Links roundup:

-- Over at Crooked Timber, Chris Betram writes about terrorism and the fire-bombings of Dresden and Hamburg.

-- At Left2Right Don Herzog has a series of posts [1][2][3] on equality of opportunity and equality of starting points.

-- Again at Left2Right, Archon Fung writes about a democratic malaise in the United States. Roughly, while many others democracies are experimenting with alternative forms, the US seems to have a strong attachment to its current system and a reluctance to experiment. Fung's post suffers in that his examples of overseas experimentation tend to be primarily at a local level, but there exist national examples: the EU, Israel's experiments with direct election of the prime minister, and discussions of proportional representation in Canada and referendums on it in Ireland. By contrast, the US has not even had a serious national discussion of the electoral college, despite two elections decided by dangerously small margins.

-- Militarism and Why States Believe Foolish Ideas by Stephen Van Evera have, I think, many insights relevant to today's political climate.