Friday linkage

• Foreign policy analyst Stephen Walt celebrates his first anniversary of blogging: '...writing this blog has forced me to connect more with the blogosphere itself, which I see as a revolutionary development in mankind's collective conversation.' He also has some choice words for academics who look down on blogging.
• James Galbraith on the economists who foresaw the great recession, and who have been shunned by their profession. (H/t Drum.)
• First it was Qatar, and now the UAE is buying huge cargo planes for its Air Force. Why?
• Central Asia an 'arc of conflict'? Not so much.
• Joseph Nye warns the Obama Administration to tread carefully in resolving the 'second order' issue of US bases in Japan.
• Via Clemons, Business Week lists its top 10 global risks for 2010. 'China-US relations' comes in first, and their pick for red herring? Iraq:

Compared to what we've seen before—and what might have happened—the overall story is remarkably positive. For the markets, Iraq is suddenly an opportunity. Institutions are becoming legitimate (even with the unresolved Kurdish issue), the army is starting to function, and most important, political leaders from all communities are beginning to recognize the value of Iraq's tremendous natural resource base from which all can benefit if they make compromises to maintain the country's stability. For all the basic governance problems, there's very little chance of Iraq becoming a failed state at this point. As recently as a year ago, that constituted a meaningful risk.

• Al Qaeda doesn't even make it onto Business Week's list, but here's Hindustan Times commentator Pramit Pal Chaudhuri on why 2010 could be a bad year for terrorist attacks.