2009-10 Faculty in the News

Mershon Center affiliated faculty are frequently in the spotlight, as reporters seek them out for expert commentary on today's headlines. Topics include national security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia and the Cold War, and U.S. foreign relations, among others. Media outlets range from national newspapers to local television and radio stations to student blogs.

Below is a selection of media coverage for Mershon affiliated faculty members. The links will direct you to sites that are not associated with the Mershon Center. They are subject to change, and some may expire or require registration. For more information, contact Cathy Becker, Public Relations Coordinator, at becker.271@osu.edu or (614) 292-7529.

2009-10 Faculty in the News

Tuesday morning book club
Foreign Policy, October 27, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
On his Foreign Policy blog, Stephen Walt reviews "four new books you ought to read." First is up Mueller's latest book, Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al Qaeda, which "relentlessly punctures the various ways that analysts of all persuasions have overstated the dangers and the importance of nuclear weapons. (For a preview of Mueller's argument, see the FP excerpt here). It is an equal-opportunity critique, as Mueller goes after hawks, doves, realists, and other Cassandras with equal relish and a playful but pungent wit. He emphasizes that nuclear weapons are in fact highly destructive and need to be handled with great care, but convincingly shows that policymakers and pundits have 1) routinely exaggerated their destructive power (i.e., by suggesting they can "destroy the world"), 2) inflated their importance in deterring war, imparting influence, or enhancing status, and 3) overstated the risk of nuclear accidents, nuclear terrorism, or other very low-probability events. ... Added bonus: It's immensely fun to read."

Troops already outnumber Taliban 12-1
Associated Press, October 28, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory "The ratio of friendly to enemy forces would be a crucial aspect only if you could actually get at the enemy. But with an enemy that doesn't wear uniforms and hides among the population, that's very hard to do," said Mansoor. "The crucial aspect in this case is the ratio of security force to population — this is much more relevant. This would require one security person to every 50 people. In a country of about 32 million, this means about 600,000 security personnel would be needed to clamp it down."

'09 casino war is quirky
Columbus Dispatch, October 26, 2009
Expert: Paul Beck
Story discusses the battle for endorsements for a proposal on November ballot to place casinos in the downtowns of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. The endorsement sweepstakes might be a big deal for partisans on both sides of the ballot measure, but it's not likely to make a huge difference with voters, said Beck. "There's probably a significant number of voters (that) will relate to the issue on (a gut) level right away," Beck said. "They don't need to know who's endorsing on both sides."

Prerequisite: Experience in War
Inside Higher Education, October 22, 2009
Expert: Dorothy Noyes
Story discusses Ohio State's new Veterans Learning Community, managed by Susan Hanson. Noyes said that although pulling military students out of the general population taking classes on war might make it seem like non-military students are missing out on hearing firsthand about life in war, the goal is actually to give them a better understanding of those experiences. After military students have "more sheltered conversations in the two-course sequence, we can then have these students as guest lecturers in classes or bring them into public venues," she said. "We want to use this as a way to get vets more comfortable talking about their experiences with nonvets, whether other students, their families or anyone else."

Obama weighs Afghan strategy, not just troop buildup
Washington Times, October 15, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Intense debate has raged for weeks on whether President Obama should send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but the dispute over numbers may be distracting attention from the more important decision he is facing: the need for a new strategy. Mansoor said Obama's military reviews "are addressing all three facets of strategy: ends, ways, and means.""The media, and by extension the American people, are focused on means, (troop numbers)," Mansoor said in an e-mail. "But as or more important than this factor are the administration's goals (ends) in Afghanistan and its concept for prosecution of the war (ways). You need to look at all three in unison to get a clear picture of the way ahead."

S.C. has swelling carbon footprint
The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier, October 12, 2009
Expert: Andy Keeler
The story discusses a study that showed only two states had faster rising carbon footprints than South Carolina. To economists, greenhouse gases are "externalities," products that no one pays for but still have a cost. Putting a price on carbon would incorporate the costs of global warming into our consumption of fossil fuels and send a signal to the market that other forms of energy, such as wind and solar power, are truly competitive, said Andrew Keeler, an economist with Ohio State's John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

Obama's Afghan meetings a public affair
Washington Times, October 11, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
President Obama's weeks-long review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan has turned the normally secretive process of deciding how many troops to deploy to a war zone into an oddly public affair. Even the enemy was trying to influence the outcome. Al-Qaeda placed a statement on Web sites this week saying it does "not have any agenda to harm other countries.""That was a political message to President Obama in an attempt to change the terms of the debate," said Mansoor. "You can see all sides ratcheting up the pressure on the president - more pressure than would perhaps otherwise be there if this process was going on behind closed doors."

