Thinking Citizen Blog — What Is the Greatest Threat to World Peace?

Thinking Citizen Blog — Monday is Foreign Policy Day

Today’s Topic: What Is the Greatest Threat to World Peace?

Is it ignorance? Is it ignorance that results in misunderstanding? Is, in the end, education the answer? Is it in the end up to you? What are you doing about your own ignorance? What should you be doing? Can we help each other? How? How can we be the change that we want to see in the world? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

CONTINUITY IS KEY TO DEPTH OF THOUGHT AND UNDERSTANDING

1. That is why we need a thematic calendar to provide continuity of thought.

2. Infinite complexity requires returning to important topics with regular periodicity.

3. Balancing breadth and depth is no easy task.

NB: Honesty and humility require recognition that all problems are of such infinite depth and breadth that full understanding will always be elusive. Hence the “Foreign Policy Impossibility Theorem” (too many countries, too much history, too many variables).

SO WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL THEMATIC SEQUENCE?

1. In the past I have had series on countries — African, Asian, Latin American, European.

2. At others series on major wars.

3. At others series on statesmen.

NB: Any suggestions as to future thematic sequences?

WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK?

1. Posts on countries have in the past followed a structure that starts with geography, demographics, and economics and proceeds to background history and then recent political events.

2. Any better ideas?

3. When I am at a loss as to what to write about on a given day, I just do my best to provide a summary of the most interesting article I have read lately on a topic related to foreign policy. This usually consists of trying to extract the three main points and providing the three or four best sentences from the article itself making the specific point in question.

NB: Any big or small ideas on mounting an effective strategic campaign against our collective ignorance with respect to foreign policy? Is there a more important question to ask? Here is a link to the last three years of posts organized by theme:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest or most important thing you learned in the last week, month, or year related to foreign policy. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in our life related to foreign policy.

This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is the key to depth of thought. The prospect of imminent publication, like hanging and final exams, concentrates the mind. A useful life long habit.