Starbucks liberalism (??)

There’s something about writing about Starbucks that apparently renders me incapable of determining whether the writer is being satirical or straight (click here for an earlier example). Will someone please tell the hardworking staff here at danieldrezner.com whether or not Shadi Hamid is trying to be funny in these paragraphs? There is something rather amusing ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

There's something about writing about Starbucks that apparently renders me incapable of determining whether the writer is being satirical or straight (click here for an earlier example). Will someone please tell the hardworking staff here at danieldrezner.com whether or not Shadi Hamid is trying to be funny in these paragraphs? There is something rather amusing (and self-indulgent) about ?coffee-cup liberalism,? but at the end of the day, I kind of like it. Let?s export it. Oh yea, we?re already doing that. If you weren?t aware, Starbucks is in the process of colonizing Egypt. I can?t say that this is a bad thing, particularly as there is a new theory emerging in the political science literature called the ?Starbucks peace theory" ? i.e. countries with Starbucks don?t go to war with each other. So, instead of invading the Iranians, why don?t we force a Starbucks store in Tehran down their throats? That can be our stick, until we think of a carrot (or is it the other way around?). Back to the original point. Your local Starbucks store is a fun place to spend time in with your laptop. If you spend enough time there, you begin to form a community of people endlessly peering with quizzical stares at their laptop screen while indulging in an exceedingly expensive coffee concoction of some sort, and you make lifelong friends (on one of those big six-person tables with the two blue lamps?yeah, you know what I?m talking about). This is liberalism at its best, and I?d very much like to see us impose it on other people. Why not?UPDATE: I'm glad too see that others are confused by Starbucks.

There’s something about writing about Starbucks that apparently renders me incapable of determining whether the writer is being satirical or straight (click here for an earlier example). Will someone please tell the hardworking staff here at danieldrezner.com whether or not Shadi Hamid is trying to be funny in these paragraphs?

There is something rather amusing (and self-indulgent) about ?coffee-cup liberalism,? but at the end of the day, I kind of like it. Let?s export it. Oh yea, we?re already doing that. If you weren?t aware, Starbucks is in the process of colonizing Egypt. I can?t say that this is a bad thing, particularly as there is a new theory emerging in the political science literature called the ?Starbucks peace theory” ? i.e. countries with Starbucks don?t go to war with each other. So, instead of invading the Iranians, why don?t we force a Starbucks store in Tehran down their throats? That can be our stick, until we think of a carrot (or is it the other way around?). Back to the original point. Your local Starbucks store is a fun place to spend time in with your laptop. If you spend enough time there, you begin to form a community of people endlessly peering with quizzical stares at their laptop screen while indulging in an exceedingly expensive coffee concoction of some sort, and you make lifelong friends (on one of those big six-person tables with the two blue lamps?yeah, you know what I?m talking about). This is liberalism at its best, and I?d very much like to see us impose it on other people. Why not?

UPDATE: I’m glad too see that others are confused by Starbucks.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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