President Petraeus?
NPR Political Junkie, October 5, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Ken Rudin discusses speculation that Gen. David Petraeus might run for president in 2012, quoting Mansoor's statement that "General Petraeus has not hinted to anyone that he is interested in political life, and in fact has said on many occasions that he's not." Rudin doesn't think a run by Petraeus is likely. "But if the Afghanistan war goes sour, and if the public feels that it's because the Obama administration strategy was incorrect, there might very well be more calls for a Petraeus candidacy. Lot of 'ifs' in that sentence."

Zeal for Afghan war appears to wane
Columbus Dispatch, October 5, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
The story discusses Obama's "second thoughts" about approving requests from Gen. Stanley McChrystal for an additional 40,000 troops in Afghanistan. Mansoor supports the request. "It's the only alternative that's been proposed to date in which I can see the possibility of success," said Mansoor. "It's certainly a long road and a tough slog and would require more resources -- the most important of which is more time," said Mansoor, who now is a professor of military history at Ohio State University. "If you look at the alternatives, they lead to dead ends."

Grand New Party: Danger Ahead
Forbes.com, October 5, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
Reihan Salam discusses Mueller's argument at " that our thinking about war and terrorism is completely, and dangerously, half-baked." He agrees that we'd be better served if our leaders worked to reduce our fear of dirty bombs and hijacked planes rather than to increase our fear. But he takes the more conventional view that we have good reasons beyond minimizing the number of avoidable deaths to fight terrorism.

Voice of Bush’s Favored General Is Now Harder to Hear
The New York Times, October 4, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
A change in the status of Gen. David Petraeus under the Obama administration has fueled speculation in Washington about whether Petraeus might seek the presidency in 2012. "General Petraeus has not hinted to anyone that he is interested in political life, and in fact has said on many occasions that he’s not," said Mansoor, who was the executive officer to General Petraeus when he was the top American commander in Iraq. "It is other people who are looking at his popularity and saying that he would be a good presidential candidate, and I think rightly that makes the administration a little suspicious of him."

Obama's Advisers Divided On Afghan War
NPR's Morning Edition, October 1, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
President Obama discussed the options for the war in Afghanistan at the White House yesterday with his war council. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says the effort will fail without more U.S. forces on the ground. That assessment is backed by Obama's top military advisor, Adm. Michael Mullen, and by Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of all U.S. forces from the Middle East to central Asia. Mansoor agrees. "If President Obama decides that he's going to override the advice -- the best military advice of his commanders in the field --then he owns the outcome of the conflict," Mansoor said.

General: U.S. Accelerating Iraq Withdrawal
NPR's All Things Considered, September 30, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Iraq war commander Gen. Ray Odierno told Congress he plans to cut the number of American troops in Iraq this year, and again after Iraqi elections in January, so that by the end of next summer, there will only be 50,000 American forces in the country. Mansoor said that U.S. troops are acting as more of an honest broker between the rival factions in Iraq rather than as war fighters. "The psychological dynamic of the U.S. presence is more important than the physical dynamic, and therefore a withdrawal of several thousand troops this year, followed by tens of thousands next year, is possible provided that the Iraqi political progress continues," he said.

Obama and McChrystal Don’t Talk? Good, Says Army Historian
Wired Magazine, September 30, 2009
Expert: Mark Grimsley
Grimsley reacts to the revelation on 60 Minutes that President Obama has consulted with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, only once. "On the whole, presidents utilize their secretaries of defense — they exist for a reason — and for the most part confine their direct consultations to their regional combatant commanders," Grimsley said. "Obama can and does confer regularly with McChrystal's boss, [U.S. Central Command chief] Gen. David Petraeus, and that’s as it should be… Obama's practice is thus the rule, not the exception."

