General musings

If anyone is familiar with Chichester, on the southern coast of England, perhaps they can help me out. I now have a ticket in hand to go there on the 18th of March in order to attend my friend Sarah Johnston's wedding. My return ticket is for 3:00pm on the next day, and I need to find a decent, modestly priced place to spend the night. My investigations so far have not uncovered the existence of any hostels. If all else fails, I suppose I can wander the town all night in my suit, like some kind of spectre. I certainly would like to have a look at the sea, to which the town seems closely adjacent.

Perhaps I will be able to locate someone else who is similarly in need of lodging.

Even though it's the second time a friend of mine is getting married, it still strikes me as a highly unusual occurrence. I suppose as my friends start drifting into their mid twenties, more such match-ups will begin to take place. It's obviously a circumstance enormously beyond anywhere I've found myself, in terms of institutionalized commitment.

Five days after the wedding, my mother is coming to visit Oxford. I am fairly sure this is already the longest I have ever gone without seeing any member of my family. Communicating by means of Skype and email really isn't an adequate alternative. I am excited about the trip to Malta - as I am in general about visiting previously unknown places - and you can be certain that a good number of photos from the expedition will show up here eventually.

The core seminar and academic ideology

Today's core seminar was quite good. Unlike many of the previous classes, which became mired in narrow theoretical debates, this one seemed to have a bit more dynamism. Of course, that may be reflective of my general sympathy towards normative approaches. The degree to which international relations is properly thought of as a 'science' is certainly divisive within the program, though not always along the fault lines I expect. There is definitely an ideal that is satisfied by the possibility that we might understand international relations in an objective and rigorous way but, given the constructed nature of both the international system and our approach to understanding it, I think we need a more self-aware form of theory, as well as one which is more explicitly concerned with the mitigation of global injustice.

At the same time, I find my confidence about such a theoretical approach to be rather less comprehensive than that of some of my colleagues, who believe that a rigidly social science perspective, with similar ambitions to those of the natural sciences, is best placed to address the questions of international relations.

PS. My room in Library Court remains available to potential renters within the college.

Posted by Milan at 10:22 PM   

Electronic botherations

I obviously haven't been making frequent enough offerings to whichever god watches over electronic devices. First, my digital camera got some kind of dust or mold permanently inside. Since it's not a camera with lenses that can be switched, there is really no way to open it up to clean the senror. The dust is sitting directly on the sensor and the dark blotches it produces need to be manually removed from every photo that I want to look presentable, especially those with large areas of a single colour. That camera was itself a replacement for the first one I got, which had a defective flash that always fired at full power.

Today, my iPod simply stopped playing any sound in one ear. The iPod is also a replacement for the one I originally got, which would pause randomly and for no reason if it was not kept perfectly still. Hopefully, cleaning the jack for the headphones will fix this newer problem, because my experience of sending the first iPod back to Apple was hellish and the one they sent back (more than a month later) had a click wheel that was off kilter.

I wonder whether I have particularly bad luck with electronics or whether I am just pickier about them working properly and more willing to go through the hassle of getting them fixed. Both my Sony and Panasonic portable CD players got sent back to the manufacturer for defects. My GPS receiver is actually the replacement for a replacement. It's grandfather had abysmal reception, even compared to other identical models, and its father died for no apparent reason during the second Bowron Lakes trip.

I should not, in any case, let these things distract me from the task of finishing my core seminar paper for tomorrow. It's on whether order and justice are compatible in international relations. Obviously, it's the kind of topic that anyone with normative concerns will feel fairly strongly about after five years of studying IR at the university level. That makes it both easier and harder to write upon. In the interests of not being up all night, I shall get back to it.

PS. This week's readings on normative theory have been the first time I read a lot of Dr. Andrew Hurrell's work. It has been really interesting, well written, and suited to my research interests. I think I will probably take normative theory as one of my two optional subjects next year. Overall, I think it meshes well with a research project focused on environmental politics.

PPS. It seems like it might actually be my headphones which are defunct. While they seemed to work in my iBook before, they do so now only when you hold them in a certain way. I will need to try out the iPod with another pair.

PPPS. Upon further experimentation, the problem lies with the headphones, not the jack on my iPod. While they work if you twist them in a certain way in the iBook socket, they don't work at all in one ear with the iPod. I will need to buy new ones. In some sense, this is worse. At least the iPod is under warrenty, and all electronics are absurdly expensive here. I honestly can't understand why people tolerate it. England desperately needs Walmart.

Posted by Milan at 7:01 PM   

Canada and Ballistic Missile Defence

Apparently, under the Harper government, there is new talk about Canada joining the American missile defence system. I believe that doing so would be unwise for a number of reasons, with the only real advantage of participation being the possibility of improved relations with the US.

Technically infeasible

The first reason to doubt the plan is that there is no reason to believe it will work. Past efforts at both theatre missile defence, the attempt to protect specific assets in a narrow geographical area, and umbrella missile defence have been failures. During the first Gulf War, the much lauded Patriot missile batteries never actually shot down a Scud - though they did shoot down two British planes by mistake. The Scud is essentially a modified V2: not exactly a modern missile.

Shooting down an ICBM is even more difficult. Lasers are infeasible given the difficulty of tracking the missile with such precision and the potential of reflective coatings and accelerated missile rotation mitigating their destructive effects. This reality is reflected in the new focus on kinetic kill systems, where a missile is meant to be used to knock the first missile apart. Of course, this risks showering the area below with radioactive fallout. Better than having a city hit, perhaps, but certainly not a good option.

There are three major stages in the flight of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or its submarine launched equivalent (SLBM). There is a boost phase, where the missile is launched from its silo or missile tube. It is the infrared emission from the launch, as well as the appearance on radar screens, that would first alert the United States to the fact that the missile is in the air. Barring the extensive deployment of space-based weapons, it is impossible to destroy the missile at this stage. The current missile defence plans do not attempt to do so.

The midcourse stage of the missile flight is suborbital, and takes place at an altitude of 1200km. During this phase, the missile can employ a large number of possible countermeasures: electronic signal jamming; the use of decoy warheads, chaff, and flares; and the deployment of metallic balloons that interfere with radar. It would either be at this stage or during the re-entry phase - when the warhead is travelling about 4km per second or about Mach 12 - that the kinetic kill would need to take place.

Even rigged tests that have taken place so far, where the missile trajectory is known in advance, no countermeasures are used, and a beacon is actually fitted in the warhead, have not resulted in success.

Strategic error I

The supposed contemporary enemies of the United States are not ICBM type entities. Intercontinental ballistic missiles are highly sophisticated pieces of hardware. Expensive and technically demanding to produce, they also require an extensive launch infrastructure. While they seem to be increasingly within the reach of states like North Korea and Pakistan, they are definitely not available to any terrorist group.

Moreover, if the United States went to the extreme expense of building an effective missile defence system, it would remain possible to deliver a small number of nuclear weapons by other means. They could be smuggled onto fishing boats or into storage containers. Maintaining a strategic focus on stopping potential missiles with a hypothetical system only tangentially addresses the problem of nuclear proliferation.

Strategic error II

The two hostile states that do have large numbers of ICBMs are Russia and China. Russia has so many, along with SLBMs, that it needn't be concerned about the kind of missile defence system that is being proposed. That said, it could be used as an excuse to upgrade and modernize existing nuclear forces - especially if the United States resumes the development of its own nuclear weapons, as has been proposed by this administration.

The bigger concern is China. While the exact numbers are secret, it's probable that China has about 20 missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States. The CIA apparently thinks that North Korea could have around five nuclear weapons. It's hard to imagine a system that would be likely to stop five missiles, but that wouldn't concern another state with only a small multiple of that number. Deploying missile defence might encourage China to build more missiles, begin putting missiles on submarines, begin fitting multiple independently-guided warheads upon missiles, or developing and deploying more effective countermeasures. It may, in any case, send entirely the wrong message to a state that is emerging as a larger military and industrial power.

Reasons for deployment

From the American position, there are two major reasons to deploy missile defence.

Firstly, it makes it look as though you are doing something to combat a threat almost universally regarded as very serious. This needn't be an entirely cynical calculation. Given the incredible faith in technological progress within both the American public and the government and military, there is a belief that with enough brains and dollars, the thing can be made to work. It's a mindset that goes along well with the notions of transformation that keep coming out of Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon.

Secondly, developing and building such a system will put billions of dollars into the hands of military contractors. Boeing, Lockheed-Matin, Raytheon, and the rest of them all stand to gain enormously. That has political relevance for the representatives of states where they employ a large section of the population - think of Colorado. It also has importance in a political system largely driven by multi-million dollar campaign contributions. Also, increasingly extensive direct connections exist between the military and military contractors. As such, disentangling their agendas is becoming increasingly difficult.

Potentially, some of the above could apply to Canada. If we were to join on, some contracts would doubtless flow to Canadian firms. I do not, however, think this would be a net benefit to Canada. Spending on defence industries - even if largely paid for by the United States - really doesn't boost national welfare, at the same time as it would increase national insecurity.

The Canadian military does seem to broadly support missile defence. I can think of seven different reasons for which either the military specifically or the Canadian government generally might back the plan:

1. The American armed forces are putting pressure on them to support Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) plans. In some sense, this is almost certainly true. It's worth remembering the extent to which things like a lack of strategic airlift capability make the Canadian Forces (CF) heavily dependent upon our allies, and especially the United States, in order to be able to deploy. We are also highly reliant upon their military intelligence capabilities.
2. They are concerned that a future terrorist attack could take place through Canada. If that happened, it was seriously sour relations between the two countries, or at least risk doing so. By participating in American initiatives like missile defence, Canada could stress how we have been doing everything possible to counter terrorist threats. Support for BMD could therefore be a kind of pre-emptive damage control.
3. The shared military culture of the United States and Canada means that both sets of armed forces are working from similar premises and using logic familiar to each. One issue here is that of non-proliferation. The Bush administration clearly doesn't have much faith in treaty based mechanisms like the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (a point made in the 5th report of the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence). Do members of the CF see BMD as unlikely to undermine non-proliferation efforts?
4. The CF sees participation in BMD as a way of maintaining or enlarging the Canadian role in North American security cooperation decision making. Given how much the Americans want to do this, we could get a lot of capital out of it for little cost. It's worth a lot to the US just to have things look non-unilateral (think of the Iraq coalition).
5. Strategic considerations are getting trumped by trade. Backing the Americans on missile defence is a way to keep trucks and containers flowing across the border with less trouble and suspicion. Also, Canadian defence firms with BMD related contracts in mind could have lobbied the CF to support the project.
6. The Americans are going to set up a BMD system anyways. By participating, we at least get the illusion of sovereignty. At best, we might be able to restrain them from doing things that we really don't want to see happen.
7. The length of time this has been worked on has generated such a force of bureaucratic momentum that BMD was supported by default. Since the Second World War and, especially since the Cold War, military strategists have increasingly seen North America as a bloc to be defended all together. From that perspective, BMD might look obvious.

