Cinque Terre

My last little jaunt in Europe, for this time, took me and Chloe to Cinque Terre, Italy.

It was hot, but beautiful. Because it is a UNESCO world heritage site, it is protected from a lot of the consumer oriented tourist business that can take over certain areas. It was fun to feel what real Italy is like, surrounded by these 5 small villages and the locals. That said, there were also loads of American tourists, and these young girls who just graduated from high school in California made for what Chloe and I found to be a very amusing time in the hostel. Among other things, they were very concerned about having the tools necessary to straighten their hair perfectly. Everyday.

All of these anecdotes led to a trip full of fun times, great stories, pictures and a suntan to boot.

Sharing a few photos and then heading out to watch one final world cup match here in England: Portugal vs. Spain. Should be a good one!

May Week (In June)

I returned to Cambridge in the middle of "May Week." A long-standing tradition here in Cambridge, May week is the week following the end of exams and the posting of grades on what is historically known as "suicide sunday." They still lock the doors to all the towers on this day in Cambridge, to ensure nobody attempts the traditional throwing-off-of-tower-after-horrible-exam-scores suicide.

Every college hosts a garden party, an event or a ball, or even a combination of the two. The balls are outrageously expensive, and are all night black tie events with endless food, carnival rides, and Trinity and St. John's also include a full 25 minute, choreographed to music, fireworks show that all of Cambridge gets to enjoy.

I chose to travel instead of attend a ball, but I still enjoyed my share of May week. The night of St. John's Ball, Chloe and I went to the Trinity bridge and watched the fireworks over the river... best fireworks show I have ever seen. The next day, we took out a Queens' punt and punted up and down the river, stopping for food and drink on the way and just basking in the Cambridge sun. Following the South African loss to Uruguay (big disappointment for me), and a little dissertation work here and there, I went to the Newnham "High Society" garden party yesterday with Chloe that included a full band playing Sinatra and Glen Miller all afternoon, endless food of the savory and sweet sort, Toni's Ices, giant jenga and best... croquet.

Yes. Refer back to one of my first posts of Cambridge. Starting and leaving on the same note: an excellent game of croquet (and I actually won this time)!

Back to My Roots

*I have been informed that every time I blog post its the equivalent of 10 kilos of words, so I'll try to debrief as concisely as possible...

Over the course of the past couple of weeks I was lucky enough to travel to both my mother's homeland, Norway, as well as the place from where my father's family emigrated to America, Ireland.

I feel lucky to be able to claim both these countries, as they are two of the most beautiful places on earth (no bias here).

In Norway I stayed in Bergen for 4 days where we celebrated my aunt's 70th birthday out in the countryside, close to where the Stromme family originally came from. We also walked over the mountain from Bergen in to Hagebyen, got a boat trip with Grand Lady into the city again, and went swimming in the North Sea.

After a fun-filled, packed days in Bergen we took a train over to Oslo where we were greeted with a boat ride on the Oslo Fjord, and the company of good family friends (And food!)

Rushing by cab, bus, airplane, bus, then cab again, I finally made it (After a few hours), to Belfast, Ireland where I met up with three of my Truman friends who are studying on Marshall Scholarships for a year over there.

After a day touring the historic Belfast, going to St. George's Market and watching the US tie with England in the World Cup (we watched at the US consulate where half time consisted of prime rib, bbq wings and coleslaw -- all american meal), we packed up our rental car and drove northward.

We stopped several times along the way including to go Coasteering (a sport that involves wet suits, rocky coastlines, bouldering, cliff jumping and swimming), visit Giant's Causeway, and our last stop, Slieve League (the highest Marine cliffs in Europe!)

It was all absolutely beautiful, and it was equally enriching to be surrounded by such dear friends and family throughout the entire trip. What a perfect way to head into the final weeks I have here in Europe!

Oxford Town

Their Bridge of Sighs is over a road instead of a river..

The benefits of living in England -- nothing is much more than a bus ride away. Granted, some bus rides are longer than others. The one to Oxford: 3 hours.
So to Oxford I went on Tuesday with my housemate Julia who was looking for housing. While she puttered around from flat to flat looking for the right place, I had a chance to catch up with some of my dear Truman friends.

