X is dead

The name George F. Kennan is known to every student of international relations, at least for his long telegramme from Moscow 1947, which was subsequently published in Foreign Affairs, signed by "X". This article was one of the most influential pieces of political analysis in the last century. In it, the concept of containment of Soviet expansionism was described. This concept means in essence that while neither reasonable negotiation nor outright confrontation are options, the USSR's expansionism should be opposed in all quarters, letting the Soviets' system's inherent instability run its course. The collapse of the USSR 32 years later proved the ingeniousness of the concept.

To commemorate the passing on Thursday of George Kennan, one of the most important foreign-policy thinkers of the twentieth century, Foreign Affairs has made available a comprehensive selection of his writings from this magazine. Covering a span of 50 years, the selections begin with the seminal "X" article of 1947, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct."

Un long dimanche ...

Today was the perfect day to go see Un long dimanche de fiançailles - it is Sunday and the first day of spring with spring still not being quite here just yet. On my way home, I had time to leisurely reflect on the film over one of Bach's French Suites, performed by Glenn Gould.

The movie is a story of detection, built on a love story which is set against the gruesome background of the trenches of the Great War. The storyline is handled brilliantly, with just a touch of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot - in fact, even the detective is there. The production is extraordinary - although it blatantly romaticises 1920ies France, it does do so in a stylish and sensitive way with warm sepia tones everywhere. Even the war scenes, despite of not being romanticised, are broken to us relatively gently by narration. And it wouldn't be a Warner production without a happy ending ...

However, there is one issue that I am not comfortable with. I doubt whether it is in good taste to construct a harmonic, romantic love story directly on the tombs of the madness of WWI. Yet, being Swiss and, to my knowledge, not having lost any family members in any of the wars of the last century, I must abstain from passing judgement on this matter. If the movie is acceptable in France & Germany alike, then I am more than happy to see the issue behind us.

Onyx

Very interesting - as well as disturbing! This article (German) points us to project Onyx, an electronic eavesdropping scheme comparable to Echelon, but operated by the Swiss Department of Defence (and Sport!). There's a couple of problems with this: 1) Cost control has gone completely haywire, 2) control procedures are inadequate, and 3) observance of civil rights is virtually impossible to enforce.

Common sense might add another issue: If even the biggest boys' toys do not work properly, why should we bother to spend hundreds of millions on toys which are by necessity less effective? If you are in the business of having substantial strategic operations abroad, it makes sense to collect appropriate intelligence. If you are not (as we are), it does not. Period.

Here is last year's report (German) by the Audit Committee of Parliament.

Winter's final dawn

OK, I admit, I did play around with the controls, but just a little bit.

Swiss cheekiness

Things are definitely looking up around here! Spring is in the air (actually, it's going to be official in 12 minutes' time!), a confident, if slightly crazy young ice king is world champion, Switzerland doesn't have a military budget for the first time since 1848 and thus has taken the first real step towards breaking Konkordanz (more are to follow), and it looks like we're finally going to get rid of this state airliner of ours - and that is accompanied by some cheeky advertisment!(On the left, there's an ad by Swiss, but the one on the right is by Denner, a Swiss retailer, claiming that Swiss is not the only bargain on shelves.) Personally, I would have preferred a transaction involving BA / Oneworld instead of Lufthansa, but that looks improbable now. Here's what Swiss Travelclub tells me in response to my email (note the time!):

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lufthansa

Discussion
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Effie Baumann) - 20.03.2005 00:31
Sehr geehrter Herr Dreyer,

vielen Dank für Ihre E-Mail.

Wir danken Ihnen für Ihr Feedback. Wie Sie wahrscheinlich selbst in den Medien verfolgt haben, können wir Ihnen immernoch keine konkreten Informationen über das Projekt "Lufthansa" geben.

Die Verhandlungen sind auf Hochtouren, bestätigt und unterschrieben ist jedoch noch nichts.

