Monday, September 17, 2007

New In Global Asia

The East Asia Foundation binannual Global Asia is out, with a passel of essays upon U.S. power in Asia.

The essay by Clyde Prestowitz is cartoonish and the one by former Ambassador to the United States Sung Chul Yang is a waste of time, but the essays by Kishore Mahbubhani, Funabashi Yōichi, Wang Jisi and Gerald Curtis are worthwhile reads.

I smiled at one of the final points Dr. Curtis makes. Under the Cold War framework, the range of possible effects and outcomes anyone had to take into account was far more limited. In the post-Cold War, however, a policy maker has to take into account many, many more variables and has to steel herself for the generation of a multitude of fine-graded but quite distinct eventualities.

We like things simple, don't we?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Herself"???!!!!

Are you calling Dick Armitage a girly man? Have seen this guy's neck, or rather lack thereof?

MTC said...

"The heavyset, bullet-headed Armitage is known for having a good head on his shoulders. (That is primarily because he has no neck...)"

- William Safire


When the gender of the individual is not determined by context, I tend to use she, her and herself, just to make a little point about slovenly presumptions in the English tongue.