 radio interview: Terror suspects should get a “a dunk in the water.” But recently released internal documents reveal the controversial “enhanced interrogation” practice was far more brutal on detainees than Cheney’s description sounds, and was administered with meticulous cruelty. [more]
Weekly Digest – 2/22/2010
When it comes to Guantánamo, President Obama is still stuck. It’s clear the detention facility won’t close any time soon. That leaves many people, in and out of the administration, in the United States and overseas, wondering: What’s next for Guantánamo? [more]
Just how unpopular are President Barack Obama’s anti-terrorism policies with his Republican critics? Even when he’s killing terrorists they find flaws. [more]
As Obama meets with the Dalai Lama at the White House today, Jeffrey E. Garten says it’s just a sideshow—and explains how to fix the fundamental flaw in U.S. policy toward Beijing. [more]
The anarchist author Gabriel Kuhn was planning on visiting the United States in early March and staying until May. He had speaking engagements set up at several colleges, bookstores, and coffeehouses. But he’s no longer coming. [more]
On a grey drizzly, just-above-freezing February day, which, had it occurred in a soul, surely would have been enough to send Ishmael back to sea, hundreds of Brunonians and Providence locals stood outside waiting for close to an hour to get in to Solomon, Brown’s largest auditorium. The reason for this willingly freezing conglomeration was simple: Sir Salman Rushdie. The knighted novelist, public intellectual, and cause célèbre in his own right was giving a talk entitled Public Events, Private Lives: Literature, and Politics in the Modern World. [more]
Weekly Digest – 2/8/10
President Barack Obama’s decision not to attend a planned summit between the United States and the EU in May–and the testy European reaction to that decision–underscores “the unrealistic expectations” that have been in play between Europe and the United States since Obama took office. [more]
Predictions of America’s decline are vastly overstated. Asia is indeed increasing its economic footprint in the world, but it still lags far behind the United States in military might, political and diplomatic influence, and even most measures of economic stability. [more]
During the campaign, Barack Obama articulated this fairly obvious critique of Bush-era “War on Terror” policy, and his administration seemed set to pursue a more subtle approach. Talking with the enemy might be on the agenda. [more]
The US has said new sanctions against Iran are the “only path” after Tehran announced it was stepping up its uranium enrichment programme. [more]
The US has said new sanctions against Iran are the “only path” after Tehran announced it was stepping up its uranium enrichment programme.
