Because "53 reasons" is just plain stupid, and increments of five are basically listicles, I provide three. 1. We are heading straight for maximum Star Wars saturation. Despite its ham-handed didacticism, Star Trek's values are far preferable to those of Star Wars. We cannot allow aristocratic fantasy to bury republican virtue. 2. JJ Abrams is a pretty good action director, but he doesn't seem to understand the intellectual possibilities of...
Displaying Results for "star trek"
Episode 30: A Long, Strange Trek
It’s our first “actual” installment of Whiskey & IR Theory in Space! We discuss Star Trek: Th…
Spoiler Alert: My Take on the New Sar Trek
It's not going to get on anyone's list of top ten IR movies, that's for sure. But that doesn't mean I'm disappointed, exactly... more like a little shell-shocked.Lawyers, Guns and Money doesn't have a peekaboo function, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone else, so my reactions from seeing the film only once so far are hidden safely below the fold. Foreign policy subtext - decidedly post-Global War on Terror. The original Federation always...
No Clone of Star Wars
My son and I finally saw Clone Wars this weekend. Afterward, I went back through some of the reviews I'd been ignoring during the past month of moving and settling in. No one seems to think the movie was great, but people are disappointed for different reasons. David Germain of the AP writes: You'll know you're in a different galaxy within the first seconds of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which substitutes the Warner Bros. logo and theme music...
What Harry Potter inherits from Star Wars
For members of generation X like myself, Star Wars is one of the constitutive myths of our childhoods. The Force, lightsaber duels, the Millennium Falcon, "I am your father," "he's my brother," "I've got a bad feeling about this," and so on . . . this is what we grew up with. And because Star Wars was such a mega-hit, the characters and tropes and themes spawned a whole slew of allusions and invocations that continue to infiltrate popular...
Worf as the Kantian Klingon
My partner used to refer to Worf as the Klingon equivalent of a Kantian. The Klingon-centric episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: DS9 make clear that Worf is committed to a deontological interpretation of Klingon ethics. If you're still reading this, you likely know that, first, Klingon ethics and morality are built around personal honor and, second, Worf was raised by humans. Because he spent his youth without much, if...
The Vision Thing: More on the New Duck
Is there still room for a traditional academic international-relations blog? An overview of relevant history and the Duck’s approach to blogging.
Using Pop Culture in the Classroom: Footloose FTW!
I love this tweet as it puts the usual dynamics on their head: Tip for students going off to college: study 80s/90s pop culture. Particularly Ferris Beuller, Princess Bride, Simpsons seasons 2-5. Your gen x/early millennial profs will try to connect with you through these, and will be confused/sad when you stare blankly at them. Not joking. — David Mimno (@dmimno) August 2, 2019 Each summer, profs are reminded how much younger the students are...
The Borg are bad. Antimicrobial resistance is worse.
Microbes are turning into the Borg; our resistance is becoming futile. As any Star Trek: The Next Generation nerd knows (and this is an IR-related blog, so I’m guessing the Venn diagram of DoM readers and ST:TNG fans shows quite a bit of overlap), this is incredibly worrisome for humanity and threatens to give all of us the life expectancies of a red shirt. The international community may yet have a chance to fight back, but it will require...
Mid-Week Linkage
Syria New evidence of mass atrocity in Syria sets a bitter tone as peace talks kick off in Geneva. IRC's David Miliband in WAPO on why humanitarian issues must be a priority at Geneva. Speaking to the NYT, HRW's Kenneth Roth concurs. Stephen Heydman in FP on whether justice could undermine peace at Geneva. Human Security Locals and expatriates in Kabul commemorate the loss of Kamal Hamade, whose iconic Kabul restaurant was destroyed by a...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Into Darkness
Sure, the movie came out months back, but this Honest Trailers does a nice job of capturing why Star Trek Into Darkness was meh. JJ Abrams does not apparently get it that the even numbered movies are supposed to be better. Spoilers boldly go below: This video is perhaps inconsistent in pointing out the retrograde gender dynamics in the movie, but gets its point across.
Monday Morning Linkage
Good mornin' ducks... Here's some linkage you might want to read (on stuff other than the NSA)... The IMF admitted to violating its own rules to bailout Greece and that the austerity program which accompanied the bailout did not restore market confidence. The housing bubble in America is back with a vengeance as bidding wars are heating up in the major urban markets. I think we know where this story goes next... But wait, where is this cold...