First I met up with Shad who showed me St. John's College, Turf Tavern (Where Bill Clinton "did not inhale"), All Soul's College (Featured in this article), the lamp post that inspired C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia series and even the Divinity School, aka Harry Potter's Hospital.
After the sightseeing we stopped in at the Oldest Coffee House in England, for a proper cup of tea and then took a walk through Christ Church meadow.

Later on, I met up with Kurt for lunch at his college, Green Templeton, which is a beautiful, and also relatively quiet, grad-only college. We had lunch there (the food is the best college food I have experienced, as well as the cheapest), and then headed to the tea lounge upstairs afterwords for another proper cup of tea.

Oxford is beautiful, and although I do love seeing new places, the highlight of this trip was catching up with old friends. It has been a long time since I had a real conversation concerning American politics, which was so refreshing, and it was also exciting to hear all that both Shad and Kurt have been up to in the past year and their plans for the upcoming year and future. They are definitely two incredibly brilliant people who I am lucky to have as friends.

Mr. Rhodes Scholar/ All Souls College


With Kurt at Green Templeton / The Meadows


The Lamp Post/ Harry Potter


...enough said. / Rhodes House Gardens

Memorial Day with SACEUR

Leland, Zach, Captain Morales, Jon, Jim and Brady

Happy Memorial Day to all of you in the States who celebrated yesterday. Although a "Bank Holiday" here in England, they do not specify it as any particularly special day. Despite that, the Americans here, particularly those in the military, did a good job of commemorating this special day anyway.

First, my friend Jon, a fellow IR Mphil and a West Point alum, had the opportunity to lay a wreath at the American Military Cemetery just outside of Cambridge. His grandfather flew during WWII and was stationed just in this area side by side with the RAF. Yesterday they laid 100 wreaths at the cemetery and I think it was very special that even so far from home, there was time taken out of our day-to-day lives to recognize the sacrifices of generations past and present.

Additionally, yesterday the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe (SACEUR, often pronounced Saucer), Adm. James G. Stavridis, came to Cambridge for the day. Although invited by the Gates Scholarship Foundation, all of the West Point, Annapolis and Air Force grads were also invited to join in the day's activities, and I was also lucky enough to be invited to join the group.

He first gave a talk on NATO in the 21st Century, looking first at challenges but then also at the successes of this alliance whose GDP, with the US and EU combined, is approximately 31 trillion dollars. As he said, its the most solid of alliances. For me the talk was particularly engaging as he spoke directly on my dissertation topic: the soft and hard power balance. As he recognized at the end of his talk, approximately 95% of what he talked about were actually soft power strategies from Afghanistan to Russia and Somalia. His line was optimistic regarding Afghanistan although he also recognized the steep mountain ahead still to climb. At one point he said, and repeated for emphasis, "In Afghanistan we will not deliver security from the barrel of a gun." Regarding Russia, he talked about looking for in-roads for diplomacy, and mentioned the allies getting together in Red Square recently to commemorate the WWII victory. Opposed to the time when I found myself working at NATO, the talk now seems much more about winning friends and diplomacy over asserting military force.

Additionally, and perhaps one of the most notable points that he made, was his emphasis on the need for young Americans to learn at least a second language, if not a third. He said that language was the key to understanding another person's life and culture, and if we are to keep friends (and win more) in this world, we need to make sure our young Americans are demonstrating an ability to engage on that level. He also emphasized the need to read -- everything from history to fiction -- so that (and in this he particularly directed his comments to the service men and women) when sent out in the world, there is an understanding of the perspectives of society on a global level from the academic to the pop culture.

After the talk I was lucky enough to join the group for a formal dinner with SACEUR. It was a casual event, in that there were no formal speeches, and during the course of the evening I met many interesting individuals, from the SACEUR's right-hand-man, to General Petraeus' new speech writer (who happens to be a woman, around my age, who just finished a Masters with an emphasis on human security).


The IR Crew - Jim, Brady and Jon

Although at moments I felt out of place, that I was one of only a handful of individuals without a formal uniform in the room, I also feel fortunate that I could be part of this event and a dialog that requires both military and civilian perspectives alike. Being thousands of miles away from home on Memorial Day, it was definitely a perfect substitute for this very special day.

