Picked up another great article idea while reading for my dissertation but which is totally unrelated to my project – basically means, I now have a list of eight viable paper ideas that are useless for now. I have a meeting tomorrow with Prof. Larry Lessig, on oddly enough, constitution-advising in other countries but I have no specific questions to ask. Also turned down an ad hoc meeting with Prof. Hehir at HKS and instead asked for a schedule next week.
Today was pretty productive. Squash game at 8am, brunch at 930, two articles and three hours later, I made a venue change and got halfway through Colossus. It is a pretty interesting read (else, I would just be perusing the index) and makes an argument which I am not yet sure if I completely subscribe. There just seems to be something wrong with the idea of empire itself.
After which, we had our yearly holiday party which lasted till about a few past midnight.
My thought on empire for the day: Law is integral in the “exceptional” American empire because it can expend less resources and there is generally no need for on the ground personnel (unlike the British experience) if you can persuade the periphery to adopt and abide by a set of rules the hegemon finds agreeable. But what to make of this?
anna,
ReplyDeletewhat do you mean when you write that law is integral... because it can expend less resources and there is... no need for on the ground personnel? i have a hard time seeing any legal system being implemented, let alone enforced (in modern developed capitalist societies that is) without a vast array of officials and bureaucrats making law, applying law, enforcing law, educating about the law, and the like.