Spew in Review, 2023!

 There is never a boring year for a scholar of international relations, but, wow, this year was something.  The invasion of Ukraine was eclipsed by the Hamas attack and Israel's response.  The former created much consensus and unity except for the random tankie.  The latter has been incredibly divisive.  It was a year of expectations unmet and exceeded.  And it was an incredibly angering year as so much could have been avoided, and so much awful has been amplified.  

I am lucky and privileged, so Musk turning twitter into a far right hellscape was annoying to me but only hurt my hit rate here at the spew.  For others, it was quite destructive with death threats and actual violence.  Seeing folks start to flee Substack due to tech billionaire greed -- hey, the Nazis pay! -- makes think I was right never to move, and then I have to remember that blogger is owned by google, and google has done a fair amount of evil via gaming its algorithms to get more hits via anger--youtube sending folks to the extremes.

Anyhow, that is part of the context for this review.  The rest of the context: I blog far less than I once did, averaging a bit more than 2 posts a month, when I used post several times a day.  I theoretically have more time to blog as I have been on sabbatical since July, but I haven't.  Why not?  Partly I write on other social media--bluesky now instead of twitter.  Partly because my first reaction is to write something ... that I have written before.  I don't need to write a "GOP is the Party of Bad Faith" post since I have already written it. 

Unto the year in review, which has at least one enthusiastic reader ;)

One of the basic rules of legislative politics is not to hold a vote if you think you are going to lose it.  Yet Kevin McCarthy held how many rounds of votes to get to be Speaker of the House.... for a while?  It made me ponder the Humiliation Index--comparing various actors in how much humiliation they tolerate/encourage.

One of my favorite parts of blogging is taking ideas from one place and adjusting them to apply elsewhere.  Also one of my fave parts of poli sci-ing and professing.  One reason I do media stuff and encourage the sharp people I know to do so is that, well, they and I are, in my not so humble opinion, better than the average pundit. This idea was in my head for sometime, but unlike most such ideas, I hadn't written about it before--value over replacement pundit.

Speaking of media stuff, I vented my spleen about a particular journalist who considered himself above the fray, able to judge who is pure of heart (himself) and who isn't (pretty much everyone else).

One of the consistent themes of this year, more than any except perhaps the year I went to Israel, was struggling with my Jewish identity as a non-believer.  In May, I realized that at least I remember the cardinal lesson of the Holocaust: never again.  Which makes me a better Jew than Republican Jews who align with white supremacists.

The biggest change in my life this year was the absence of ultimate.  I stopped playing in 2022 due to aging out--I can still run, but changing speed or direction or both quickly pull one tendon or muscle too much.  So, I had chatgpt wax poetically about the end of my ultimate career and a summer sans ultimate.

Another milestone was my first defence trade show!  I went to CANSEC thanks to a former participant of the CDSN Summer Institute.  No, I didn't buy anything, but I met sharper Carleton students who were part of the sales teams of various producers.  The amazing thing was the diversity of products from ammo and artillery and drones to food and clothing and cable (yes, the wires between things) and more.  Did going compromise my ability to criticize the defence industry and the government's messed up procurement system since I am a card carrying member of the military-industrial-academic complex?  I don't think so, but read my stuff to judge.

Speaking about hanging out with the military, I joined a junket (does it count as a junket if my grant money pays and not the hosts?) to Latvia to see what was going in with Canada and with NATO and with the latest in Strategic Communications.  I had been there before so it was interesting to see what had changed both in the NATO setup and the base itself.  The Latvians were mostly open about stuff, and we all were waiting to be disappointed by the Canadian government (and it did disappoint) as the expected defence review didn't happen.  I did write about what I wanted to see in the review, so I got to be extra-disappointed.

The highlight of the year was the trip to Spain. First time Mrs. Spew and I euro-tripped! Great food, amazing sights seen.  Oh, and a lot of sangria.

