I haven’t discussed the French pension reforms, and the strikes opposing them, because it’s taken me a while to dial in the broader context that I felt was lacking in a lot of the debate. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has for the most part used demographic arguments to justify the reforms, which essentially involve moving the age of retirement from the age of 60 to 62. The growing pool of retirees coupled with budget shortfalls makes the need for reform obvious. The problem is one of distributing the increased burden fairly. Here, Sarkozy shot himself in the foot by making [...]
If you’re interested in naval affairs and the U.S. naval force structure, Galrahn has some reflections for the New Fiscal Year that are well worth your time. I’d widen the lens a bit and argue that the idea of introducing incremental changes to shipbuilding during times of rapid technological change and uncertainty could be applied more generally to diplomacy and strategy. It’s become a trope to talk about the age of uncertainty that has emerged following the end of America’s unipolar moment. And part of the response has been a search for the IR equivalent of a unified field theory [...]
There’s a conventional wisdom forming that in releasing the detained Chinese trawler captain, Japan backed down to Chinese pressure and as a result “lost” the confrontation. This is probably true from a short-term perspective, but the proof of the pudding will be whether Japan, in future, concedes on both the issue at hand — sovereignty over the disputed islands — and the broader issue that is China’s reach for regional dominance. I don’t think either of those are likely. And I think John McCreary sums up nicely why that is: The Chinese have overreached in their dealings with Japan, Southeast [...]
