The Economist lead story this week on China's Paradox of Prosperity offers some fascinating fodder for a lecture on constructivism: "In this issue we launch a weekly section devoted to China. It is the first time since we began our detailed coverage of the United...
Among the assigned readings for my new doctoral seminar in Human Security this week are a number of pieces from last year's International Studies Review Theory v. Practice Symposium. There are...
Part one of my response to Obama’s 2012 State of the Union is here.3. The foreign policy section was weaker and more militaristic than usual. The opening bit about the Iraq war making us ‘safer and...
I was shocked, shocked to read Brian Rathbun's characterization of me in a recent Canard as a "robot" who has only been posing as a Battlestar Galactica addict as part of my cover (!):The academic...
Each year I try to write on the SotU (2010, 2011). I know they are preposterously scripted, usually forgettable, and almost meaningless as a guide for the upcoming policy season/budget debate. But the political scientist in me thinks that showing the whole panorama of democratic government in one room is hugely instructive for the both US citizenry and for foreigners interested in the US, as well as a great example of how democracies differ from oligarchies and dictatorships with their sycophantic, faux ‘legislatures.’ Let’s hope that somewhere some Chinese, or Burmese, or Syrians can see...
Even Brian Fratbun will have to admit this is pretty brilliant!More on the most anticipated Super Bowl Commercials of 2012.
THE CANARD"All the fake news that fit to print."-- AmherstThe academic and foreign policy worlds were rocked today by the news that Charli Carpenter -- prolific academic, policy wonk, and mom -- is in fact a robot. She was taken captive this morning in a rare joint operation by the FBI, the CIA, and NASA.Friends were shocked, but not necessarily surprised. Dan Nexon, a professor at Georgetown University, said, "We always joked that Charli was a machine. She writes like a book a week. And good ones, too. Not the usual schlock we turn out." He added, "She was always so good with technology....
LA Times' latest article on drones raises the spectre of "robot weapons" in relations to the X-47B, Northrup Grumman's new drone prototype with the ability to fly solo - part of an ongoing force restructuring as the US military cuts back significantly on human personnel. While one might well ask whether a robotic plane (i.e. one that can fly autonomously) constitutes a robotic weapon if a human is in the loop for any targeting decisions, what's notable about this narrative in press coverage is that the increasing autonomy of non-lethal systems is certainly being constructed as a harbinger of...
Before I launch in, I just wanted to say quickly to Dan Nexon and all the folk at the Duck, thanks for letting me stay on board! I normally lose respect for institutions that decide to keep me as a member, but this is one exception.Its a little late in coming, but I wanted to post some thoughts on Peter Beinart's thoughtful recent description of President Obama's evolving approach to US grand strategy as 'offshore balancing.'Stephen Walt has already responded, and there have already been some great posts on the broader issue of what really counts as offshore balancing, here, and here.One of...
At ThinkProgress Alyssa Rosenberg shares a lovely new short film about robots and prejudice:No Robots from YungHan Chang on Vimeo.Rosenberg draws a distinction between the representations of robots in this film and the scarier representations in much popular culture:Often, when we see robots in popular culture, they’re actually more powerful than we are. If the Cylons were a metaphor for, say, Irish immigrants to the United States, they’d be telling a story about workers rising up from the slums and engulfing us all in whiskey and potatoes. These metaphors tend to legitimate the fears of...
Peter Singer has an op-ed in the Times which carefully makes the case against drones by carefully putting forth the proposition that their use undermines democracy: What troubles me, though, is how a new technology is short-circuiting the decision-making process for what used to be the most important choice a democracy could make... We must now accept that technologies that remove humans from the battlefield, from unmanned systems like the Predator to cyberweapons like the Stuxnet computer worm, are becoming the new normal in war. And like it or not, the new standard we’ve established for...
Antony Njuguna / NairobiThe big news out of the ICC today was the confirmation of charges against four of the "Ocampo Six" Kenyan elites accused of orchestrating and inciting the country's post-election violence in 2007-2008. Ruto, Arap Sang, Muthaura and Kenyatta had their charges confirmed and are expected to appeal; charges against Kosgey and Ali were dismissed by the Court's judges because of a lack of evidence.The decision comes four years after the violence and almost two years after the investigation was opened by the Chief Prosecutor. In that sense it is an underwhelming "milestone"...