Unfortunately for my students, I don't ask multiple choice questions on quizzes. However, this feature might be useful in other classes.

Labels: teaching, technology

I am testing to see if I can add images to a blog post sent from my handheld device.

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"After flirting briefly with the idea of abandoning human rights in foreign policy altogether in favor of the fight against terrorism and communism, the Regan administration had found a different alternative to the Carter administration's human rights policy. The rights policy of the Carter administration had focused on the security of the person -- freedom from torture and arbitrary killing, for example -- a category in which many right-wing governments engaged in counterinsurgency had exceedingly poor records. The Reagan administration, however, argued that "democracy," largely identified with the holding of competitive elections, constituted the best protection of human rights. Communist regimes, of course, had exceedingly poor records in this area."

-Barnett R. Rubin, The Search for Peace in Afghanistan, 1995.

There is something brilliant in the way Rubin teases out this fundamental distinction between two inversely sequential orderings of American values in foreign policy. The current administration's hollow policy of promoting elections while undermining the protection of human rights at home and abroad is the natural outgrowth of privileging "democracy" (i.e. electocracy) before human rights.

It is amazing, almost Orwellian, that the protection of human rights has become sequentially secondary to the promotion of elections. It is understandable that ordinary citizens could be fooled by this clever rhetoric, but it is also evident that the discipline of Political Science has been deeply enmeshed in this agenda. Why does the discipline pay so much attention to regime types over human rights? Is an election meaningful if human rights are not protected? Is our democracy meaningful if we have a state that sanctions torture?

Labels: political science

I saw this rather racist series of advertisements while I was in India this summer (and similar ad campaigns in China last summer). There have been local efforts to ban and boycott this type of product, but with little success. I wonder if added pressure from American and European customers against this form of racist advertising would help put a stop to this. Imagine if such products were pitched to "persons of color" in the US or Europe?

One could argue that companies like Hindustan Unilever are only selling the products that people want, but I wonder about that line of argument since so many resources are being expended to create demand and channel insecurity towards this particular "solution."

Labels: globalization, india, south asia

So today's front page headline in the Hindustan Times is Obama's tribute to the recently deceased Indian Field Marshal and war hero, Sam "Bahadur" Manekshaw. While the tribute is touching and timely given that the state funeral will take place this week, it is rather odd coming from a presidential candidate rather than the sitting head of state. It is also highly unlikely that Obama would have known about Manekshaw's importance to the Indian people on his own, unless we are to imagine Obama is also a South Asianist.

What the tribute clearly indicates is the influence of his South Asia team. This may be a sign that if he is elected, he will give greater attention to South Asia.
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