One of the bigger disappointments of the year was the replacement of Anita Anand as the Minister of National Defence by Bill Blair.  Yes, Blair has made some progress on some of the important files, but the more people I talk to in the CAF and DND and the more my first impression was right--this was a hell of a bad signal to send.  And then the budget cuts, including those imposed by Anand from her new spot at Treasury Board, helped to demoralize folks further.  The P-8 decision--buying an existing plane rather than the vaporware that Bombardier was trying to flog--was the right one and surprising given the temptation to pander to Quebec voters.  But overall, people are pretty miffed about how sidelined DND/CAF are now in Canadian priorities at a time where the world is, yes, more threatening.  

The CDSN highlight of the year is always the Summer Institute, which keeps getting better.  It is a great chance to hangout with sharp people from all over the Canadian defence and security community as we had both speakers and participants from the military, from DND, from academia, and from other parts of the government.  I get a lot out of it even as we tend to cover similar material from year to year.  Just a terrific group this year in large part due to the recruiting efforts of last year's visiting defence fellow--Colonel Cathy Blue.

One of the strangest things of 2023 was how politicization of the military became all about ... me?  I get accused of thinking everything is about me, which is why I used to joke here about how I am a narcissist, but on this matter, well, oy.  It started by my writing about politicization of the US military, as analyzed by Michael Robinson, a very sharp military officer who is a hell of a social scientist (and with whom I have a long lingering project on Japanese public opinion and the Self-Defense Force).  It then led to an op-ed where I argued the Conservative Party of Canada should not give a platform at its convention to a cranky retired general.  The cranky retiree, Michel Maisoneuve then wrote an op-ed of his own, which was directly aimed at ... moi!  Because it was such a crappy argument, I could not resist the temptation to grade it.  Oh, and other folks responded as well so I discussed what could not fit into the op-ed.

The other strange thing, consistent with the larger theme of "it didn't have to be this way" was the Musking of Twitter.  I finally had to leave--too much far right shit from the very top and too much empowering of the same bullshit from other folks.  So, I looked back and the moved on to bluesky.

One of the best parts of the year was the new kitchen!!  The counters took much longer to arrive, but they look great and are easy to clean.  The rest of the kitchen was operational in June thanks to our great contractor--Ron.  My fave parts are the island with heaps of deep drawers for appliances and baking stuff and its shelves for Nigella and the rest; the double oven so I can make pitas and fillings for the pitas at the same time; the corners that now stow a heap of pots and pans in one and reserves of flour/sugar/chocolate/etc in the other; and the huge sink.  And the lighting!  Really thrilled with how it worked out with the planning and buying dominating the winter of 2023.  Oh, and it made the ever-growing cookiefest so much easier to execute, perhaps encouraging the madness.

Heaps of travel towards the end of the year with only short breaks at home.  The biggest trip was Seoul and then Copenhagen.  First time one trip took me around the world as I flew across Asia from Korea to Denmark.  The research in Seoul was challenging--getting people to identify who is really running the military was not easy.  The case study remains only partially written due to the difficulty plus heaps of distractions--professional (Year Ahead conference, etc) and personal (skiing with my sister in Utah!).  The South Korea research definitely made it clear to me that we are onto something--a relevant, interesting topic.

While surveys have shown that academics are censoring themselves about Israel-Palestine, my initial reluctance to write/talk about it was more about confusion/ambivalence/anger.  So, when I saw references by both sides to "From the River to the Sea," s, building on my old work on irredentism.  And then I just wrote angry.

Another recurring theme for the past few years but especially this one: maybe there are two sides to the political spectrum, but one side is where the danger is coming from.  It is not close.

The year ended with a special anniversary--30 years of being a PhD. I am increasingly aware of how long I have been doing this.  Earlier in the year, I was very conscious of how lucky I have been, how much I owe people, and just being grateful.  And, with a great ski trip crashing my sister's ski clinic and heaps of cookies, the year ended well and I am very, very grateful.  The next year will also be full of travel and skiing and three months of Europe.  Hopefully, a book contract too.  

Enjoy your holidays and happy new year!