Booklist | What to Read on Global Policy Analysis” in IR via Stephen M. Walt

Walt’s crowdsourcing a reading list–but also identifying the gap in goodreads for global policy analysis.  He also explains why process matters so much for international policymaking, and the importance of implementation via diplomacy and military power:

In global affairs, by contrast, the rule of law is far weaker and there are often competing power centers with very different interests. Strategic interactions loom much larger, and the success of a given policy choice often depends not just on the intrinsic merits of the specific initiative but on how other key actors will respond to it. (Among other things, this is why simple game theoretic models are often useful for analyzing certain international policy problems). To the extent that the issues are truly global, the correct policy choice depends far more on bargaining, persuasion, in some cases coercion, and on developing solutions that either elicit others’ voluntary compliance or achieve the objective in the face of opposition. Such features are not entirely absent in domestic policy discussions, but they play a larger role in interactions between states, corporations, and non-state actors operating in the anarchic world of international politics.

via Is There a Good Book or Article on “Policy Analysis” in IR? | Stephen M. Walt.

Some of the commenter suggestions are worth considering:

• Maarten Hajer’s article, “Policy without Polity: policy analysis and the institutional void”
• John Mearsheimer, Why Leaders Lie
• Dan Drezner, All Politics is Global; Avoiding Trivia
• Being useful: policy relevance and international relations
• Managing Strategic Surprise, Ian Bremmer and Paul Bracken, eds.
• Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Practioneer’s Game
• Bob Jervis, Why Intelligence Fails
• Policy analysis papers from Bernard Brodie, Tom Schelling and Raymond Garthoff
• Graham Allison and Zelikow, Essence of Decision
• Jeffrey Pfeffer, Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations

Finding the 1% | The Economist

Who are the 1%?  You can find them in a couple of U.S. cities, in particular:

San Jose is a city with a lot of staggeringly rich tech zillionaires and a lot of not-at-all-rich working-class immigrant families. Washington is a city of high-paid federal workers on a relatively graduated pay scale; it has very high median incomes, but its income is strikingly evenly distributed.

 

via Inequality: Washington’s rich, but the 1% are elsewhere | The Economist.

 

China Proposes New Curbs on Entertainment and Bloggers – NYTimes.com

China cracks down on Internet freedom to ensure social stability.  Do they have a point?

The restrictions arrived as party leaders signaled new curbs on China’s short-message, Twitter-like microblogs, an Internet sensation that has mushroomed in less than two years into a major — and difficult to control — source of whistle-blowing. Microbloggers, some of whom have attracted millions of followers, have been exposing scandals and official malfeasance, including an attempted cover-up of a recent high-speed rail accident, with astonishing speed and popularity.On Wednesday, the Communist Party’s Central Committee called in a report on its annual meeting for an “Internet management system” that would strictly regulate social network and instant-message systems, and punish those who spread “harmful information.” The focus of the meeting, held this month, was on culture and ideology.

via China Proposes New Curbs on Entertainment and Bloggers – NYTimes.com.

Human Rights Watch’s Upside-Down View of the World – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic

Why just “being in favor” of human rights isn’t the best response.

Two trends worth noting: Human Rights Watch often seems to judge democratic governments (flawed and otherwise) much more harshly than it does autocracies (witness Whitson’s apologies for the Qaddafi regime), and then there’s this: The bien-pensant human rights community seems to dislikes Iraqi Kurds in much the same way it dislikes Israelis.

via Human Rights Watch’s Upside-Down View of the World – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic.

Former Secretary Of State Lawrence Eagleburger Dies

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, the only career foreign service officer to rise to the position of secretary of state, died Saturday. He was 80. …

Baker said Eagleburger “was a legend in the U.S. Foreign Service, a consummate professional who served his country expertly and with great dignity as a selfless diplomat.” He said his former colleague was “superb at divining trouble and heading it off. That’s why he became the first Foreign Service officer in history to rise to deputy secretary of state and later to secretary of state. Simply stated, Larry Eagleburger was as good as they come — loyal, hard-working and intelligent, a trifecta for an American diplomat.

via http://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136952565/former-secretary-of-state-lawrence-eagleburger-dies?sc=ipad&f=1001

Booklist | The Age of Deception – By Mohamed ElBaradei – NYTimes.com

Inside El Baradei’s new memoir on how to keep the world from blowing itself up:

On the other hand, foreign policy leaders and wonks everywhere will find plenty in this memoir to stir debates about the most vital task for global survival — the need to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, especially to rogue states and terrorists.

