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Christopher Coyne on After War

By Jimbo Ar

I want to start this post by apologizing to the audience for not posting in the last two weeks. However, what I have to share this. It is too important to just let it go. On Thursday February 23, 2008, I attended a book signing of, After War written by Christopher Coyne, at the Institute for American Studies (IAS) in Washington, DC. Christopher Coyne’s event was hosted by the Mercatus Center at GMU.

Coyne is alum of George Mason University. He obtained his Master and PhD degrees from GMU. In that respect Coyne and my self have the pleasure of being thought by Professor Peter Boettke. I know that Coyne’s book is set to be one of the greatest of our age, and adding the emotional connection of being a student of GMU, I knew I had to be at the event. Once we (Astrid, Ian, Bret, Triya, Rossy and I) arrived and joined other GMU students at the IAS. The environment was like being at home. GMU was well represented on that event and yet we met other interesting individuals.

Around 7:30pm Christopher Coyne took the podium and the audience went silent. Coyne staged a flawless performance. Coyne’s speech was clear and defined. He exposed his book in three main categories;

The basics of exporting democracy at gunpoint

Somalia and Haiti cases

The democratic enforcement of Afghanistan and Iraq

Solutions and consequences of exporting democracy for the future.

After Coyne’s speech there was a question-answer time period. During this time I encounter interesting how Coyne is willing to enter in the challenge of doing research in the implication of other factors in this topic. Coyne would like to engage in telling people the influence of international organization in the emancipation of democracy. Coyne expressed his interest in studying other countries which have forced or tried others into democracy.

I think that Coyne’s book is a superb piece of literature that should be read by people in the fields of economics, politics, conflict analysis, peace development, global affairs, government, and sociology. Coyne’s book I must say gives the opportunity to others to engage in further research on the topic of exporting democracy.

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