Die Zukunft ist für uns alle ein bisschen ungewiss, wir hoffen jedoch, dass wir Ihre langjährige Treue auch weiterhin geniessen dürfen und Ihnen im Gegenzug einen erstklassigen Service bieten können.

Sobald wir über genauere Informationen verfügen, werden Sie vom Swiss TravelClub Gold Management persönlich kontaktiert.

Member (Christian Dreyer) - 11.03.2005 11:49
Gerade lese ich die Gerüchte über eine zweite Verhandlungsrunde mit Lufthansa bezüglich Verkauf von Swiss an Lufthansa. Als treuer Kunde und STC Gold Mitglied möchte ich hier anmerken, dass ich BA sehr stark vorziehen würde. Schade, dass die seinerzeitige Uebung aus von aussen nicht nachvollziehbaren Gründen abgebrochen worden ist!

Freundlich grüsst
Christian Dreyer

24 all over again!

No, it's not what you might think: I am not having a premature second coming of spring or my midlife crisis, thank you very much!

Rather, thanks to Azureus and btefnet, I am up to date with 24, season 4! As always, I cannot wait to see the next episode! It's fun to see old acquaintances pop up again all of a sudden. The PC statement with the two middle eastern gun store owning brothers supporting our heroes was a little blunt, though. Also, some patterns are beginning to be obviously recurring. I am not saying that it's boring - far from it! But I guess a potential season 5 might become tedious.

Blogger meeting

Just back from my first ever real world blogger meeting in Basle. There was a motley crowd of some 20 people from all over the place (Switzerland, that is) and lots of interesting conversations & stuff. I even learned what beercasting is; and no, it's not throwing around jugs of beer! We're actually expecting a case in point to be published here! Some people were also taking pictures, so I might link to them later on.

P.S. As promised, here are a few pictures.

Provincialism

In today's BaZ, there is a very worthwhile denkstück (in German, by subscription or pdf) on provincialism. I am interested in the matter on two accounts: 1. I live in (the vicinity of) Basle, and 2. I am on the record for saying that Basle is provincial because she's constantly worried about being just that.

Mr. Sommer posits, in short, that smallish places like Basle tend to develop a P trauma, the feeling to be forgotten by the world. The only way out of that trauma is either by imitation of metropolis or by ignoring it. He proposes a third way, however: To be aware of one's marginality (Randständigkeit) and take that as a chance to critically and creatively observe what happens in "the centre" - or even to take a sharp counterpoint to it. He quotes important characters who did just that in Basle: Jacob Burckhardt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Overbeck. You can see the whole picture better from a distance.

This is a very interesting attitude, and one that I entirely support, despite of its apparent contradiction to my statement. My statement does nothing but question the P trauma and implicitly advocates for more confidence in our "marginal" position, beyond imitation & ignorance. The trouble with the third way is that its alternatives do not require what is often in short supply: the capacity for reflection & debate.

An eternity of boredom?

"I was bored a lot during my lifetime. And my life has been very long already." Thus goes Swiss author Peter Bichsel, who is turning 70 next week (still below average life expectancy). You should know that the German word for boredom is Langeweile, which translates directly into long duration, so this gets another layer of double entendre.

But the funnest part of his truly credible, for otherwise quite boring interview (his voice is monotonous & he speaks rather languidly), was his explanation for not being convinced by the religious concept of life after death: "An eternity of boredom? I can do without that." Nice! One wonders what might be less boring - heaven or hell?

Dynamik des Radikalismus

Wieder einmal ein grossartiger Aufsatz zum Thema Islam in der NZZ. Meine Einschätzung dürfte zu einem nicht geringen Teil darauf beruhen, dass der Autor (wie ich) der Meinung ist, dass der islamische Radikalismus zu einem guten Teil mit der wörtlichen Interpretation des Koran sowie der Todesstrafe für Apostasie im Zusammenhang steht.

Leider dürfte auch dieser Artikel nur heute öffentlich zur Verfügung stehen, also beeilt Euch mit der Lektüre!