First of all, thank you very much Javier for your lecture and thank you Julie for all your organization efforts and great questions. Unfortunately I was not able to watch this one live, however I've watched the recording. So some comments: 1. I agree with Javier that there would be changes in Obama's discourse on these issues if he would be facing new elections, however to higher degree than Javier estimates. The liberals would probably be more content and not that lost with his policies anymore, if that would be the case. So from one point of view not having a chance to run again for the President is a good policy, from the other side your last term seems to have more of "you" in the policy rather than your "party" or "voters" for that matter. 2. It is about time Obama voiced a need of international cooperation on drone policies and consent of other states to shape future of "droning". It is going to be interesting to see how the situation envelops in the future when more countries will use drones with offensive capabilities. 3. Snowden: I think that Obama's "conservative" response to the situation was only logical and such a strong position actually rebounded a lot of criticism and attacks against US that followed as a result of leaks. Weaker position might have been politically encouraging for the opportunists to get on the US back and make higher demands. So I think this policy was a kind of "damage control" mechanism rather than a shift in "liberal-neocon" stance. So far so much. Would be interesting to know what you guys think and maybe some of our other colleagues can join in commenting. Thanks again and enjoy your warm summer.
First of all, thank you very much Javier for your lecture and thank you Julie for all your organization efforts and great questions. Unfortunately I was not able to watch this one live, however I've watched the recording. So some comments:
ReplyDelete1. I agree with Javier that there would be changes in Obama's discourse on these issues if he would be facing new elections, however to higher degree than Javier estimates. The liberals would probably be more content and not that lost with his policies anymore, if that would be the case. So from one point of view not having a chance to run again for the President is a good policy, from the other side your last term seems to have more of "you" in the policy rather than your "party" or "voters" for that matter.
2. It is about time Obama voiced a need of international cooperation on drone policies and consent of other states to shape future of "droning". It is going to be interesting to see how the situation envelops in the future when more countries will use drones with offensive capabilities.
3. Snowden: I think that Obama's "conservative" response to the situation was only logical and such a strong position actually rebounded a lot of criticism and attacks against US that followed as a result of leaks. Weaker position might have been politically encouraging for the opportunists to get on the US back and make higher demands. So I think this policy was a kind of "damage control" mechanism rather than a shift in "liberal-neocon" stance.
So far so much. Would be interesting to know what you guys think and maybe some of our other colleagues can join in commenting. Thanks again and enjoy your warm summer.