To understand international politics, you need to "think about thinking."
That was a core lesson from the great Bob Jervis.
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I'm referring to a key insight from his 1976 classic, "Perception and Misperception in International Politics" (BTW: his 2017 New Edition is absolutely worth the purchase, just for the author's Preface alone) amazon.com/Perception-Mis…
This book is important because of how it explicitly speaks to (at least) four other books that were prominent at the time.
But it's not a "Summit" and it's not about "Democracy".
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The "Summit for Democracies" is a (virtual) gathering of leaders from 100+ countries (along w/ individuals from NGOs) to "to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today"
Now, I'm not going to say that the "Summit for Democracy" is a bad idea. @JimGoldgeier & @BWJ777 make that case in @politico (or, to be clear, they make the case for how it could be a better idea).
Why can't 🇺🇸 let 🇯🇵, 🇹🇼, 🇰🇷, and most of East Asia be dominated by 🇨🇳?
Let's talk about the "Grand Area" and its importance to US foreign policy.
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To understand what the "Grand Area" is and its importance for US foreign policy since World War II, lets go back to the end of World War I. amazon.com/Paris-1919-Mon…
Following World War I, the United States was content to let the world do its own thing, both politically (see Senate rejecting League of Nations)...
How did the Gold Standard work? I mean ACTUALLY work?
The answer reveals a lot...including why a Gold Standard won't work today.
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When I write "actually" worked, I am not looking for an explanation based on the "specie flow mechanism", IS-LM-BP model, or something abstract like that
Instead, I want to know, for example, if governments actually loaded gold onto boats to move gold from country to country!