I found two pieces that asked similar questions to my earlier post on why this typhoon appeared to be so destructive and why similar storms in Asia are especially deadly. Both raise interesting questions for scholars of security studies and environmental politics. Max...
If you are like me, you have been transfixed by the unfolding story on Syria, the diplomatic gambit that has forestalled an imminent military strike. Alongside this important news has been the more...
I haven't worked a "real job" since being an undergrad. However, I often get asked by undergrads for advice about preparations for real world policy jobs. I recently asked my former PhD student,...
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Cameron Thies. It is the 13th installment in our "End of IR Theory" companion symposium for the special issue of the European Journal of International...
Note: this is the second in a series of posts opening up issues relating to journal process for general discussion by the international-studies community. All journals commit to publishing "the best work" that they receive within their remit. All journals aspire to publish "the best work," period, within their specialization. This raises special challenges for a journal such as the International Studies Quarterly, which constitutes the "flagship" publication of the International Studies Association (ISA). The ISA is incredibly diverse. It includes members from all over the world--nearly half...
Of the 6 churches I passed on my way to the office this morning, 3 reminded me that today is National Day of Prayer. In the spirit of the day, I’m following my Grandmother-in-Law’s advice and suggesting that we all pray for our enemies.[1] Here’s my list: Reviewer 2. Thanks for the suggestions! XOXO That guy I know from the chemistry department who always stops me in the grocery store to say things like “Hi, Ms. Political Scientist, where’s your Bunsen burner?” The undergrad student who can never make it to my office hours but always schedules an alternative time to meet and then...
Here is your Thursday Morning Linkage. Back on the Africa theme from a couple of weeks ago, here are some good reads from the week: More reports on the elephant poaching crisis in CAR Last rhinos in Mozambique killed by poachers with the help of park rangers; time for Kruger fences to come back up Alex de Waal trolls celebrity activists like Enough, Kony 2012, faults them for insufficient consultation with local actors on the ground Nigerian military over-reacted and killed a bunch of citizens in the north: Boko Haram recruitment advertisement Abuamerican, American jihadi gone to Somalia,...
e-International Relations asked me to write a piece about doing policy-relevant research. I thought I'd cross-post it here, especially timely given recent posts on this blog along with Ronald Rogowski's screed that our work is too policy-relevant but policymakers just don't want to hear what we are saying (HT: The Monkey Cage). Here is the full post: During graduate school, the community of up and coming scholars who wanted to do policy-relevant research seemed a bit like Fight Club. It was something each of us secretly wanted to pursue but were reluctant to talk about in public. We found...
So it increasingly looks like the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial zone is closed for good. (The Wikipedia write-up is a pretty good quick history of it.) The zone was set-up during the Sunshine Policy period (1998-2007). It was to do 3 things: 1) Lead to some liberal-capitalist spill-over in the North, 2) Expose regular North Koreans (the workers in the area) to regular South Koreans (the managers and staff), and 3) Generally provide some inter-Korean cooperation that might hopefully reduce larger tensions. A resort area in North Korea (Mt. Kumgang) was also opened along these lines in the...
This week’s topic for both my grad and undergrad human rights courses is “foreign policy and human rights promotion.” On the list of readings-not-on-last-year’s-syllabus is this little gem: “Enter the Dragon! An Empirical Analysis of Chinese versus US Arms Transfers to Autocrats and Violators of Human Rights, 1989-2006” by Indra de Soysa and Paul Midford. It appeared in last December’s issue of ISQ. Drop what you are doing now and read it! Seriously. It is thought -provoking, made me want to download their replication dataset and play with it before class, and made my students argue...
This is a guest post by Jarrod Hayes. He is Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. He received his PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southern California in 2009. His research broadly focuses on the social construction of foreign and security policy. They are complex weapons. They are expensive. They require high levels of engineering expertise to develop, maintain and operate. They are the purview of the most advanced developed economies in the world. Nuclear weapons? Nope, modern major conventional weapons systems. The...
Good morning Duckaroos, here's some stuff I think is actually worth reading... Srinath Raghavan seemed to be one of the few pundits who could see through the dangerous level of bullshit that was the latest Sino-Indian border crisis along the LAC last week. The International Crisis Group worries that the violent Hawija operation in the Kirkuk province of Iraq may be the beginning of a downward slide toward confrontation and civil war. Dr. Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm gives an interview on the Syrian popular Intifada and explains why it is necessary to return to Fanon's Wretched of the Earth to...