That quest is ElBaradei’s story. For decades he was an intimate participant in dramatic nuclear proliferation confrontations that dominated headlines. He served as a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog and inspection arm, for 13 years 1984-97 before rising to its director-generalship in 1997. He resigned in 2009 after completing his third term and announced his interest in running against President Hosni Mubarak in the election scheduled for this year. In 2005, he and the agency were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their nonproliferation endeavors. Doubtless the Norwegian selectors, always ready to needle American hawks, also sought to reward his bold critique of the American-led war against Iraq, especially since they drew ill-tempered ripostes from top officials in the Bush administration, particularly “Dick Cheney and his faction.”

via Book Review – The Age of Deception – By Mohamed ElBaradei – NYTimes.com.

Turkey’s Role in Middle East Is Bolstered by Vision of Foreign Minister – NYTimes.com

The “smoking like a Bosnian”-style of diplomacy from the Turkish Kissinger, Ahmet Davutoglu by James Traub.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/magazine/23davutoglu-t.html

Who Runs the World

In TNR, Stuart Reed reviews Parag Khanna’s take on the worldview of the Davos Boys and tries to figure out who really runs the world:

Khanna has a point when he says that the current international order, based on state-to-state interactions in forums such as the United Nations, is out of date. His proposed replacement is something he calls “mega-diplomacy,” a do-it-yourself approach that involves nongovernmental organizations, people-to-people deal-making, and partnerships between governments and companies. The anecdotes he collects of people and organizations taking matters into their own hands are often illuminating, and they suggest that something new is indeed afoot. In India, banks are helping stabilize the supply of electricity, since their ATMs break down without it. In Peru, multinational mining companies are training mayors in fiscal management. Across the globe, CEOs developing emissions-reducing technology, not politicians, are taking the lead in combating global warming.

via Stuart A. Reid Reviews Parag Khanna’s “How To Run The World” | The New Republic.

‘Being Polite to Hitler’ by Robb Forman Dew – Review – NYTimes.com

How can you not pay attention to a title like that?  I’m not sure there is a direct connection to diplomacy–other than an interesting cultural mileaux provides the arena for a discussion on decorum.  But it also feels to met that deep inside this novel are insights relating to Hanna Arendt’s observations on the nature of evil and Eloise Bell’s condemnation of “niceness” as a very bad thing.

And if this novel otherwise remains more comfortable than startling, it never loses its real purpose: to demonstrate that in a world full of iniquity, potential as well as realized, the very least one can do is stay morally vigilant, even if it means making a ruckus at someone’s dinner party. Not that propriety isn’t important, particularly when chaos threatens. But, for goodness’ sake, know when it’s time to abandon all niceties and call a monster by its proper name.

via ‘Being Polite to Hitler’ by Robb Forman Dew – Review – NYTimes.com.

Ivory Coast Standoff Leads to Fears of Violence – NYTimes.com

Elections in Ivory Coast fail to lead to a political decision, and this long-stable African country appears to be hewing to the conflict typology all too familiar and stereotypical of many developing countries:

Hopes for a resolution to the political crisis rest largely on continued pressure from the United Nations Security Council and other international bodies, and from the regional grouping of West African states, ECOWAS, a diplomat here said. Both are due to meet Tuesday on the standoff here. Mr. Gbagbo has been adept at resisting such pressure in the past. At the United Nations, the Russians are reluctant to approve a statement supporting Mr. Ouattara because of concerns about Security Council involvement in elections, diplomats at the United Nations said.

But the diplomat in Abidjan and others warned that the impasse could lead to violence, with well-armed entities on both sides watching each other warily.

via Ivory Coast Standoff Leads to Fears of Violence – NYTimes.com.