Georgia, Russia, and the US

Back to international relations and American Foreign Policy...

VP Dick Cheney was in Georgia yesterday affirming US support for Saakashvili's government. After pledging $1B (that's billion) in reconstruction aid for the country, Mr. Cheney is now suggesting that the US would encourage Georgian entry to NATO.

Here are some questions to consider in light of what we're talking about in class: Why give so much aid to Georgia and how do you think this deal affects Russian decision-making? Is it a credible commitment to the country? NATO membership carries a pledge to defend a country against attack. Do you think NATO would actually allow Georgian entry in the near future? If not, then why would the VP make this statement?

Also, there's a large literature on the effects of aid, the promotion of democracy and support of foreign leaders (democratic or otherwise). For my take on this literature, see this recent paper.

Palin's Speech and Nixon's Checkers Speech

Here's an interesting point about the GOP VP candidate's speech last night. As Philip Kilnker puts it, the parallels to Nixon's "Checkers" speech are "striking"...

Speaker on Friday

UA will host a very interesting speaker at 2pm on Friday--

the College will have a very special guest on campus this week, National Academy of Science and UA Alumnus Michael Oldstone. He will present a lecture “How Viruses Changed our Country, Continent and Culture: Past, Present and Future Plagues,” at 2 p.m. Sept. 5 in 127 Biology Building. We hope you will attend if possible and encourage your students to do so as well.

For more information, check here.
And no, you will not get extra credit for attending-- well, at least no extra credit in class, perhaps extra credit in life?

Do VP choices matter?

Andrew Gelman, a statistician at Columbia University says no. Here and here.

How did we come to have lectures at universities?

Here is a really interesting post by economist, Brad DeLong.

Class Notes -- Chapter 3 (Strategic Interactions)

Here are the notes for today's class.

Class Notes -- Spanier and the Start of the Cold War

Here are the notes for today's class.