Admittedly, some of these are good reasons - at least potentially. Overall, however, I think the concept of dealing with the danger of proliferation by hiding behind a technical shield is profoundly misguided. It leaves the rest of NATO out in the cold, it encourages the development of further nuclear technology by states already so armed, and it contributes to a military-industrial complex that is already hugely expensive and influential.

On balance, I think Canada would be far better off for continuing to decline. While it might be a diplomatic faux pas, it may also be worth publicly pointing out why.

Posted by Milan at 1:34 PM   

Music and frustration: copy protection schemes

Having spent the last few minutes explaining to a friend why a brand-new, legitimately purchased CD will not play in her computer due to the copy protection EMI has included, I am reminded of my considerable indignation about how the music industry is treating their customers. Yes, in this case, it was possible to disable the copy protection program just by holding shift as the CD was inserted into a Windows computer, but there is no guarantee at all that music you buy today is either usable or safe.

In the worst case, such as the notorious Sony BMG rootkit, inserting a legitimate music CD into your computer intentionally breaks it. It also causes it to report what you listen to to Sony, even if you choose 'no' when a screen comes up asking for permission to install software. It also creates really sneaky back doors into your system that can be exploited for any number of purposes, by Sony or random others. While Sony is currently facing lawsuits for this particular, infamous piece of malware, it isn't nearly enough to put my mind at ease. If some 16 year old had written something comparably dangerous, they would probably be in jail.

Legitimately downloaded music is little better. Songs you buy from the iTunes music store may work with your iPod today, but they won't work with another portable player. They won't even play in software other than iTunes, and there is no guarantee that they will still work at some point in the future. Spending a great deal of money on songs from there (and they've just had their billionth download), is therefore probably not very wise. You don't actually own the music you are buying - you're just buying the right to use it on someone else's terms: terms that they have considerable freedom to change.

Personally, I will not buy any CD that contains copy protection software. I will not buy a Sony BMG CD, regardless of whether it does or not, nor will I be buying any of Sony's electronics in the near future. This is a business model that needs to change.

Posted by Milan at 12:37 AM   

Ascensions in Bath

To the east and west of the centre of Bath are hills about 200m high. Both on the coach ridges there and back and while in the town itself, it was largely this topography that struck me. Oxford, you see, is a cracker. Only from south of the Magdalen Bridge can you find any kind of hill, and even those are laughable. Bath, by contrast, is almost perfectly composed to be looked over from above.

Upon arriving with the coach load of Sarah Lawrence students, the first place half of us went was the former Roman baths themselves. There, we atomized, and I didn't see anyone again until we met for the coach ride home at five. Now built somewhat awkwardly into a museum - encased in black painted walls that look like the backstage area of a theatre - you can see the remains of former saunas and the realities of a collection of still-existent pools. The over-dramatic audio guide will tell you in almost comically reverent tones about the goddess to whom the former temple is dedicated.

The town of Bath reminds me a lot of Victoria, British Columbia. It has a similar pedestrian focus and the same sense of being designed for tourists. Even the residential areas that surround it, such as the one that runs to the top of the first hill I climbed, have a similar look. It's a much larger place than Oxford and considerably more open. It may have been the brilliant weather, but people also seemed to smile more. The second hill I climbed - the westerly one - is capped by a fairly large park that, by walking around the circumference, offers views of all the surrounding hills and countryside.

Unsurprisingly, between ruins, town, and hills I took quite a number of photos. Rather than post them all at once - which would require editing the dust/mold specks out of the whole collection tonight - I think I will post them one by one until I run out of good ones. It may not represent the place where I am from day to day, but it should be more interesting than perpetuating the parade of Oxford shots.

Posted by Milan at 7:48 PM   

Mid-essay insight

Overwhelmingly, the Oxford system privileges speed over perfection. This may be well suited to their self-styled role as gatekeepers to the British political and intellectual elite, but it produces a style of learning quite thoroughly at odds with the immortal image of the scholar surrounded in well-thumbed books and meticulous notes, composing the authoritative treatise on some question. The point is to gain the ability to spend a couple of days taking in key parts of key texts - the specific selection entirely up to you - and then write something cogent, but not fully formed, on the basis of that reading.

For anyone with an interest in journalism, this method is probably ideal in many ways. Both require a fairly broad base of general knowledge - at least wide enough that you will know where to look for more specific information and will not make obvious missteps in somewhat unfamiliar areas. Both are based on a multitude of overlapping deadlines and the need to produce something intelligent and defensible, though certainly not authoritative in the final account. Both involve the requirement to write about things that are not necessarily of direct interest or within your existing scope of expertise. Finally, both involve close contact and coordination with individuals in similar circumstances. The social and cooperative elements are critical to success.

In the end, it's a curiously roundabout way of teaching self-reliance: to arrange highly specific tasks in a string of frequent deadlines. It certainly forces you to come up with a system that works for you and, while it may not conform to one's ideals of creativity and extensive research, it must nonetheless stand the test of the storms that batter it.

Posted by Milan at 1:21 AM   

Fewer but better

After 168 consecutive daily posts, I am suspending the practice of daily updates. A number of factors inform this decision, but it's mostly because I don't have time at the moment to produce one post every 24 hours that is terribly interesting. Certainly, I don't have time to produce such a post that also includes an original and aesthetically pleasing photo. Rather than subjecting you to content of declining quality as overly many of my thoughts are directed towards other things, I shall be more discerning in terms of when and what I post.

As always, comments are appreciated.

Posted by Milan at 1:19 PM   

We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave

With only twelve days left in the term, things are getting fevered. In addition to housing, scholarship, and job search stuff, it is now reasonably likely that I might be called upon to present in core seminar. As such, I need to explicitly prepare presentations, as well as doing the readings. While that will be good when the time comes to revise for our qualifying exam, it's not the most welcome extra project at the moment.

I finished one scholarship application today. Now, I just need to finish a paper on the question of "How convincing is the argument that 'anarchy is what states make of it?'" by Friday, and another on the question of "Is justice compatible with international order?" by Tuesday. I have a supervision tomorrow and another scholarship application to finish in the next two days.

Spending a few hours talking with Emily in her new room tonight was very welcome. While much of the conversation related to school, it felt seperated from all matters academic to a sufficient degree to be genuinely relaxing. I should make a point of spending more social time with her and other friends and members of the program - even at the busiest and most stressful period of the term. That time is definitely now, when we've been going for six weeks already but there is still enough term left for deadlines to build on each other like ripples growing into a crashing wave. It was really nice to surf that wave with Emily for a while.

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• The Scanner Darkly trailer looks awesome, mostly because of the unique style of animation. (Quicktime link) This may become the first film I see in a theatre in the UK, though I didn't think overly much of the book.
• The talk on "The impact and role of major international scientific assessments on global governance" that I announced here and hoped to attend tomorrow has been cancelled due to "family bereavement."

Posted by Milan at 12:17 AM   

Short post, much news

In one hour this afternoon, it went from being so brilliantly sunny that my eyes hurt as I walked from my seminar to Sainsbury's to completely gray, hailing, and cold enough to make me wear my scarf for the first time in weeks. I appreciate such drama.

There have already been two inquiries about my room in Wadham, which is certainly promising. My battels for Michaelmas term - including the cost of five non-vegetarian dinners a week - were £927.88. That includes linen and other miscellaneous fees. I presume an equivalent amount would cover the Trinity period: April 23rd to June 17th. According to Susan Sharp, the Accomodations Manager, the room would have to go to a Wadham student, as it is located on the main college site at Broad Street and Parks Road, right beside the King's Arms and the Bodleian. People interested in having a look should email me.

Congratulations to the other victors in the OUSSG election. Also, my thanks to those who turned up for the bloggers' gathering. It was interesting to meet some new people, and to see oft-corresponded-with people in person again.

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• This Saturday, I am going to bath with some of the Sarah Lawrence exchange students in Wadham. It's about 80km away and I've heard from a number of people that is very nice. At a minimum, it will let me take some non-Oxford photos.
• Discussing with Christina the merits of getting a bread knife, I stated that buying such a thing "clashes with my nomad lifestyle." It's not that it wouldn't be justified over the course of a year and a half, but that it doesn't work with student residential minimalism: increasingly highly (and expensively) educated nomads that we are.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Final reminder, Oxford bloggers' gathering

Our second such meeting will be happening tonight (February 21st) at The Turf at 8:00pm. I think we should be a fairly easy to recognize group but, if people wish, they can email me and I will send them my mobile number. I look forward to seeing a good number of you there, though I am tempted to dash off for a few minutes to catch the end of the Strategic Studies meeting...

Being elected in absentia is liable to be something of an embarrassment.

Posted by Milan at 1:29 PM   

Surreal image

Normally, the Google Earth trick of taking altitude data from radar surveys and mapping aerial and satellite photographs on top has the neat effect of making the terrain look three dimensional. Sometimes, however, the radar map misses something and, when it draws the flat image onto the contoured terrain layer, you get a result like the one below:

Posted by Milan at 12:31 AM   

Days spent reading yield boring photos

There is a strong negative correlation between the number of people in the Cornmarket Starbucks and the number in the Codrington Library. Having spent much of the day reading in each, I can provide evidence that is this statement is true both for different times within a specific day and between days. Unfortunately, when the Codrington closed at 6:30pm, I was left with fewer choices. In the absence of an effective reading partner - who girds you to the task through social pressure - the location of an appropriate study space is crucial. Both together can lead to awesome bouts of productivity of the sort that make it just barely plausible that I got in here by a means other than computer or administrative error. The general absence of such explosions, this term at least, sometimes leads to my questioning the wisdom of that selection.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole constructivist argument. While much of it strikes me as likely to have more explanatory power than realism, theory in the abstract is an intractable thing. I think this is slightly akin to how tactics exist both as conceptual possibilities and actual things employed in battle. By the time they are used in the second way, they've lost a lot of the rigidity and theoretical elegance of their former role. They get muddy and smashed up. One sort might help you win the day and the other sort might not, but it's only when they've been applied in such ruthless circumstances that you will ever know. Hopefully, we will eventually get to something like that point with these theoretical discussions. More likely, we will just keep sparring like armchair generals over the relative importance of infantry flanking operations and effective artillery placement.

