Let's start with some more Erik Loomis blogging. Doktor Zoom at Wonkette provides a snarky take on head-on-a-stick gate, while Crooked Timber provides a forum for an interesting debate over the various issues at stake. Both point to an underlying dynamic at work: that...
Musical Politics and Political Science: I'm currently downloading the free EP by Hey Anna, a well-reviewed band involving Mike Tierney's nieces. Hume's Bastard discusses PSY's profanity-laden...
2012 interview with Barry Buzan.
This is a guest post by Sean Kay. Professor Kay is chair of the International Studies program and professor of politics at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is also Mershon Associate at the Mershon...
PG-13 lyrics. Via Kieran Healy.
As readers have likely noticed, we're in the process of shifting from our temporary template to what will likely be our permanent one. Laura S. is still working out some of the glitches created by the shift, such as the fact that our sidebar is displaying below the main blog! It will probably be a bit before everything works properly and we've introduced all of the changes associated with the new template. Thanks for your patience. A few links: The continuing saga of Gallup's likely voter model as covered by Huffington Post's Pollster. A comparison of NAMA and FROB from A Fistful of Euros --...
Guest Post by Andrew Mack, Human Security Report Project. We obviously agree with Megan Mackenzie’s affirmation that the mainstream narrative on wartime sexual violence ignores sexual violence against males and domestic sexual violence––even though the latter is far more prevalent than rape by combatants. With respect to other claims in her review of our just-released Human Security Report we disagree: We did not “revive” the “war is declining” thesis about inter-state conflict —the focus of successive Human Security Reports has been all conflicts—the overwhelming majority of which are...
My 10-year-old nugget, who by the way is now also a political commentator you can follow on Twitter, was asking about the official trailer for the new Ender's Game movie - partly because he's inspired by the idea of kids using online media to effect political discourse. Unfortunately there is no trailer since the release date is still a year away. Instead here is (allegedly) Orson Scott Card's favorite of the many, many fan trailers. See how many sci-fi clips you can identify! Winner gets an official tweet from LiamCS10.
My interview with Madeline Ashby about her debut novel, Vn, is now up at New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Rwanda, and South Korea elected to UN security council. At Democracy Arsenal Bill French has a two-part (1,2) series on US maritime strategy in the Pacific. Juan Cole on recent developments in the Syrian civil war. Patrick Chovanec discusses, on NPR, the "meltdown" of the Chinese solar-power industry. The RPI blog looks at Asian powers' reactions to the second US Presidential debate. Steve Walt's latest piece is, well, kind of odd. Adam Elkus...
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) recently determined that the situation in the entire country of Syria can be classified as a non-international armed conflict. While this may not have been news to many watching events unfold there, what makes this statement interesting is that this position differed from the position advanced in May 2012 by then ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger. At that time, Kellenberger claimed that parts of Syria could be classified as an “internal” armed conflict, particularly in the area around Homs and in the Idlib district. The difference may...
Germany calls for the EU to transition to economic empire. John R. Deni makes the case for a US forward presence in Europe (via Paul MacDonald). Nick Bisley examines the meaning of "Indo-Pacific" for geopolitical order. Mark Leon Goldberg tells us what to watch for in the UN security council elections. Brendon Nyhan unfavorably contrasts local with national debate coverage. Noah Smith on the place of math in economics. No relevance for political science. No, none at all. Teresa Nielsen Hayden on the "decline" of portal fantasies. Alas, there probably won't be a Duck of Minerva podcast...
This may not be the worst (professional, major record label) video of all time, but it certainly makes a strong bid for the title. Do you have any suggestions for worse videos?