Michael Tanji’s February essay on the growth of web-based, next-gen intellectual communities, shorn of the real world constraints and trappings of conventional think tanks ("Think Tank 2.0"), left me looking for a bit more on how new media augments intellectual life and enables more dynamic interfacing with the thinking public. Serendipity: Dan Drezner’s paper "Public Intellectuals 2.0".
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Or, Bentham meets Sadr. Bryan Finoki’s got another fascinating post at Subtopia on the spatial dynamics of conflict in the built environment. This one cites a New York Times piece on the wall being built across Sadr City in Baghdad, describing it as the new "stage for perpetual war", a locus of violence in the area. "This was hardly unseen as the likely outcome," he writes. "After all, what else do these types of massive blast wall installations serve in the end but vertical stages for war?"
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Some interesting follow-up on Hezbollah communications. The issue’s been addressed in Brigitte Nacos’ recent CTLab essay on terrorist media power, John Mackinlay’s thoughts on insurgency and the propaganda of the deed at KCL’s Insurgency Research Group (as well as subsequent IRG posts here, here, and here), and IRG member Andrew Exum’s elaborations on same at Arab Media & Society. The French site geopolitique.com has now posted a map of Hezbollah’s telecoms network in Lebanon.
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A fascinating piece in this week’s New Yorker on "Virtual Iraq" – a virtual reality sim environment for working out the post-traumatic stress disorders of Iraq combat veterans. The article references the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, where the project is hosted, as well as several precursor efforts, a more primitive "Virtual Vietnam" among them. There’s a 2005 Defense Update report on the program here. Talk about persuasive technology.
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Speaking of havens… a few recent items have popped up on transnational smuggling and trafficking. The first is short and crisp, and maybe a little light, despite it’s heavy subject. The second is outstanding, and worth careful attention for all sorts of reasons. The third piece has depth and texture, at times hopeful but ultimately sad.
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