Why the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review is depressing →

So what resources can the State Department throw at a problem? The bottom of page nine in the QDDR stood out for me:
In an era of diffuse and networked power, and with federal funding constrained, our diplomats and development professionals must focus on strengthening partnerships with civil society, citizen movements, faith leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, and others who share our interests and values. For example, partnerships with mayors will be increasingly important, as nearly 60 percent of the world’s population will live in urban environments by 2030...
Great googli moogli, that’s a lot of partnerships for a lot of variegated issues. And “partner” is the word that is shot through this QDDR (though it’s used even more frequently in the 2010 QDDR). In essence, Foggy Bottom is acknowledging that in a world of constrained funding, the best it can do is leverage its meager resources by acting as a focal point for sub-state and non-state actors.
The State Department is hardly the only agency to find itself with strict budget constraints. And as Beauchamp notes, “A massive amount of government work involves identifying huge problems … and then trying to implement a few small-bore strategies to chip away at the big problem.” That’s certainly what the QDDR is designed to do. But even if it was a pie-in-the-sky exercise, it would be interesting to hear what the State Department could do with more resources.

The quiet global crisis that scares the State Department →

A big new State Department assessment has identified a major threat to global security. It's not ISIS or Vladimir Putin. It's not a rickety global economy or climate change or the threat of global pandemics.
Instead, the report argues, these individual problems are symptoms of a much bigger issue — namely, a slow breakdown in global governance. Many of the institutions that were created in the past century to deal with economic and security risks around the world, such as the UN and IMF, may no longer be adequate to the task.

But they do exist: they may be a foundation or model for what we need next.

Fracking Chemicals Detected in Pennsylvania Drinking Water →

One study, three homes. Still...

“This is the first case published with a complete story showing organic compounds attributed to shale gas development found in a homeowner’s well,” said Susan Brantley, one of the study’s authors and a geoscientist from Pennsylvania State University.
The industry has long maintained that because fracking occurs thousands of feet below drinking-water aquifers, the drilling chemicals that are injected to break up rocks and release the gas trapped there pose no risk. In this study, the researchers note that the contamination may have stemmed from a lack of integrity in the drill wells and not from the actual fracking process far below. The industry criticized the new study, saying that it provided no proof that the chemical came from a nearby well.

Our Police Union Problem →

FOR decades now, conservatives have pressed the case that public sector unions do not serve the common good.
The argument is philosophical and practical at once...
...
In an irony typical of politics, then, the right’s intellectual critique of public-sector unions is illustrated by the ease with which police unions have bridled and ridden actual right-wing politicians. Which in turn has left those unions in a politically enviable position, insulated from any real pressure to reform.
...
The cases from all over the country where unions and arbitration boards have reinstated abusive cops make for an extraordinary and depressing litany. Baltimore is no exception. Last fall, The Baltimore Sun reported on the police commissioner’s struggle to negotiate enough authority to quickly remove and punish his own cops, and the union’s resistance to swift action and real oversight persists.

In defense of the Mommy Track →

The result of rejecting the Mommy Track for the past quarter-century has been an exodus of highly qualified mothers from the workplace for some period of time, a transition by many women into less-demanding career paths, and a dramatic decline in the trajectory of their earnings.
Here is what we know in 2015:
There is abundant research that shows having more women in the top leadership and governance positions of business and other professions correlates with higher performance for both the business and the economy. At the same time, there is widespread consternation on how to achieve this goal. Progress toward this end has been far slower than almost anyone imagined. In 1989, with women pouring out of the top business and law schools and already earning the majority of the nation's bachelor's degrees, it would have been almost impossible to imagine that a mere 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies would be headed by a women more than 25 years later.

Government Spy Powers Face Major Test in Congress →

The government’s expiring ability to sweep up the phone and email records of millions of Americans faces a test Thursday, as a key House panel will vote on a bipartisan plan to rework the practice.
The House Judiciary Committee will debate a new measure allowing the bulk collection of personal records by the National Security Agency to “sunset” at the end of May. The bulk collection would be replaced by a new system that allows the government to seek data on specific individuals—or potentially specific businesses—but only after they argue the need before a secret court.
To obtain telephone, email, or related data, the government must designate a “specific selection term,” such as an email address or telephone number, that the government can prove is linked to a threat. It would no longer be able to sweep up millions of records and then cull through the ones it has for specific matches.
The bill would also require—for the first time—that certain legal opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court become declassified. This measure is meant in part to prevent the government from winning controversial and secret legal opinions that expand intelligence programs. It also would make it easier for companies to challenge gag orders the government often obtains when it demands information through subpoena-like “National Security Letters,” known as NSLs.