My post-RNC progression: Ask yourself, am I a lemon, a drunk, a Che, or an Alexander Wendt?
Minnesota Daily, September 28, 2009
Expert: Alexander Wendt
A student protestor arrested at the Republican National Convention last year reflects on the evolution of her thinking about international relations and politics since then. She places herself in the social constructivist camp, crediting Wendt. "Social constructivism is a theory that is based on the human consciousness and its place in world affairs. ... We are the way we are because of a system of norms that has been arranged by a certain people at a particular time. And if we build it up, we can most certainly tear it down. It is the counter-argument to realists who say, 'That's just the way things are.' Because that's not true. It doesn't have to be."

Resourcing an Afghan Strategy
Council on Foreign Relations, Sept. 28, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Six analysts -- Peter Mansoor, Andrew J. Bacevich, Amin Tarzi, Thomas E. Ricks, Candace Rondeaux, and John A. Nagl -- offer a range of strategic choices for U.S. planners in Afghanistan. "Gen. McChrystal's strategy and his strategic assessment is on the mark," Mansoor writes. "The way to win is with a strategy to protect the people. Such a strategy, historically based, requires about one counterinsurgent for every fifty people. Given the size of Afghanistan, both in terms of terrain and in numbers of people, you're looking at a force somewhere between four hundred and six hundred thousand. Clearly we are under-resourced for that kind of mission."

Editorial: Getting it Right
Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
A number of experts are reassessing not just the strategy but the U.S. goal in Afghanistan. Some of the debate has been in the Council on Foreign Relations periodical Foreign Affairs. In one article, Ohio State University political scientist John Mueller points out that al-Qaeda doesn't need a secure base for its terrorist operations. He also notes that the operational base for 9/11 was Hamburg, Germany. Mueller says many previous notions are no longer valid. For example, FBI Director Robert Mueller in 2002 estimated there were up to 5,000 al-Qaeda operatives in the United States. But after eight years of "well-funded sleuthing," not a single al-Qaeda sleeper cell has been found in this country.

A Different View: So What If Iran Gets The Bomb?
The Atlantic, September 25, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
John Mueller, Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies at The Ohio State University, has written Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda, and his thesis is that the world's magical thinking and alarmism about nuclear energy and nuclear weapons has significantly distorted policy making and threatens to leave the United States more vulnerable to more pressing threats. Mueller's opinions are not shared by most of his colleagues, but they are taken seriously. Marc Ambinder, editor of The Atlantic, asked Mueller to put the news about Iran in the context of his theories. How much of a threat is Iran's proliferation? How much of a threat is the West's obsession with Iran's proliferation?

Six things economists wish journalists knew about greenhouse gas reduction
Dallas Morning News, September 21, 2009
Expert: Andy Keeler
Reporter attending the McCormick Energy Solutions Conference for journalists at Ohio State University recaps an address by Keeler. Item 1: It makes economic sense to reduce greenhouse gases. Even though doing so costs money, it will end up costing us even more if we do nothing. Dealing with the effects of global warming, of seeing Texas and the Southwest become a dustbowl, could be financially devastating.

US missile rethink a huge shift
BBC News, September 19, 2009
Expert: Sean Kay
Story examine President Obama's decision to scrap a missile defense shield, citing Kay as a supporter. Dr Sean Kay of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University wrote in a paper back in February: "These systems are not tested or proven and many European NATO allies are skeptical of the benefits. Even if these systems did eventually work they would not address the spectrum of related threats. Furthermore, they have damaged the NATO-Russia relationship in ways that risk undermining the existing balance of power in the European area."

The Arena: Missile Defense
Politico.com, September 18, 2009
Expert: Sean Kay
Kay debates President Obama's decision to scrap a missile defense shield with Sally McNamara of the Heritage Foundation. "First, we now have, generally speaking, a very wise decision to align missile defense with actual capabilities and actual threats. Second, this will be well received, actually by many European allies, and create opportunities for additional engagement."

From Baghdad to Kabul: The Historical Roots of U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine
Origins, September 15, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Mansoor examines the historical context of counterinsurgency, challenges in Iraq and Afghanistan, and keys to successful counterinsurgency.

The End of the Revenge Fantasy
Campus Progress, September 11, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
A sophomore at Harvard examines the legacy of 9/11, concluding the U.S. response was out of proportion to the attacks and the Iraq war was counterproductive. "As John Mueller of Ohio State University has argued, if terrorism continues to claim the number of lives it has for the past twenty years or so, it is a trivial threat to American lives in comparison to automobile accidents and is roughly equivalent to the number killed by lightning or allergic reactions to peanuts."

