The fourteenth Duck of Minerva podcast features Michael J. Tierney.
The fourteenth Duck of Minerva podcast features Michael J. Tierney.
A few months ago, I was commissioned by the International Relations and Security Network of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to provide a brief write-up on how Asia’s rise will impact the...
This is a guest post by Peter S. Henne. Peter is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. He formerly worked as a national security consultant. His research focuses on terrorism and religious...
Spent the morning recording a podcast. Except that we just chatted and never got around to the actual interview. Then it was off to job talks and child chauffeuring.... Tom Z. Collina doesn't like...
Each year in September, the Economist holds a conference on the Korea economy (a part of its Bellwether series on Asian economies). They invite me to come, and then I try to write up my thoughts on it in the JoongAng Daily (which I think is the best newspaper in Korea) as an op-ed. Each year, unfortunately, we seem to argue about the same things – a proper, untweaked float of the won and the openness of the Korean economy to foreign products and owners. Here are my thoughts from 2010 and 2011. I was so busy in the last few months blogging about the US election and other stuff, that I didn’t...
Huzzah! Barack Obama in his re-election night valedictory speech finally acknowledged that climate change is a problem we may have to attend to: We want our children to live in an America that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet. I seem to recall that candidate Obama said something audacious calling on the global community to prevent the oceans from rising and to save the planet. After four years of America's sausage grinders whittling away at hope and change, can the president finally deliver measures...
US "combat operations" in Afghanistan are officially scheduled to wind down in 2014.  And media attention is now turning toward speculating (i.e. relaying contending institutional preferences between the White House and the Pentagon) on the level of US troop presence in Afghanistan after 2014.  Current estimates, in case you still care, are that US troop levels will be roughly around 10,000 assisted by a couple thousand NATO troops -- assuming, of course, that President Karzai agrees to prolong the suspension of his country's full sovereignty.  For next year, however, it is likely that at...
I've long warned promised that I would start flogging these awards in a serious way. Due, in part to some prodding from SAGE, that time has now come. Here's where we stand: Nominees for Best Blog (Group): Abu Muqawama Arms Control Wonk Crooked Timber The Disorder of Things IPE at UNC Kings of War Nominees for Best Blog (Individual): Dart-Throwing Chimp (Jay Ulfelder) Abu Aardvark's Middle East Blog (Marc Lynch) Chris Blattman International Political Economy Zone (Emmanuel Yujuico) M. Taylor Favrel Phil Arena's Blog Saideman's Semi-Spew (Steve Saideman) Slouching Toward Columbia (Daniel...
Robert Gallucci, head of the MacArthur Foundation and former Dean of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, lays out his view of "How Scholars Can Improve International Relations." Adam Elkus scores the "winners and losers" in the Gaza conflict. Matt Fay answers Max Boot's response to his criticisms of comparisons between Iron Dome and US BMD. China's successful aircraft carrier flight landing at China Defense Blog. More from Rob Farley on the PRC's "fully armed and operational aircraft carrier." At 3QD, Elisabeth Rehn argues for better integrating women into peace processes. And also:...
Yesterday, climate activist and environmental writer Bill McKibben tweeted a link to this eye-opening graphic: In many ways, this chart is merely another disturbing bit of information about weather in a year of shocking weather news. The United States experienced a record drought this summer -- and many areas are still facing tremendous water shortages. As a fairly direct consequence, the U.S. also suffered near-record wildfires this year, burning a total area "roughly the size of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined." The Weather Underground Director, Dr. Jeff Master,...
The James Bond movies aren't the first place most would look to learn about masculinity; it's an action movie, the special effects are always amazing, and most of us just leave the gender analysis at home...BUT just humor me for one scene. In my view the best part of an otherwise mediocre movie (sorry super-Bond fans!) is when Bond is confronted by the ultimate villain, Silver (played spectacularly by Javier Bardem). Silver is a unique antihero, he meditates, he often speaks in a high pitch voice, he giggles, in many ways he is- well- effeminate. In his intro scene he snuggles up to a...
Now something of a cliche, but still one of the best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VbYZDohsHk&sns=em