Sunday, June 16, 2013

Annette Baker Fox : the survival of the avirulent state in a Virile Age

Bacteriologist (Martin) Henry Dawson and Political Scientist Annette Baker Fox doubtlessly never met, but both of their life's work was not as dissimilar as it might seem at first blush.

Dawson devoted his life to studying the many varied and sophisticated ways that a-virile bacteria, commensal with their vastly bigger human hosts, still managed to always stay one trick ahead of the human immune system to survive another day.

Similarly Fox, who died recently (2011) at age 100, spent her life reminding Great Power-fixated military advisors, historians and political scientists that even during the all-engulfing wars of WWII and the Cold War, small and medium powers had proven time and again quite able to play off the Great Powers against each other.

Doing a graceful dance of avoidance, all to ensure the small could survive (and even perhaps prosper) in The Times of the Giants......

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