Blog question #12

On p. 250, Todorov writes: "'The man who finds his country sweet is only a raw beginner; the man for whom each country is as his own is already strong; but only the man for whom the whole world is as a foreign country is perfect' (I myself, a Bulgarian living in France, borrow this quotation from Edward Said, a Palestinian living in the United States, who himself found it in Erich Auerbach, a German exiled in Turkey)." Do you agree?

Blog question #11

On p. 62, Todorov asks: "Did the Spaniards defeat the Indians by means of signs?" Well, did they?

Blog question #10

Continuing our "continuity and change" topic from last week, but this time in the sphere of political economy. The question is: have recent changes in the organization of the global political economy meant the end of the postwar "embedded liberal" order, or are they an example of "norm-governed change"?

Blog question #9

This question stems directly from our in-class activity today. I have posted photos of the whiteboard to the class BlackBoard site; feel free to consult them. Also feel free to look at any of the documents that your group did not look at specifically.

The question:

Overall, has US security policy in the past few decades been characterized by continuity or change? Both? Some combination of the two? In your answer please a) bear in mind the scholarly articles we are reading for this week, and b) use the four categories I posed as ways of structuring the discussion (self, other(s), strategy/tactics. and "security") as you see fit.

blog question #8

Building on our class simulation: given that there are a variety of arguments from different perspectives about how the U.S. should set domestic content rules for automobiles, how should we go about determining the answer to the question? How should the U.S. define the domestic content of automobiles, and why? Since we've spent two class sessions arguing from assigned points of view, we've elucidated some of the issues; now, taking the team assignments off, you have the opportunity to make your own, perhaps more thoughtful, argument.