For good or ill, my assessment of theorists frequently comes down to their basic ability to get an idea across. I remember explaining to Tristan my theory of what it takes to become a famous theorist: you need to have a concept that is novel and that can be explained by someone reasonably knowledgeable about it to someone intelligent but entirely ignorant of it. Moreover, this needs to be able to take place at a party of the kind I attend: ie, those quiet enough to allow a conversation to occur. This is a standard that really famous theorists will meet many times. There are a large number of ideas from Plato, or Hobbes, or Rousseau, or Marx, or Adam Smith, that can be explained under these circumstances.

The extension of this is that, in order to be a theorist whose ideas I am likely to seriously contemplate, you need to be able to lay them out cogently in a piece of writing that I am not overwhelmingly tempted to skim through at the end, or clean my room instead of reading. By such measures, Alexander Wendt succeeds. "Anarchy is What States Make of it" has a strong, comprehensible, and interesting argument. This is especially welcome given how incomprehensible the terminology of sociology can become. The fact that I only needed to teach my spell checker four or five words while taking notes on it is a point in favour of Wendt's piece. Another good sign is that Wendt is generally better to quote directly than to paraphrase: something that is rarely true of academic writing, and certainly not true of Waltz - that great pillar around which the whole of IR theory seems to revolve, whether deservedly or not.

Wendt's discussion of how a circumstance can be socially constructed but also not subject to change is very interesting. Perhaps that's because it saves the appearances of the world as viewed by realists without being based on their ontological assumptions - always a neat trick. It's also an effective response to the lingering doubt I feel about the explanatory power of such sociological viewpoints. If it's all a muddy, mutually constitutive haze out there, how can we hope to understand it or do anything? If mutual constitution can produce circumstances that are strictly delineated and self-reinforcing, it seems that it is capable of conforming more closely to the often unbending character of world politics.

Housing trouble

A serious snag has arisen in the housing situation. Wadham College won't let me give up my contract to live in Library Court until the 17th of June, unless I can find another Wadham student who wants the room. Finding someone who wants to live here for just one term seems as though it would be difficult to arrange, though it remains a possibility.

Another possibility is to find someone who wants to live in the new flat between April and June. I could then move in for the following year once my time in Wadham ends. This seems like it might be less difficult than the first option, since somebody from any college could take one of the rooms in the Church Walk flat.

Still further possibilities include having the other two intended residents simply find a different third roommate. It may be easier to do so for the year-and-a-bit period than for just a couple of months. Meanwhile, I would sort out some alternative accommodation. The final possibility would be for all three of us to search out a different place. This seems the least sensible alternative (provided nothing else comes up regarding the Church Walk flat), especially since all three of us would like to move there in April, if it was possible.

Perhaps I can convince Wadham to relent. Alternatively, perhaps I can find someone who wants to take over tenancy of 11 Library Court for a few months. The location is certainly excellent. Indeed, if anyone reading this is interested or knows someone who might be, please pass me the message.

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• I should start developing a short and intensely focused wish list of things for my mother to bring from Vancouver. Obvious choices include MEC clothing: especially button up shirts of a solid colour with breast pockets, olive or khaki pants, and shoes to replace my one increasingly dilapidated pair. One critical item: twelve of so of the kind of four-coloured pens I take all my notes with.
• I realized this evening that you can search for degree and decimal minute coordinates in Google Earth. For instance, searching for: "49 20.018 -122 56.200" will shift the view to rocks overlooking Deep Cove. I've been adding markers for my favourite hikes, cities I've visited, etc. It's actually slightly thrilling to throw in the coords for a friend's apartment in Helsinki (recorded to help find your way back there a few months ago) and then see the exact building come up.
• Also interesting, with the default disk cache of 400MB, Google Earth seems to be capable of showing every place I've looked at during the last few days at the highest level of detail at which it was previously viewed. It also seems to retain all the major roads in North America and the UK, even when not connected to the internet.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Nuclear Test Sites

As we were both experimenting with Google Earth tonight, Neal pointed out an area in Nevada to me. You can see the crater where an atomic bomb in the 100 kiloton range was tested:


Surrounding it are more test sites:


They sure felt the need to make sure these things would work:


It definitely makes you more certain that Eisenhower was on to something when he talked about a military-industrial complex in his farewell address:


In the words of Ike: "Every gun that is made every warship that is launched every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed"


It really defies all belief, doesn't it?

Posted by Milan at 12:21 AM   

Un jour lent

Leaving the St. Cross bop relatively early last night was probably a good idea. I actually managed to get a respectable amount of work done today. I'd say that's because of the combination of the dreary weather outside and the feeling of deadlines actually creeping up on me: weapons at the ready. While I'm not sure if this little pause was terribly well spent, it's clear that it is coming to an end. Over the course of the day, I read Reus-Smit, Checkel, and lots of Wendt. If this week's seminar doesn't degenerate into another theoretical shouting match, I should be able to participate in the discussion.

General school stuff

Portions of two scholarship applications got finished this morning. So far, such efforts have not yielded the cost of postage expended so far in applying, but I am hopeful this tide can be turned. I also read up on British tenancy law, which seems to be reasonably straightforward, though somewhat different from its Canadian equivalent. We will need to pay attention to getting a good tenancy agreement for the flat we will hopefully be renting for the summer and next year.

I should probably volunteer to write a paper for Dr. Hurrell next week. I can write it on the constructivism question, on the basis of the readings and the core seminar discussion. That way, I won't have two papers due in seventh week, when the second core seminar paper for this term is due. I can write that on the topic for the seventh week discussion.

Upcoming talk

There is a talk this coming Thursday that I will be attending and encourage anyone who is interested to attend as well:

“The impact and role of major international scientific assessments on global environmental governance”
Dr Robert Watson, Chief Scientist, The World Bank
Thursday 23rd Feb, 5.15pm
Martin Wood Lecture Theatre: adjacent to the Clarendon Laboratory on Parks Road at the corner with Keble Road.

Given that is is very closely related to my intended thesis topic, I will certainly be attending.

New Oxford Craigslist

Andy Kim, a member of my program, has apparantly brought about the creation of a Craigslist for Oxford. According to him, it is "for housing, selling things, and all sorts of other weird things that generally happen on craigslist. It has its pluses and minuses, but I think it generally makes for a better connected community. " Oxfordians should consider having a look. There isn't much there yet, but I am sure that will change with time.

It's not a service I've used myself, but I remember that Zandara found her really cool flat in Vancouver through it, so it must have its uses.

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• I am sure everyone remembers about the bloggers' gathering on Tuesday, but I thought I should plug it again anyhow. If I am going to miss the Strategic Studies Group meeting for it, there had better be at least a few people there.
• Ainsley Harriott flavoured cous cous makes a really good snack, especially if you add some olive oil. You can get four or five bowls of the stuff for the price of a Sainsbury's sandwich. The "Spice Sensation" flavour is especially good, and reminds me of Indian food.
• Google Earth is out for Mac. I spent at least an hour this evening checking out places I know well. Hornby Island is not at all where I thought it was, though my experience of getting there never actually involved navigating. I've also been adding markers for friends around the world. I've added everyone who has sent me a letter. Once you have entered the data point, you can set the program to fly between them in sequence. I may never do reading again.
• What are you meant to do when you read something really unsettling on another person's blog? It's exceptionally hard to identify a person's tone over this kind of medium, especially when you don't really know them any other way. The choices seem to be to leave a comment that might miss the mark entirely or just ignore their post. Are painfully generic words used in attempted condolence better than nothing?

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

An Oxford absurdity

According Esther and Wikipedia, it seems that anyone who completes a BA or BFA at Oxford automatically gets a Master of Arts (MA) degree seven years after matriculating, for a nominal fee. According to Wikipedia: "Despite the fact that no greater academic achievement is involved, the MA remains the most important degree in Oxford."

Since I won't have done an undergraduate degree here, it seems as though I will never get one of these nominal MAs. As such, once I finish my degree I will have the 28th highest possible rank, and it will never increase. If I had done a BA here, seven years after matriculating I would have risen to the 12th highest rank (provided I went on to do an M.Phil), or the 18th highest, if I just left it at the BA. In either case, I would outrank: "Doctor of Medicine if not also a Master of Arts"

There are apparently 46 ranks of Oxford graduates, the top 18 of which can only be earned if you have one of these MAs, with the exceptions of Doctors of Divinity and Civil Law (not Medicine). Only those with this titular MA can become full members of the university. The highest Oxford academic rank: "Doctor of Divinity" and the lowest: "Bachelor of Education."

Despite spending two years and an absurd amount of money, I will end up with a degree that is nominally less important than one you get automatically. Completely absurd.

Posted by Milan at 3:55 PM   

Numbly reading

Most of last night was a unpleasant mix of short nightmares and insomnia. Around 7:00am, I decided to give up on trying to sleep and just read The Economist. As a consequence, I felt exceptionally numb today: dulled in all senses and incapable of feeling anything completely. It's odd to be able to pinch yourself and barely feel it, chew food and barely taste it. And this after a day when I consumed nothing caffeinated aside from a single cup of Earl Grey tea.

I spent much of today at the Oxford Country Library. It's a place with much to recommend it. It's close to Wadham, fairly large, and mundane in architecture. It's the kind of place that exists at approximately the right level of distraction for reading to take place effectively. The Country Library also has dramatically better cell phone coverage than anywhere in Wadham.

Concentrating on readings that take the form of PDF files is especially difficult for me. Things on screen just don't have the same impact or apparent importance as things on paper. That's why I print off critical emails and occasionally especially poignant blog posts. Another factor is undoubtedly that PDF files must be read on a computer. Even if the computer in question lacks the infinite distraction of an internet connection, it will always have at least a text editor to draw one's attention from the matter at hand.

As I am liable to do when feeling less than well, I bought a raft of healthy food today: fruit, three kinds of cous cous, nice olive oil, organic tofu, orange juice, whole wheat bread, and hot sauce. While the ginseng experiment seems to have had a negligible effect or none, the availability of quick to prepare healthy but tasty foods definitely increases both my productivity and happiness.

