‘We Kill People Based on Metadata’ by David Cole. Supporters of the National Security Agency inevitably defend its sweeping collection of phone and Internet records on the ground that it is only collecting so-called “metadata”—who you call, when you call, how long you talk.
Since this does not include the actual content of the communications, the threat to privacy is said to be negligible. That argument is profoundly misleading. Of course knowing the content of a call can be crucial to establishing a particular threat. Democratic peace theory. Democratic peace theory (or simply the "democratic peace") is a theory which posits that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies.[1] In contrast to theories explaining war engagement, it is a "Theory of Peace" outlining motives that dissuade state-sponsored violence.[2] Some theorists prefer terms such as "mutual democratic pacifism"[3] or "inter-democracy nonaggression hypothesis" so as to clarify that a state of peace is not singular to democracies, but rather that it is easily sustained between democratic nations.[4] Among proponents of the Democratic Peace Theory, several factors are held as motivating peace between liberal states: Those who dispute this theory often do so on grounds that it conflates correlation with causation, and that the academic definitions of 'democracy' and 'war' can be manipulated so as to manufacture an artificial trend.
Foreign Policy. Democracy in U.S. Security Strategy.
Immigration. Civil Rights. Transparency. Elections. Oppression.