Energy Sim

Calling all Sim City fans, its time to build Chevron’s Energyville (created by the Economist Intelligence Unit.) Chose the configuration of energy sources and compete with people around the world.  (Never mind that you can’t get above eighty-or-so percent capacity without including petroleum.)  This clever learning tool illustates the tough choices and tradeoffs–even is some will snigger at the oil-economy premise built in the game.

Book Review: “Crude World” – WSJ.com

An interesting journey exploring several countries linked together by the curse of oil–Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Russia.  The book is filled with implications for energy policy as well as geopolitics–not to mention its an interesting look at the corrupting influence of easy money on a state:

The moral pit of the oil world is not Russia but Equatorial Guinea, a country in west-central Africa ruled by the violent dictator and torturer Teodoro Obiang, with whom Big Oil made a deal in the 1990s. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent to extract oil from the country has done nothing for the local economy, which remains one of the poorest on Earth. Mr. Maass’s visit to a Marathon natural-gas facility in Equatorial Guinea is like a visit to another planet. Everything is imported, even the South Asian labor. The cement for construction is produced on site; the facility has its own water-purification and sewage system. There is almost no contact with the host country. The profits go to Marathon, a Houston company, and to Mr. Obiang’s private bank accounts. A man given to excess, Mr. Obiang once bought, for $49.5 million, a Boeing 737, in which the bathroom fixtures were gold-plated.

via Book Review: “Crude World” – WSJ.com.

At U.N., Views on Iran and N. Korea Are Divided – NYTimes.com

What to do with Iran an North Korea?

As dozens of world leaders began gathering here on Monday for the General Assembly, the puzzle of how to confront Iran and another defiant, nuclear-minded state, North Korea, continued to stymie diplomats. Old strategies have proved fruitless, but it is difficult to build support for bold new ones.

Submit your links for the best policy suggestions and see if you can do well as an special political advisor:

China FAQ, Part 1 | GOOD

Prep for the inevitable future business trip/pop quiz/mock session when you need to know facts about the world’s next likely superpower.  To quote the Romanian Ambassador visiting campus, “Tell your kids to learn Chinese.”

Sit Report Iraq | Pollack in The National Interest

If you want to go beyond the headlines, consider this report by Kenneth Pollack, the former CIA analyst who seems to have missed the mark on Iran–but spent hundreds of pages doing it according to CNN commentator Reza Aslan–has an interesting piece that details the situation in Baghdad and the peril facing the US in the coming months:

America is still all that stands between stability and anarchy in Iraq

via The National Interest.

Memo From Cairo – Hints of Pluralism in Egyptian Religious Debates – NYTimes.com

Signs of social change in Egypt:

Several factors have changed the public debate and erased some of the fear associated with challenging conventional orthodoxy, political analysts, academics and social activists said. These include a disillusionment and growing rejection of the more radical Islamic ideology associated with Al Qaeda, they said. At the same time, President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world has quieted the accusation that the United States is at war with Islam, making it easier for liberal Muslims to promote more Western secular ideas, Egyptian political analysts said.

“It is not a strategic or transformational change, but it is a relative change,” said Mr. Asaad, who emphasized that the dynamic was for Christians as well as Muslims in Egypt. “And the civil forces can unite to capitalize on this atmosphere and invest in it to raise it to become a more general atmosphere.”

via Memo From Cairo – Hints of Pluralism in Egyptian Religious Debates – NYTimes.com.

Country Report | The Phillipines

Some wonder if the past few years for Fillipino nation-building have been squandered, as militants, corruption, and poverty remain as formidable as ever.  From NYT:

We have a word for it — sayang — ‘what a waste,’ ” he said.  “We thought all we needed to do was remove the dictator and do nothing about it,” said Teresita I. Barcelo, president of the Philippine Nurses Association. “We thought the problem was just the dictator. I say the problem is us. We did not change.”

Books of The Times – In ‘Guardians of the Revolution,’ Ray Takeyh Dissects Iran – Review – NYTimes.com

Look no further for the latest greatest overview on Iran, by Ray Takeyh, whose academic reputation and, apparently, clear-heading writing, make this book a helpful primer:

But Mr. Larijani has something else to say in these pages: “We may be sure that the Americans are our enemy. Working with enemies is part of world politics. I believe that a strategy of curbing and reducing disruptions and normalizing relations is itself beneficial.” That is also the conviction of President Obama, and of Mr. Takeyh, who argues persuasively for a rational approach to Iran in the quest for an “inclusive regional-security architecture.”

Anyone wishing to understand why restored American-Iranian ties are so elusive, but also so critical, should turn to this important work, a riveting and consistently insightful study of revolutionary Iran and its still troubled place in the world.

via Books of The Times – In ‘Guardians of the Revolution,’ Ray Takeyh Dissects Iran – Review – NYTimes.com.

Fatalism About War Misguided

The complex interplay between war and peace–a la Tolstoy–as well as the constant list of challenges (see previous post) might lead to disillusionment, dispair, or fatalism.  Such a view is misguided, according to John Horman at Slate:

If war is not inevitable, neither is peace. “This past year saw increasing threats to security, stability, and peace in nearly every corner of the globe,” warns the SIPRI 2009 Yearbook. Global arms spending—especially by the United States, China, and Russia—has surged, and efforts to stem nuclear proliferation have stalled. An al-Qaida operative could detonate a nuclear suitcase bomb in New York City tomorrow, reversing the recent trend in an instant. But the evidence of a decline in war-related deaths shows that we need not—and should not—accept war as an eternal scourge of the human condition.In fact, this fatalistic view is wrong empirically and morally. Empirically, because war clearly stems less from some hard-wired “instinct” than from mutable cultural and environmental conditions; much can be done, and has been done, to reduce the risks it poses. Morally, because the belief that war will never end helps perpetuate it. The surer we are that the world is irredeemably violent, the more likely we are to support hawkish leaders and policies, making our belief self-fulfilling. Our first step toward ending war is to believe that we can end it.

This doesn’t mean the threats–such as nuclearn proliferation-are not dire.  A new multimedia learning module from CFR offers polished video intros on the nature of that particular threat, as well as timelines, key issues, and recommendation–all in a non-wonky, accessible format.

Tsonjin Boldog Journal – Genghis Khan Rules Mongolia Again, in a P.R. Campaign – NYTimes.com

When you’re nation-building, it helps to have a monument.  In the case of Mongolia, its Genghis Khan:

The rush to venerate — and profit from — the founder of a great transcontinental empire comes at a time when Mongolians are seeking a national identity after centuries of dominance by foreign powers. Already touchy over Genghis Khan’s global reputation as a bloodthirsty villain responsible for the deaths of countless people, Mongolians are reveling in new opportunities to rebrand him and, by proxy, their country, which has long been overshadowed by its neighbors, Russia and China….

“This is about national pride,” said Damdindorj Delgerma, chief executive of the Genco Tour Bureau. “Mongolians are happy when they see this statue, and now people from all over the world will come to learn about the importance of Mongolia in history.”

via Tsonjin Boldog Journal – Genghis Khan Rules Mongolia Again, in a P.R. Campaign – NYTimes.com.