by Richard Gowan | Dec 6, 2007 | Conflict and security
Want to get ahead in peacekeeping? Here’s some guidance from a very senior representative in one of the UN’s larger missions, who circulated these 9 rules to all staff (capitals in the original). Pleasingly, they have spread further with some alacrity:
1. “WE, THE PEOPLE”. THE UN’S MISSION IS TO SERVE PEOPLE. ONLY BY SERVING OTHERS CAN ONE SERVE ONSELF PROPERLY.
2. “ACCEPT WHAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE, BUT CHANGE WHAT YOU CAN WITH COURAGE AND SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO”.
3. “LIFE IS TOUGH. IT’S TOUGHER IF YOU ARE STUPID”.
4. “MEN ARE DISPOSED TO BE KIND WHEN THEY ARE WITHOUT FEAR”. YOU ARE ANGRY OR RUDE TO OTHERS WHEN YOU ARE DRIVEN BY FEAR OR YOU ARE AT YOUR WIT’S END.
5. “DON’T LET THE TURKEYS GET YOU DOWN” (ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM EST): ONLY WEAKLINGS WILL COMPLAIN; WINNERS WILL ALWAYS FIND PLEASURE IN LIFE.
6. COMPLAINTS, EXCUSES, ACCUSATIONS, AND BLAMING OTHERS ARE EVILS IN LIFE. POSITIVE THINKING YELDS POSITIVE RESULTS.
7. WHENEVER POSSIBLE, OFFER COMPLIMENTS, BUT NEVER FLATTERY. THE FORMER WILL MAKE YOU A LEADER, WHILE THE LATTER WILL MAKE YOU LOSE SELF-ESTEEM”.
8. MAKE YOURSELF INDISPENSABLE. THEN EVERYTHING WILL FOLLOW WITHOUT YOUR HAVING TO ASK.
9. “HOPE FOR THE BEST, PREPARE FOR THE WORST”. ALWAYS BE OPTIMISTIC, BUT KEEP YOUR PERSPECTIVE ALL THE SAME.
by Richard Gowan | Dec 5, 2007 | Global system
Like most people who buy newspapers as a source of information rather than merely a cheap way to wrap fish, I have spent the last day admiring the bravado with which the Bush administration and its fans manage to deny that this week’s NIE brought some good news on Iran. Even Iran’s online propagandists seem in awe of “Neocon Kingpin” Norman Podhoretz’s denunciation of the entire NIE as a “scam” by anti-Bush spooks.
In comparison, the British approach to denial in foreign policy seems, well, a bit dull. The announcement that Gordon Brown may not attend next week’s signing ceremony for the new EU Reform Treaty because of a “diary clash” isn’t just unconvincing, it’s so dreary that it doesn’t even qualify as spin…
by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007 | Influence and networks, Off topic
So said Wired.com earlier this week in a piece today entitled ‘Facebook is always watching you’:
Amid heightened concerns surrounding Facebook’s new advertising platform, the social networking site has given users a new reason not to trust it: Researchers recently busted the company for tracking users activities on external sites, even after they logged out of Facebook.
“Facebook is retrieving enough information that they can tie what you do on external sites back to your Facebook profile,” says Stefan Berteau, a research engineer with CA. “[The company] says it’s deleting the data it gathers after you’ve logged out, but that is not clearly spelled out in its privacy policy, and there isn’t a binding public commitment.”
But here’s the good news: you can fix it.
It’s fairly easy to block Facebook, too, according to Berteau: Don’t click the “Remember Me” box when signing into Facebook and regularly clear cookies. Users can also download a Firefox plugin that blocks data transmission between advertiser sites and Facebook.
Of course, you’re already clearing your cookies regularly, right? If you’re using Firefox (and why wouldn’t you), you can tell it to do this automatically: Tools, Options, and check the box telling it to keep cookies only until you close Firefox; plus also check the box marked ‘Always clear my private data when I close Firefox’.
by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007 | Conflict and security
Here’s one I missed first time around: security expert Bruce Schneier held a contest on his blog back in April last year. It went like this:
For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for “movie-plot threats“: terrorist fears based on very specific attack scenarios. Terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists exploding baby carriages in subways, terrorists filling school buses with explosives — these are all movie-plot threats. They’re good for scaring people, but it’s just silly to build national security policy around them.
But if we’re going to worry about unlikely attacks, why can’t they be exciting and innovative ones? If Americans are going to be scared, shouldn’t they be scared of things that are really scary? “Blowing up the Super Bowl” is a movie plot to be sure, but it’s not a very good movie. Let’s kick this up a notch.
It is in this spirit I announce the (possibly First) Movie-Plot Threat Contest. Entrants are invited to submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios they can come up with. Your goal: cause terror. Make the American people notice. Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy. Change the political landscape, or the culture. The more grandiose the goal, the better. Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9/11: 20 to 30 unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy skills, equipment, etc.
Here’s the winning entry by Tom Grant, selected from hundreds of entries received on Schneier’s blog. Be afraid…
(more…)
by Alex Evans | Dec 5, 2007 | Climate and resource scarcity, Middle East and North Africa
Daniel Drezner has a pertinent question. Following the US National Intelligence Estimate that Iran’s nuclear program has been frozen since 2003, you’d expect oil prices to have fallen. But in fact they rose yesterday. Now why should this be, he asks? He reckons that it
1) Oil traders are slower at working through geopolitical ramifications than your humble blogger;
2) Oil traders are so smart that they already knew Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been frozen, and had therefore already priced in expectations that the U.S. would eventually discover this fact.
3) Political factors are not as important in influencing oil prices as some commentators believe.
4) The NIE will have zero effect on the expected probability of the Bush administration’s decision to use force.
I’m 99.99% sure the answer is not #1 or #2, and I’m 90% sure the answer isn’t #4. But #3 seems inadequate to me.
