Penn Press Log

'Progressive America' Bloggers Make Unconventional Observations

The blogging contributors to In Search of Progressive America, edited by Michael Kazin, took on the Democratic National Convention last week. This week it's the Republican Party's turn. Read what these contributors have to say about the political conventions and more on the following weblogs:

Todd Gitlin
tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/tgitlin

Erza Klein
tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/ezraklein

Matthew Yglesias
yglesias.thinkprogress.org

Meanwhile, In Search of Progressive America contributor Dean Baker continues to monitor economic reporting at his blog, Beat the Press.

More Analysis on Georgia from Lincoln A. Mitchell

Over the past week, Lincoln A. Mitchell has shared his expertise on Georgia's recent political history with The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, NPR's All Things Considered, WAMU's The Diane Rehm Show, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, At Issue with Ben Merens on Wisconsin Public Radio, MarketWatch, and Vao News.

Mitchell's latest mainstream media message on the conflict between Russia and Georgia appeared yesterday's New York Daily News. In a special article for the paper, he outlines the implications of the recent violence:

The invasion of Georgia is not just a struggle over South Ossetia. It's a one-sided war, with Russia using Georgia to achieve a number of politically important goals.

First, the invasion will weaken, if not altogether destroy, the current Georgian state and its government.

Second, it will send a very clear message to Western powers, particularly the United States, that Russia is back as the major force in this part of the world.

Third, other small countries neighboring Russia can observe the potential cost of standing up to Russia and the inability of the West to offer much more than verbal support.

Lincoln A. Mitchell is the Arnold A. Saltzman assistant professor in the practice of international politics at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and author of the upcoming book Uncertain Democracy: U.S. Foreign Policy and Georgia's Rose Revolution.

Lincoln Mitchell Discusses Georgian Crisis on NPR

Lincoln A. Mitchell, author of the forthcoming Uncertain Democracy: U.S. Foreign Policy and Georgia's Rose Revolution, provided background information on the current conflict in Georgia for National Public Radio listeners last week.

If you missed Lincoln Mitchell's interview with NPR's All Things Considered, you can access it at the NPR.org "South Ossetia Crisis Explained" web page.

Looking Beyond the Political in China

In this essay Vera Schwarcz, Director/Chair of the Freeman Center for East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University and author of Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden, hopes that visitors to the Beijing Olympics will venture beyond the usual tourist sites.

THE ART (AND CHALLENGE) OF LOOKING BEYOND THE POLITICAL IN CHINA

When the August 2008 Olympics open in Beijing, what will Westerners look for initially? Signs of the state of human rights in China, freedom for Tibet, the ongoing saga of the victims of the Siquan earthquake? Our desire to be compassionate (which can border on self-righteousness) may prevent us from seeing part of the physical and cultural landscape that most deeply colors China’s own sensitivity about the legacy of “national humiliation.” Unwittingly, we may blunder again into the negative and ill-understood legacy of nineteenth-century imperialism.

Change Isn't Coming

In a recent article for The National Interest online, Nikolas K. Gvosdev cites Thomas M. Nichols in his argument that foreign policy change in the form of a return to the pre George W. Bush international order will be "highly unlikely."

"Thomas M. Nichols’ Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) takes a hard look at an increasingly dysfunctional international system and notes that the 'cat'—the concept of preventive war—is now out of the bag," wrote Gvosdev in his review of three new books on international relations and U.S. foreign policy.

A Sageman Newsweek Preview

An excerpt of Christopher Dickey's interview with Marc Sageman is available at www.newsweek.com. The complete interview is scheduled to appear in print in the July 28 edition of Newsweek.

Sageman Cited in Two Economist.com Articles

In yesterday's Economist.com, two articles on the state of terrorism mention the work of forensic psychiatrist and counterterrorism expert Marc Sageman. In one article, "Winning or losing," The Economist credits Sageman's book, Leaderless Jihad, with provoking a debate on the strength of al-Qaeda in relation to the threat of loosely organized groups of Western radicals. In "Doing their own thing," The Economist mentions Sageman's assertion that European Muslims are more likely to be drawn into violent jihadist activity than their U. S. counterparts because of America's social mobility and relatively more inclusive attitude toward immigrants. 

Reparations to Africa -- Now Available

Reparations to Africa
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann. With Anthony P. Lombardo
264 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4101-3 | $49.95 | £32.50
A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series

Given the long history of European and American mistreatment of Africa, what is the just measure of Western obligations to the peoples of this continent? The author analyzes the arguments for reparations from multiple disciplinary perspectives, and suggests alternative means to restorative justice. Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact ellenpt@upenn.edu.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here

Sageman Warns of Web Wannabes

"The world's most dangerous jihadists no longer answer to al-Qaeda. The terrorists we should fear most are self-recruited wannabes who find purpose in terror and comrades on the Web. This new generation is even more frightening and unpredictable than its predecessors, but its evolution just may reveal the key to its demise," writes Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century author Marc Sageman in the Issues & Ideas section of the July 8 National Post. In Sageman's piece for the Canadian paper, he discusses how the internet serves as an echo chamber for Muslim outrage in Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Elsewhere online, talk of Sageman's controversial position on al-Qaeda's strength appeared on the Homeland Security Today website.

Boyarin and Idel Comment on Ancient Hebrew Tablet

"Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection," an article in yesterday's New York Times, outlines the potential religious significance of a centuries-old stone tablet that "may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days." The article quotes Daniel Boyarin, author of Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity, to provide some theological context for the controversy surrounding the document.

Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of California at Berkeley, said that the stone was part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close reading of the Jewish history of his day.

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

 According to the New York Times, the tablet will be the subject of discussion at an upcoming conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Moshe Idel, author of the forthcoming Old Worlds, New Mirrors: On Jewish Mysticism and Twentieth-Century Thought, was also quoted in the article.