Boom.

The mind boggles. Sure, USIP is not immune from criticism, but this is sheer intellectual vandalism.

"Escalating front-line clashes, a spiralling arms race, vitriolic rhetoric and a virtual breakdown in peace talks increase the chance Armenia and Azerbaijan will go back to war over Nagorno-Karabakh, with devastating regional consequences." -> in my own view this is the conflict whose renewed outbreak is easiest to predict for the nex…

"In geopolitical terms, the US spends a lot more on its military than anyone else (in fact, more than everyone else put together) and (contrary to the beliefs of most Americans) hardly anything on development aid or other efforts at promoting global public goods. The amount of sustainable influence generated as a result appears pretty trivial…

"Europeans should devise a better way forward, based more on terms of incentives for peace, and less on penalties for the lack of it. They should set out a European ‘roadmap’ for peace: a graduated series of incentives that they are willing to offer both sides for progress, culminating with the prospect of NATO and EU membership if and when t…

"The US military has fought five large-scale wars in the past fifty years, resulting in a draw in Korea, a defeat in Vietnam, and three inconclusive outcomes in Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan. That’s a record that makes the worst inner-city public school look pretty good. At least the majority of students, even at the worst schools, end up more…

by my friend Daniel Serwer, who knew Holbrooke all too well.

Actually, not as far as we can tell.

Rogue superpower?

Civilian control of the military - nice idea in theory, not actually practiced in Washington

Francesc Vendrell - former UN and EU representative in Afghanistan - on what has gone wrong and what can still be done. (I was sitting just to his right as he spoke, but am not in view of the camera at any point)

How the recent Supreme Court decision will damage peace-making.

Morocco's government may be invested in using the threat of terrorism for political and economic gain... The challenge for us in the West is to be able to live with the threat of organized terrorism without assuming its involvement in any given act of anti-state violence - and without blindly accepting, when we look to other governments'…

How likely is it that your flight will be attacked? Roughhly one chance in 10 million, according to Nate Silver.

Andy Carcia to play Saakashvili in big-budget Holywood movie about last year's war filmed in Tbilisi. Meanwhile Emir Kusturica will be in South Ossetia, directing a film taking the other point of view. I am not making this up.

...without public announcements, the administration of President George W. Bush removed all nuclear weapons from Greece in 2001 and from Britain in 2008, plus withdrawing most of the deployed weapons from Germany in 2007 and a large number from Italy... Today, five countries [Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey] host ‘tactical'…

Advice to Al-Qaeda