Getting Serious
Busy writing my previous blog rant, and answering editorial queries and other emails, I missed most of the morning Aspen sessions. I did, however, catch part of the session titled, "Nuclear Proliferation: Armageddon or Balance of Power?" with Jane Harman, Graham Allison, Ashton Carter, and James Woolsey. (Professor Postrel, ever the student of strategy, was there for the whole thing.) What a contrast to last night! The subject was focused, the panelists deeply knowledgeable and thoughtful about the tradeoffs and possible dynamic effects of any given policy course. Nobody was using vague policy pronouncements to make a statement about taste, style, or identity. But, alas, the problem with a serious discussion of a difficult problem, especially one that potentially involves mass fatalities, is that you don't come away feeling that you've found THE solution.