Musical recommendation

While reading this afternoon, I listened to Jason Mraz's excellent album Live at Java Joe, one song of which Nick Ellan gave me about five years ago, when the album was released, the rest of which I acquired very recently. It's both comic and melodic, extremely informal, and with a very authentic live feeling. "Zero Percent" and "Dream Life of Rand McNally" are especially good songs.

---

• I wonder when I will hear back from the Chevening Scholarship people. Is is my hope, this time, that I will at least make it to the interview stage. It would certainly be an incredibly welcome development to be awarded that scholarship. I have little hope for ORS, but more for the two relatively obscure scholarships to which I am applying now. Ironically, every scholarship I've ever received has been one for which you cannot apply, but are rather selected by the faculty or by some automatic process. Hopefully, that trend will be broken in the next few months.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Chapter 246: In which Milan demonstrates philosophical ineptitude

In the middle of the afternoon, I made a concerted effort to read the Heidegger paper that Tristan sent me a few weeks ago: The Question Concerning Technology. It was meant to be a contribution to my 'discretionary reading on environmental politics related matter' effort. I know it will annoy him to say that I found it mostly incomprehensible - in both approach and diction - but that is assuredly the fact of the matter. Heidegger goes on and on about Greek and the nature of silver chalices. While I am sure the example would be brilliantly illustrative if I had any idea of what he was talking about, it serves no purpose for me. It's akin, I think, to someone who knows nothing about computers sitting down with a dense text on scripting and the UNIX command prompt.

Just as arcane knowledge of computers alienates you from everyone who does not have it - by stripping you of the ability to communicate as richly as you could if you were alike in ignorance - such knowledge leads to tremendous frustration whenever you deal with someone who has it in the opposite quantity. The computer geek is as frustrating and incomprehensible to the neophyte as the neophyte is to the geek. The knowledge that is a source of pride for the geek is often marked off as unnecessary to the neophyte, for whom it only serves an instrumental purpose: a purpose that can be achieved indirectly, by enlisting the aid of the geek. What enlisting the aid of philosophers means, exactly, I don't know, but I consider much of philosophy to be marked off in the space of "information for others to deal with."

This is not necessarily an embracing of ignorance, but perhaps more properly a response to the impossible vastness of knowledge and the sheer variety of dialects in which that knowledge is stored and discussed. It's paradoxical, but ultimately obvious, that increased understanding of something can actually strip you of the ability to explain it or deal with people who don't understand it. Attending lectures of someone who has colossal knowledge of a truly obscure field is among the best possible demonstrations of how knowledge is a cage.

Of course, when were talking about the physical sciences, there can be an external referent for expertise. I may not be able to understand what an engineer means when they talk about stress factors or the properties of metals, but I can see whether the bridge stays up or crashes down. Likewise, physicists and chemists can make predictions and develop technologies that demonstrate that their knowledge is - in some sense - correct. What comparable contribution can philosophers or, for that matter, international relations scholars make?

So much of what we do is like the nuances of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony: only those with considerable specific knowledge could ever know whether what was being performed was correct or merely a close approximation. No observer not steeped in the tradition could tell and, in a broad sense, the tradition itself is completely arbitrary. If we had all argued our way to some other equilibrium, it would serve exactly the same role as this one.

Posted by Milan at 5:09 PM   

Random vignettes

UK Pub Smoking Ban

The major reason for which I dislike spending time in most British pubs is apparently soon to be eliminated; I mean, of course, the carcinogenic clouds that seem to be a feature therein. It's amazing, actually, that people persist in an activity that kills about half a million Americans every year, according to the Centres for Disease Control and World Health Organization. People should consider a pass-time that kills only a tiny fraction of that number: like serving in Iraq. Whatever enjoyment people derive from it, it clearly doesn't make sense in cost-benefit terms. It demonstrates the extent to which the rational actor model fails in the face of various biochemical and sociological factors.

While my inclinations generally run in a libertarian direction, smoking is largely exempted from the categories of things legitimately subject only to personal choice. Especially in the case of commercial venues, smoking involves exposing other people - including employees who are there night by night - to the myriad dangers involved in the practice. From a personal perspective, it will make it more enjoyable to go to pubs - which is an activity with almost monolithic power, when it comes to the ways in which students relate socially in groups here.

In two words: I approve.

Olympic commentary

Mica informs me that Canada now has eleven Olympic medals. Well done, I say. That said, the only really intense Olympic experience I ever had was during my second year in Totem Park, where the whole undergraduate resident student body became caught up in Canada's successful race for the men's and women's gold medals in hockey. I even watched the game between Belarus and unknown country X (where unknown country X is the one everyone expected to win) where the puck bounced off the goalie's mask and into the net. Almost all of the time, sports are really boring. Sports and nationalism together: occasionally interesting.

In two words: why not?

Productivity, etc

I finished this week's Economist today, as well as several of the readings on constructivism for next week's core seminar. Medium-term projects now include:

1. Finishing two more scholarship applications
2. Arranging transport and accommodation for Sarah Johnston's March 18th wedding in Chichester
3. Sort out accommodation for next year
4. Get a wedding gift for Sarah and a birthday gift for my mother

Without a looming essay deadline to motivate, I will need to learn to focus energies on the basis of other kinds of deadlines. While it might require an enormous personal adjustment, it's just the king of thing that's necessary in order to exist as a crude proxy of the kind of 'highly effective people' whose habits are written about. Thankfully, since my habits are written about almost exclusively by me, nobody need know about the instances where I wander ever so slightly from the path of enlightenment through massive doses of academic prose.

In two words: read more!

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Of hair and housing

Another round in an ancient battle played out today. I mean, of course, the battle that has raged over the length of my hair. There is a camp that encourages it to become ever-longer: a camp served by apathy and thrift on my part, but opposed by my will. Short hair is manageable hair, which does not become an embarrassment if briefly slept upon or subjected to a hat. The viability of the hat option makes temperature control more feasible. In short, the advantages of short hair are legion. Of course, the longer-hair crowd always wins out in the short term, as the stuff extends day by day. I always win in the medium term, once I muster the energy to blast it back. The first red line is when it becomes capable of touching my eyes; the second when it begins sticking out over my ears; and the third when it starts behaving unpredictably on the back and sides of my head. By then, it has become a dangerous snarling mass.

When you think about it, winning in the medium term is the best we can ever hope for as human beings. I'm now probably mostly made of Oxford tap water, where once I was made of Vancouver tap water. My ability to continue rebuilding myself out of water and digestive biscuits is ultimately capped by entropy: the central reason for which we are all doomed in the end. As such, it if in the 5 to 50 year time scale that we have the opportunity to snatch what victories we may from the jaws of irrelevance.

Speaking of medium-term victories, Kai and I may have found a suitable flat for next year. It's located right near St. Antony's, on Church Walk. It's farther from Sainsbury's and the centre of town, but about the same distance from the Department, and closer to Jericho and some nice commercial areas. It's a basement suite, located underneath some kind of institute. As such, there will be nobody upstairs to bother us or be bothered evenings and weekends. It also includes a sizable back yard: almost as large as all of Library Court. We could definitely hold some nice garden parties there. The three bedrooms all have safety windows looking outside at ground level. (The third bedroom would be occupied by our silent partner.) The kitchen looks good and even the smallest of the bedrooms would more than adequately serve me.

At £85 a week for the two large bedrooms and £75 a week for the small converted living room, it seems quite pricey. That said, my termly battels in Wadham have exceeded £900 for each term and inter-term break period. Having a better kitchen would also encourage me to eat in more often, as well as affording me the chance to actually store prepared food. Those prices include power, water, and broadband internet access (obviously the most vital of the three). In short, the flat itself is very nice with advantages of location and design.

The biggest potential problem has to do with availability. The lease runs from September to September, which is standard, but the three current residents are all moving out in April. They are looking for someone to serve out the rest of their lease, then take one on for next year. My accommodation in Wadham runs until the 17th of July, but I am inquiring as to whether I could move out before the start of Trinity Term instead. Then, I could live in the new flat from the start of April until our exams end in July 2007, at which point we would presumably find people to play the same lease-finishing role as we would be playing from April to September of this year.

This will be the first time I've actually lived in accommodation that is private to this extent. I say 'to this extent' because the building does belong to St. Antony's College and it would be through them that we would be letting it. Even so, it is much closer to private accommodation than Library Court, Fairview, or Totem Park have been.

I am excited about the prospect of living there.

PS. The haircut, which I got from the same place on the Cowley Road as the last one, is neither the best nor the worst I've received. The best was in Venice and now comprises the picture I show to barbers; the worst was in London, and I am sure it's now part of my CIA dossier. This one is slightly worse than the last haircut I got in Oxford.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Qualitative methods changing tack

Happy Birthday Kate Dillon

Tomorrow's qualitative methods lecture, to be given by Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh, is on the topic of "Bonapartism and popular political culture." This sounds exceptionally esoteric, following four classes divided between the broad areas of Foreign Policy Analysis (woe to anyone who wrote the take-home exam on that topic) and Institutions. That said, holding "a general discussion about the role of myth in politics" sounds like a particularly interesting way to spend a couple of hours. It's more in keeping with the kind of social and historical examination that Bryony and I were talking about yesterday.

The OED calls myth: "a popular conception of a person or thing which exaggerates or idealizes the truth." I don't know if that's the most useful definition, largely because of the difficulty of accessing a 'truth' that exists independently or is particularly important. One of the examples given seems to illustrate this point:

Disraeli set himself to recreate a national political party out of the wreckage of Peel's following. A new myth had to be evolved.

Without knowing anything about the situation being described, the dynamic can be recognized. The need to create a new story to replace or update an old one is a frequent and comprehensible thing. It's part of what makes politics such a maddeningly difficult thing to deal with.

Myth - whether in the form of national foundational myths, justifications for state authority, or narratives about national history - seems to have played a fundamental role both in domestic political development and the development of the international system. The social role of myth, it seems, is to serve as a heuristic for justifying and understanding. Just think about Canada's self-definition as the peacekeeping 'helpful fixer' or the American conception of being the 'city on a hill.' Neither has always reflected reality; it may be more useful to think about them as touchstones of national identity. That doesn't mean they are always automatically accepted, but rather that they provide a data point that is always within the range of consideration. Myths provide a hook upon which other ideas can hang, as well as a barrier behind which complexity can be concealed.

Bloggers' gathering reminder

To remind everyone, the second Oxford bloggers' gathering is to take place next Tuesday at 8:00pm at The Turf. I hope I will get the chance to meet a few more of the people whose posts I have been reading.

