The Upside to NATO

The upside to studying NATO is that I get to be in Paris for a few days. Woot!  I am participating in a small conference on Transatlantic Security organized by the German Marshall Fund.  I lucked into this invite as the result of a GMF person circulating through Ottawa and stopping by NPSIA. 

I realized as I was walking around that it is just about thirty years since I visited Paris the first time and five years since the second time.  Unlike the other trips, I was welcomed with sun, not rain.  I think this reduces my % of rainy days in Paris to 95%.  I should not complain as Paris is pretty terrific even when it is wet and I am wet. 

Anyhow, I didn't manage to organize a book talk for this weekend so we cannot call this part of the book tour (no new dates but I hope to have a few in the fall).  Instead, this blog post is simply a placeholder basically saying--light blogging ahead.

Oh, and it turns out that having a kid means that you become immune to loud kids and babies on planes, but that immunity wears off as your kid becomes a good traveler.  I guess my kid hitting 18 means that my immunity was gone, and I sure as hell needed it last night with three small kids behind me, chock full of tears, kicking legs, and big lungs.  Oy, I need better headphones.