For the Record

Updates

Posted by

Apologies for the long, long silence. I’ve got a lot going on now that makes keeping any kind of regular schedule on this blog virtually impossible. There was my move back to America and then down the East Coast. I’m starting a part-time summer job and trying to write my dissertation at the same time. And I’ve also been writing for what should be an excellent new journal called Fortnight; it launches in October.

So know that I’m still out there, even if a little more under the radar. I’ll be writing when I can.

Recommended Reading (4th of July Edition)

Posted by

Air Force One over Mount Rushmore.

First of all, a belated happy birthday to you, America. You may be starting to show your age, but I hear they’ve got a wonderful cream for that nowadays.

This will be my 201st post at Automatic Ballpoint. Clearly my posting schedule hasn’t changed much – it took four months to write the first hundred posts and almost exactly four more for the next hundred – but the traffic to the site has increased massively. 14,000+ visits! The most-viewed article is my one on Operation Tannenbaum (though sadly, fewer than half of its readers go one to part II). April was by far the busiest month, with an average of 125 hits a day. That’s gone down in May and June, but hopefully I’ll get that back up with more frequent posting (more better).

But regardless, thanks so much for reading; I will try to keep you all entertained.

– BLDGBLOG examines one design for a ‘floating city‘ built on the flooded ruins of London.

– Supposedly the Rugyong in Pyongyang will finally be finished this time. And they mean it. No foolin’. They’re not yanking our chains this time. /sarcasm

– David Axe takes a look at the new Oshkosh M-ATV:

The M-ATV embodies the military’s thinking on a wide range of life-or-death issues. It’s a direct reflection of the American way of war.

Plus, it looks mean as hell.

– Dutch police in Amsterdam now have to deploy ‘decoy Jews.’ You know things are getting bad when… (via Harry’s Place).

– Secure Nation’s Rick Miller examines all the possible historical analogies for Obama-McChrystal, and what it means to invoke a particular one.

And from the past two weeks at Automatic Ballpoint:

The Russkies come back. McChrystal gets sacked. A Tim Horton’s gets whacked. Who are the Bloc that is Black? And a look at why we need to return beneath the waves.

I bid farewell to London and decide to reexamine my carry-on luggage. I also discover way too many new sites to read for my own good.

New Links II

Posted by

1

A positively tremendous list of new sites that I’ve been reading. My Google Reader is getting out of control; I pretty much have to stay at my computer all day to keep on top of things. JOIN ME.

Friends/Colleagues

News

War/Diplomacy

Politics/Policy/Economics

Maps/Infographics

Tech/Futurism

Culture

Sports

Goodbye to All That

Posted by

5

Quintessential London: Big Ben, a Georgian-style building, and CCTV.

As what has been a wild nine months draws to a close, I’ve been saying goodbyes and revisiting all my favorite haunts (looking at you, Princess Louise). Disappointing as some aspects of the year have been (the academics, for one), there has been so much good to come out of it. As at other schools, LSE has introduced me to some of the smartest people I’ve worked, studied, and grown close with in my life. I want to thank them and point some out in particular.

  • [NAME REDACTED] writes as the Hybrid Diplomat at Hybrid Diplomacy. He’s easily the closest friend I made this year, us being in the same program and sharing two of three courses. He is a true iconoclast, “not giving a fuck” about telling it exactly like it is. His candor is refreshing. And I will miss him.
  • Shannon runs The Traveling Scholar, a running diary and travelogue of her adventures while based in London. On the one hand, her travels inspire some regrets that I didn’t get outside of the city more. But on the other hand, her writing makes it easy to live vicariously through her.
  • One of the more fascinating blogs I’ve read recently belongs to my friend Jonas F. Gjersø, The Civilizing Mission. He takes a very empirical approach to the history of empire, and the charts he has produced reveal some surprising, but always fascinating, results. He too is embarked on a PhD journey; I wish him the best as well.
  • The Occidental Oriental is another anonymous blog by [NAME REDACTED]. As an Afghan-Texan-Persian-American, he has some rare insights into the Middle East and the rest of the world. Definitely check out his current series of posts from Syria.

And to all the others without blogs – Ross, Jasmine, Mark, Erica, Peter, Michael, Amy, Rebecca, Kita, Jimmy (and yes, even Wen) – you are just as dear. Thanks for brightening my year when the clouds invariably set in.

One more special thanks is also due to those luminaries who have helped and guided me in the wide world of milblogging. Starbuck from Wings Over Iraq, Shlok Vaidya, Mike Slagh at Secure Nation, and Japan Security Watch’s Kyle Mizokami have all been as friendly and welcoming as can be. I owe them too a debt of gratitude.

This year has been eye-opening and a learning experience, one way or another. Thank you all so much for everything. And see you soon, I hope.

