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SHAFR Opinion

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

by Michael Hunt

Crossposted from Michael Hunt’s Washington and the World blog.
There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter.
Henry Kissinger is a good example of the wrong-headed. This policy heavyweight, [...]

Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Harry Truman administration: 1945-1953, Military affaris, Policymaking--American, Vietnam: 1945-1961, Vietnam: 1961-1975 | No Comments »

LGBT Equality and The Limits of Human Rights

by Laura Belmonte

Last October, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.  The bill also calls for the extradition of Ugandans who engage in homosexual sex in other countries and for criminal penalties for individuals, media, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and [...]

Posted in Africa, Human Rights, International Organizations, Internationl law and treaties, Post-Cold War: 1991-2001, Uganda, World Health Organization | No Comments »

Thinking about Remembering

by Molly Wood

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even though I have not lived there for many years, I still visit regularly. I often think that my decision to become a historian stems in part from the stories of my family history told to me by grandparents and other relatives. I learned from my grandmother, for [...]

Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Iraq War: 2003-present, United States, Vietnam: 1961-1975, World War I: 1914-1918, World War II: 1939-1945 | No Comments »

Germany to Greece: Drop Dead

by William Glenn Gray

Germans have chosen to work; Greeks have chosen leisure. For this reason, Germans are furious with Greece for accumulating an unsustainable debt burden and thereby undermining the solidity of the European currency. But the self-righteous anger in Berlin may itself call into question the political basis of the Euro.

Posted in European Union, Foreign aid, Gerald Ford administration: 1974-1977, Germany, Greece, International Economic Relations, International Organizations, International Trade and Economics, Western Europe | No Comments »

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Posted in Afghanistan, Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, Historiography, Military affaris, Terrorism, Theory and Ideas | No Comments »

Is Wartime a Time to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

by Mary Dudziak

As the Obama Administration moves (slowly) toward repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one argument in opposition is that the nation is at war, and significant changes in the military should not take place during wartime. One response to that point is that all hands are needed during heightened military deployments, and it harms American [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Bill Clinton administartion: 1993-2001, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, Military affaris, Terrorism | No Comments »

Beware Presidents’ Use of History

by John Prados

We are told that history plays as tragedy and repeats as farce. But perhaps that is changing. In the summer of 2007 President George W. Bush invoked the Vietnam analogy to justify an equally or more tragic war in Iraq. And in the West Point speech announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama [...]

Posted in Afghanistan, Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Terrorism, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vietnam: 1945-1961, Vietnam: 1961-1975 | No Comments »

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Iraq War: 2003-present

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Thinking about Remembering

by Molly Wood
Monday, March 22nd, 2010

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even though I have not lived there for many years, I still visit regularly. I often think that my decision to become a historian stems in part from the stories of my family history told to me by grandparents and other relatives. I learned from my grandmother, for [...]

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Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Iraq War: 2003-present, United States, Vietnam: 1961-1975, World War I: 1914-1918, World War II: 1939-1945 | No Comments »

Weekly Digest – 3/10/10

by Nick Ducote
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

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 [...]

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Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Around the Web, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Brazil, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, Gerald Ford administration: 1974-1977, Harry Truman administration: 1945-1953, Iraq War: 2003-present, Jimmy Carter administration: 1977-1981, John Kennedy administration: 1961-1963, Korean War: 1950-1953, Late Cold War: 1961-1991, Lyndon Johnson administration: 1963-1969, Military affaris, National Security, Nuclear policy & WMD, Policymaking--American, Post-colonial Third World, Propaganda and cultural diplomacy, Public Opinion, Terrorism | No Comments »

Obama’s Foreign Policy: An Assessment After Year One — Introduction

by Andrew Johns
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

A little over a year ago, I wrote an essay for this page that outlined some of the multitudinous foreign policy challenges that would face Barack Obama’s administration when it took office on 20 January 2009 (“Of Mice, Men, and Presidents,” December 2008).  During the past twelve months, the president and his national security team [...]

Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, Iraq War: 2003-present, Op-Eds, Post-9/11: 2001-present | No Comments »

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