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• As I have learned through clips on the Comedy Central website, The Colbert Report is brilliant: a worthy companion to The Daily Show. I especially like the hubris of the segment: "Bring 'Em Back or Leave 'Em Dead." I recommend having a look.
• My brother Mica is still seeking advice on his video production efforts.
• In a cross-over I never expected, Bill Emmott - editor of The Economist - has a letter in this week's Savage Love. Since both are publications I read weekly, I was entertained to see them thus paired. In the spirit of Mr. Colbert, I give a tip of the hat to each of them.
• Removing dust blotches from every single photo of the day is really annoying!
• I used to consider Xanga to be the very bottom of the blogging barrel, in terms of the overall level of quality of sites hosted there. MySpace has absolutely shattered that record. I have never seen a MySpace page that is even tolerable, much less attractive. They tend to have complex, garish backgrounds that do not scroll with the stuff in front of them and include that sin of sins: embedded music. It's like being thrown back to the Internet circa 1995, and it's an ugly ugly experience.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Cause I dreamed I went to England...

The social side of today went better than the academic. Our core seminar was little more than a tired re-hashing of entrenched positions, which didn't really advance academic argument. It was really quite combattive. We are in the territory now where egos are defined and, frankly, not a great deal of really important work is getting done. Theory for its own sake is much less interesting than thought applied to practical problems.

After the seminar, I met a group of IR people for half priced drinks at the Duke of Cambridge, on Little Clarendon Street. Despite my haste to get to the Strategic Studies meeting, Emily furnished me with some kind of fruit cocktail concoctions. I hope her ambition to go dancing later was achieved.

The Strategic Studies election is a bit of a joke. While there are two candidates for President: Sheena Chestnut and Matt Pennycook, both from my program, I am the only candidate for Vice. I won't need to go quail hunting with any potential donors. Nobody at all is running for Secretary, though Claire is submitting an application tomorrow. Having an exec dominated by members of the M.Phil in IR would be interesting.

The Strategic Studies presentation itself was on China and Taiwan, and was generally reflective of the conventional wisdom on the matter. Afterwards, I went to St. Cross and met with Claire and a number of her fun friends. There was even fencing involved - both within the confines of St. Cross and outside in Oxford's rain-drenched streets. I quite enjoy the social atmosphere at St. Cross, as well as the particular characteristics of Claire's friends there.

Now, I should turn my attention to my complete lack of wearable clothes and the bulk of reading on constructivism to be completed for next week. Tempted as I am to grab a plane ticket to Rome and a train ticket to Turin, I should probably stay the course here. Getting a bit ahead might even help disrupt the boom and bust cycle that has been characteristic of the program thus far. As I discussed with a classmate outside the Duke of Cambridge, it seems more like we are being tested over and over than we are actually being taught specific things.

I really need to take the initiative and start reading more about environmental politics and spending time at the Environmental Change Centre. That, and spending more time with St. Cross people.

Posted by Milan at 12:07 AM   

Much appreciated correspondence

This morning, thinking it may have arrived, I went to the Lodge early and found the letter that Alison said earlier that she was sending. It is always brilliant to receive letters from friends elsewhere: whether physical or electronic and rendered with the kind of care that defines a letter. Alison's demonstrates an awareness of aesthetics and design that I could never emulate. I am listening to the enclosed CD now: it is demonstrative of her expertise about current music, as well as her excellent taste. As she indicates in her letter, the track "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!" by Suffian Stephens is particularly good. Like Neal, she has taken a turn into country music appreciation.

I've already begun composing a reply that is similarly distinctive, but it will take me a while. I conversed with a number of other friends today, both my email and the five instant messengers I have configured Adium to aggregate. In particular, it was good to correspond with Astrid and converse with Meghan.

I should do another batch of reading before tomorrow's core seminar and then go to sleep early. I don't feel particularly well.

PS. While I shall not get into the specifics, this weekend showed that some hopes I had been entertaining were misplaced. While it's not a pleasant thing to learn, it's probably better than persisting in misunderstanding.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Dead Wolf Marketplace

Up on South Parks Road, there is a sheet-metal covered barrier that is at least twelve feet high - topped with several strands of razor wire. In front, there are concrete blocks and along the top there are fixed and movable security cameras. This barricade is built around the Oxford Animal Lab, which hundreds of people have been protesting and which has gone through several building contractors because they keep getting scared off by death threats. The builders now wear balaclavas, for fear of being harassed when off the site.

Less than a kilometer away, as I was walking through the covered market in search of a shop where Louise told me I might find more kinds of tofu, I passed six dead wolves hanging from hooks. I was astonished. Six headless, fur-covered, quadrupedal corpses split down the middle and hanging along the edge of a pathway that people bustle down with bags of new shoes.

The obvious charge is one of hypocrisy, but my response to the dead creatures was nowhere near so rational. It was a shock and disgust that persists hours later - despite efforts to wash it away with organic cola (disgusting) and ciabatta with cheese and roast veggies.

Along with the rows of dead rabbits (their heads in plastic bags so as to help people avoid anthropomorphizing them), the quail, and all the rest of the meat, they produce a smell that permeates the whole market and that lingers in my nostrils. Colour me confirmed in my vegetarianism.

[Edited: 7:46pm] Having consulted a wolf expert in circumstances too strange to go into, the consensus if that the aforementioned quadrupeds are assuredly not wolves. My imperfect photos reveal fur that is the right colour, but legs that are decidedly too thick. Headless, they remain unidentified.

Posted by Milan at 3:49 PM   

Take-home exam woes

As I sat in Wadham's hellishly hot subterranean computer lab, thinking about the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and Principal-Agent Theory, it became increasingly obvious that the latter is really not at all useful for understanding the former. Had I known what the exam question was going to be, I certainly would have chosen a different case study. Now, it is rather too late, so I shall carry on trying to dig myself out of this hole. I did specifically ask the professor whether the ICC would be a good institution to look at, and received a response in the affirmative. As such, I am not wholly responsible for this debacle.

Submitting my exam, which I am actually less unhappy about than the above paragraph indicates, I was surprised to find that envelopes cannot be slid under the office doors inside the Department of Politics and International Relations. This seems like a fairly severe design flaw in an academic building, where slipping a completed paper under a profs door is a time honoured method of submitting work securely.

From the department, I walked Emily to St. Antony's. En route, I learned that she attended a session about the entrance examinations for All Souls. To become a prize fellow, you take fifteen hours of examinations on various subjects, followed by a viva examination with all the present members who care to show up. At most, two people a year are admitted. Those who are get seven years of funding and accommodation for any kind of study in Oxford. Technically, I could even become a medical doctor in that space of time, based on the generally shorter degrees here. Not that I could stand all the blood and syringes.

It might be worth spending the fifteen hours even to make the attempt and fail. At least you could say that you gave it a shot, and you would still be in distinguished company. Some very eminent people have been disappointed by this particular examination.

Along with my qualitative methods examination, I submitted my 'manifesto' for the Strategic Studies election. It's an odd system, where people vote by email and you can only run for one position. Inspired by Matt's example, in running for President, I put myself into the Vice-Presidential running. After all, there will only be one chance to be a member of this executive. I don't know whether I am running against five people or none. Nominations close on Tuesday and the final list of candidates will be announced on the 21st. I shall keep you posted on what develops.

The seems to be a tiny bit of an academic pause in the next little while. There are always readings to be done, of course, but I don't think I have any papers due next week. Our second core seminar paper is due on the 28th and I should be starting a paper for Dr. Hurrell soon, but I do have a bit of a space here to work with. Maybe I can finally finish Neorealism and its Critics: a book that I have struggled to wade through in three different countries over the course of the last three months or so.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Take-home exam and contemplation of dreams

Morning and early afternoon: reading and writing

I am really enjoying The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. As with most fiction, that is a result of the narrator. You need to see their project as valuable, yet not something you could or would do yourself. As such, they are doing you a service by living in that capacity in your stead. You get the results back in neat lines on pages. In good fiction, those results feel a lot like memory. They get overlaid upon your own memory, as though you had thought those things yourself in moments similar to the ones portrayed.

I have been dreaming copiously of late. I can set the countdown timer on my phone for ten minutes, lie down, and dream something - even in the middle of the day. Sleeping for an hour or to, I might have a half dozen dreams: all of which I can remember for a minute or two afterwards, but none that I will remember an hour later. I don't know if this is just a meaningless phenomenon or whether it represents some kind of ongoing psychological condition. It's certainly not something that's normal for me.

It's nice to imagine that my brain is doing some kind of internal housekeeping or reorganization and, as such, sleeping is not a waste of time. Rather, it will allow me - very soon now - to come at all problems with a piercing new intelligence and command of language and memory.

I read a few chapters of Murakami's book between reading and writing pages for my take-home test. It's hard to evaluate the Inuit Circumpolar Conference from the perspective of the principal-agent framework. Firstly, that's because there isn't actually a lot of information out there about it. Secondly, the framework seems better suited to institutions with a more defined structure. That said, understanding the ICC is important - for a number of reasons I identify in the latest draft - and it's probably at least a bit important to understand the extent to which this framework works for it. That makes writing the exam much less of a chore.

During all of this, I listened to Tegan & Sara.

Late afternoon and evening

I met Louise at the train station and spent a while with her getting coffee and then groceries before she went off for dinner with friends and German backpackers and I returned to Wadham to carry on working on my take home exam. Getting it done completely tonight, or even just to the point where it requires only final linguistic and conceptual editing, would liberate tomorrow - a benefit that is not to be sneered at.

I will, after all, have another week's reading to do for Tuesday and Thursday, as well as writing a manifesto for the Security Studies Group election. Next's week's general topic is international society and international law, and the specific question which to which I must prepare and answer is:

What is meant by the concept of international society? In what ways does it represent a challenge to realism?

Thankfully, this is something that I already know at least a bit about. Coming up next in qualitative methods: "Archives, Texts, and Sources," beginning with "Bonapartism and popular political culture."

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

10^4 visits (10011100010000 in binary, 2710 in hex)

Since the 4th of November 2005, a sibilant intake of breath has received 10,000 visits. That's almost exactly 100 a day, though the average is more like 110 during term time and 80 during breaks. It represents an average of 42 visitors per post. The busiest day by far was the day of the election, during which I got about 750 visitors.

