The first post on any blog is always vaguely awkward, so let’s get it over with. I am Laurence Caromba, and this is my new blog. Some of you may know me from Commentary.co.za, where I blogged regularly for several years before - unforgivably - allowing my posting frequency to dwindle down to nothingness. Others may know me from my writings in the media. By way of introduction, I am a professional student of politics, and this blog will be my attempt to make sense of the post-Mbeki, post-Bush, post-economic crisis world in which we live.

There are three main sets of questions I’m interested in. First, there are questions of policy: how we do get the society and economy we want? Will a new set of incentives have the desired effect, or will it become perverse? What instruments should we use to pursue South Africa’s national interest in foreign policy? And so on.

Second, there are questions of philosophy. How do we determine what a “good society” means in the first place? What is the optimal trade-off between order and liberty? Does the government (or anyone else) have enough knowledge to intervene successfully in the marketplace? How do we ensure that the modern state, which wields sovereign power, is safely restrained by checks such as the rule of law? What is South Africa’s place in the world?

Finally, there are questions of strategy. Once we’ve determined the best policies, how do we sell them to an uninterested political elite and an incredulous voting public? How do political parties win elections? Should interest groups pursue their goals through the legislative process, or through the courts? These are questions that are fundamentally about winning and exercising political power.

There are plenty of South African bloggers and commentators that write about strategy. There are some who write about policy, and a few who write about philosophy. I intend to write about all three. I hope you enjoy the result.