Th Indian Ocean Bad Rap on The Day the The Long Dance: WILSON Nexus the Schools TV Died Arab–Israeli Peace The WILSON QUARTERLY SURVEYING THE WORLD OF IDEAS QUARTERLY INFRASTRUCTURE BACKBONE Infrastructure for America’s Future BY BRUCE SEELY, JOEL GARREAU, ALAN WEISMAN S i 2008 V l 32 N 2 SPRING 2008 $6.95 http://mitpressjournals.org/wpj “The best policy journal in the country.” Lewis Lapham, Editor, Harper’s Magazine “The real intellectual competition for Foreign Affairs.” Columbia Journalism Review “I greatly value World Policy Journal for its independent and fresh articles, for its frequent skepticism about conventional wisdom.” Robert B. Silvers, Editor, New York Review of Books “World Policy Journal can be relied upon for independent, incisive and arresting analysis.” Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The State of Disunion The Amish and the Media Regional Sources of Modern American edited by Diane Zimmerman Umble and Partisanship David L. 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The WILSON QUARTERLY Spring 2008 volume xxxii, number 2 The Wilson Quarterly Published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars FEATURES www.wilsonquarterly.com 50 COVER STORY 21 Indian Ocean Nexus By Martin Walker | From the Mediterranean in 45 BACKBONE ancient times to the Pacific today, sea basins have Infrastructure for America’s Future been the hubs of world trade and power. Now it Jammed highways, chronic brownouts, may be the Indian Ocean’s turn. and other cracks in the national infrastruc- ture have some people dreaming of an The Day the TV Died old-fashioned public-works bonanza. But 29 By Stephen Bates | The coming demise of analog building tomorrow’s infrastructure will TV shows how behind-the-scenes struggles over pose larger political and technological technical standards can shape our lives. challenges than ever before—with potential payoffs to match. 38 The Long Dance: The Secret Is the System | By Bruce Seely Searching for Arab-Israeli Peace Get Smart | By Joel Garreau By Aaron David Miller | A veteran American Built to Last | By Alan Weisman negotiator says he knows a thing or two about fail- ure and finds valuable lessons in his experience. 15 Bad Rap on the Schools By Jay Mathews | The schools don’t get credit ON THE COVER: Lake Roosevelt Bridge, Arizona. when the U.S. economy soars, so why blame The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Woodrow them when it sinks? Wilson International Center for Scholars. 2 Wilson Quarterly ■ Spring 2008 DEPARTMENTS 14 EDITOR’S COMMENT 82 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 101 Good Neighbors, Scientist in Chief, from Seed Bad Times: Echoes of My 16 LETTERS Brainpower and Bankruptcy, from Father’s German Village. 18 FROM THE CENTER Intelligence By Mimi Schwartz 12 FINDINGS The Undersea Frontier, from Wired Reviewed by Aviya Kushner Biofuel Backfire, from 102 The Man Who Sciencexpress Made Lists: IN ESSENCE Love, Death, Madness, and the 85 ARTS & LETTERS our survey of notable Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus. articles from other Scandale Française, from journals and magazines The New Republic By Joshua Kendall Reviewed by Barbara Wallraff 69 FOREIGN POLICY & DEFENSE Bach the Unknowable, from Iraq’s Forgotten Refugees, The Hudson Review 103 Against the Machine: from World Policy Journal 87 OTHER NATIONS Being Human in the Age . The New Infantry Epoch, An Energy Cold War? from Policy of the Electronic Mob from Armed Forces Journal Review, Eurasian Geography and By Lee Siegel Economics, and others Reviewed by David Robinson 71 POLITICS & GOVERNMENT A Tipping Point for GM Foods? A Levant Journal The Court’s “Right” Track, from Economic Development and 104 . from Green Bag Cultural Change By George Seferis Granny Goes Left, from American Strictly Merit, Indian Style, from Reviewed by Christopher Merrill Sociological Review Economic and Political Weekly 105 Train Time: Railroads and 72 ECONOMICS, LABOR & BUSINESS Hanging Out With Hezbollah, the Imminent Reshaping of the Annals of the Cubicle, from n+1 from Middle East Report United States Landscape. Secrets of the Senior Shopper, from By John R. Stilgoe The American Economic Review Reviewed by Mark Reutter 67 CURRENT BOOKS Why Go to College? from Change The Age of American 106 Against Happiness: 91 . Unreason. In Praise of Melancholy 74 SOCIETY By Eric G. Wilson Apology Mania, from By Susan Jacoby Reviewed by Sarah L. Courteau The American Scholar Reviewed by Wendy Kaminer 107 Corrugated Iron: Shrink to Greatness, from 94 The Library at Night. Building on the Frontier. City Journal By Alberto Manguel By Adam Mornement and America Escapes Again, Reviewed by Matthew Battles Simon Holloway from Commentary 96 Weimar Germany: Reviewed by Daniel Akst 77 PRESS & MEDIA Promise and Tragedy. 109 Uncertain Peril: Journalism’s “Gilded Disaster,” By Eric D. Weitz from Slate Genetic Engineering and Reviewed by Colin Fleming the Future of Seeds. Can This Business Be Saved? from By Claire Hope Cummings The American Journalism Review 99 What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation Reviewed by Flora Lindsay- Herrera 78 HISTORY of America, 1815–1848. The Barbary Precedent, By Daniel Walker Howe Of a Feather: from Comparative Strategy 110 Reviewed by Steven Lagerfeld A Brief History of American Birding. A Lincoln for Every Altar, By Scott Weidensaul from First Things Kitchen Literacy: 100 Reviewed by Mark How We Lost Knowledge of 81 RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY Jerome Walters Joke Morality, Where Food Comes From and from Philosophy Today Why We Need to Get It Back. By Ann Vileisis The War Against Luck, from 112 PORTRAIT Daedalus Reviewed by Tim Morris The Polaroid Snapshot, RIP Spring 2008 ■ Wilson Quarterly 3 The WILSON QUARTERLY EDITOR’S COMMENT EDITOR Steven Lagerfeld Whatever Does the Job MANAGING EDITOR James H. Carman SENIOR EDITOR Judith M. Havemann “The effect of the most perfect system of transportation is to LITERARY EDITOR Sarah L. Courteau reduce the distance not only between different places, but between ASSISTANT EDITOR Rebecca J. Rosen EDITORS AT LARGE Ann Hulbert, James Morris, different classes,” wrote the young French engineer Michel Cheva- Jay Tolson lier after a visit to the United States in 1833. Chevalier’s COPY EDITOR Vincent Ercolano observation is a reminder that the inert infrastructure that we so CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Daniel Akst, Stephen Bates, Martha Bayles, Linda Colley, Denis Donoghue, often take for granted—the national gristle of roads, bridges, Max Holland, Walter Reich, Alan Ryan, Amy E. Schwartz, Edward Tenner, Charles Townshend, wires—is in fact a powerful influence on our social, political, and Alan Wolfe, Bertram Wyatt-Brown BOARD OF EDITORIAL ADVISERS economic existence. K. Anthony Appiah, Cynthia Arnson, Amy Chua, In Chevalier’s day, Americans were thinly scattered over the land, Robert Darnton, Nathan Glazer, Harry Harding, Robert Hathaway, Elizabeth Johns, Jackson and those most cut off from commerce and communication with the Lears, Robert Litwak, Wilfred M. McClay, Blair Ruble,