57% were from North America, 36% from Europe, 3% from South America, 2% from Australia, and 2% from Asia. 42% were from Canada, 33% from the United Kingdom, and 15% from the United States. Visits from the west coast of North America are twice as frequent as those from the east coast.

In any case, my thanks go out to everyone who has taken the time to read this. The ten thousandth reader was from Vancouver, and found the page through Sasha Wiley's blog. Whoever they may be, you can tell they're a savvy user, since they use the superior Firefox browser.

Posted by Milan at 2:29 AM   

Academic Hiccough

Today's supervision really didn't feel as though it went well. While some of the discussion had the kind of energy that has been characteristic, there was also a lot of vague sparring and misunderstanding. I don't know exactly why this was the case, but I suspect my essay was of lower quality than normal. That's partly because the question was so large and, when I picked and chose elements to address, I didn't really explain why adequately. As such, it was open to all sorts of attack. I will do better next time. Next time, I really should make an effort to have someone else at least glance over my paper, before I produce the final version. Thoughts that never get interrogated risk being really flabby the first time someone does; if that happens in supervision, it reflects really badly.

Despite sleeping quite a lot in the past few days, I remain frequently and thoroughly tired. I don't really have an explanation for it, but it's very bad for overall productivity. It may well have something to do with my continued failure to establish anything like the five-track ideal life: one in which you always have five different things happening at once, in different areas. When that's happening, it's hard for everything to go wrong at once. It is also hard to get caught up in general listlessness. The ginseng that Jonathan suggested I try does not seem to be helping.

At Robert Wood's suggestion, I am going to read Daniel L Nielson and Michael J Tierney, Delegation to International Organizations: Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform, International Organization 57 (Spring 2003): 241-276. Hopefully, it will be useful for helping me to answer, in 2000 words, the question of the take-home assignment:

Is the principal-agent framework useful for understanding international institutions? Using the example of a specific institution [Ed: The Inuit Circumpolar Conference] outline the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to studying international institutions.

It's not the easiest case study to deal with, but I chose it before I knew what the question would be. The principals are presumably the 150,000 or so Inuit people in Canada, the United States, Greenland, and Russia. As for how power is delegated to agents, I don't know all that much. A group that represents so few people doesn't generally have an extensive literature around it, and certainly not one that is accessible from so far away. Basically, I am going to talk about it as a stakeholder group that shows how organizations aside from states - and not even composed of states - can play a role in global environmental policy negotiations. There are all manner of conclusions that can be drawn from the Stockholm episode.

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• I was listening to Elliot Smith's album Figure 8 today. Some of it is very good, but it suffers from being too similar to the stuff that isn't overly good. It all blends together on the basis of the very similar nature of most of their songs, not unlike The Smiths.
• Apparently, they just found a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The first such find since 1922. It will be nice to have one more properly excavated: presumably with artifacts to remain in Egypt. (Source: BBC)

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

On knowledge and Google

Looking through my server logs to see how people found the blog is often a gratifying experience. It's a reminder that there is hardly anything you can write about that people don't care enough about to search for information on. From "sainsbury's "isle of bute" scottish cheddar" to the name of virtually every restaurant I've ever mentioned, people have found the blog. From song lyrics, place names, event names, current event descriptions. Some of the search strings have been rather odd:

• how to make a complaint at sainsburys when the security guard treat you like a criminal
• "brute force" at2 os x
• "I require access to all human knowledge"
• buy and sale computation, using nominal rate in phils. setting
• happy moon pps
• capital T does not work OSX
• newfoundlands noral weather in summer and winter

That said, the vast majority of searches are comprehensible and really do relate to something I've written about - whether well or badly, usefully or not.

Through this, and projects like Google Print, I suppose that eventually a really huge portion of the stock of written human knowledge will be available in readily searchable form. Whether searching can still be intelligible in the face of such volume isn't something we can really know yet, though enterprises like Google lend one optimism.

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• The webcam on this site provides a stunning view of Vancouver. It is located above the Burrard Street Bridge, looking across Kits and Point Grey at the University of British Columbia. The sunset shots are especially nice.

Posted by Milan at 2:05 PM   

Nothing too interesting today, I'm afraid

I was quite exhausted today, as the result of first voluntary and then involuntary sleeplessness last night. My plan to get back on my ideal 1am-9am sleep pattern is not going well. I had some really good conversations with a pair of people with whom I've not generally conversed at length, but the cost was one of considerable mental degradation today. As such, our second qualitative methods class passed rather more hazily than it might otherwise have done. Even so, I think I will be able to do a decent job of the take-home exam over the course of this weekend. Since it's just one 2000 word essay, it shouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately, the essay question is one that is uniquely poorly suited to the case study I have already chosen. It's really aimed at larger and more bureaucratically complex institutions. That said, I think a reminder that there are frigates out there as well as battleships - and that they are doing important work - is one that will serve those marking the exam well.

Lots of projects are waiting just over the next hill now: the continued search for a summer job and a place to live, the process of applying for scholarships in a way that I hope will be more fruitful this year than last, and the ever-present process of reading with an eye to less-and-less distant examinations. The character of the light has been helpful on all of these fronts lately. It really does have a profound psychological effect. It's like seeing the surface of the water as you are swimming up towards it. It distracts from how oxygen starved your lungs can get at times and it unambiguously demonstrates the way to go.

I have a supervision with Dr. Hurrell tomorrow about my neoliberal institutionalism essay, with another to follow soon on the democratic peace essay I submitted yesterday.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn

This afternoon was so bright that - sitting with my curtains open in Library Court - I felt like I was back on the red couch in our kitchen this summer, or perhaps at one of the bare wooden picnic tables in Fairview Crescent during exam time. Unable to resist the aesthetic, I spent a while reading the Murakami book from Tristan. Most recently, the protagonist has intentionally lowered himself down into the bottom of a well, in the middle of a Tokyo suburb. The light of the afternoon and the ideal of the story both remind me of stealth camping expeditions planned and executed in Pacific Spirit Park: concealing a small tent somewhere amongst all the foot and bicycle paths, then watching it get dark absurdly early under the heavy coniferous canopy.

My computer monitor - usually the bluest light source in the room by far, contrasted with cheap incandescent bulbs under yellowed plastic covers - looked positively sepia toned, by comparison with the afternoon skylight.

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Something very annoying has happened to my Canon A510 - the camera on which all the blog photos are taken. In the bottom left area of the frame, when the camera is held horizontally, there is a dark splotch. At first, I thought it was dust on the lens, but a thorough cleaning hasn't even moved it. It seems to become larger when focused on a distant subject and darker when a smaller aperture is used. My thesis, for the moment, is that it is dust on the sensor. As such, there is no way whatsoever I could remove it, and to have it done professionally would probably cost a good share of the value of the camera.

Since it wasn't there yesterday, I can hold out the dimmest hope that it won't be there tomorrow. That said, it looks as though I will be trying to remove it in Photoshop from all photos where it is evident (anything where it appears on a solid colour or even a simple texture). If anyone has a cunning plan to get rid of it completely, I would be highly grateful.

There is a second, smaller and less noticeable, patch in the upper right corner. A third, even less noticeable, one is right in the middle. All three have been edited out of today's photo.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Still not FoodSafe, but much better

Over the course of an hour and a half this afternoon, Nora and I executed the kitchen cleanup. With freshly purchased Sainsbury's bleach, anti-bacterial spray, and various abrasive implements, I set about rendering the inside of the fridge, the counters, and all other surfaces relatively free of grime and microorganisms. After fifteen minutes trying to remove the molasses-thick, 2mm layer of pure grease (decorated with dead and dessicated insects) atop the hood on the cooker, I gave up the attempt in favour of some braver soul who will come after me. Nora helped with the kitchen shelves, all the abandoned dishes, and much else. Nobody else turned up, despite every member of Library Court having to pass at least two signs advertising this several times a day.

Almost all of the food in the fridge - from the dark brown mayonnaise to the sausages that were best before November 1998 - has been discarded, as well as much of the putrified matter on shelves and in cupboards. Walking out into the night, the sky was dancing with lines of luminescence - probably the result of 90 minutes in an enclosed, non-ventilated environment with high concentrations of sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide in the air.

Perhaps they will add a sparkle to the final version of my essay, before I march it over to Nuffield and return to finish up my Inuit presentation.

Posted by Milan at 6:22 PM   

Expedition destination specified

I am going to Malta between the 25th of March (my mother's 50th birthday) and the 1st of April. I don't know whether we're on a Malta or Gozo walking tour (those two islands making up the Maltese State), but I do know that it's with HF Holidays. Anyone who has any experience with either the country or the travel provider is encouraged to leave a comment.

In any case, I am very excited to be going.

That said, I should go to sleep so as to wake up early and work on my papers. A generalized exhaustion has convinced me to try and get back on my ideal 1:00am to 9:00am sleep pattern.

Posted by Milan at 1:20 AM   

Mid-term craziness

I wrote another essay today. Taking an hour-long nap during the process probably increased the quality of the final product, but it has not advanced my particularly daunting schedule for the next few days. Nearly adding boiling water to milk in an attempt to make breakfast cereal for dinner revealed both the state of culinary achievement I have reached of late and how addled you mind can become on the basis of sleeplessness and long bouts of reading.¹

Now, I just need to proofread this paper (on democratic peace theory) before delivering it to Nuffield tomorrow. Since I am running for an executive position, I should probably attend tonight's Strategic Studies Group meeting. Then, I need to finish my presentation on the Inuit Circumpolar Council for Thursday. The weekend promises to include the take-home exam for qualitative methods. In addition to that, there is always reading for next week's core seminar. Of particular importance is that I need to collect information on the two scholarships I am applying for in early March and send it to referees. Also, submit my request for vacation residence time as soon as I know when the trip with my mother will be. They certainly keep us on our toes here: always something new to be done, even if there isn't necessarily much time for reflection or creativity.

I'm particularly irked by the knowledge that I will need to spend a good chunk of this weekend dealing with the take-home exam. There is a mess of reading for the institutions section of that course that I will probably need to do in order to do a good job of the exam, whatever form it ends up taking. The annoying thing is the confluence of the three days during which the exam absolutely must be done and Louise's visit. I shall try to balance them as best can be managed.

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[1] I got a much better dinner after the strategic studies meeting.

