Hapa boys are good things

Dominique was visiting! I had a mad crush on Dominique my freshman year. Dominique Ture. His father is French, his mother is Hong Kong Chinese, he grew up in France. Came here as an exchange student in economics but transferred here after a year rather than go back to Paris. He graduated my sophomore year, I think, and has been working in Hong Kong, now working in Macao.

He's visiting because he's probably going to marry another girl who used to live in our dorm. They're still together, even though it's been a long distance relationship for ages. So he's visiting her and looking into coming back to get an MBA.

God, never thought I'd see Dom again. I'm totally over him, too. He's still adorable, but my general experience with hapa boys is that it's a common characteristic *g*. Brings back a whole lot of memories. Lots of people I haven't seen in two years and likely will never see again.

Dillo Day is this weekend. Last time I was on campus for Dillo Day, Zach (Good Mormon Boy) and Joe (his French-American roommate) had a Kool-Aid party in their room for everyone who wasn't getting stoned. And Joe made the Kool-Aid with twice the amount of powder that you're supposed to, so it was really strong. Zach is teaching English in Japan now, and I don't know what Joe is doing, but it's probably something rather grand because he was the darling of the poli sci department.

In other news, weird dreams *again* last night. Britt, I was going to a costume party with you and you had a Marguerite dress and were then excited when someone brought you the monkey-girl costume from Phantom. Somehow this switched over to Mon and Christmas presents that kept accidentally being set on fire, and a cat that was rolling up balls of fur or lint in a sweater. There was a lot more, but this is all I remember.

What is wrong with me? (I know, it's probably stress.)

EU, CFSP, EDSP, EDF, RRF, WEU, NATO, and what in the hell was I thinking?!

Background: I have a paper due tomorrow. I should have been working on it before. But I'm doing it now. US Foreign Policy. Piece of cake, right?

Background: My major interest lies in European integration and its effects on foreign policy, particularly on US relations.

Background: I've been off and on seriously interested in security policy for years.

There are three possible topics:
1) Should the US ratify the International Criminal Court Treaty?
2) Should the US pursue global hegemony?
3) Are 'human rights' universal?

I couldn't care less about human rights. The ICC is a mess and I don't feel like writing about it. I have issues with it beyond major US complaints about sovereignty. How about starting with they haven't decided how to enforce punishment? And that's just one of the major problems that should have been worked out. It would turn into a rant rather than a paper, and that's not good. So, we have hegemony.

Background: I know Arrighi's hegemonic theory like the back of my hand, thanks to a couple classes with Derlugian.

So, hegemony. This ought to be easy. I can write a freakin' book about the US as a declining hegemon and how it ought to act to conserve its power.

I can write a freakin' book. 5 page paper, no more than 6 pages. So I have to seriously limit, and we're allowed to do that, to argue something very specific within the broad question. No problem, we'll talk about embracing multilateralism in terms of security arrangements, since that doesn't require a change of heart for 67 senators. It just requires a new presidential administration.

Again, too broad, so I'll limit it to two areas: Europe and the Middle East. Europe is about multilateral arrangements, new security concerns, and rising powers, the Middle East is about protection of economic interests and the interaction of interests belonging to many countries inside and outside the region. It's still too broad, but I'll deal.

The problem: the paper is to be 5, no more than 6 pages, my TA is Canadian, and his field of study is public opinion. I'm writing along, first page is done in no time, looks great, I just need to find a page for the Arrighi definitions I'm using as background to the issue, I have my thesis, incorporating a preview of my subject areas, and I start writing about Europe. I can skip explanations of NATO. I start a brief summary of CFSP, I'm about to move on, when I realise I forgot something: the WEU.

European security co-operation is convoluted and a pain in the ass. The Western European Union is a security arrangement that exist separately from the EU. The WEU for a long time had members that were not EC member states. Maastricht allowed for use of WEU forces as a European Defence Force, but in the wake of Kosovo, the EU decided it needed a proper Rapid Reaction Force. To this end, Germany has begun professionalising its military and changing the constitution to allow deployment of forces outside of Germany. Two months ago, the European Parliament produced a report asking for a resolution to call for major integration of defence architecture in order to project power in the same manner as the US in direct competition with the US.

Grand stuff. Complicated stuff. I have two pages in which to explain to what extent ESDP should be supported, the arguments against it, the reason I think we don't have a choice (namely, they're going to do it anyway, especially because Bush scares them and rightly so), and oh yes, because my TA doesn't already know this stuff, what the hell ESDP *is*. This is five pages in itself, but if I don't talk about something else, it will look like I twisted my paper into discussing EU foreign policy rather than US foreign policy.

What was I thinking? Where are my copies of Dinan and Lundestad when I need them? At home, of course. Must brave the library.