Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
Transnational Thursday for February 22, 2024
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Notes -
It’s not just warships.
The Jones Act hurt all US shipbuilding.
I’m not saying Dems on average are excited about military spending. But it’s not that Ukraine support has anything to do with that.
The Jones Act really does seem like a massive own-goal, with the potential to ruin the US.
offshore manufacturing and transition to a service economy? OK, controversial decision, but I can see the logic of it. We'll just pay other countries to build stuff for us.
Oh, but we're now required by law to build ships in the US? Despite there being no one left in the US who can actually do that kind of shipbuilding? That's going to be a big problem. It's one giant bottleneck in the entire US economy, and especially its navy.
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