The distinguished historian Melvyn Leffler presented his latest edited collection (with Jeffrey Legro) at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday: In Uncertain Times: American Foreign Policy after the Berlin Wall and 9/11 (Cornell UP). It brings together practitioners and academics, policy makers and analysts/critics (I expect Wilson will have video of the event up on its website soon). Presenting were chapter editors Eric Edelman, Paul Wolfowitz and Philip Zelikow. Their arguments were most interesting and all emplotted as ‘dubunking’ popular myths and conspiracy theories. Edelman’s object of critique was the inflated and hyperbolic reading of the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance, a picture created by what he described as selective leaking and sensational press coverage. Wolfowitz addressed the 1989-92 defense planning process, and critiqued the prevailing interpretation that is colored by hindsight not what was going on at the time. The planning process was, he argued, for a substantial build-down of the US military, and the strategic thinking that emerged was uncontroversial and became the consensus in the later 1990s. Philip Zelikow addressed US strategic planning in the wake of 9/11 and debunked the ‘neocon cabal’ theory of the US policy that emerged in the wake of the trauma of the attack. This was a rich session and a friend and I had a most interesting chat with Wolfowitz afterwards about the current ‘Quds Force plot’ and how to respond: it made me think more about the life of the concept ‘over-interpret.’ The book looks terrific and features essays by critics like Bruce Cummings and John Mueller.
Professor Government and International Affairs
Virginia Tech, VTRC Office 6-020,900 North Glebe Road,Arlington, VA 22203, USAPopular Categories
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- Duck of Minerva US IR scholars on contemporary international affairs
- Geographical Imaginations 2020 Historic posts on war & space by Derek Gregory
- Political Geography Specialty Group Political Geography Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers
- Political Violence at a Glance
- Progressive Geographies Thinking about place and power
Professional Affiliation
- Government and International Affairs The Government and International Affairs program at Virginia Tech
- The School of Public and International Affairs School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech
Research Projects
- The De Facto States Project The De Facto States Project
Critical Geopoltiics
- Short Public Affairs Articles in 2023.
- Public Opinion in Frontline Ukrainian Cities in 2022
- Six months of bloody war in Ukraine
- New Research: Ukrainian attitudes toward territorial compromises.
- Articles in The Irish Times on the Ukraine Crisis and War
- Research on public opinion in the Donbas on the eve of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- New Research on Public Attitudes in the Contested Donbas/s Region
- Public Outreach Articles on New Research Findings 2020
- Re-visiting Blame Attribution around the MH17 Tragedy
- First Look at Geopolitical Orientations
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