Easily the greatest thing about writing for this site is the audience -- there are tons of you! It's a privilege and a pleasure to write for a tremendous readership, in volume but also in knowledge and engagement with the issues of the day. I've worked hard to live up to that opportunity, but I also know that there are other great, insightful writers out there who don't have this kind of platform. I strongly believe in giving a bigger megaphone to those who deserve it but perhaps aren't yet very well known, especially because that's the kind of perspective that allowed me to come on board here in the first place. So I'm going to make an effort to highlight and recommend emerging voices every few weeks or so, mostly on foreign policy but sometimes other topics as well. Call it my New Year's resolution.
First up is a smart, incisive foreign policy analyst: Matthew Duss. I'm cheating a little bit because he's an Editorial Intern at the American Prospect magazine and a contributor at it's blog, TAPPED, so he's not exactly languishing in obscurity; still, there's something of a disconnect between the "wonkosphere" and the "netroots", and he's just the kind of writer who helps bridge that gap. My favorite recent piece on his personal blog is this explanation of Sadr's savvy political strategy -- and how it's largely misinterpreted by American observers. Over at TAPPED, this recent piece on how Bush's "democracy agenda" is being completely subverted via US attempts to wrestle the rest of the Middle East into acquiescence with our Iraq policies (Egypt, in this case) -- and the likely eventual blowback -- is also a (quick) must read.
Duss has a Masters in Middle East Studies, and it shows. Add his site to your RSS, check out his stuff at TAPPED, and, most importantly, when you see his name attached to something, know that what he says is trustworthy and accurate. Dems often have a tougher time knowing whom to go to for reliable foreign policy analysis, and it's time we changed that. Duss will be an important voice on these issues for years to come, and you should know who he is. So now you do.
