Turkey is playing a high-stakes game with Iraq, using water to advance its national security interests. Will Rogers at the Natural Security blog has nicely sized up this fascinating new wrinkle–yet another example of the emerging nexus between between international relations and environmental resources: If Turkey is successful in getting Iraq to crack down on…Continue Reading…
I’m confused by this post on Iraq’s environmental crisis over at The Duck of Minerva. First, to attribute Iraq’s devastated environment to war, as Roger A. Payne seemingly does, is an oversimplification. Even the LA Times article that he plays off of recognizes that. Then, after tallying up the devastation, Payne concludes: In IR [International…Continue Reading…
What can international relations theory teach us about parenting? As Stephen Walt observes, there’s plenty of strategic maneuvering in both worlds. For example, once kids are mobile, parents learns about a key concept of geopolitics: the window of opportunity. You’re feeding or changing Kid #1, and Kid #2 makes a bolt out the front door,…Continue Reading…
Over at Foreign Policy, Daniel Drezner offers a tutorial on international relations theory as it applies to international climate change negotiations: China has supplanted America as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. From an economic perspective, we are witnessing a transition from a bipolar world (the US + EU) to a multipolar world (OECD +…Continue Reading…