My "Terror in the 21st Century" class makes blogging both very difficult and very easy. Very difficult because there are 3 hours of class and 150 pages of reading every weekday. Very easy because I can write whole posts by excerpting the most interesting parts of my notes. For instance:
1. " 'Bin Laden and Zawahiri are clearly alive' but have limited ability to communicate or direct."
2. "She doesn't think Al Qaeda leadership is hiding in Iran. Bin Laden and Khameini don't trust each other, and Iran's rulers have a real fear of U.S. invasion if bin Laden or lieutenants were found there. Bush's hawkishness, the 'cowboy' perception, not knowing exactly what he'll do and whether he'll invade you--has some very real advantages."
"Recently declassified British docs: U.S. had seriously considered invading Saudi Arabia in 1973 in response to oil embargo. Saudi Arabia is kind of scared of us now, in a way that they weren't and which is probably helpful to us. 'An unpredictable threat of War has benefits as well as costs.' "
3. "Student question about Al Qaeda and Saddam alliance--'I've thought from day one that that was completely an utterly implausible.' U.S. has spent a lot of resources searching for evidence. It has found very little of it. It would have been very, very stupid for Saddam to give WMD to a group that thinks he's an apostate worthy of death. Student: but might they unite if fighting Israel and U.S. became highest priority? 'Saddam's first priority has always been his own survival.' There were decent arguments for invading Iraq, it may have been the right decision, but not because of any Al Qaeda ties."
4. "You can't make too many categorical statements about fighting terrorism, but 'It is never, ever a good idea to create a terrorist group to balance another terrorist group'. Sadat helped create the group that murdered him. U.S. helped the Afghan mujahadin that came back against us. Israel had a very big role in creating Hamas. 'We need a more sophisticated basis for international relations than 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' "
5. "Question that no one has a good answer to: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, esp. Pakistan. 'There's only a certain number of assassination attempts one can survive, and the ones against Musharraf are improving."
Discuss. Oh, and here's my prof's bio so you can decide for yourself whether to take her word for any of this. I find her very impressive (a great lecturer with an Irish accent, what's not to like?) But I probably come from a similar place politically and am predisposed to agree with a lot of what she says. (This class is team taught, with 2 main professors and a bunch of guest lecturers.)
why does radcliffe still have its own website, out of curiousity?
Posted by: praktike | January 12, 2004 at 01:26 PM
no idea. It's now "The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study", not "Radcliffe college."
Posted by: Katherine | January 12, 2004 at 01:32 PM