FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Notes on Mearsheimer and Walt's "An Unnecessary War"


BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Mearsheimer and Walt, An Unnecessary War, 2003

- Here the authors take apart the notion of intervention/war in Iraq as a preventive measure against an undeterrable lunatic Saddam Hussein. 
-  Written from a realist perspective where they show Saddam as a leader trying to survive; he initiated the wars for realist reason
- Iran-Iraq war we were on his side and fed him intel that allowed him to use his biological weapons against Iran.
- in the Gulf War, State Dept earlier told Saddam we had no part in any border disputes with Kuwait—was this true, or was the truth more nuanced?
-  Finally, it didn’t matter whether Saddam had WMDs or nukes, because we could use deterrence against him—we had bigger weapons and nuclear arsenal.  Saddam was a survivor and would have caved


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