Some of the big news out of Europe this week surrounded Mario Monti's upcoming resignation from his current post as Prime Minister of Italy. Recall that Monti became prime minister on November 11, 2011 as the leader of a technocratic government. Monti's government was...
I'm pretty sure I'm the only Duck to (a) have lived at a state fair, (b) know the 4-H pledge by heart, and (c) have been quoted by the Watertown, S.D., newspaper on ... well, on any subject,...
Did anyone else find the third presidential debate just appallingly narcissistic and self-congratulatory? Good lord. Good thing America is around to show you bubble-headed foreigners the way to...
I refuse, on principle, to post "Rock you like a Hurricane" or some such. So instead, here's Japandroids, "The House that Heaven Built." This is the kludge, folks.
MANOS: The Hands of Fate is supposedly getting an iOS game. But fans of MST3K are probably much more excited about the Rifftrax live MANOS event on August 16.Dan Drezner takes on the ridiculous Jennifer Rubin piece on how Romney should attack Obama foreign policy. Drezner has regular commentators who are better conservative foreign-policy critics than the people dominating MSM op-ed space.Andrew Yeo responds to Jennifer Lind's analysis of the ROK-Japan treaty debacle. I think Andrew's probably right, and that Jennifer likely got excited by the alternative line given to her by some of her...
The very first Duck of Minerva podcast. Featuring PTJ and Dan.
Everyone agrees China is a rising power. Some people think it can rise indefinitely; some people think its rise will decelerate; and some think that its rise is illusory. But it's hard to put even the People's Republic stellar growth rates into perspective without taking a longer view.The chart above shows the ratios of Chinese to other countries' GDP per capita. It's based on painstaking work by Angus Maddison to reconstruct long time series about output. There are reasons to think that Maddison's estimates before 1900 are a little speculative, but they are widely agreed to capture the...
Conor Friedersdorf argues that R2P is a decision for Congress to make, not the Executive Branch. Laura at 11d has advice from big student loan debtors. Note the part about not getting an MA that serves little professional purpose.Daniel Little has a very nice post on Chuck Tilly's Durable Inequality and the growing income gap in the United States.Sandy Levinson makes an impassioned plea for putting gun control back on the table. A note on "Aurora" and gun control: my basic view is that we're so swamped with guns that I don't see much point in most restrictions. But telling people not to...
Lots of people are talking (e.g.) about the McKibben climate-change article in Rolling Stone. China Defense Blog points to reports that the PRC will deploy a military garrison in the South China Sea.Kieran Healy compares rates of violence in the United States to those found in the rest of the OECD countries.Jamestown's China Daily Brief carries a report on Uzbekistan, China, and balance-of-power politics in Central Asia. Jason Fritz provides perspective on AVF-vs-draft arguments. Blood and Treasure mocks the USIP post-Assad Syria plan and also points out that: "One thing about China and...
A friend posted this on FB. Too good not to share for those who remember the least dark Batman fondly:On a day like today, we could use all the comic relief we can get.
Jennifer Lind argues that the recent scuttling of a Korean-Japanese security cooperation treaty stemmed from Seoul's misgivings about a US-led balancing alliance aimed at the PRC. Richard Jensen has a powerpoint analysis of wikipedia's War of 1812 entry (via H-Diplo). Jeffrey Lewis ask "do we need ICBMs?"Ken Payne writes a second post on Chimpanzees and strategy (first one here). Bernardo Teles Fazendeiro at e-ir on Uzbekistan's suspension of its CSTO membership.Noah Smith argues that "bad microfoundations are worse than none at all." I can think of a number of people in the Duck's...