The Moon is Down

Today I took a day off from dissertation-writing to meet my friend Terry for lunch, a mentor to me who actually sat on my Truman interview panel. Because she is a bit more of a local than I am, she offered some recommendations of things to do and see in London that I otherwise may have never known about.

One of these places was Daunt Bookshop on Marylebone High Street. Although it carries all sorts of literature, it is most famous for being a travel bookshop. But do not let that fool you -- it is by no means any ordinary bookshop. Organized by region, then country (and even by American States!), they cover the globe with not only travel guides, but literature that is written by authors native to the country/region, fiction and non-fiction that is set in the region, or likewise that is about the place. It is a most brilliant way to set up a bookshop, and as a result I happened upon quite the treasure.

Unbeknownst to many, John Steinbeck (yes, THE Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, James Dean, Steinbeck), wrote propaganda during WWII. He worked for two different agencies which eventually evolved into the CIA.

Why does this matter? Well, as I was browsing I "happened" upon the "Norway" section of the bookstore. Rather small and for the most part, predictable. There was Hamsun's Hunger, Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter, and, of course, all the Ibsen you would ever want to get your hands on. Tucked away in between which are (and rightfully so) the best known authors to come out of Norway, was this little novella by John Steinbeck.

I picked it up, confused but curious as to what Steinbeck's connection would be with Norway. The book, entitled, The Moon is Down (title taken from the 2nd act of Shakespeare's Macbeth), is a story of a North European country being invaded and occupied, and the silent but soon powerful anger and resentment that push the local people to a resistance. In effect, it is the story of Germany's invasion of Norway.

Written during the war, however, the piece was written as propaganda. Interestingly, in America the story received a great deal of criticism because Steinbeck humanized the enemy soldiers rather than simply portraying them as horrible occupiers. On the other hand, in Europe the piece immediately became popular and formative for the resistance movements. In the introduction it states, "It never occurred to them [The Europeans] that the novel was sympathetic to their enemy. In fact, they regarded it as far more effective than the prevailing formula propaganda, which struck them as comical because it was so absurdly exaggerated."

The stories, too, of how this piece of fiction was reproduced and smuggled from Sweden to Norway in everything from airplanes, to sleds and rail cars, as well as its spread to Denmark, the Netherlands and France, is astounding. Steinbeck, thousands of miles away in America, effectively caught the mood of the citizens opposing the German occupation. According to one Norwegian, the book was "the epic of the Norwegian underground."

I eagerly picked up the book, bought it, and am currently ripping through its mere 112 pages (imagining what it would have been like in thin tissue-paper pamphlet form, as it was when smuggled from Sweden and across the border).

Although Steinbeck again was successful in his writing of this, it is possible that the story behind the story may even be better than the story itself. We shall see.

The Other Perspective

So I am in the midst.. really the heart.. of writing my dissertation (as they call it here).
It is really coming along and I think I am well beyond my half-way point which is very exciting.
Writing on Afghanistan is difficult, though, because of how current it is and how things keep changing on the ground.
I tried to manage this by focusing in on the civil-military partnership in Afghanistan which, although not static, has followed a relatively consistent trend over the past eight years, or at least until the McChrystal Assessment last fall which actually doubled the number of civilians on the ground. ("Doubled" may be misleading. That means, 500 - 1,000 which is actually still nothing in a country of 32 million).

My paper, in an attempt also to keep it focused, has accepted the policy in Afghanistan as it is and does not attempt to critique whether or not we SHOULD be there per se, but rather if what we are doing there in terms of Civil-Military work really transcends the unique, non-linear nature of the war.

Talking to a friend of mine the other day who also happens to be a Marine, he brought my attention to a story from last fall when a former Marine, and then later Foreign Service Officer, resigned in protest to the war. In a lot of ways Matt Hoh was the ideal man for Afghanistan; he had been in the military and then civil service, and thus brought both perspectives to his work. His assessment of what was taking place, however, was not quite what Washington had maybe hoped for. Although perhaps a bit of a bleak outlook on Afghanistan, reading this letter was one of those moments in my research where I just felt physically stopped. It is not easy to read, and in a lot of ways I wish and hope that he is wrong. At the same time, he so simply yet articulately states his perception of what is going on on the ground, that on a lot of levels it all seems crystal clear.
Regardless of your opinion on the subject, its worth a read.