海角大神

Obama鈥檚 鈥榢ill list鈥�

Few weapons have changed the nature of warfare in recent years as much as the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, also known as a drone. Virtually unheard of a decade ago, it has become the weapon of choice for the Obama administration, both for surveillance of suspected terrorists and for their elimination.

The New York Times鈥� Jo Becker and Scott Shane have written a lengthy investigative piece, backed up with interviews of current and former Obama administration officials, looking into the legality and the many uses of drones and how the Obama administration learned to love the drone. Whether drones make the world safer, of course, depends on your definition of safe. But for now, much of the debate centers on whether drone use is legally or morally defensible.

Fans of this article have pointed out how the White House team decides who is a 鈥渓egitimate target,鈥� and the article says Obama鈥檚 legal team 鈥溾�� in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants鈥�.鈥�

Foreign policy consensus

For all their controversy in intellectual circles, drones will not be a major campaign issue in the upcoming fall elections. Sure, we鈥檒l hear that one candidate would likely hand the keys to the country over to The Enemy, or that another candidate secretly dreams of kicking off the End Times by bombing a Middle Eastern country. But when it comes to foreign policy or military issues, Americans just aren鈥檛 that into them.

Truth be told, America鈥檚 ambivalence on foreign policy issues is mirrored in the attitudes of its politicians in Washington. Congress may have difficulty passing budgets from this president, and Mr. Obama may have difficulty ordering breakfast without thunderous criticism 鈥� French toast? Really? 鈥� but when it comes to foreign policy, there really isn鈥檛 much difference between Republicans and Democrats, according to a study by Joshua Busby, Jonathan Monten, and William Inboden in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.

In a survey of Republicans and Democrats who have served in the White House, there was broad agreement over some of the most contentious issues of the past decade, including multilateralism, nuclear nonproliferation, and human rights. The differences came down to just how to carry out these basic principles.

As the authors say, this broad consensus is positive for the US.

Dictator鈥檚 learning curve

It鈥檚 been noted, in this column and elsewhere, that the past two years have not been kind to dictators. Street protests, cellphones, Facebook, Sacha Baron Cohen, and well-armed rebel groups have made the world a much less caring place for the likes of Muammar Qaddafi et al.

But 海角大神 Caryl, in this week鈥檚 Foreign Policy magazine, says it鈥檚 too early to write off dictators, just because of the missteps of a few. In a review of Will Dobson鈥檚 new book, 鈥淭he Dictator鈥檚 Learning Curve,鈥� Mr. Caryl says dictators are not as loopy as they look.

Optimism explained

The late columnist and self-described cynic H. L. Mencken once wrote that an optimist is 鈥渟imply a pessimist with no job experience.鈥� Scientists have long thought that predisposition to look positively or negatively on the world depended on experience, and could be tied up with the human instinct for survival.

But if your world view is starting to sour 鈥� either because of electoral politics, or strained loyalties for an absolutely hopeless baseball team 鈥� take a quick look at an interview with Elaine Fox, author of 鈥淩ainy Brain, Sunny Brain,鈥� by the New Scientist鈥檚 contributor Catherine de Lange. Clearly, optimists and pessimists see the world through different eyes, Ms. Fox says, with the former overlooking negative signals around them and pessimists obsessing about those same signals.

Here鈥檚 one trait that could be either powerful or useless, depending on your perspective: Optimists are more persistent.

An optimist who doesn鈥檛 give up: there鈥檚 something to give one hope.