MoD blocked warning that Britain faces Afghan defeat
The Times, September 6, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Story is on British Ministry of Defence's suppression of a report that warns British troops are facing defeat in Afghanistan. The decision to block publication of the report coincided with a scathing attack by Mansoor on the "arrogance" of UK tactics in Iraq. Writing in the British Army Review, Mansoor said Britain's political and military leaders had abdicated responsibility in Basra by failing to protect local people.

The Army is making the same old mistakes in Afghanistan, say soldiers
The Times, September 3, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Story considers a series of articles in British Army Review that say Britain is not learning from its experience in Iraq for the war in Afghanistan. Mansoor: "Only through a thorough appreciation of the mistakes it made in Iraq can the British Army turn defeat into victory as it fights the untidy wars of the early 21st century. It should not ... gloss over its recent experience in Iraq ... Although the conditions [in Afghanistan] are different, the lessons of Iraq are still relevant.

From COIN to containment
Foreign Policy, September 1, 2009
Expert: Sean Kay
Kay lays out a plan for Afghanistan: "After eight years of war, the United States has developed its first comprehensive counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy for Afghanistan. There are, however, fundamental flaws of timing and resources making this plan the right idea, but tragically several years too late. Rather than sending even more troops, the United States should keep the existing numbers but redeploy, and then begin reducing them, in the service of a new strategy of containment."

Iran's nuclear capability
WCBE-FM, August 28, 2009
Expert: Richard Herrmann
This interview took place after Herrmann spoke about "Iran: Tyranny or Democracy" to the Columbus Council on World Affairs. He discussed democracy in Iran, analyzing the events and protests surrounding the recent presidential election and offering recommendations to the Obama Administration.

152 elected positions up for grabs come November
Canton Repository, August 22, 2009
Expert: Paul Beck
Story examines elections for local seats in which candidates are not affiliated with a political party. Beck traces this to the Progressive Party's efforts to combat corrupt party machinery in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the trade-offs, though, has been historically low voter turnout in nonpartisan elections, Beck said. He added that studies have shown that the wealthiest and best-educated candidates have a better chance of winning. "Local notables tend to do well," Beck said.

Almost 100 dead in Baghdad attacks
Financial Times, August 19, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
The story examines long-term prospects in Iraq after a string of attacks claimed the lives of almost 100 people shortly after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from major cities. Mansoor says it's not likely U.S. troops will go back into cities to keep the peace. "Regrettably, I think we can't go back in," he said, saying that such a move would in any event be unpalatable to most Americans and Iraqis. "The Iraqi government got ahead of itself. It is declaring the war over when it is far from over. We no longer have coercive leverage. Now the challenge is to persuade ... Part of what needs to change is Maliki’s behavior."

NATO, US Troops Continue Fighting Taliban in Afghanistan
Voice of America News, August 19, 2009
Expert: Sean Kay
Story examines the status of the war in Afghanistan. Kay says the Taliban have changed some of their methods. "The Taliban have adopted tactics that came out of Iraq - the suicide bombings that used to never happen in Afghanistan have been happening much more regularly, the improvised explosive devices on the ground - a very serious threat to our men and women taking risks for the country on the ground," he said.

Women at Arms: Living and fighting alongside men, and fitting in
The New York Times, August 17, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Second story in a series that looks at how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have changed the role of women in the military. "There was a fear if we integrate units, you will have a bunch of young people with raging hormones, and it will end up in too many unwanted pregnancies, and it's more trouble than it's worth," said Mansoor, a former battalion commander in Iraq who served as Gen. David H. Petraeus's executive officer. "With good leadership and mentorship, we have been able to keep those problems to a minimum."

Women at Arms: GI Jane breaks the combat barrier
The New York Times, August 15, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
The story examines the changing role of women in the military, especially their participation in combat. "Iraq has advanced the cause of full integration for women in the Army by leaps and bounds," said Mansoor, who served as executive officer to Gen. David H. Petraeus in Iraq. "They have earned the confidence and respect of male colleagues." Mansoor and several other experts said it is only a matter of time before regulations that have restricted women’s participation in war will be adjusted to meet the reality forged over the last eight years.

