The Iran Nuclear Deal: Historical Lessons

Friday's Washington Post published two op-eds using historical cases to support (Phil Gordon) or counter (Fred Kagan) the viability of the Iranian nuclear deal. Political scientists conduct qualitative case study analysis might be pleased to see such arguments. But taken together, the articles suggest that one may pick and choose historical analogies to prove a point, making the logic of any comparison indeterminate. Not sure if this is good or bad for doing comparative historical case study analysis.

Strange Bedfellows: Code Pink and John Kerry

If you're a politician with conservative foreign policy views, Code Pink is probably your worst nightmare. They regularly go to battle with members of the U.S. government. But it's good to see (and note) that they are not categorically opposed to U.S. foreign policy, and on rare occasion, go out of the way to applaud the actions of the U.S. government. They did this for Sec. of State John Kerry for his diplomatic engagement with Iran (and Cuba) last week. While activists may be ideological, they can also be pragmatic and support the agenda of the very same officials they target week in and week out - so long as the end goals align.

I thought I would share Code Pink's newsletter:

What. A. Week. Whew! CODEPINK has been in action non-stop. Remember George Bush’s axis of evil? We’ve been pushing an axis of diplomacy: Cuba, Iran, North Korea.Cuba: We participated in the historic flag-raising ceremony at the new Cuban Embassy in Washington DC, threw a salsa party [link to news coverage] outside, and promoted the next step: lifting the trade embargo.
Korea: We hosted a Congressional briefing with Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congressman Charles Rangel, Gloria Steinem and others delegates from Women Cross the DMZ about peace and reunification in Korea.
Iran: We cheered Secretary John Kerry on in a Senate hearing to show appreciation for the nuclear deal he brokered with Iran, debated Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz for at least half an hour about his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, and hosted Iranian dance lessons in front of the White House with our Iranian friends to “humanize” the debate--and have some fun!

Perspectives on the Greek Euro-crisis

Much of the hoopla on Grexit has passed, but I encountered a WaPo article this week which very

(Petros Giannakouris/AP)

much resonated with my research interests on why the far left (and activists) deviate from mainstream policymakers in their vision of good governance. Both believe they are working for the greater public good - but how they achieve this is driven by widely different ideas about the relationship between politics and economics. This is really a battle of ideas. The chasm between the two are found in the excerpts below.

The new government’s prescription was to tear up Greece’s colossal bailout deals and dare Europe to offer its loans with fewer of the strings that party officials believed were strangling the economy. The strategy may have been radical, but officials thought their proposals were sensible, and they expected that Europe would soon yield. 

In frigid February, when negotiators sat down across from each other for the first time, the members of the Syriza squad, some of whom were still in their 20s, were abuzz with ideas about putting struggling workers ahead of corporate interests.

Their counterparts from European finance ministries and the International Monetary Fund wanted bloodless numbers. What were Syriza’s concrete proposals? And how would they affect Greece’s bottom line? 

Sometimes they were scarcely speaking the same language, as worldviews clashed and tensions started to mount. Syriza’s top negotiators were fresh out of posts as Marxist-oriented economics professors. Their aides were PhD students, steeped in the heady discussions of the academy. The European side, meanwhile, was unaccustomed to hearing rhetoric that had died out of the political mainstream with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Both the Greek socialist government and the more conservative EU and IMF policymakers believe they are doing what is best to improve the situation. But the key word is believe - and their fundamental beliefs about how best to keep afloat are in sharp contrast to one another.

Most of the commentary from academic colleagues have bashed Germany and the EU in support of Greece.  But to echo other conservative pundits, the country must take ownership and can't just rely on multiple bailouts. As much as Greece wants to blame the EU, they also have to point to their own economic woes. This was basically the attitude of Jong-Wha Lee at Korea University who compared Greece with Korea during the IMF crisis and stated Korea got its act together with less bailout money and more stringent austerity measures. Larry Summer also adopts this view, but also make an appeal to the EU in a more even-keeled approach to avoiding a game-of-chicken doomsday.