• Apparently, the provincial government has released a plan to protect 2 million hectares of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Good for them. I wonder if this area is connected with the bear research Kate Dillon has been doing. This will be an expansion of the 45,000-hectare protected zone in the Khutzeymateen Valley.
• This New Yorker article on profiling, to which Bryony originally referred me, is quite interesting. As you would expect from Malcolm Gladwell, it includes connections between quite disparate areas of study. Since I can't write any more here now, people looking for something to read should definitely have a look at this.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Cartoons and cultural clashes

A quick comment regarding the continuing row about the Danish cartoon depictions of Mohammed. No collective response to an incident becomes this big or carries on this long without some kind of coordination and organization. While the whole situation is clearly based on a great deal of legitimate anger, it is nonetheless sentiment that is being excited and manipulated. That's not to imply that some kind of global conspiracy is at work, but simply to say that I don't accept that these protests are spontaneous or free of manipulation. Given their destructive nature, I think it will be instructive to eventually determine what forces have been trying to exploit this issue, through what means, and to what level of success.

As I was discussing with Tristan earlier today, the symbolic character of conflict is an essential dimension for understanding it. It's one that requires examination both of individual psychology and the ways in which groups of people think. One excellent book I can recall from Brian Job's security studies class at UBC is Kaufman's Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war. Those wanting a far better explanation of some of these issues than I can provide should have a look.

Posted by Milan at 11:48 PM   

Amateur Oxford sociology

Happy birthday Iason Gabriel

After lectures this morning, I spent much of the day working on the Connolly and Barkawi books. The Connolly book is interesting, but includes a lot of fairly general language and not a lot of direct examples. General points about theory are more memorable, comprehensible, and valid when they can be affirmed through at least one concrete demonstration. You can talk about symbol construction all you want, but one good case study on the construction of 'Palestine' as a symbol in contemporary Middle Eastern politics strikes me as quite a bit more worthwhile and useful than a lot of generalization. It's an anti-parsimonious ideal that may set me outside the 'discipline' of International Relations: out amongst the historians, journalists, and policy makers.

Dinner with Alex, Claire, and Iason tonight was an affirmation - once again - of how fun people in my program are. I was meant to meet Emily afterwards, but things once again didn't manage to work out. It's interesting to observe the sociology of the M.Phil group: who spends time with whom, what kind of inside jokes develop, and how people conceive of themselves in the program. Personally and intellectually, I feel like I am undergoing a second adolescence here. I am very actively defining my beliefs and personality in a way I can never recall doing before. I think it's the combination of a new place and having finally reached a level of self-affirmation where I can brush off most criticism. It's an empowering mix.

Hopefully, it will empower me to get a decent draft of my paper for Dr. Hurrell done tonight - after a brief foray to the King's Arms with Alex, Claire, and some of Claire's St. Cross friends. I could write much more, but I really should get some reading done now if I am going out again later.

PS. Tristan has a new batch of photos online, including a really odd one of Meaghan Beattie and I. Tristan frequently seems to post more photos of people in a day than I do in several months. Partly, that's because there have been problems in the past with posting photos of people on the blog. Even so, I will try to show a less de-populated Oxford during the next while.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

On travel, a new project, and thesis planning

Speaking with my parents over Skype today, I was reminded of how difficult it can be to communicate through a speech-only medium. It's especially frustrating when you are making the attempt with someone who you really do want to speak with, but you are having difficulty doing so with any clarity or skill. The extra fraction of a second of Skype-to-phone lag definitely contributes to the difficulty. So plainly, in fact, that when I use SkypeOut to call people, they frequently suggest going on Skype themselves so as to increase the quality of the connection.

Partly for these reasons, I am especially looking forward to seeing my mother in about a month's time. It's still not certain whether we will go to Malta, Portugal, or Greece - though the middle option is increasingly looking the most likely. The kind of trip that is being proposed is a package-deal type hiking trip, with 4-10km walks every day and arranged hotels. While quite different from the kind of travel I have generally done, I find the idea to be an interesting one, and one that is likely to be enjoyable. I found travelling with Meghan Mathieson et al to be especially interesting, precisely because it involved traveling in a group and according to a set itinerary that I didn't control. Hopefully, this expedition will mimic the best attributes of that one.

Oxford life

At the end of this year, I think I should condense the mass of experience I've had here into a trio of short guides: one for people considering coming to Oxford, one for people considering Wadham, and one for people thinking of doing the M.Phil in IR. It would offer me a chance to be both balanced and concise, while offering a perspective that people may find valuable. While the information that would be included is already embedded in blog posts, I don't think anyone is likely to go through the whole collection of hundreds of entries just to gain insights that might be better expressed in three to five pages on each topic.

Thesis planning

I have been investigating the Oxford Environmental Change Institute and it seems like a resource that could conceivably be extremely helpful for my research topic. Their website quotes Dr. Anna Lawrence, of the Human Ecology Program, as saying: "Researchers must find ways to incorporate the experiences and values of other stakeholders in their research." This is exactly the kind of thing I want to do: look at the means by which such cooperation and outreach is taking place. If I can find some way to get involved with this organization, it might contribute a great deal to my ability to say something new and important on the subject. While it can be difficult to deal with segregation between different areas of academia, the very lack of connections makes it a really exciting place to do work. There is much to be discovered there.

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• For space travel enthusiasts, someone put a link on the blog today to a really comprehensive and interesting site about the Soviet and Russian space program. The information on launch centres strikes me as particularly interesting.
• The Google Maps images for a number of places have been updated at higher resolution. You can easily see individual people on the Millennium Footbridge between the Tate Modern and St. Paul's. You can see the face of Big Ben. Oxford looks almost purposefully blurred compared to things around it. Lancaster is as clear as London.
• It says something about Oxford - and perhaps about political science students - that there are at least six other people in the Department at 10:30pm on Sunday night.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Mohammed comics follow-up

By now, it has become obvious that the response of many people in the Muslim world, and elsewhere, to the Danish comics has exceeded all reasonable bounds. To take umbrage against a perceived slight is perfectly acceptable in a free society. To start burning down embassies and calling for the murder of the nationals of the countries where the comics have been printed is insane. It's not something that can be defended according to any reasonable system of ethics - by which I do mean to say that a religious ethic that required such a thing would be indefensible - and it's not something that can be construed as acceptable conduct.

To actually believe that there is a God who would require or encourage such conduct is to effectively close out the possibility of their being a God who is both omnipotent and benevolent to humanity in general. It has always been absurd to say that you could have a God benevolent to all mankind yet still insistent on the practice of a particular faith. A benevolent being would not condemn to damnation worshippers in cultures where a different faith is the norm. Given that the faith of your parents is by far the best predictor of the faith you will adopt, it simply doesn't hold water to say that anyone could be expected to convert to the 'one true faith.' It contradicts good sense and basic ideas of fairness.

A being that required people to adopt a certain faith in order to be treated decently would either be non-benevolent, and therefore not worthy of veneration as such, or simply incomprehensible and equally unworthy of respect or admiration. A being with ethics that cannot be understood or shared by human beings is no more worthy of veneration than a bolt of lightning, which is similarly powerful and lacking in comprehensible ethical purpose. A vengeful God is potentially consistent with the character of the world: a charitable one, much less so - and perhaps not at all.

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• My earlier post on this topic
• Some thoughts from other Oxford bloggers

Posted by Milan at 10:25 PM   

Library Court Kitchen Cleanup

8 February 2006, 5:00pm

I've finally become sick enough of the stench from the fridge, and the shelves full of food that was purchased when Khrushchev was still in power, that I am organizing a purge and cleanup of the Library Court kitchen. Hopefully, I will not be the only one who shows up and people will pay heed to my signs requesting that they remove any food they don't want discarded for those few hours. I shall have to buy some bleach. A haiku, for the occasion:

Bad prokaryotes
Multiply in the kitchen
Kill them all, with bleach

The plan is to empty the fridge, discard all the random, smelly, moldy food that has been in there all year, and then wipe it down with bleach and hot water. Also, I plan to clear the shelves of the dust and dead insects that have been accumulating there, as well as taking a chisel (as Nora suggested) to the more tenacious bits of dirt on the stove and counters.

Anyone from Library Court or Staircase 19 who wants a more sanitary kitchen is very much encouraged to come help. If someone has access to bleach, that would save me the small annoyance of having to go buy some.

Posted by Milan at 4:33 PM   

Misty Oxford Wandering

This afternoon, between bouts of reading Connelly's The Terms of Political Discourse, I went for a long solitary walk along the darkening riverside. It was reminiscent of my long wander in the cold in Helsinki and it effected a fairly comprehensive shift in the way I was feeling. In contrast to the increasing gloom, I found my mood progressively lightening. That may be partly because the river is the only place in Oxford where you see significant numbers of animals, aside from police horses. There were herons and Greylag Geese, as well as teams of rowers moving in elegantly coordinated fashion along the Isis. I know this is the second time these particular waterfowl have been the subject of the photo of the day, but I feel a considerable amount of affection towards them. They have a look that I really appreciate, and they are completely fearless when it comes to people, which makes it easier to photograph them.

Walking along the tributary of the Isis that breaks northward towards Merton College, while listening to Vivaldi's "Winter" (perhaps my favourite piece for strings), I felt almost perfectly at home. Because of the cloud and gathering darkness, I was the only person in the whole vast area, a circumstance that cannot help but conjure a sense of liberation. Returning to Starbucks to carry on reading, I felt like my brain had been completely reset and that everything that had happened in the last few days had taken place a long time ago. Paradoxical as it may be to feel at home in disconnection, it makes sense to me. The times when the world seems most incomprehensible are exactly those where the precise place and time you are at become critically important.

As I mentioned to Bilyana earlier today, Oxford life has reached the point of mental saturation for me. Like the vague feeling of eternal placement you get a few months after returning to school after a break, it has become something so automatically present as to comprise almost everything you can remember or imagine. This isn't really a positive or negative development, in and of itself. It's simply reflective of comprehensive immersion in an environment. All this is partly a reflection of comfort: I know the city now and would never think of carrying around a map, as I did during my first few weeks. Also, I know from my first-term evaluations that I am at least meeting the standard for my program - an enormous relief to someone a bit anxious at starting at a new school.

Oxbloggers meeting postponed

On the matter of the bloggers' gathering initially planned for this Friday, it seems that most people want the date shifted. Since there isn't really a mechanism for coordinating otherwise, I will just arbitrarily dictate a new date that seems to work for most people. I hope to see many of you there.

New Oxbloggers' Meeting date: Tuesday, February 21st. 8:00pm. The Turf Tavern.

