Stop the party: Turkey as an obstacle to Finnish and Swedish accession to NATO
Jarrod talks with Lisel Hintz of Johns Hopkins University and Sibel Oktay of the University of...
Will there be a bin Laden of right-wing extremism?
By now it’s clear that the attack on a Buffalo, NY supermarket was a case of right-wing terrorism....
Patriots Eat Nuclear War for Breakfast
I am not supposed to be worried about nuclear war with Russia. With North Korea maybe. I am told...
New
Duck of Minerva Roundup*
What’s been quacking at the blog? The Duck of Minerva opened for business in 2005, so...
Stop the party: Turkey as an obstacle to Finnish and Swedish accession to NATO
Jarrod talks with Lisel Hintz of Johns Hopkins University and Sibel Oktay of the University of...
Will there be a bin Laden of right-wing extremism?
By now it’s clear that the attack on a Buffalo, NY supermarket was a case of right-wing terrorism....
Featured
Duncan Bell
Professor Duncan Bell joins The Hayseed Scholar podcast. Duncan grew up in the Midlands in a rural...
Zeitenwende: Scholz Turns Back Time to Make Room for Action on Ukraine
On February 24, just hours after Russia launched its assault on Ukraine, German Foreign Minister...
Duck Events Podcast: Zeitenwende? German foreign policy after Ukraine
Jarrod talks with Georg Löfflmann (University of Warwick) and Frank Stengel (Kiel University) about the changes in German foreign policy in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, in particular, about the idea that Germany is experiencing …
Recent
Book Nook: A Small State’s Guide to Influence in World Politics
Our next Bridging the Gap Book Nook features Tom Long of the University of Warwick. He discusses...
Ukraine, Progressive Internationalism, and the Restraint Coalition
The US needs a more restrained approach to its national security, but not all arguments for restraint – and not all policies of restraint – rest on solid foundations.
Duckcalls podcast: Zeitenwende? German foreign policy after Ukraine
Jarrod talks with Georg Löfflmann (University of Warwick) and Frank Stengel (Kiel University)...
ACADEME
Strategies of Unusual Size
I wrapped the 2022 edition of my undergraduate “Grand Strategy” seminar this past Tuesday. This...
Best Practices in Quantitative Conflict Studies
When it comes to quantitative data in conflict studies, standards for collection, reliability, ethics, and usage remain behind the curve. We discuss five things that scholars can do to address these gaps.
6+1 Questions about ANATOMY OF TORTURE
Name of the book…and its coordinates? Ron E. Hassner. 2022. Anatomy of Torture...
6+1 Questions about Subversive Pedagogies
What is the name of the edited volume and what are its coordinates? Kate Schick and Claire...
Subfields
The Duck of Minerva Newsletter is Live
We’ve got a newsletter! Yeah, sure, the large front-page button labelled...
How international organizations can resist political shocks
As long as international organizations have existed their relationships with their member states...
Japan’s Strange Golf-Buddy Theory of Deterrence
So Japan’s former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was very friendly with Donald Trump while he was...
Do Realists and Leftists Want the Same Thing?
Most versions of the left gain little and sacrifice much in accepting a realist epistemology. Theories of international relations are just tools for making sense of patterns and puzzles in the world; they don’t need groupies.
Partnered Engagement: A New Form of Ethical Policy Engagement
What happens when a research subject becomes a research and briefing partner? In 2017, I was...
Nationalism, Weak States, and Unrealistic Realism
At its core, the current war in Ukraine reflects an incompatibility of nationalist narratives. Many Ukrainians want to escape Russia’s imperial shadow. Putin wants to reextend that shadow – to erase Ukraine as an independent national identity.
Podcasts
🎧 Podcasts
Topics
We Urgently Need to Support Girls’ Education in Afghanistan
Since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021, there have been growing calls by...
Why Land Acknowledgements?
The ISA statement lacks not only comparative history but also local historical depth. It also distorts moral responsibility.
Sunflower seeds and Molotov cocktails
Exercising feminist curiosity: how Ukraine women are involved in the conflict and how Putin’s nationalist fever dream is a patriarchal one.
Conscious States in a World of Make Believe
I wrote the first draft of “What’s it Like to Be a State?” sometime in late 2017, during an unusual time in both my personal life and my research career. I was about halfway through my PhD at the University of Cambridge and was feeling both immensely homesick and quite bored—trapped in a small town that felt ripped from the Victorian era. I filled my free time watching large numbers of pre-recorded NBA games and, also, for some reason, reading philosophy of mind….
Failing Upwards and Global Elitism
Matt Hancock, a Conservative MP and the UK’s Health Secretary during most of the Covid lockdowns, has failed upwards.
On Academic Grudges: A Quack-and-Forth
The academy is traditionally a place students and scholars go to hone their critical faculties. But perhaps, in some cases, we take this critical approach too far. In this Quack-and-Forth, Adam B. Lerner and Jarrod Hayes discuss academic grudges and whether the academy would be a kinder or gentler place if we all acted a bit more like Larry Bird (and a bit less like Larry David).
Was NATO expansion a mistake?
Foreign Affairs ran a poll on the question. A few of us expressed skepticism about the debate itself.
A Tale of Two Interviews: IR Theory and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Two recent interviews in the New Yorker have received substantial attention in recent weeks. Unfortunately, taken together, they make the IR discipline look terrible. How can IR theorists demonstrate their discipline’s relevance in the face of rapidly changing historical events?