Don't Mention the War
I have never thought it helpful to refer to a "war" on terror, any more than to a war on drugs. For one thing that legitimizes the terrorists as warriors; for another thing terrorism is a technique,...
View ArticleWikisqueaks
Accused of being ‘irresponsible’ even by a fellow campaigner for transparency in public life, Assange mounts a freewheeling defence in his memoir: ‘It was never my intention to be responsible,’ he...
View ArticleDogs of War
And Caesar's spirit, raging for revenge,With Ate by his side come hot from hell,Shall in these confines with a monarch's voiceCry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war1. No, we’re not gearing up for...
View ArticleSeumas Milne on Drones
I thought I’d get back into blogging with an easy post. It’s quite easy for me to find an article by Seumas Milne and quickly fisk it in my head – not because of any great skill that I have but simply...
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Blowback against Blowback
I published a poston the tenth anniversary of 9/11 explaining my thoughts on why people became so radicalised that they supported Al Qaeda and even became part of it. I emphasised the importance of...
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Blowback against Glenn Greenwald #1
I’ve spent many posts trying to explain why I don’t think foreign policy is really relevant in discussing the causes of terrorism. Without wishing to dwell on the point for too long, because I have...
View ArticleTorts and Wrongs
By far one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life is choosing to read Law at university. I understand there is a tendency for people to think that their interests or professions are somehow...
View ArticleMali: The Liberation of a New Afghanistan
Last summer, long before anyone even thought that the French would intervene in Mali, I began writing a post that I never published on the situation there in which I called for military intervention....
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Failure
The failure of Ed MilibandThe only reason I am writing this post is because of Ed Miliband. His position on Syria is fundamentally misguided. I will handle the arguments against intervention below but...
View ArticleCivilians in Post-9/11 Wars and U.S Policy
One of my earliest posts argued against those who claimed that the U.S was offered Bin Laden on a plate in September 2001. This idea wasn’t particularly popular - it was restricted to elements of the...
View ArticleThe Fall of the Soviet Union and Suicide Bombing
Roads to the Temple: Truth, Memory, Ideas and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987-1991 by Leon Aron (Yale University Press, 2012), pp.483The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives...
View ArticleDroning On: Amnesty and the efficacy of drone strikes
As the evidenceI’ve previously presented shows: drones rarely kill civilians and they are quite effective at reducing terrorism. This shouldn’t be surprising: there is a general trend for Western...
View ArticleReview of The Missing Martyrs: Terrorism, Institutions and the End of History
The Missing Martyrs: Why there are so few Muslim Terrorists by Charles Kurzman (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp.256I recently finished re-reading The End of History by Francis Fukuyama and I still...
View Article"And then poof”: Futility in the Abbas-Netanyahu Negotiations 2013-4
This round of negotiations began with parties agreeing that they would not talk to the press. After 9 months I have collected over 150 pages of news reports quoting anonymous sources (“Western”,...
View ArticleBe Reasonable: Intelligence on Iraqi WMD
The West and IraqThis is a series of posts on Western policy in Iraq. It aims to cover many misconceptions in anti-war and pro-war arguments and give a more nuanced understanding. Much of what follows...
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Mr Thomas Gradgrind, Facts and Terrorism
In the last week, I have had two interactions with people who have insufficient regard for the empirical literature. By this, I do not mean that we have disagreements about what the academic literature...
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Five Myths about ISIS
To some extent, the following myths are all interlinked. The typical anti-war activist believes that the current crisis is mainly political and financial and so military means are not addressing the...
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Rejecting Narratives: Data, Islam and Terrorism
The Year of the Monkey(As always, footnotes and bibliography are at the bottom of the post). Many of my friends in my ‘ideological camp’ do not seemtoo pleased with the rise of Vox, 538 and The Monkey...
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The Empirics of Free Speech and Realistic Idealism: Part I
King’s College London recently hosted a lecture given by their Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy, Mark Pennington. In that lecture, he expressed a methodology which is both empirically...
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Think Again: David Cameron, Conveyer Belts and Non-Violent Extremism
I’ve given myself an hour [edit: ended up being 3] and no more to write this so to cut to the chase: I wanted to respond, in detail, as to why there is no causality between Islamism and terrorism....
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The West, Black Knights and the Political Economy of Regime Persistence
“You know… we've got a much easier job now than we should have had fifty years ago. If we'd had to modernise a country then it would have meant constitutional monarchy, bicameral legislature,...
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The Empirics of Free Speech and Realistic Idealism: Part II
3. Harmful Speech: Sticks and StonesThis section aims to go through the most popular areas where people attempt to show the negative impacts of free speech. I will dismiss some concerns whilst...
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The Empirics of the Places We Go Part I: Economic Effects of Immigration
Congratulations! Today is your day.You're off to Great Places!You're off and away!You have brains in your head.You have feet in your shoes.You can steer yourself any direction you choose.You're on your...
View ArticleMein weltanschauung
My friends Ben and Sam have both written posts about which articles and books have influenced their thinking. There’s not a whole world of difference between us in terms of our core beliefs but I...
View ArticleAssorted Thoughts #1: Applying Averages
This series contains some of the key books, studies, papers and events that I’ve read over the last year. I’ve decided to try to write one of these posts for two reasons. First, because as I finish...
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