America Bombs Iran
America took a momentous step last weekend when it bombed three nuclear sites in Iran. So far, the conflict appears to have been contained, and no wider outbreak of hostilities has occurred. I am interested in the bombing because of its importance for the present — for the extent to which it forestalls the Iranian …
The Church Against the State: On Subsidiarity and Solidarity
I discovered this book by Andrew Willard Jones through a review by Jon D. Schaff called “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” The principle of the book is a Christian critique of liberalism in the sense of the politics of individualism and freedom (more closely associated with libertarianism today, but a major force in Western politics …
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International School Day of Non-Violence and Peace
I run several months behind in reporting on these news items, which usually doesn’t matter, but this would would have been better reported on January 30th. I have learned that this day is celebrated as “International School Day of Non Violence and Peace,” first established in 1964 by Llorenç Vidal Vidal on the anniversary of …
The Essequibo War
If you aren’t aware of the ongoing conflict over Esssequibo between Venezuela and Guyana, check out the video that I created last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyYQrnE5klc. These two countries have been fighting over the region for 150 years now, but things have escalated in the past decade. Venezuela held a referendum last year in which the country …
The Collapse of Syria
One of the first posts I wrote on this site, over ten years ago, concerned the fragmentation of Syria and the possible application of a “Westphalian” solution to its internal conflicts. Syria has, in fact, been at the center of the movement to look to Westphalia for a model to end conflict within Islam (e.g. …
Hegseth’s Peace Principles
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced some basic principles for peace in Ukraine, and it is the most sensible basis for negotiation that I have yet heard. He stated that both parties “must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective” and that “chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong …
The Importance of Diplomacy
An article posted two months ago under the title “The Voiceless Diplomats” discusses the value of maintaining communications. Besides a nice (if very brief) overview of the history of diplomatic relations, the article makes the important point that maintaining communications, even with unfriendly states, is important. America’s refusal to engage with Russia opens us up …
Two Very Bad Articles
My feed has been replete with articles on the Peace of Westphalia in the last few months, mostly of the forgettable sort. A few are good; and then there are the two that I will mention today, which are very, very bad and demonstrate the worst abuses of the Peace of Westphalia as an historical …
Thirty Years’ War Coins
I get notifications when “Peace of Westphalia” is mentioned on the internet. The notices are mostly from articles on international relations that throw in a reference to the Peace of Westphalia, usually in reference to sovereignty, so they aren’t very relevant. Some of the notices are articles that are specifically about how the Peace of …
The Widening War
With Joe Biden’s recent loosening of restrictions on Ukrainian targeting with long-range missiles, the war has entered a more dangerous stage. Ukraine followed the announcement almost immediately by taking advantage of their new liberty, firing seven missiles at airfields inside Russia. Russia claims that six of the missiles were shot down and the seventh was …