Summary:Â As the cries for war rise again in America, let’s reflect on the consequences from our last several interventions. We bomb foreign nations hoping to build better societies; repeated failure doesn’t discourage our hawks. Third in a series about lessons learned from our wars after 9-11. Three years ago: “Yesterday, in response to a …
What did we learn from our intervention in Libya? Read More »
Summary:Â The Million Vet March is typical citizen activism in America, much like the Occupy movement’s street parties. Naive, weak leadership. Poorly conceived goals (the GOP, not Obama, shut down the government). Delusional thinking about the breath of their appeal (“million man”). And a lack of internal discipline (tolerance of off-point or even inappropriate messages). …
Summary:Â Violence is as American as apple pie, part of most social movements since the Founding (used for, against, or both). Might it burst forth again? If so, by whom? The Left feels strongly about climate change, but looks like a spent force — capable of staging street parties but not violence. Political energy, for …
What are the odds of violence from the Right in America? Read More »
Discussions how to reform America frequently end on one set of rocks: the ineffectiveness of mass protests in 21st century America. In this post Joshua Keating explains the problem (“Do protests ever work?“, blog of Foreign Policy, 2 April 2009 ): Collins names Gandhi’s march to the sea and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington …
How to stage effective protests in the 21st century Read More »
This is a valuable and provocative article. The excerpt given here describes only one of the scenarios discussed in this paper. At the end are links to some of the many articles by DoD staff on this issue, very much worth reading by anyone interested in this subject. “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense …
