I've made an invitation to my classmates from my Islam in South Asian Politics course to share their final term papers here on the site, in order to satisfy my interest, theirs, and hopefully our readership's, for what they found in the course of their research and writing. It was possible to approach this course from so many angles, it would be a shame just to limit myself to the one I wrote on in my particular paper, so I hope many of them will indulge us and volunteer their work for others to peruse. We'll put them up here as they come: watch this space for more details.

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One of the goals of chez Nadezhda is to create a place where people can share ideas or things they're writing without being limited to just reacting to things another blogger publishes, but also without having to make the sort of time commitment required to run their own blog.

We're especially interested in having people share from their own experiences -- work, travel, living. And other media besides articles are especially encouraged -- photos, diaries, art, music, movies.

Another goal is to make this a place where folks can come who are looking for some good resources -- background materials, links to helpful sites, book reviews, and so forth. We'd also like to know about interesting events -- cultural, political, academic conferences, think tank panel discussions, etc.

If you're interested in contributing, please contact me at cheznad [hyphen] info at yahoo dot com.

So after a very kind invitation on the part of Nadezhda and Praktike, I've joined Chez Nadezhda as an -- author? commentator? pundit? While publicly accesible blogging software has made it easy for just about anyone to appoint (or annoint) themselves these things, I don't know just how ready I am to take that step, or whether it would be especially wise of me to do so at this point in my intellectual development. Student would be much more apt -- since that's what I am, on this side of the monitor screen. Specifically, I major in international relations in Boston University's College of Arts and Sciences.. and barring any massive breakdowns between now and May, expect to graduate with a BA in said field at the end of this academic year. Within the IR department my "primary track" is Foreign Policy and Security Studies, and my "secondary track" East Asia -- which in practice has usually meant China, although my language studies since high school have had me studying Japanese, a bit of scholastic schizophrenia I'm meaning to correct by taking more courses on Japanese politics and Chinese language at some point in the future. Generally speaking, I dislike excessive regional specializiation if it can be avoided, since as an American in the 21st century I feel my perspective should necessarily be more global in scope. I look forward to the opportunity to share some of my educational process here, and hope it might prove as interesting to others as it does to me.   more »

Or at least they diagnose alike. From Brad DeLong, an announcement of a new electronic journal, The Economists' Voice. He's working with Joe Stiglitz and Aaron Edlin, and it's to be "published" by Berkeley Electronic Press. Their rationale behind the new venture, which is to be launched "later this year," resonates with some of the ideas mentioned at chez Nadezhda.

Too much of what we economists write meets the technical canons of modern economics, but reaches a very small audience (if it reaches any audience at all). Too much of the rest of what we write is murdered by being forced into the Procrustean bed of the 700-word op-ed: a space too small to make any but the most pathetic and oversimplified excuse for an argument. The result is that public understanding of the economy is abysmal, and the intellectual level of the public debate is far too low....   more »

In response to your question, where do I think I'm going with all this. I'll try to give you a few more thoughts ranging from a couple of details to the wildly abstract. So it best belongs under the "musings" category.

I really like all the stuff you're posting. It's exactly the sort of experimental mix I'd hoped you'd put together. It's got lots of variety. Some headlines, when they've got serious implications, like the withdrawal of NGOs from Iraq. The quotes on democracy both make a great set of points and are useful to have stuffed away in the "filing cabinet." And the set of pieces that ask fundamental questions on Iraq are excellent and deserve some followup, as I mentioned I'd give on the Posner piece.

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As your host, let me introduce myself..

Personal stats. I'm a "boomer," born and raised in the Heart of America, but I haven't lived there regularly since I left for Massachusetts to go to college. Married twice, the second to a man twenty years my senior. We were together for over twenty years until his death a few years ago. He had three sons, and we had no children together (with three boys of his own already, he figured he'd done his duty and I figured he was right!).

Professional background. For most of the past fifteen years I've been a senior staff member with multilateral financial institutions here in Washington. I specialize in financial sector development and the private sector.    more »

The end of the Cold War, September 11, and the continuing war in Iraq have produced a large and noisy global idea industry devoted to rethinking America's role in the world and, here in the US, how we organize major sectors of American society. The failure of communist ideology to produce social, political and economic benefits dreamed of by its proponents is not the same as a "global liberal capitalism triumphant." No single world view or ideology has yet to emerge as a serious opponent to global liberal capitalism. On any given topic, however, there are a host of challengers and pretenders trying to elbow their way into the marketplace of ideas and influence.

Out of this constant stream of new products from the global idea industry, Chez Nadezhda will collect items we find especially informative, provocative or substantive. Our goal is not only to keep a current inventory of the newest theory or the state of play within these grand debates. We're also trying to help our own thinking about these issues, to find (or impose) some coherence within the cacophony, to filter or reduce the noise level so we can hear whether some conversations are taking place.   more »