Donors fickle, GOP leaders find
The Columbus Dispatch, August 9, 2009
Expert: Paul Beck
A study by the Dispatch found that the vast majority of top donors to House GOP lawmakers in the past election cycle have switched allegiance to majority Democrats. The newspaper reported that 24 of the top 30 political-action committee contributors to House Republicans in the 2007-08 cycle are now throwing a majority of their support to House Democrats. Beck was not surprised. "Money follows power," he said. "Most business groups are very much inclined to want to have conversations with who is in power." Beck and others say that above all else, political contributions buy access to key lawmakers. "Legislative leaders and those responsible for raising money are not at all reluctant to twist arms and put the pressure on," he said.

Afghanistan Dilemma: Is Obama on the Right Course?
CQ Researcher, August 7, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
The article examines President Obama's decision to increase troop strength in Afghanistan. In considering critics of this decision, it cites Mueller's skepticism that al-Qaida needs Afghanistan as a base to plot future terrorist attacks. The 2001 terror attacks against the United States were orchestrated mostly from Hamburg, Germany, he points out.

Facebook Fatwa: Part Deux
Blog Them Out of the Stone Age, August 6, 2009
Expert: Mark Grimsley
In this entry in his well-regarded military history blog, Grimsley discusses the debate raging in the Pentagon about social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. "ADM (Mike) Mullen and others see these as important forums for STRATCOM — Strategic Communication.  Others, especially those charged with defending the DoD computer net against cyberattack, see the dangers as outweighing the advantages. Facebook, for instance, offers too many openings for hackers to exploit and once in the system, they can do a lot of mischief.  And still others Just Don't Get It.  Short wave radio using Morse code was good enough in their day.  What need of new-fangled media like Web 2.0?"

Protecting U.S. Attorneys From At-Will Discharge
American Constitutional Society blog, July 31, 2009
Expert: Peter Shane
The blog entry is a response to revelations of Karl Rove's involvement in the firing of federal prosecutors during the Bush administration. "Yesterday's revelations about Karl Rove's hand in the firing of U.S. attorneys make clear that the time has come to protect U.S. attorneys, by statute, from at-will discharge," Shane says. "Like other quasi-independent law enforcers -- members, for example, of the Federal Trade Commission -- they should be subject to discharge only for good cause, such as malfeasance, neglect of office or incapacity. The rule of law depends on the public's confidence in the evenhanded administration of justice. The Bush White House proved that such confidence may well be unwarranted under the current system."

U.S. Adviser to Iraqi Military Urges Early U.S. Exit
Associated Press, July 30, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Timothy Reese, U.S. Army adviser to the Iraqi military command in Baghdad, argues in an internal memo that the U.S. should ''declare victory and go home'' next year, 16 months ahead of schedule. Reese says the years-long American effort to train, equip and advise Iraqi security forces has reached a point of rapidly diminishing returns, and that Iraqi forces already are good enough to defend the government against the weakened terrorist and insurgent forces that remain. Mansoor, who was executive officer to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq, said he is not convinced the Iraqis will not need or want U.S. forces to perform an extended advisory role. ''A lot of what this Iraqi government is doing is for internal consumption to solidify its nationalist credentials going into the national elections in January,'' Mansoor said. ''Once those elections are over and a government is in place, they may look at their situation differently and realize that a longer-term relationship with the United States -- to include a military relationship -- is in their interests.''

Conference to examine threat of potentially cataclysmic 'pulse'
Buffalo News, July 29, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
The story discusses a conference in New York about the "electromagnetic pulse," the idea that terrorists could detonate a nuclear device at high altitude so the burst of energy fries circuit boards below. The idea is gaining traction among some in Congress and the Defense Department. Mueller doesn't give it much credence. "I don't think the U.S. could do this today, much less North Korea, especially without testing," said Mueller. "It sits in a long range of hysterical predictions about nukes that have been going on since 1945."

Well, Better Barbs Than Bombs, Eh? A War of Words Between U.S. and North Korea
Washington Post, July 24, 2009
Expert: Mitchell Lerner
The story explores the war of words between the United States and North Korea that resembles school yard taunts. Lerner says this fits right into U.S.-North Korean relations. "American officials have long failed to understand that North Korean diplomacy is not about negotiating," Lerner said. "It's about making an impression both at home and to their allies. . . . As their political system and economic system become more unstable -- they become more belligerent and hostile and personal in their rhetoric to whomever they can point the finger of blame at."

