From Youtube, this incredible video shows an intense firefight ensuing after an ambush against Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Apparently some Canadians still harbour the delusion that their troops are “peacekeepers” and aren’t actually fighting a war… they might change their minds if they saw the video. Hat tip: Winds of Change, although I emphatically disagree [...]

4GW, Failed states, Islam | 1 Comment »

This is a serious question! There has been a recent proposal to turn Auckland – currently locally-governed by four city councils and several other entities – into a “super-region,” a “one stop governance shop.” And the plan has the PM’s support. While the plan was not received with much enthusiasm, I suspect that it is [...]

Auckland, Empire, New Zealand, Non-state actors | 9 Comments »

This evening I had the pleasure of helping present the Libertarianz submission of the Telecommuniations Amendment Act. This is the local-loop unbundling legislation which gives TelstraClear and a bunch of other grubby companies the green light to rummage through Telecom’s exchanges in the name of competition. Of course this is well-intentioned but misguided and ultimately [...]

Libertarianz, New Zealand, Politics | 4 Comments »

I’ve been procrastinating about this post for a while. It’s not pleasant to revisit the emotions of such an awful day, but I thought I had to post something. 9/11 didn’t just change the world, it changed people’s lives, and if not for 9/11, I might never have gone into International Relations. After 5 years, [...]

Islam, Terrorism, World | 1 Comment »

NZ Herald: “Libertarianz deny plot behind Labour legal action” The Libertarianz Party now occupies a proud place in the realm of Conspiracy Theory, alongside such favourites as the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Group, the CIA, Operation Gladio and the United Fruit Company. Even the Prime Minister of New Zealand is speculating frantically about how a “little [...]

Labour, Libertarianz, New Zealand | No Comments »

It’s been two weeks since I officially launched Pacific Empire, although I’d been working on it on and off for months. Since that time we’ve had several hundred visits, and incoming links from Not PC, Kiwiblog, New Zeal, Crog’s Blog, tdaxp, Pukeko, and of course Lovelee. Thanks all. I also thank the anonymous donors who [...]

Meta, Personal | 3 Comments »

As noted by Bernard Darnton – the Libertarianz leader with a case against Helen Clark in the High Court for illegally using taxpayers money to win the 2005 election – Gman Inc has discovered an audio recording of the Prime Minister at a public meeting last year, in which she explains how the taxpayer-funded pledge [...]

Labour, New Zealand | 4 Comments »

Wikipedia: Darfur conflict War through the eyes of a child Washington Post: “Sudan Says No as U.N. Backs Force For Darfur” The original idea of peacekeeping was to physically separate two warring sides – thus, peacekeeping applies to interstate warfare. India and Pakistan, Israel and the Arab states were the first UN peacekeeping missions (and [...]

4GW, Failed states, Islam, UN | 3 Comments »

Two of my favourite SF authors. I like Heinlein’s adventurous plots, libertarian political speculations, and far-out social speculations, unafraid of confronting taboos. Philip K. Dick, on the other hand, often dreamed of paranoid futures – and apparently believed aliens projected ideas into his head. Perhaps a legacy of the drug abuse he wrote about in [...]

Art, Technology | 3 Comments »

From Foreign Policy’s Passport blog, the “Squiggly Border Theory.” The best name for a geo-political theory I’ve heard yet. The prediction is that failed states are associated with straight-line borders – presumably a historical legacy of empires which didn’t respect the “natural” borders of history and ethnicity. However, like many other such theories, it doesn’t [...]

Empire, Failed states, World | 2 Comments »