2012 interview with Barry Buzan.
Podcast No. 15 – Interview with Barry Buzan
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Year: 2012
The EU Peace Prize
Erik Voeten is pleased: The Realist argument about the importance of the U.S. security umbrella is probably correct. Yet, the dire predictions regarding the future of European integration have yet...
Announcement: The Duck of Minerva is Moving (UPDATED)
Update: the Duck has moslty migrated (and that sentence makes sense in a non-technical context! Score!). Comment migration is in process, so probably not a good time for a magnum opus response. The...
Podcast No. 11 – Interview with Janice Bially Mattern
Featuring Janice Bially Mattern. From 2012.
More Year: 2012 Posts
Climate Change and Godwin’s Law
The Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank well-known for its skepticism about climate change, placed the above digital billboard for 24 hours along the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago this past week. For $200, they bought a lot of publicity.Apparently, though now cancelled, the planned ad campaign was going to place similar billboards with the same message bearing photos of Osama bin laden, Charles Manson, and Fidel Castro.Subtle, eh?Indeed, it reminded me immediately of the occasional efforts by like-minded political operatives to link Adolph Hitler and anti-smoking crusaders. A...
The Global Right Wing
My new book, The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics, has recently been published by Cambridge University Press. It is available on Kindle for $12.10, Nook for $14.74, and as a paperback for $21.59. For a free chapter, chapter excerpts, contents, and more please visit my website. The Global Right Wing explores the vibrant world of conservative activism. It examines how America's National Rifle Association (NRA), its Christian Right, and many other right-wing groups have shed their parochialism to become powerful international players. They now join their ideological...
*SEX*! *VIOLENCE!* and *NUDITY!* in Game of Thrones
I was shocked, shocked to learn that Bloggingheads.tv advertised my discussion with Rob Farley over gender and race in Foreign Policy / Game of Thrones by promoting only the clip where I discussed "nudity":Since that clip was not much more than a throwaway comment in a wide-ranging discussion, yet in fact touched on one of the most, er, much-trumpeted aspects of the show so far, I thought I'd take the time to expound a little bit since after all, many commentators disagree with me and find the nudity and sex scenes in the both gratuitous and somewhat exploitative. For example, Emily Nussbaum...
The Quiet Assassin of European Democracy
Herman Von Rompuy is going to steal your sovereignty.Also, Christmas.There is something refreshing in British newspapers. Empires come and empires go, but tabloids are one of life's constants. So with the Express, which has discovered "EU Plot To Scrap Britain": The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union. Tellingly, the UK has been excluded from the confidential discussions within the shady “Berlin Group” of Europhile politicians, spearheaded by...
Political Scientist Provides Heaps of Perspective Sauce
An academic friend of mine and of other Duck folks, Patricia Weitsman, has gone through hell over the past two years. Today is the the anniversary of her "re-birth" as last year on May 3rd she had a bone marrow transplant. This was to fight Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a precursor to Leukemia. Just in the past year, she has gone through:treatment, transplant, broken ankle, multiple pulmonary embolisms in both lungs, residual host cells in the marrow 100 days post transplant, osteoporosis, chemo induced ovarian failure (pre to post menopause and XX to XY virtually overnight), Graft versus Host...
Explaining Russian Opposition to European BMD
Moscow is once again expressing displeasure with US and NATO missile defense plans.Russia says it is prepared to use "destructive force pre-emptively" if the US goes ahead with controversial plans for a missile defence system based in Central Europe. The warning came after the Russian defence minister said talks on missile defence were nearing a dead end. Moscow fears that missile interceptors would be a threat to Russia's security.But the US and Nato say they are intended to protect against attacks from Iran or North Korea. "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if...
Johan Galtung’s Bizarre Rant
Galtung is a pivotal figure in the development of Peace Studies. My only real interface with his work is in the form of his influential "Structural Theory of Imperialism" (PDF), which specified key features of empire as a logic of organization. According to Haaretz, Galtung has been accused of multiple anti-semitic statements over the past two years. Pretty unpleasant stuff, e.g.,Galtung’s repeated anti-Semitic remarks were exposed by the website of the Norwegian periodical, “Humanist.” (https://humanist.no) Some of the comments were made during a lecture at the University of Oslo last...
Oliver North threat-inflates for the next ‘Modern Warfare’: a new Low for the Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex
<img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('4050f2d5-ac8f-40e4-b01c-f6efcd5c7932'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "";" src="https://lh4.ggpht.com/-VryqPXZd3y4/T6JAfRaoJBI/AAAAAAAAALU/5Zngh2TsXvw/video1be4ce2ddc1c%25255B12%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" />Video Games as the Fear-Mongering Pop Adjunct of America’s post-9/11 ‘forever wars’Even tea-partying righties should be pretty shocked at this shameless, exploitative (and wildly inaccurate) manipulation of Americans’ post-9/11 paranoia as a marketing gimmick. And you...