Comparing and Contrasting Classical Realism and Neo-realism
e-International Relations blog, July 23, 2009
Experts: Alexander Wendt, Randall Schweller
The author, Arash Heydarian Pashakhanlou, cites Wendt and Schweller in a re-examination of Hans Morgenthau's and Kenneth Waltz's theories of international relations. He says Schweller "convincingly argues that in an anarchic system where all states primary goal is survival, the units would have no incentive to pursue power at all since that would risk undermining their principal goal: survival. In Schweller's words: Waltz constructs 'a world of all cops and no robbers' and must therefore make further interventions at the unit-level and bring revisionist goals into his analysis in order to trigger power competition." Established in November 2007, e-IR aims to collect, in one digital repository, a wide variety of resources helpful to students of international politics, diplomacy and global governance.

President Obama's Signing Statements and Congress's Response: A Return to Separation of Powers Sanity?
Executive Watch blog, July 21, 2009
Expert: Peter Shane
In this blog entry, a shorter version of which appeared in Huffington Post, Shane examines President Obama's use of signing statements, or executive statements added when a president signs a bill passed by Congress. The use of these statements exploded under President Bush. Shane comes to the preliminary conclusion that their use is returning more to normal under Obama, noting three interesting trends: only two of Obama's nine signing statements are unconventional, the volume is in line with Presidents Reagan and Clinton, and that Congress has awakened to its own authorities.

War is Over?
Freakonomics blog, The New York Times, July 13, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
The blog, by Freakonomics authors Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, discusses Mueller's paper in Political Science Quarterly in which Mueller argues that there have been no wars between developed nations since 1945, and that other international wars that fit the classic definition — the violent resolution of a dispute between two or more nations — have become exceedingly rare.

Looking at U.S. Professional Military Education
Blog Them Out of the Stone Age, July 13, 2009
Expert: Mark Grimsley
This is the first of a three-part entry exploring professional military education in the United States. Grimsley is associate professor of history at Ohio State, but currently the visiting Harold Keith Johnson Chair of Military History at the U.S. Army War College, where he will stay until 2010. His popular military history blog won the Cliopatria Award in 2005.

Obama's System of Justice For Alleged Terror Suspects Under Scrutiny
The Public Record, July 10, 2009
Expert: Peter Shane
In a story about what to do with detainees being held in Guantanamo Bay, Shane questions both the constitutionality and wisdom of indefinite detention for suspected terrorists. "If the United States has custody of people too dangerous to release, but not properly subject to criminal trial, the correct approach is to seek congressional authority to hold such persons for the duration of the conflict against al Qaeda and the Taliban," Shane said. "Anyone potentially subject to detention on the equivalent of POW grounds should be afforded strict procedural protections to insure fundamental fairness in the determination of enemy combatant status."

No More War?
The Monkey Cage blog, July 7, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
Blog author Lee Siegelman, political scientist at George Washington University, discusses Mueller's recent piece in American Political Science Review, from the quote "We may be reaching a point where war – in both its international and civil varieties – ceases, or nearly ceases, to exist." Siegelman explores Mueller's accounting of four different kinds of war, noting that it "might even cause us to rethink some of our favorite theories."

The Rocket's Red Glare
Foreign Policy, July 7, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
Mueller explores the changing meanings of the term "weapons of mass destruction." From the article: "If you thought that Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded in 2003, you were wrong. Actually, Iraq had tons of WMD then, and it has them now, too -- as does virtually every other country in the world. The United States, of course, has WMD -- but you may be surprised to learn that it has had them for centuries, ever since the days when Francis Scott Key wrote those famous words about 'bombs bursting in air.'"

U.S. Foreign Policy
Open Line, WOSU-AM 820, July 6, 2009
Expert: Sean Kay
Kay discusses U.S. foreign policy in a time of conflict. Topics include President Obama's visit to Russia, Iran, and more. With host Charlene Brown.

Link Between Iraq Violence, Troop Withdrawals Considered
The Washington Post, July 5, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
Story examines a recent spike in violence in Iraq, which is prompting senior defense officials to ask whether the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities has provided an opening to extremist groups eager to spark sectarian attacks between Sunnis and Shiites. Mansoor comments on Iraq's chances of holding together. "If Sunnis and Shiites continue to work through their differences politically, Iraq will survive. If not, there is no way it will hold together," said Mansoor. "We put ourselves between the sects and functioned as honest brokers. That was our primary leverage."