Introducing a new Duck of Minerva forum!
A Christmas present: a Forum on Iain M. Banks’ new novel
read more
Year: 2012
“Dangerous Neighborhood:” Operation ‘Defensive Pillar’ and its Interpreters
This is a guest post by Daniel J. Levine (University of Alabama) and Daniel Bertrand Monk (Colgate University). Daniel J. Levine is author of Recovering International Relations: The Promise of...
Parsing the DOD’s Directive on Autonomous Weapons
Yes. Only two days after Human Rights Watch launched its "preemptive call" to ban the development and deployment of such systems, the US Defense Department doubled down with a document (shorter...
2013 Grawemeyer Award Winner
Congratulations to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan for winning the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World. As readers may recall, Chenoweth is a Duck of Minerva guest blogger. Chenoweth...
More Year: 2012 Posts
Data is not the problem. Data is not the solution.
Data is not good government. Even when it wears a green eyeshade.The Wonkblog view of the world presumes that social problems should be met with policy solutions, and that the best way to analyze policies is to have better data. To an extent, I agree. All else being true, better data does make for better policy.But that is a trivial conclusion. Politics is not policy. Indeed, data isn't politics either. And what Wonkblog provides is frequently an inaccurate guide to all three.The biggest problem with the Wonkblog attitude is its unthinkingly technocratic approach to everything. This...
Thursday Morning Linkage
This Bear is Ready for Duck SeasonPhoto: Dan NexonMajor strike in India to protest liberalization. William Burr: Presidential Decision Directive 59 and nuclear warfighting under Carter.James Joyner provides further dissection of the apparent implosion of the US exit strategy in Afghanistan.Fresh Air interviews Doug Sanders about his new book, The Myth of the Muslim Tide. Zephyr Teachout at Mobilizing Ideas on "Big Data and Big Money."David Kaib's discussion of observations from the outgoing editors of the APSR probably deserves its own post, but I don't have the time right now. Bottom-line:...
Friday Nerd Blogging: A Day Early
Check out this wonderfully exhaustive application of bureaucratic politics to Star Wars. The basic argument is that it was not the rebellion that really doomed the Empire but inter-service rivalry. The best line involves the Army's limited motivation to help the Navy (who lost the plans to the Death Star). I will not give it away here. Enjoy!
New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy: D.B. Jackson’s Thieftaker
My second NBinSFF podcast is live. “D.B. Jackson” is David B. Coe’s pen name for his new historical-fantasy series, The Thieftaker Chronicles. Thieftaker (Tor Books, 2012) centers on Ethan Kaille, a private detective and conjurer, as he investigates a murder in colonial Boston. David, who received a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University before embarking on a career as a novelist, weaves in plenty of period details and historical personages into an alternate Boston where conjuration is real, albeit suppressed by the authorities. David maintains a page of resources for those...
Wednesday Afternoon Video
Morning Link, with Commentary, on the Shrinking Place of Theory in Sociology and IR
I'm crashing on multiple deadlines, so in lieu of "morning linkage".... Last night I was in a twitter conversation with Phil Arena and Kindred Winecoff about Fabio Rojas' recent post at orgtheory.net concerning the incredible shrinking vocation of social theory. Roja's observations echoe themes that we've been talking about at the Duck, both in print and in PTJ and my 10 August 2012 podcast (m4a). After quoting Kieran Healy's excerpt from his grad-level sociological theory syllabus -- about the incredible shrinking character of social theory -- Rojas argues that: A humanities style...
Can Kofi Annan Build Democratic Time?
Patient voters in Zimbabwe, from The Guardian 2008.Democracy sits in time. It is a looping circuit of accountability between leaders and led. Voters authorise leaders to act on certain problems. Through everyday experience and media reports those voters can track if the leaders are doing what they said they’d do. Another election comes around and voters can stick or twist, authorising another set of actions. The loop of democracy creates expectations about what everyone should be doing and when. Everyone knowing and following this temporality is a necessary condition for democracy to work....
Duck of Minerva Podcasts
This is just a quick note to ask for input.I'm planning out the Duck of Minerva podcast schedule for the next few weeks. My original plan was to alternate interviews with some kind of "riff" episode involving two or more Duck contributors. But PTJ will be unavailable and most of the Duck crew is really busy, so I've been focusing on interview episodes.I've either scheduled or am in the process of scheduling those interviews. I'm very pleased with the list of scholars who have agreed to come on the podcast, but I'd like to know if there are specific individuals that our readers would like to...