Memorial Day

Posted by

2

Like Air Force One over Mount Rushmore, it’s hard to find anything more American than Johnny Cash reading the Gettysburg Address.

It’s days like this where I’m embarrassed by my lack of eloquence. I don’t know quite how to express my gratitude and profound respect for those who have served and continue to serve the United States in uniform. It’s a step I don’t know if I’ll take; a commitment that right now I can’t promise to anyone. But that’s what makes you in the military all so much more impressive. It’s thanks to you I have history to study, a country to be proud of, any ideas of my own to write about.

You have made the world, and you continue to shape it.

You have the discipline and the courage to sacrifice for us. To go a step beyond. To show your own kind of restraint. To give us something to admire, to look up to, to inspire us. And I don’t.

All I can do is try and thank you for everything. At the risk of sounding hollow or trite, you never cease to amaze me. And I will never cease to appreciate you for it.

Thank you.

Back in Various Colors

Posted by

1

Sorry for that longer-than-a-week delay. I’ve been back in London since last Thursday, and I anticipate resuming a fairly normal – though somewhat abbreviated – posting schedule as soon as I can. My first exam is in less than two weeks, so as I approach that date expect things to slow to a trickle.

New York is still fantastic, in case anyone was wondering. It’s impossible to find a bad meal there (a welcome change from the blandness that is English “cuisine”). Highlights include sliders and Guinness shakes at Mark, a Mexican feast at La Taqueria, and a ridiculously amazing pan-Asian experience at Momofuku.

Don’t worry, this won’t be turning into a travel/foodie blog anytime soon. But those three meals alone are better than anything I’ve eaten in London since October, and I’m always game for oneupmanship.

Things do appear to have happened while I was away; I’m still working through a backlog of Google Reader material and other highlights (I’m up to May 20 now)! Expect material on futurism and technology, the British coalition, and much more in the days ahead. And thanks for sticking with this.

Goliath Online

Posted by

1

After a nearly two-year hiatus, I’m pleased to announce that GOLIATH will return for an exclusive upcoming DJ gig at Sarah Lawrence College’s end-of-year Bacchanalia bash (for those of you who don’t know, I did a little DJing back in the day and even tried to keep up a middling electronic music blog).

But that’s right, I’m now officially an international DJ. Which is pretty awesome, but also means I won’t be around for the next week or so (only a few hours til takeoff). As usual, busy yourself with some interesting websites, and don’t forget the new additions.

I imagine I’ll be back early if something really ridiculous happens.

Jumping to Conclusions

Posted by

Well, um, whoops. Not so much the teabagging type, but rather “a Connecticut man, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan” named Faisal Shahzad.

So yes, mea culpa. Though the white guy in his 40s remains a ‘person of interest’, clearly he’s not the focus of the investigation, and for that I apologize. But I do think we’re overdue for a reckoning with the enemies of a domestic variety, as all the commentary spouted that subtly sympathizes with them might even serve to legitimize their cause. It certainly increases the likelihood of a right-wing Times Square bomber, though there probably aren’t enough government buildings there to hold their interest for long.

Michael Sheehan has a perfect analysis of this in the New York Times, as well as suggestions on how to stave off ‘lone wolf’ or ‘home grown’ terrorists:

Law enforcement has to focus on preventing sophisticated terrorist organizations from establishing a presence within the United States. The good news is that we know how to do this. The bad news is we aren’t doing it enough. No other American city even attempts to do what New York has accomplished.

[…]

For society as a whole, paying for a handful of detectives at the local level is far more efficient than spending billions inside the Beltway on bloated bureaucracies and large-scale defensive measures that will most likely have little practical effect. And while issues of civil liberties are important, they can be managed with close legal oversight of terrorism investigations.

Attacks won’t come from the center, but from the fringes. You can’t centralize national security, nor can you completely disperse it.

Until then, keep following. And keep following afterward. Remain vigilant.

Dissert’ Menu

Posted by

1

The British begin their withdrawal from Aden, 1967.

So in case anyone wasn’t aware, I’ve been working on my master’s dissertation – for which I finally have a pretty solid topic. The work right now is all archival research, which I have no problem with, but finding sources specific to my area is proving a little bit of a challenge.

That area is the Aden Emergency of 1963-67, in which the British fought a counterinsurgency in the Aden colony and the East and West Protectorate ‘up country’. Specifically, though, I want to focus on the RAF and the use of airpower in COIN strategy.

Starbuck at Wings Over Iraq has been doing some great work on counterinsurgency airpower, and I definitely recommend checking that out and contributing if you can. Many thanks to Shlok Vaidya for pointing me in that direction. In the meantime, my research is mostly being conducted in Liddell Hart Library at King’s College London, but I’ll also be dropping by the RAF archives and others. Any help would be appreciated.

I’ll also from time to time be posting little gems I manage to unearth, so stay tuned for those.