Tag Archives: Soviet

Iraqi Army Upgrades

Iraq is buying 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks, along with wide range of other conventional hardware, as it prepares to shift its focus from internal security to defending the borders in a very hostile neighborhood. Iran, in case you’re wondering, can … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Web | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Surprise, Central Planning is Still Stupid (Even in China)

(photo: 2 Dogs) Modern China has a curious capacity to make otherwise very sensible capitalists instantly forget every experience they’ve ever had with government central planning. The Western businessman on a trip to Shanghai looks up and sees all those … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page, Uncategorized, Urban planning and development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

China & Russia: Models and Modalities

Francis Fukuyama chats with Robert Kagan on a number of interesting things: Flash | WMV | MP3 (via: The American Interest). Of immediate interest is Kagan’s notion that the the emergence of global multipolarity induces an imperfect, baseline bipolarity of … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Real Internet Revolutions

What would have happened if in the 1960s you’d given every Soviet citizen his own printing press and free access to a global publishing distribution network? Couldn’t have good for the Politburo is my thinking. Thus it’s profoundly encouraging reading … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Web | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia Speaks to the American Electorate

Sober, secular and educated new residents to New Mexico can often be found painting the frames of their doors and windows a vivid bright blue. Having seen the habit practiced on the homes of locals, the newcomers invariably assume it’s … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia’s Long Descent Into Madness: Putin’s Russia by Anna Politkovskaya, and Putin’s Labyrinth by Steve LeVine

Over the last ten years, Russia has emerged from one of the unfortunate victims of the 1998 financial crisis to become a strong, almost fearsomely assertive country. Much of this is thanks to Vladimir Putin, a man who has won … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Foreign affairs | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Law & State in Russia

Video of Robert Amsterdam speaking at the University of Illinois about the political-symbolic nature of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s prosecution for fraud in 2005. The transformation of the Khodorkovsky trial into a grotesque perversion of justice is enormously revealing about the nature … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Web | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment