Talk:John Mearsheimer/Archives/2014/June

Iraq war
Is it really necessary to state that he is opposed to the Iraq war in the initial paragraph of the article? Trojan traveler 01:48, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

China prediction
Is his prediction, made in 1991, that China will surpass the United States economically by 2020 still viable?

-G —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.158.83 (talk) 23:42, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Vietnam
Question: The first paragraph says he was faced with the choice of West Point or Vietnam as an infantryman, and chose West Point. Is there a source for this? It has the sound of an accusation, that the sole reason he went to West Point was to get out of military service. Did he say this himself, or is it somebody else's characterization? Unless it's his own statement, it probably shouldn't be there. Really, unless it's sourced it shouldn't be there. --Mackan 6 September 2006

WSJ
The WSJ did not refute the arguments in Mearsheimer's working paper. It merely responded - rather poorly I might add - to some of them. I've moved the external link to "external links" and changed refutes" to "response." If you have a problem with this edit please respond to this message before reverting to an earlier version. -V-

Calling Mearsheimer an anti-Semite is just as valid as calling Darwin an anti-Semite; both of their works might have been used as justification by bigots and supremacists, but that doesn't make them bigots. ApathyInternational

Removed partial summary of "Lobby" paper
"The authors describe the activities that the pro-Israel Lobby undertakes to influence US foreign policy, and argue that this Lobby has shaped and controlled American foreign policy to suit the interests of Israel, even when it harmed US interests. The Kennedy School of Government removed its logo from this highly controversial paper, with the support of Walt ; according to the school "the only purpose of that removal was to end public confusion; it was not intended, contrary to some interpretations, to send any signal that the school was also 'distancing' itself from one of its senior professors." Several Harvard colleagues of Walt have written critical responses to the paper. Elements of the paper have been described as anti-Semitic.  Mearsheimer has responded to charges of anti-Semitism by saying "We said in our paper that anyone who criticizes Israel or America's relationship with Israel is almost sure to be called an anti-Semite and have his or her scholarship impugned, and, of course, that is what we see happening to us." "

I removed the above from the main article page and replaced it with a very brief NPOV summary and a pointer to the article covering the "lobby" paper. The above summary is very incomplete and doesn't mention David Duke's involvement nor does it mention the response to the criticism -- its' just incomplete and there is no need to duplicate the main article here anyways. --LuckyLittleGrasshopper 02:40, 13 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Lucky did exactly the right thing. 204.210.35.48 13:07, 14 April 2006 (UTC)


 * The "brief NPOV summary" is good, but somewhat confusing given that it omits the actual subject matter of the controversy, which I will include to further clarify.AVR2012 (talk) 08:35, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

messed up references
The reference given for China seems to be instead about Iraq, and this reference occurs also in the External Links section. Reference formats are inconsistent, with several different styles and different levels of completeness.204.210.35.48 21:51, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

On top of that, the Alex Safian link under Reference doesn't seem to be working properly but the main point is, it seems out of place there. It certainly isn't a source of Reference on the subject but rather a criticism of the subject. If it is of any interest to readers, perhaps it should be moved to External Links. --219.95.25.245 10:01, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

"Mearsheimer" a Jewish surname?
"Mearsheimer" sounds Jewish - if he is Jewish, has the media commented on this in light of the allegations of John being anti-Semetic?


 * There are allegations in the media that the Mearsheimer-Walt paper has anti-Semitic overtones, but not that the authors themselves are anti-Semitic. Don't you think there is a difference? Or does saying something that can be construed as anti-Semitic automatically entail that the speaker must be anti-Semitic? 204.210.35.48 00:34, 5 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I've been googling without success to find out whether Mearsheimer is himself Jewish; while it is possible to be both Jewish and anti-Semitic, if Mearsheimer were Jewish it would make some criticisms of Walt and Mearsheimer's work more far-fetched, particularly the idea that they equate being Jewish with being part of the Israel lobby. Nareek (talk) 17:41, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

The surname is German, he was raised a Catholic. --Hydeparkblvd (talk) 22:26, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

There is much ignorance on the topic of "Jewish surnames". Mearsheimer is indeed a very German name. Many Jews have German names not vice versa. Ashkenazi Jews didn't have surnames at all until the 18th century, when the Prussians and Austrians mandated that Jews living under their rule adopt a surname. Not surprisingly, Jews adopted names similar to or the same as their neighbors. Names with -stein, -berg, -burg, -heimer, -thal, -baum, etc. are all German or German-inspired names. Vdjj1960 (talk)  1:27, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The Israel Lobby Paper
I think there is too much emphasis on that paper being given in this subject entry. Professor Mearsheimer is one of the leading scholar of International Relations of our time. Would it not be proper to give his other works equal attention? --219.95.25.168 10:44, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Agree. Mearsheimer's work was well known and respected for over 2 decades prior to this paper being published.--csloat 08:48, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Double Agreed. There is more text devoted to hysterical detractrors that to his biography.


 * Triple Agreed :). Perhaps sections of this bio article should be siphoned off to an article on the "controversial" paper itself. --Kitrus 03:40, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Quadruple agreed!!! Mearsheimer is the father of offensive neorealism and nearly all of the academic fame he has garnered has come from The Tragedy of Great Power Politics and its forerunner articles. Mearsheimer is the heir to the neorealist throne once held by Kenneth Waltz. By mentioning the Jewish Lobby article and not his book, Mearsheimer looks more like a pundit than the superstar theorist that he is. --User: Justin Eckl 16:32, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Perhaps someone can address this? A lot of the nonsense back and forth about the Jewish lobby article should be simply deleted, and someone should include at least a paragraph or two about his earlier work. csloat 20:19, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:JJM07.jpg
Image:JJM07.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 05:29, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Is there a standard for including chair names in professors names in the lead section?
I have been trying to look at other bios. Thank you. --70.181.45.138 (talk) 04:28, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Prediction that Germany would conquer Europe after the Cold War
The current article is misleading. Mearsheimer predicted in 1990 that, if the US and the USSR both left Europe, Europe would have an arms race and possible war. Since the condition has yet to be fulfilled, given the continuing presence of US forces in Europe, the prediction has yet to falsified or proven correct. He also claimed that Germany was likely to become aggressive again in a Europe without Soviet or American forces, and without nuclear weapons of its own, but the last two conditions are not mentioned in the article. I intend to rewrite this with citations that include page numbers rather than links to 50 page essays with no quotations or page numbers.Lysine23 (talk) 03:05, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

unsourced chicago info
i agree with academic38 in question why this sentence should be included in the article

"Mearsheimer has acquired some renown among the University of Chicago community for his colorful language and idiomatic speech in his classes and lectures. He famously refers to the United States as "Uncle Sugar", the Soviet Union as "the Bear". countries or territories as "real estate", and planet Earth as "God's little green acre." He also frequently characterizes one-sided international conflicts as "Bambi versus Godzilla.""Italic text

it is unsourced and i cant seem to find anything on google about it, also it seems like a strange personal attack on him.

what do u guys think? Not Signed by: User:123465421jhytwretpo98721654


 * Obviously silly vandalism. Note that while some ref is better than none, it's best to look for secondary sources describing the person's views and not do use a lot of primary sources. CarolMooreDC 05:52, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Jewish author?
Is this gentleman Jewish? His name sounds quite Jewish to me, but I cannot find any source online that confirms this.--Kazemita1 (talk) 05:20, 24 March 2012 (UTC)
 * If he was, I'm sure you'd find hundreds of smears of him as a "Self-hating Jew" so I assume he is not. CarolMooreDC 05:07, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

No 'Criticism' Section? WTF!
This character is Highly Controversial.. at least. Yet unlike virtually every author/'scholar' of such Polarized opiniion, there is 'No Criticism' section. No wonder Wiki and CAMERA are at odds; this website is Incredibly Unfair. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:2000:FFC0:7A:317E:E459:92FA:5D1D (talk) 17:02, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

Noted Jon Chait's reply
I wanted to include the list of antisemitic quotes in Atzmon's book from hurryupharry, but that is a blocked page (as it is a blog?), which includes far more damning quotes from Atzmon's book.174.44.174.192 (talk) 08:53, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * If you look at the top of the article you will see that it is about John Mearsheimer‎, not Atzmon, so including a list of Atzmon quotes in this article is not something that should happen whether you want it or not.  Sean.hoyland  - talk 10:08, 18 November 2013 (UTC)