Bloodless Coup: You are not alone: aka foreign policy scholars speak!

October 12, 2004

You are not alone: aka foreign policy scholars speak!

Just as the Brooks column had me thinking about Hobbes, I wandered over to Crooked Timber and found this post. Seems I am not the only one with Hobbes on the brain. Below the discussion of Hobbes and bribery however, is a note about something I can't believe we at bloodless coup have missed. A group called Security Scholars for Sensible foreign policy have produced an open letter to the American people condemning the Bush administration's foreign policy. The letter is articulate, balanced and analytical. A striking element is the list of signatories. To my fellow IR folks let me just say: Dudes, check out that list! The rest of you should be aware that the list contains some of the biggest and most respected names in the discipline. On top of that, it has some of the darkest of the "dark Realists" (Mearsheimer) in addition to the usual "cooperation and interdependence" suspects (Keohane). Rather broad and distinguished a group (even including folk from our alma mater, though not Chuck G.). Posted by binky at October 12, 2004 11:53 AM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs

Comments

Yeah, but as we all know, all academics are just commies on the Democrat Party's payroll anyway. So who's surprised? Pinkos.

Posted by: joshua at October 12, 2004 12:08 PM | PERMALINK

No Gochman, but one of my other members (Bobrow) is on it. Walters isn't, either, but it probabaly wasn't a "silver bullet". Ya know, there, just isn't one.

Posted by: baltar at October 12, 2004 12:15 PM | PERMALINK

The number of non-commie pinkos is ... well, staggering is the word that leaps to mind. Poli sci departments might be heavily tilted to the Democratic party, but in terms of IR scholars there's a giant we-love-guns-and-bombs branch and that sector is very well represented here. Really, I'm amazed by this - the breadth and number of people on this list is stunning.

Posted by: Armand at October 12, 2004 12:48 PM | PERMALINK

From the comments and context, I figured that to be the case. I just like using the word "pinko," every time I can think of a reason to do so, even if it's not a very good reason. Maybe that's because Bush has returned to the "liberal liberal liberal" line of attack, in the debate and in his TV ads, which helps me to recall that there are communists everywhere. There was one at the foot of my bed last night; my cat, Elvis, kept saying "Mao, Mao, Mao."

Posted by: Joshua at October 12, 2004 01:01 PM | PERMALINK

The presence of all the "long hard pointy missile" or "warmonger" people on the SSSFP list is indeed eye-catching. For this reason I chose the title of "you are not alone" for Baltar, who unlike us "commie pinkos" has been rather isolated in his "you can be conservative and still think Bush is a dipshit with crappy foreign policy" position.

Armand, you also touch on something that has always puzzled me about many political science departments. By partisanship, they probably would look rather moderate- to left-leaning. However, I find them to be deeply conservative in many ways. IR is usually more refreshingly* diverse, as you point out.

*and yes, I know I've used the word "refreshing" a bunch today. I think it's because I started the day with a "refreshing" 4 mile run in 40 degree fog.

Posted by: binky at October 12, 2004 01:10 PM | PERMALINK

Hey Chris Layne from the CATO Institute and the New Conservative is on the list... read the list and see for yourself. I especially loved the guy, Desch, who holds the BUSH chair at Texas A and M...
Wonder if they know about that yet?

Posted by: M at October 13, 2004 01:03 PM | PERMALINK