Economics of Warfare – Lecture 2

Here is lecture 2 just given a couple of hours ago.

Targeting Terrorists and Near Certainty

The American Civil Liberties Union had a successful FOIA request that yielded a document explaining how the Obama Administration approves actions to kill suspected terrorists.  I learned about the release from this good article. What follows are just my personal angles, not a comprehensive treatment of the document. First, I don't know why these policies …

Does the Overreaction to Terrorism Justify the Overreaction to Terrorism?

Vox has yet another great article, this one giving good insights into how the Obama Administration thinks about foreign policy. I won't rehash it here.  Instead, I just want to zero in on one point that I found particularly interesting. Zack Beauchamp interviews Susan Rice, President Obama's National Security Adviser. He notes, correctly, that the …

Predicting Armed Conflict Events

Zee Media is launching a news channel and web cite and, somehow or other, I wound up as featured in their web site launch. Here is the link. Although I find it a bit harrowing to watch myself so much on camera I would say that Zee came up with an interesting and original way to present …

Threats, Real and Imagined (mostly Imagined)

Two interesting and related articles crossed my screen almost simultaneously - this one by Nils Petter Gleditsch and Ida Rudolfsen and this one by John Mueller. Gleditsch and Rudolfsen crunch the numbers and reach a conclusion that is simple, interesting and novel.  I love it! Civil wars in Muslim countries have not increased dramatically in absolute …