Comments on: Moral vacuums and chemical weapons

By: marie

marie — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:11:56 +0000

That is a very good tip especially to those fresh to the blogosphere.
Short but very accurate information… Appreciate your sharing this one.
A must read post!

By: Rob Dover

Rob Dover — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:02:20 +0000

Shades of grey. It is clearly right (and you can all the way back to Sun Tzu for this) that understanding the enemy and understanding how to break their will is crucial. My observation would be that whilst this is necessary, as is understanding the fluidity of the relationship with the enemy, we should not seek to become the enemy to defeat them. We need to know – quite coldly – what is necessary. In classic land mass warfighting we need to know that we can project more flying metal than they can. In Afghanistan we needed to understand far more what was making them fight etc. So the balance is weighted towards softer skills. In academic terms, there is a lot of scholarship that begs the question of which side the author is on. Reflection is laudable and necessary: going native is as problematic as ignoring cultural nuance altogether.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 23:30:11 +0000

If we cannot understand the environment and culture in which we intervene then surely we will be unable to predict the likely outcome? Is this not the “practical” concern facing the UN and those willing to intervene in times of crisis.

By: Rob Dover

Rob Dover — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:13:04 +0000

Goodness. I’m not sure you need the malformed recesses of my thoughts on this.

Towards the end, I got snared on a very practical concern of ‘what does this information matter’? Where does it get us in practical terms. Then I wondered whether it mattered in terms of how we should deal with a certain range of problems. I wondered about alternative approaches that were largely blind to the minutiae of the opponents context etc.

I didn’t settle upon on any conclusions, and I think I had a reflex or immune system response to what looked like a genre of scholarship that had fallen down relativist rabbit holes concerning the joy of other cultures.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:50:42 +0000

Rob, re. aforementioned obsession, where did it lead you? Having experienced the Arab Spring (lazy over extended phrase) I am confident that we in the West miscalculate in our prediction of Middle Eastern powerbroker’s FP due to the application of Western thought and logic that is isolated from Arab culture and religious influence. I am also not convinced that those ME powerbrokers that received a Western education adopted our reasoning into their thought process. The list of irrational and unpredictable power brokers that received a western education might include (Saif Gaddafi, Assads, SA princes…) Is this issue not at the heart of ME FP and western diplomatic efforts coupled to the balance of power?

By: Amy Neagoe.wordpress

Amy Neagoe.wordpress — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:42:35 +0000

Please let me reply to you both, as it is a matter I’ve been thinking about too. And it is real not only because of the impact the entire mass-media has today, but because the external services of information(the agencies dealing with the intelligence or espionage)have to cooperate and make exchange of info., because of some rules, isn’t that real? But i only know theory,could you please give us details, on that? Regards

By: Syria and chemical weapons

Syria and chemical weapons — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:05:57 +0000

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By: Rob Dover

Rob Dover — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:40:26 +0000

I have. And I spent a couple of years in the mid-2000s obsessing about this. I stuck with western frames with this one, mostly because the very top of the Assad government were educated in the west.. I assume our educational system had an impact(!). Point taken though.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:55:32 +0000

Rob, good think piece. Have you considered the perception that western logic and reason is a western thought process; such a thought process is often not replicated by those in power in the Middle East.

By: Amy Neagoe.wordpress

Amy Neagoe.wordpress — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:35:18 +0000

Dear mr. Dover, contrary my time is currently occupied with other things from Syria, Irak, the Middle East or the American and maybe the British(even Romanian) policy(I’m alone and single since so many years since I’ve revealed my self-being or powerful personality and self-pride too), I find all the issues You and your collaboratives put here and elswhere too, to be very interesting and important for a future Ph.D. I want to start, immediately when I’ll have the full oportunities(professional & personal experiences included) too.The ‘democratic’ revolutions in the Middle East (broadly defined) are going to generate precisely no better a situation for western policy makers than those regimes that went before. Bastards-we-understood, have been replaced by bastards-we-don’t-have-a-clue-about and that doesn’t strike me as particularly sensible (and no, I can’t work out which side of the vacuum jar that comment comes from). In the same time, I’m afraid I am not permitted to open or browse with my mouse, neither the EU press page, nor that related with your name and a brief biography. What is more, I am really sorry I had neither the time nor the complex class of study, in my former research during the former Master I’ve been enrolled in. And I also notice you did not, too. Contrary to that, I took the time to read your interesting newspaper letter and I’m very surprised to find out You really remember my way of thinking and revealed a good historical perspective of my thougts(!!) All in all, please forgive me I’ve never graduated a college of Foreign Affairs or one of Linguistics first, in the same time I’ve only been in Italy for 3 weeks during a terrible vacation I had 10 years ago, in Bulgaria for a day and in Greece, in a vacation with a miserable group of teenagers and kids, for 1 week, when I’ve been a teen myself. Contrary to that, please let me sum up exactely as you do herew ‘Current Syria has never really been on our side, a new Syria is almost guaranteed not to be’. Speaking from my experience with the neighbours, the former colleagues and bosses and teachers and employers and emplyees and politicians and civilians and my family of handicapped elders and the on-line collaboratives I’ve never met/I don’t intend to ever meet, in my entire life too. Contrary to these, as we speak now about a plitical situation with an example of ‘never happening democracy’, I warn you that is also the case for Turkey, for Greece, for Romania, for U.S. and the majority from the political regimes in Europe and the E.U., too. But I don’t believe the policy and the justice and the business ever intended to make up or build a moral and unique or 2-sided world @least, for a really worthy liberal trade and commerce…Thank you and I really feel sorry I can’t understand your conspicuous informal style or manner of speaking, in your British and less formal way. Best regard from me!!(and thank you you are familiar with my 2 blogs on wordpress, could you also send me the diogital-free books-i need, since years ago pleaaaaaaaaaaassssssseeeeeeee(Bruce Bueno da Mesquita’s, political and diplomatic communication/and protocol, and the war and strategy books on Amazon and Kings of War too)