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• The Sainsbury's Chunky Vegetable Chili soup is quite good, probably their second best vegetarian soup after Tomato Basil. Given that I've eaten about thirty litres of the latter, it's nice to have something new to try. I appreciate that the chili soup is at least slightly spicy, and that is has beans in it. I can't even look at the Carrot and Coriander soup, since I bought fifteen of them when they were on sale for 20p each.
• Some particularly clever articles from The Onion: on endangered species and American politics.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

And so, the weekend arrives

Happy birthday Gleider Hernandez

I received my examination entry form for the qualifying test today. The page itself is quite cryptic, with boxes containing random looking letter and number strings and no instructions for its completion. I will figure the thing out by Tuesday, when it's due. I am less worried about the qualifying test before Trinity term now that we've had back the results from our quantitative methods course. While I know the upcoming test will cover dramatically more material, I also feel as though I will probably be better prepared for it.

After reading about democratic peace theory for much of today, I went to Jericho with a large group of people from the college to celebrate Gleider's birthday. It was a good group and a fun few hours. I should probably resist the temptation to do anything lengthy and social tonight. Between the paper due on Wednesday, readings for Tuesday, and the take-home exam being distributed on Thursday, I need to stay on top of things.

Posted by Milan at 3:36 AM   

Idolatry and modernity

I've been thinking about the Danish cartoon row during the course of reading today, and I find it a difficult problem to deal with. My automatic response is to side with the Danes and others who are protecting the ideal of freedom of speech. It seems outside all proportion to be threatening violence in response to political cartoons.

That said, I really can't imagine a mindset from which the simple depiction of a figure in such a way could create such outrage. The satirical modification of various symbols and icons is part of the stock and trade of western media and art. While such depictions can sometimes exceed the bounds of good taste, it's hard to imagine them creating genuine anger - at least among the relatively level headed. Because I can't imagine such agitation being a legitimate response, it seems like a contrived or artificial over-inflation to me: a sub-conscious conclusion based upon my own assumptions rather than an understanding of the situation, from the perspective of many of those involved.

The biggest question raised is about the appropriate boundaries on religious tolerance. At what point can we legitimately call a belief that someone holds unacceptable, at least insofar as it isn't allowable to act upon it. A religious duty to make human sacrifices, for instance, few people would object to curtailing. On a matter like this, where there is a genuine schism of values between different groups, it's much more difficult to make that kind of a call.

To me, it seems as though mature ideologies - whether political, ethical, religious, or otherwise - need to be able to stand up to legitimate criticism. That's perhaps the defining characteristic of their maturity. While it may be incredible patronizing to say that Islam needs to develop an internal dialogue about the direction it is to take in the future, it still seems to me that such is the case. I hasten to add that a similar dialogue is necessary on the part of other ideologies that serve as a source of normative directions about how to behave in the world. Just like we need to rethink nationalism (if not abolish it entirely), there must be self reflection and fairness within ideologies that expect respect from those outside of them.

All in all, it's an area I feel particularly hesitant about. I would be especially interested to hear what people think.

Posted by Milan at 1:18 AM   

Seventeen days until the equinox

During our qualitative methods class today, on institutions, Dr. Ngaire Woods made an excellent point. Each of us has a year to become an expert on a particular subject. There are hardly any people in the entire world who ever have the chance to devote such time and attention to an issue and there is a good chance that, at the end, we will know more about our subject than anyone in the world. This underscores both the importance of choosing a topic well and of really committing yourself to writing something excellent. Producing something that will be read by people beyond the examination committee and people kind enough to edit it for me would also be a big advantage.

The institutions section of the qualitative methods course is much better than the scattershot attempt at foreign policy analysis that came before it. That is welcome, especially since I have a take-home exam to write on the course between the 9th and 13th of this month - most inconvenient timing. Hopefully, I will be able to get the thing mostly done next Friday, leaving the weekend relatively unencumbered.

After class, this afternoon, I had coffee with Claire, Josiah, and another of her St. Cross friends who I am embarassed to be unable to remember the name of. Followed that closely was tea with Joelle Faulkner. We tried the Tieguanyin tea that Neal sent. It's more subtle than I expected, though not nearly so much so as the Jamine Pearl tea that Kate once gave me. I am going to try making it with bottled water, in the knowledge that the amount of dissolved minerals in Oxford tap water is quite substantial.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to finish most of Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffer's Democracy, Liberalism, and War, William Connolly's The Terms of Political Discourse, and what remains of this week's readings on institutions. I have a paper due for Dr. Hurrell on Wednesday, evaluating the democratic peace theory. I will also have a new issue of The Economist upon which to complete a preliminary read.

I've now finished the first book of The Wind up Bird Chronicle and perhaps the first tenth of Democracy in America. I don't know if it's an overly self-serving thing to believe, but I don't think that any kind of reading is irrelevant or a distraction. While there are certainly things that it is more urgent for me to read, to neglect other areas of interest would ultimately be counterproductive and unwise. Neither American democracy nor Japanese literature are even distantly divorced from the question of democratic peace, and good writing is never irrelevant.

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25 things I am:

Canoeist, geek, webmaster, environmentalist, caucasian,
student, heterosexual, reader, writer, photographer,
Czech, Ukranian, atheist, Oxfordian, skeptic,
liberal, vegetarian, single, Canadian, hiker,
bilingual, healthy, rich, educated, male.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

Day spent examining strings of 26 different shapes, along with gaps and dots

I am feeling increasingly as though journalism will be the thing to do once I finish my M.Phil. I want to travel and one of the things that I am fairly good at is writing: especially the kind of writing that must be done quickly and consistently. I am fairly sure that I would be able to get a job in the field, even though I know nothing of its inner workings, and it may serve many of the purposes that I have for myself in the coming years. There is only so much, after all, that can be learned from books. Academia is, in general, somewhat terrified of talking to people - a fear that I have grown to share, outside the narrow confines of fellow students and other members of a close cabal. Even where we deal with outsiders, it's behind the bulletproof glass of case studies and surveys, interviews with pre-selected questions vetted by ethics committees. My perception of the greater authenticity of journalism is a draw, even if journalistic thought and action is not immune from other forms of criticism.

This is not a thing that I see myself as doing indefinitely. It's something I would want to do in a roving fashion: out seeing things rather than sitting behind a desk in Manhattan. I don't think it would be sustainable over the long term, but I do think it would be a really effective counterpoint to what I have done so far. Perhaps it would also be a good lead-up into whatever is to come after.

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Talking with Tristan and Meaghan Beattie tonight was really good. One of the oddest things about living in Oxford is my near-total lack of people with whom I have substantive, personal conversations. The closest it comes is discussion of the M.Phil program. It's something that will come with time, I hope.

...

I learned today that, since the tour she is going on may already be entirely booked, I may not be going to Greece or Malta after all. That said, the possibility remains and I will have to wait and see. I very much hope it will come together.

...

Scheduling conflicts continue to plague the mooted bloggers' gathering.

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM   

War is a Force that Gives us Meaning

This afternoon, I read Chris Hedges' War is a Force that Gives us Meaning. It made me wonder whether the wars of my generation: Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the others, have just re-taught lessons learned by other generations before. Much as we might hope that justice or democracy can be spread by such means, it now appears that our hopes were misplaced. What's worse, perhaps, is the failure of many to understand what's going on, or even make an honest effort to do so. There has been an absence of inquiry and, even worse, interest in the truth of the matter or, at least, the closest approximation of the truth we can reach. Whatever else the present American administration is guilty of, it has, at many points, been dangerously unhinged from reality - at least in terms of what it presents the public. I don't mean to take a general commentary and direct it in a cliched and partisan direction, but the world is awash in evidence that war and truth are frequently incompatible.

Similar grim revelations accompany the missed opportunities to curtail bloodshed: Bosnia, the Congo, Rwanda, and elsewhere. These are, perhaps, the strongest reminder that simple pacifism isn't an adequate answer to the problem of war. We have to wade into the more complex, the more ambiguous, terrain of responsibility and intervention.

Hedges' many personal anecdotes - both stories of his own and stories acquired from others over the course of a long and distinguished journalistic career - form the heart of the book. Beside them, generalized philosophical reflections about warfare, nationalism, and culture seem to be lacking in poignancy. It is the role of journalism, perhaps, to deliver that poignancy to those for whom an event or conflict is just some distant abstraction: much as the ongoing genocide in Darfur is for almost all of us now.

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Citation: Hedges, Chris. War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Oxford: PublicAffairs, 2002.

Posted by Milan at 8:53 PM   

Conservatives and Canada: Gay Marriage Redux

Prime-minister-designate Stephen Harper has pledged to introduce a resolution asking MPs whether they want to reopen the controversial [same sex marraige] debate, and promised it would be a free vote in which MPs can choose a side according to their conscience rather than their party.

-The Globe and Mail

Parliament does not have the power to legislate minority rights on a case-by-case basis, as though laws pertaining to them are the same as any other kind of legislation. Minority rights are subject neither to the whims of public opinion nor the maneuvering of politicians: that's the whole point of the Charter and a central tenet of tolerant liberal democracy. One of the most intelligent things Paul Martin did as Prime Minister was to stress this. MPs who say they will "vote according to the wishes of their constituents" should be ashamed of themselves for either misunderstanding or publicly misrepresenting the nature of minority rights.

The importance of a government choosing to overturn such a law extends beyond the same-sex marriage debate itself. It speaks to the possibility of a socially activist government of a kind that is neither well suited to Canada nor justified by the results of the election. In that way, I am especially glad for people who elected NDP members of Parliament, who I expect will be particularly effective at countering the Conservatives when they step too far.

I think that the complete failure of the Conservatives to win seats in Canada's three biggest cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver demonstrates the limitations of their perspectives on government. The same irony comes up in the United States, where you see people in places least likely to be directly affected by terrorism most concerned about it and those least exposed to matters like immigration or same-sex marriage most threatened by it. 'Traditional values' do not deserve an equal hearing when they are fundamentally oppressive, and tolerance for alternative viewpoints does not need to extend to the point where they can be allowed to form national policy.

I don't think Stephen Harper will be stupid enough to shift policy too far to the right on social issues. Of particular importance is the fact that he must be hoping that if he can convince enough Canadians that he is a moderate and acceptable leader, he will be returned with a majority at some point in the future. The way to do that may be to placate your socially conservative supporters with a few token gestures, while actually working to stay close to the political centre.

That said, governmental change is unpredictable. We shall have to see what transpires.

Posted by Milan at 2:12 PM