Alan Bock

It is almost unfair to analyze the president’s speeches on Iraq these days. It seems increasingly apparent that most Americans aren’t listening any more. Even if Dubya were to defy all expectations and deliver a convincing argument for staying the course (whatever that might mean beyond simply keeping American troops in Iraq where they will … Continue reading “Last-Ditch Effort”

So what should the United States and the West do about Iran’s effort to acquire nuclear technology and (almost certainly) eventually a nuclear weapon? Kenneth Waltz has convinced me that for the sake of reduction of conflict and war, the best thing we can do is – well, pretty much nothing. Let’s face it, the … Continue reading “How I Stopped Worrying…”

It’s not easy to focus on a port deal when events in Iraq suggest the civil war that almost all realists had feared and that to some extent has been simmering just barely beneath the surface for months might have broken out in earnest. And the bombing of the Shia Askiriya shrine, also called the … Continue reading “War Complicates Everything”

The great but underappreciated American essayist Albert J. Nock, who died in 1945 after completing one of the great autobiographical accomplishments of the past century in Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, was fascinated by the question of whether it is possible to tell whether you are living in a Dark Age or the beginning of … Continue reading “Diagnosing Decline”

What is still fascinating and, as far as I know, almost unknown regarding the cartoon controversy, is why this brand of outrage over this particular provocation, and why now. We know certain things. Apparently some imams from Denmark traveled to the Middle East to arouse outrage. It may or may not be true that they … Continue reading “Another Stellar Week in the War on Terror”

I choose to see it as a sign of verging on desperation. The war in Afghanistan is still going on at a certain level all these years after our leaders congratulated themselves on winning it, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai still has trouble setting foot outside Kabul. A majority of Americans now believe, and are … Continue reading “Dreary Old Clichés”

Just when you thought this administration couldn’t get any more blatant in its effrontery about claiming and wielding power, along comes the surveillance blitz. I’ve talked to people who think it’s because even the administration people know their legal case is shaky and want to get ahead of public opinion. What’s fascinating and distressing is … Continue reading “Breathtaking Power Grab”

With the announcement that Iran plans to resume its nuclear programs, that country has moved at least into the sights of the United States and European countries as a potential threat that should be dealt with. Unfortunately, the United States, like most "advanced" states, is mentally locked into certain modes of dealing with perceived threats … Continue reading “Dealing With Iran”

Three years ago, the United States undertook an invasion – a war of choice, not necessity – of Iraq, a country about which most Americans, and most American policymakers, knew very little. Saddam Hussein had been properly demonized by officials and most of the U.S. media, of course, but even if he had possessed the … Continue reading “History’s Burden in Iraq”

"Russia shoots itself in the foot" was the headline of a New York Times editorial on the 48-hour cutoff of natural gas to Ukraine, which also had an adverse impact on European natural gas supplies, most of which go through Ukraine on their way from Russia to European customers. The editorial lamented that the cutoff … Continue reading “Ukraine: More Than Gas at Stake”