April 6, 2009
I’m very pleased to announce that Bantam, a Random House imprint, has bid successfully to publish my forthcoming book, provisionally entitled Talk This Way: The politics of language, with prospective publication in fall of 2010. The book is about identity, mythology and language. The things we tell ourselves about language are often not true, but these myths and stories play a big role in shaping our identity. Talk This Way will look into what we really mean when we talk about talking (and writing)–and what we’re really doing when we judge others for their mistakes, their accent, their dialect or their native language.
March 17, 2009
Barack Obama may differ little from George Bush in his approach to Africa
“Mr Obama brings with him some big figures with strong opinions on one of Africa’s bloodiest conflicts, in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Joe Biden, his vice-president, has called in the past for a threat of military action against the Sudanese government to stop the killings there. Mr Obama’s ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, has backed the threat of force too. Samantha Power, who has joined Mr Obama’s National Security Council, is a historian of genocide who, though she believes in toughening sanctions and divestment from Sudan, opposes military intervention. If the conflict worsens, Mr Obama could face difficult choices…“
February 25, 2009
Dennis Ross becomes Barack Obama’s adviser on Iran. How will America now approach Iran?
“One view is that America and Iran should start small. They could, for example, limit first contacts to how America and Iran might work together in two countries of common (if not exactly mutual) interest, Iraq and Afghanistan. America has talked to Iran over Iraq, and America’s incoming ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, is experienced at dealing with difficult regimes, having been a negotiator with North Korea. Afghanistan is another area of common concern; Iran will not want it to be dominated again by fanatical Sunnis, having nearly gone to war with the Taliban regime in 1998 over a massacre of Iranian diplomats…“
January 30, 2009
Nervous and hopeful, Iraqis vote in provincial elections on Sunday
“Getting Iraqis to accept the rules of the game, rather than seeing politics as a zero-sum scramble for spoils, will take a few elections yet. Mostly clean and peaceful provincial elections on Saturday would set Iraq on a firmer course. National elections at the end of the year will be even more important. If both elections were to go smoothly, an exit for American soldiers—such as that promised by Barack Obama within a couple of years—will be more likely too…“
December 1, 2008
Barack Obama introduces his national-security team
“Mr Obama has made the point that he is no lefty peacenik. With a rival who supported the war, a lifelong warrior and a Republican secretary of defence in his top three foreign-policy jobs, the new young president wants the world (and critics at home) to see that he is no pushover. Will that mean that nothing much will change, disappointing many of his fans? Or will his tough advisers serve as useful cover for a new policy of talking to foes and substituting soft power for military force? For the president who campaigned saying ‘I’m not against all wars, I’m against dumb wars,’ combining hard and soft may be no paradox…“
I participated in a rather grandly titled panel discussion, “Transition 2008: Advising the Next President”, part of an ongoing series that The Economist participates in alongside NYU and the Council on Foreign Relations. I also talked about Barack Obama’s newly named national-security team on the Brian Lehrer Show this morning on WNYC.
November 11, 2008
Republicans try to rediscover themselves, and puzzle over Sarah Palin’s fate
“Rediscovering small government may offer one possibility. Americans fight taxation more than most voters in industrialised countries. And in much of the country, especially the West, light regulation on business, lax environmental rules, gun rights and the like sell well. Resetting the party in this mould would push the religious conservatives into a junior position and it is unclear if they would accept that role. Others think that a stridently small-government party would fail in the current era of economic angst, and that the Republicans should reinvent themselves as the party of Wal-Mart shoppers as much as of Wall Street brokers…“
September 26, 2008
I interviewed the former Secretary of State on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday; she discusses her advice for the incoming commander-in-chief, drawn from her book Memo to the President Elect (which I mistakenly called Memo to the Next President - sorry about that, Madame Secretary.
September 25, 2008
Dmitri Trenin and Anne-Marie Slaughter conducted a debate over the proposition that “The west should be bolder with a newly assertive Russia”, and I moderated the debate. Ms Slaughter won a lively contest narrowly, and readers contributed over 500 comments.
This week I’m appearing on “Insight”, Australia’s biggest current-affairs program, to talk about the American elections. It was a big panel with slightly raucous audience participation, but it was fun.